Any tips for somene who is a beginner in the stock market and knows nothing about it?

"Trading" stock is not where the money is made. It comes from "owning" stock.
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First, avoid gambling! If you buy stock hoping that you can sell it for a quick profit because of the weekly or monthly swings in price, then you are not investing. You are trying to guess better than the public how the price will change.

Choose a company that has steady earnings each year instead of losses. If your company has very little long term debt, it will likely not get into financial trouble.
Buy these sturdy stocks and hold on to them. When you hold these stocks over a period of time, the prices will go up for a real reason; the companies are earning money every year and becoming more valuable. This is not gambling; you are owner of a money making business. It takes time for that business to earn money for you.

If you save a portion of your income each payday and as it accumulates invest in quality stocks, over the course of several years you can make a great deal of money.

Before you spend $0.01 on any investment, you must know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and how to do it and make sure you have the money to do it. Also, you must have an understanding of the rules & regulations that govern what you’re trying to do. Before you invest in any security, the first investment you should make is in yourself, and the best investment you can make is by educating yourself.

Begin your education by learning why you should invest and the importance of being able to make your own decisions or how the pro’s make theirs. Start your education by reading “Investing for Dummies” by Eric Tyson.
To continue your education select some of the following
Beating the Street by Peter Lynch
Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered, by Gallea
From Riches to Rags, by I.C. Freeley
How to Make Money in Stocks” by William O’Neil
24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success by William O’Neil
The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham
Common Stocks, Uncommon Profits, by Philip A. Fisher
One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch
Stocks for the Long Run, by Jeremy Siegel
Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits by Joel Greenblatt.
What Works on Wall Street by James O'Shaunessey
You Can Be a Stock Market Genius by Joel Greenblatt
Your Money and Your Brain by Jason Zweig

Websites that can provide instructions and help with procedures and terminology are Investopedia - http://www.investopedia.com/ http://www.investorshub.com/ and 1 Source for Stocks - http://www.1source4stocks.com/info/stock-analyst-opinion.asp or Smart Money
http://www.smartmoney.com/
Visit some of the more professional websites like Zacks Research - http://www.zacks.com/ Schaeffer’s http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/ Investors Business Daily - http://www.investors.com/default.htm?fromad=1
Some of these web sites will have advertisers who are worth looking into also. And remember, if they offer free information, get it.

And when you think you want to invest/trade, try some paper trading to test your skills without spending you money http://simulatorinvestopedia.com/ http://www.moneyworks4me.com/
and/or http://www.tradingsimulation.com/
After you feel comfortable with what you're trying to do, visit the Web sites of some of the more popular brokerage firms. So if you feel comfortable with what you see on line and look at the cost and/or charges. When you are ready to go, just open an account with the firm using their on-line services. Please remember, the cheapest is not always the best. Even though you’re opening an account on line. you can always call the firm's "customer service" area for help

You at least have made the right decision to start investing, this is the first big step and it won’t be your last. Keep taking those steps forward and along the way never take the advice from people that are not in the market or try to tell you not to invest.

Good luck on your journey, study hard and you’ll invest well.
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Make a different resolution and invest in an index fund instead.

Dont trade, learn to invest

Study it for at least six months before you gamble real money. Subscribe to whatever newspaper on stocks is available in Australia.

save your money and learn before you invest a dime

Get advice from a professional instead of asking kids on YA who tell you any old rubbish.

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If you are planning for a long term investment with good returns, then you should definitely turn your attention towards stock markets. To begin with you need to open a trading account through which you can carry out the process. To know more, Tradebulls can provide you assistance.

safest investment............purchase canadian bank stocks.........they pay a quarterly dividen and appreciate on average 10% a year............your portfolio should consist of thetop 5 canadian banks...

don't put any money in the market if you know nothing about it......... read as much as possible about stocks from a variety of sources.........

you need to learn about the market, start with jim cramer's books and do some 'trading' on paper before opening up a brokerage account...

if you are in china,i think the book stock market practice maybe good for the beginer...

Learn the lingo of the market and what it does. Try Investopedia.com. It is a dictionary of terms and explain them quite well.
And drill it into your head, 'If it seems too good to be true, it usually Is'. (like Penny stocks, derivatives, futures, etc.).

safest investment............purchase canadian bank stocks.........they pay a quarterly dividen and appreciate on average 10% a year............your portfolio should consist of thetop 5 canadian banks...

Safest investment....purchase canadian bank stocks...they pay a quarterly dividen and appreciate on average 10% a year....your portfolio should consist of thetop 5 canadian banks.

start out with couple hundred dollars
buy stocks that pays dividend
research, research, research!!
never believe anyone, they're all your competition, go with what you truly believe in

visit San Diego sometime.

study it for at least six months before you gamble real money... subscribe to whatever newspaper on stocks is available in australia...

I teach investing, I have been a principal officer of a securities firm and I have worked in financial institutions of all types.

