Hey guys. So I am sorting out my life and girl problems and just dealing with my depression and whatever problems I have. One thing that I never had an issue with though is money. I work two jobs and make a pretty good amount. I'm no Trump though, but for my age, I'm doing pretty well. But I want to see it grow. I've been thinking about getting into the stock market for a while but just don't know where or how to start and what investments I should make and whatnot.
So if anyone here is good with investing, what advice do you have for a beginner like me?

I've been wanting to get into it too. Only safe advice I got is the obvious, buy low, sell high. Only invest how much you'd be willing to lose, the stock market can fluctuate so much. So far the hot new thing is cryptocurrency (bitcoin, litecoin, ect.) So yeah definitely start off small get your feet wet to understand it better before making any big investments. I'm currently too busy to research and whatnot right now...

Know this may not help much, but I figured I'd give a little "advice" hahaha

If you really want to take an ernest crack at it i'd suggest looking up some stock simulators.

Investopedia is a good one if you want to get started.

They're fairly simple. You get a virtual amount of cash that you can start out with. You get to choose the amount. Say 5K. You do your own investing using that fake money. The good part is most of these simulators that you'll find use the actual information from the market its not just randomly generated changes and fluctuations. So you'll actually know if you would've made money or not.

Websites like this are a risk free way of practicing investment and day trading. So if you have an interest in day trading as a hobby or a profession they are a good way to get started.

If we're just talking about investments and building a portfolio. There are lots of companies and brokers that will do those kinds of things for you.
ETRADE for instance, its that commercial with the annoying purple arrow and green arrows.
We can use them as an example because they are fairly easy to use and are a pretty good research tool. (Disclaimer: i do not use ETRADE) Etrade can offer there customers quite a bit getting off the ground and starting out in investing and day trading. They have resource information about different stock trends and plenty of online analytic data that displays that stuffs in meaningful and easy to understand ways. (The best thing you'll for beginners is box whisker plots) Using Etrade you can either acquire a broker who will make investments for you based on your level of risk aversion.

Lets talk risk a minute:
Risk shouldn't be defined to strictly as the volatility of a stock. Even tho that makes a lot of sense. Volatile stocks can change more this means they can lose more or make more. Hence making them high risk. However volatility really only has value when thinking of "Fluctuation" if a stock is as volatile as it looks it doesn't necessarily mean its high risk. Since you know it fluctuates back and forth you know it may return to the price at which you bought it.
Rather you should think of High risk or Low risk in 2 steps.
1. Could an investment experience a permanent decrease in value or an extended period of underperformance.
2. Will the permanent change in value result in a permanent or lasting underperformance cause devastating change to the schematic of your portfolio.
If yes that stock is high risk.

Back to Etrade.
A broker will invest your money for you based on your level of risk and diversify a portfolio to match your needs. Typically this results in a mix of short term stocks and investments, a set of longterm bonds and some form of longterm low interest savings plan. If you don't want to have to active a role in your own investments this is the way to go. A good broker will make you good money for a fee. And to be honest it takes a long time to be good at this sort of thing.

However if you want to have a more active approach, you can do your research and make your own investments using different data analytics to try and find yourself a good investment strategy. (Remember what we said about RISK)
My advice here is to invest in the things you like personally. You have an understanding of markets and you'll be more attune to shifts in the customer base and demand of products since you may very well share in that demand.

Lastly, the news is a good friend to have when investing. Big market shifts tend to come alongside big market advancements or changes so keep an eye on the news surrounding whatever stocks you invest in. (I.e. If you invest in American Airlines a plane crash will make that stock go down)

Good luck.

Oops i wrote a book. Sorry

>>6 haha no need for apologies. I've yet to read the entire thing but so far, from what I've read, this is solid advice and will definitely help me in my investing. One more question, would you consider Etrade the best investing app or are there better ones? I might try with Etrade since it's so popular and a lot of people use it. Thanks again!