[Hortiscape_Nursery]

Uh, I said 600% return not 3,600% return...Yeah, sharebuilder is good tho, but I got a partner that I invest with...

[DJ Samson]

What about penny stocks? This is coming from a NON-INVESTOR who is interested in investing. I'm not giving advice, but it seems that $1,500 - or even $600 would be a decent amount for penny stocks. What do you think?

[NIPS Global Solution]

I'm gonna have to suggest that you stay away from penny stocks, or at least anything under $1.00 a pop. If it's not listed under a major stock exchange, don't invest in it. That means steer clear of OTC & OTC:BB Stocks.

I'm advising this out of personal experience. I started trading with my aunts money when I was 16, and I did pretty well with $600.00, upto a point. I had beat the start amount, and it was all looking good, and then one of my few stocks just crashed. Was trading at $1.50 a share and dropped to about $.27. I'll just say, I learned me lesson.

Right now, put your money in lowercost healthcare companies, that have a strong product line, and have a chance at the big-bucks in the next 5 years. What I mean by this is basically this: Your 16. You don't really need this money anytime soon, and your best bet is to go with something that could get you a good amount of money if you wanted to sell after college.

And with all the money politicians are pouring into healthcare insurance and universal healthcare, it will be hard to find a company that isn't finding a way to turn a profit.

For an even riskier investment, try biotech, or bio-defense companies. These companies are make or break stocks. Example: One stock I almost bought into was VXGN, or Vax Gen written out. VAXGEN had a non-secured contract with the DOD(department of defense) for a 400 million dollar anthrax defense vaccine. The stock was trading at only 1.50 a share, and if landed the contract would have made a profit in 4 months. The experts put the stock on a estimate of $28.00 a share that year, and it's hard not to see why. A contract of 400 million, that is extendable to over a billion dollars is a great thing. Needless to say, the company lost the contract. Why? Because they didn't have the manufactoring capabilities to support a $400 million contract. But it it had gotten it, imagine where even $200 would have gotten you.

I'm currently heavily invested in GNBT(Ticker Symbol), which is a bio-tech company. The share routinely stay over 1 million sales volume a day, & trade around $1.75. This company is the best looking investment I have seen in several years. It has 4 vaccines nearly complete, for AIDS, HIV, Breast Cancer, and another form of cancer. None of them are incredibly effective, but they all do better than any other on the market. The Cancer Vaccine is also one of the first of it's kind, and similiar to the HPV vaccine being federal required. THis however, is not why I got in. There new revolutionary Oral Glucose spray is why. Anyone have diabetic family? You know how they hate injecting themselves with Insulin? This company developed a simple spray formula that can be sprayed in the mouth, and provides the same amount of insulin as a normal injection, and a better absorbition rate. Not only does it do this, it's cheaper than the needles. Tell me why someone would not want it. This product is nearing final approval, and may be in the USA in the next two years. Even if it takes 5 years, this stock is going to do well. This years projected final price is $3.25, and could be as high as $5.50 if their Bird Flu Vaccine is more successful than another companies version.

But this is my opinion. Don't just listen to me. Go out and learn about stocks, and how to findout which ones are good. Remember this: 50% of people in stocks lose money. 40% break even.

Only 10% make money, and only 5% of this make enough to support themselves with stocks alone. Learn, invest, work. You can't be successful without these three things.

Ryan

[mjohns]

Originally Posted by drthunder7

I'm 16 years old and plan to start my first portolio soon. I only have about $1500 dollars to invest, so I need help on selecting a good website were the commisons wont eat up my profits. If you have any good suggestions on starting your first low dollar portfolo or finding a good online broker please help. Thanks

What are you doing? Invest in start-ups that will be the best way to go, or start a low level investment consortium.