For starters, go to a highly reputable full service brokerage. Open an account and when they make recommendations require them to explain what and why. If they cannot explain it in a way that makes sense to you, then you need a different broker. The job of a broker is to find things for you. A brokerage commission is a finders fee.

Then buy an undergraduate accounting or managerial accounting textbook, one intended for at least a sophomore level. Solve the homework. While you are doing this, get the annual reports of companies in Australia. Read them. Highlight words you do not understand. Look them up.

When you are done, pick up the 1972 version of Benjamin Graham and David Dodd's book "The Intelligent Investor." It is still in print. It is an American book for Americans, but the general principles are the same.

Once you have done that, start trying out Australian stock screeners. Start using the content from the Intelligent Investor to screen for stocks. Then get the annual reports of the companies and join a stock market game. Practice until you complete the section below.



If you were American, I would tell you to get the 1988 verison of Security Analysis by Graham and Dodd, which was really written by Cottle. It does not assume accounting sophistication. The 2008 version is a reprint of the 1940 version with modern commentary. It is better, but you are not sophisticated yet. There is likely an Australian textbook, I do not know what that would be. When you get through this second textbook, fire your broker.

Fire your broker.

been doin' this for 40 years as a professional. Buy something and NEVER sell it.

make a different resolution and invest in an index fund instead...

1) Invest the same dollar amount every month if possible (AKA...dollar cost averaging)
2) For beginners and even intermediates, invest in the QQQ and or SPY which are STANDARDS diversified investing.
3) Don't worry if the market crashes, because you'll be buying those stocks for a discounted price which is actually a good thing. Eventually, the market always recovers, and makes new record highs.
4) Invest long term.

I'm in the US and don't know much about the Australian market, however this is the standard advice I give to Americans:

If you want to make your life easy:

1) Open a brokerage account that has low fees.
2) Buy exchange traded funds that have low fees and that follow a major index that includes most of the major stocks in the country. The US equivalents would be SPY and IVV, which track the S&P 500 (the 500 largest US stocks). Not sure what the Aussie versions of this are, but I'm sure you can look them up.
3) Keep sticking your money in at regular intervals.

The logic here is that the market over the long term beats other asset classes and most money managers, and that by following the above advice you'll get roughly the same return as the stock market.

I didn't know anything and I bought into a vanguard mutual fund that has gone up 22% in 15 months.

Read, research and relate.

make a different resolution and invest in an index fund instead...

don't put any money in the market if you know nothing about it. read as much as possible about stocks from a variety of sources.

Start out with couple hundred dollars
Buy stocks that pays dividend
Research, Research, Research!!
Never believe anyone, they're all your competition, go with what you truly believe in

1) Invest don't trade
2) Invest to meet goals, even if that goal is to build a portfolio for lifetime wealth building
3) diversify
4) Australia's economy is very commodity dependant, which may add a bit of volatility. I would recommend you diversify abroad sooner than I would recommend a new US investor.

I dont know anything about how things work in Australia. I dont imagine its greatly different from here in the states, but maybe Im wrong. I will give you tips that at least apply to USA stock exchanges.
My first tip is to learn a bit about how it all works before you buy anything. Next, look for companies that are up and comers. Not already well-established companies that are already high in price. Look at its historical value for at least the last few months. Buy only if it is trending up and not down. Make sure the analysts predictions for its growth is for strong growth. The company ideally should not have a huge debt. It should not have many reissues of its own stock. If it has reissued its own stock numerous times, that is a sign of a company struggling to keep its head above water. Dont panic and sell at a loss when your stock loses some of its value. They all do. A stock could gain 15 cents one day and then lose 20 cents the next day. Hold the stock for months to years before selling it to allow time for it to grow in value (hopefully it will, but thats not guaranteed). Sometimes you just have to take a loss. It happens to us all. Buy different stocks from different industries if you can (called diversification) so that if a stock loses value hopefully the others will pick up its slack. Dont put all your money on one stock, unless you are 1,000% positive about it. You could gain big or lose big that way. Thats all Ive got right now. Good luck to you.

Just go blow all your money at a casino instead. Same thing.

nope

you need to learn about the market, start with Jim Cramer's books and do some 'trading' on paper before opening up a brokerage account.

just 6

1) dont

2) the only money in the stock market comes from other people buying/selling. That means that for anybody to make money somebody MUST lose money

3) its far easier to lose money than make it

4) ignore tips of what to look for in stock - ask yourself 1 question "if the people giving the tips knew what they were talking about why aint they doing it and not telling other people what to do

5) its easy to learn HOW to deal on the market - the tricky bits are knowing what to deal and when to deal

6) here and now you may think you will have no problem dealing, but when its YOUR money at stake its very likely you will find you aint the person you think you are
(imagine you spend say 1k buying stock, then that stock falls by say 50% in one week so your stock is now only worth 500, how would you feel watching your stock drop in value? (And dont say it cant happen - Toshiba stock fell that amount last week)