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I've been very interested in stocks ever since I was a young kid. For all that interest however, I've never actually bought/sold/traded a stock in my entire life. I just set up an online account (TD Ameritrade), but I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm not necessarily looking for investment advice, as much as information on how this works. I have a few stocks in mind that I think I'd like to buy, but I don't know how it works. I recall seeing there is a $9.99 commission, for buying a stock(please correct me if I'm wrong). What exactly does this mean? Do I have to pay $9.99 for each share I buy, or every time I buy shares in any quantity, or is it something else?
If I wanted to buy 50 shares of a company's stock, do I have to pay $9.99 for each share or just $9.99 total for the whole transaction? What about if I'm buying shares of several different companies at a time? Also what impact will all of this have on my taxes? It's my understanding that capital gains tax is only paid after a stock is sold, but are there any other taxes I need to be aware of? Also if I sell a stock and need to pay capital gains, does this happen automatically like a sales tax, or do I need to keep records, and pay it when I get my taxes done? As you can probably tell I'm thoroughly inexperienced and ignorant.
I save about $100-$150/ month and that has always just gone into a savings account. I'd like to start investing in stocks, buying stock every time I get paid, but depending on how this $9.99 commission works, maybe I'm best off saving the money and buying a lot of stock all at once, a couple times/year. If anybody has any advice they'd be willing to share with an investing virgin I would really appreciate it. I'm kind of excited to get started but at the same time feel like I may have jumped into this too quickly; I probably should have had the answers to my questions prior to opening an account.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
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>>1821033
The $9.99 is for each time you buy no matter the quantity, some do deal per share though.
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>>1821033
Every time you do a transaction you are charged $10. It's like tipping at a restaurant.
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>>1821033
Additional thought,
you should not start off day trading, or, buying/selling within one day. Swing trading (weekly to quarterly price movements) or traditional buy and hold (over 1 year) are your best bet to avoid account churning, or, overpaying commission. You can't even day trade without $25k because thats the account minimum you need to get intraday settlement in the US.
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>>1821053
Absolutely not.
You buy at a predetermined risk level. So if you research a company and you love it then you're going to want to buy more If feel it isn't worth risking a lot on then you cap it to a percentage of your portfolio (portfolio = all your investment assets).
Remember a stock represents a claim on a company and no matter your strategy you should remember that.
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>>1821055
>>1821058
Ok, that makes sense. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience experience with me. I know it's probably obvious second-nature concepts to most people on /biz/, but to a dumb, inexperienced noob like myself it's really great that you're willing to share your knowledge and maybe help me avoid doing this really stupidly. I'll keep researching, but I really appreciate your help
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>>1821071
You aren't born into this field. We all started where you were, mate.
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>>1821071
I don't know if TDA still does this, but it use to be that if you told them you went with dough, they would give you a discount from $9.99 to $7 per trade.
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>>1821077
Also, how much money do you have to invest?
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>>1821092
I have about $4000, and no debt. I haven't definitively decided how much I'm going to be investing, but I'm thinking of starting out at about $1000. Depending on how this goes, and if I get into the swing of things I'm probably willing to invest $3,000. I'm completely open to any other suggestions though, of course.
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>>1821115
Get CFA study material.
It'll give you an edge along with internet research. Just buy a level one set for now.
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>>1821115
If you just want to throw your money and have it grow, you'll probably end up buying some combination of
>SPY
>VTI
>VOO
>BND
or other large funds that track the market.
The only thing is that, the market is high, some say its overvalued, and people are on edge about whether a correction is coming. I think one thing you need to come to terms with is how soon do you need this money? Because if a correction happens, you won't want to liquidate it until the value comes around, otherwise you come out a loser.
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