[22mil]

I have not read this thread in its entirety. But am disgusted by alot of the posts.... (Akula reading your posts... is your world pitch black? I have not seen a positive reply to anyone) I trade stocks.... and $1000 can earn you significant returns. Take for instance this trade I made. I took $1000 of my capital, shorted SPR (Spirit Aerosystems) on margin, shorted 55 shares, and by days end friday the stock was down ~$1.25 and I had $68+ before expenses. So end of day I bought to cover, round trip on the trade cost me $15 and I pocketed $53 because I made a good trade that I identified. All in all it took me 10 minutes of research to see the trade and about 2 minutes total execution time. So 12 minutes of effort for $53 isnt bad. And considering that was only one trade, you can imagine that you can grow that $1000 very quickly in 2 months time.

The point is that education and personal strategy outweighs anyones opinions. If you did invest the $1000 and lost every penny of it you would be digging for answers as to why... and it will be the best 1000 you ever spent! If you invested the 1000 and made a ton, youd want to know why and still learn... either way your advancement in personal ability alone is worth the 1000 so read, and dive in....

[akula]

22mil, this post is about using professional measures to calculate true returns on trading securities

this includes such measures as betas and aphas, because, when calculating returns, the true return has to be calculated with reference to the risk free rate of return, as well as the market index

I encourage you to use these measures so you can make more money with less risk

[Hortiscape_Nursery]

22mil, if your into day trading ur stupid...ooooo...so what you got lucky in 12 minutes...You want to invest in the stock market long term, 3-4 months minimum....And Global good article...I totally agree...The only thing I would have to say is...when the stock went from 1.50 to .27 cents...omg! Buy it up man...you don't sell casue a stock went down!!!! Unless the company you invested in was on a small-scale stock market, or it wasn't a reputible company...You should have stuck it out and bought more...

I do agree with global again...invest in Bio-tech companies...I currently have 1k in Biosite...it's gonna explode...

[NIPS Global Solution]

Thanks for the comments. Usually when a stock sinks like that, I evaluate, and decide whether to sell, or buy more, or keep. Unfourntatly, they had destroyed their financials. They lost almost all profits, and almost all investment funds. Also their officers were capable of turning something like that back around.

After seeing all of this, it was only a matter of time until it crashed, which it did. It dropped again to about .05 a share. Good thing I sold out at .27. At least I got something back.

It almost reminds me of one company I saw. I think it was NUVO. The stock was trading at about 20.00 a share, and an investor who owned 20% of the stock decided it wasn't working for him. So he ditched all of it. It dropped the price to about .50 a shae. Now that's crap.

Ryan Scott

[Hortiscape_Nursery]

Yea...that's gotta suck...

[22mil]

Hortiscape...... Apparently I'm stupid... so rather than say anything to that.. I invite you to sit down and watch what I do. Head over to www.elitetrader.com and look at the P&L journals for us "stupid traders"..... tell me I'm stupid after you see the returns we make in one day are far greater than what you make in your 3-4 months. And wait if I'm stupid, Golman Sachs - their stupid, Berkshire Hathaway - Yup Warren Buffet is stupid too, Charlse Schwab, and and every hedge fund in North America, And and All Mutual funds......... you know anyone working the floor of the NYSE they're stupid, all these private capital firms, they're stupid.... the federal reserve..... they're stupid....


Dont confuse your ignorance to all aspects of the market for wisdom. You know not nearly enough to be calling anyone stupid. Day trading takes place on all levels of the economy, from the individual such as myself to the federal reserve. All major investment firms employ people as "market makers" they are day traders..... hmmmmmmm 7 figure salary and commissions... they must be stupid too.

And it wasnt lucky in 12 minutes, it took me ten to identify that a move was going to continue, and 1 minute to short the stock... and at the end of the trading day another 1 minute to buy to cover.....

"Short selling, buying to cover? You must be stupid!!! Cuz all I know is how to go long in a decllining market!"

I bet you dont even know what YM & ES stand for in the markets do you?
I'll give you a tip though, if the price goes up or down one point with ES my margin account will either gain or lose $50.

....... Guess I'm stupid.

[Hortiscape_Nursery]

Yea, u are, you don't have any control over the stock market...lol. ANd Warren Buffet doesn't day-trade moron...