/biz/ - Business and Finance

Good thing you're interested, there's something of a global economic tug-of-war going on right now. For the past ~70 years the $USD has been the reserve currency (the main thing the majority of businessmen felt content to denominate their trades in) but lately its power has been waning; better investment opportunities in China/Asia and other places are pulling wealth away from the US, and they're running out of tactics to retain it (eg petrodollar). We're probably gonna see a massive shift in the way whole COUNTRIES do business between each other so dumping all your money into an index fund would be incredibly foolish right now. You'd do well to just stockpile as much cash as you can for now, learn about what's going on, and be ready to snatch up some decent stocks at bargain prices once shit hits the fan.

I recommend reading James Rickards book 'Currency Wars', it's a pretty decent synopsis of what's going on today. Once you understand what's happening on a macro scale, read some books on security analysis to learn how to analyze a stock and whether it's over/undervalued, then invest accordingly.

Also start listening to the news, I particularly enjoy the 'Money for Nothing' podcast based out of Hong Kong. Follow ZeroHedge and some prominent traders on twitter, through them you'll find some tickers to look at and familiarize yourself with market fluctuations in regards to trading. Open an account with a brokerage and play with their trading platform, some of them come with no costs to open an account and even have a paper-trading demo that comes with the client you can play with.

I haven't traded any stocks myself so take my advice with a grain of salt, although I've been dabbling with the scene for the past year and am looking to get into it soon. Right now I'm just saving up my cash and waiting for the right opportunity to jump in. The US markets are looking retardedly overvalued, so I don't think it's too farfetched to expect some kind of huge correction in the coming years, just like back in 2008. If we do see something like that happen I plan to buy some stock in the most obvious companies, like Facebook and Google. I still need to learn some stock analysis though.

Yeah, what he said. I spent several months learning "trading theory" and I feel like I have it down (as much as someone could without actually trading experience). Learning a platform is my "phase two" and I havent completed that. I really wanted to use NinjaTrader but Im finding it difficult to learn, my thing now is I was trying to bite off too much as a novice and now think a playform that holds your hand more is needed (even if it means I dont earn as much in return, small price to pay to ensure I dont get really confused and it costs a lot more.)

For me I feel like I did steps one and two right, in the right order. First learn how to trade, when to trade, when to pass. Get some books on technical analysis and some about how to "think like a trader". One thing I came across over and over was how to think. Dont go into with X or Y mindsets, go in with A & B mindsets.

Choosing a platform often is a choice in broker so both are very important disicions. As >>641 said I would know that the dollar is in a major fight, holding off diving in until you understand whats going to fall out so you dont dive into an empty pool. One thing I would suggest is instead of holding a bunch of cash I would convert it into metals, silver is my metal as I dont have enough for gold and dont want so much into single items.

The asian markets (mostly China that Ive seen) have also been rocky, so just like learn before jumping into US market, same for Asian. Personally I think Chinas markets are just as hallow as the Dollars, implosion imminent.