If this is the situation, then the answer is: No, not right now.

i was in your position about 3 years ago, then I read every book in my local library in the money/real estate/investing section, now I consider myself very savvy

Since you are a noob I would advise that you read the FAQ thread I created at the top of this page to help individuals like yourself. It will cover everything ( almost everything in lamens terms) so you will have a general grasps on it. If you have questions hit me up!

Quote, originally posted by Stoic »

If this is the situation, then the answer is: No, not right now.

I disagree, This is one of the best times to start investing!!

Buy low and sell high.

If you can find the right investment, then you can make some serious money. But reading everything you can, and watching MSNBC can help with your education. IMHO, I like the idea of making sure you're retirement is being taken care of, then looking into dicretionary investing. I haven't gotten into the whole discretionary investing yet, but i'm keeping my eye out for realestate.

Street Light Garage

Well here are some questions to ask youself first.

-How long do you plan to invest in? Do you want to sell off after a year? Two years? Ten years? There are different types of investments for each time frame you aim to shoot at.

-How much risk can you take? Some investments can lose value and when it does, it can be very stressful and overwhelm your better judgement. As you become more experienced in investing, you can gradually increase your risk to adjust your style.

-How much money to invest? If you had 20,000 USD compared to 20,000,000 USD those amounts would be invested very differently. You would not invest 20,000,000 in the same ways you would invest 20,000.

For the average joe, like me, I invest in STOCKS. I didn't start off on stocks, I first started on mutual funds and gradually moved onto stocks. I am still not gutsy enough to short stocks or do options trading yet but those are all prospective goals for me. Overall I have had positve results but I have had ups and downs, and several times I have had windfalls and several times I had to cut my losses. Well this is just a short intro but if you are serious I advise you to speak to a brokerage account representative. Companies I like are Fidelity, Morgan Stanley and Charles Schuab. They want your money so I am sure they will be very helpful.

Stock trading is kind of instinct. Don't be too discouraged if theres a lot you don't understand, as you trade more and more, it will make sense to you. Me personally, even with business background, I think a large portion of stock trading success is based on ability to follow market, economic trends and paying attention to details and upcoming events. Stock valuations, calculations can only bring you so far but once you trade more and more, you will get a feel for it.

Although personally, I would stray away from stocks for a while, our economy right now isn't particularly in its prime, and I don't predict any significant increases until next year.

Cheers, Tim

I disagree, more trading doesn't equate to more understanding. If you really want to start investing, follow fund manager's trades and analysis.

For better understanding, learn what operating cash flow means, yields, trends, macro economics (not the intro level bullshit), specific industry analysis, loss-prevention techniques, dividends (how they're affected by price), research speculation bubbles (1987 crash, black swan, 1929, great depression, inflation speculation of the 70s-80's) research currency crisis (japan, most of asia in the late 1990's, germany in the late 40's, Russia just a few years ago) Furthermore, understand the vital role of the fed, and how their policy affects market emotions. (i.e increase money supply, decrease interest rates = Fed buying bonds off the market, which decreases T-bill's interest rates)

You see a trend here, my greatest advise to you would be to find a company, who's oversold, not overbought (rimm, appl, pot, etc), who has an "economic mot" in their industry, and has GREAT management capabilities. Within great crises, lies great opportunity.