16 And Wants To Get Into Stocks
Q: Hi. I'm 16 and I want to start trading stocks. Is it a crazy idea?
A:
This is a good indicator that we're heading into a bear market within the
next 18-24 months, IMO.
You can't trade stocks in your own account because you are not of
legal age.
Is this a sign of a top or what?
Start saving money, start learning, go to www.clearstation.com as a
first step. They have some good educational material.
More seriously, the best thing we, in this ng can do to stave off the
bear, is to educate newbies not to buy anything they'll be likely to
panic-sell. Train up a strong new crop of long-hold investors and the
bear will starve in its den.
This probably sounds hypocritical coming from a short-hold guy like
me, but short-term trading (even daytrading) is not a bad thing if you
are consistently profitable on good stocks, because you're serving as
a middleman handing the stocks off to better keepers for the long
term, not dragging prices down and not inflating crap.
Imho the worst thing for the market is a bunch of people gambling on
shit plays and consistently losing money.
Next, we'll be seeing: "Hi, I'm 10 years old and I want to buy some stocks
with my allowance and get rich, can anyone tell me what store I can buy
these stocks at?"
I agree, but a 16 year old is VERY unlikely to not buy shit stocks and panic
sell. They have no significant regular income and virtually NO experience
at handling money or understanding economic fundamentals, and usually no
sense of personal responsibility. If you haven't noticed, the posts here
have gotten "worse" over the last year, it started with: "I'm new to the
market...", then "I just graduated college...", then "I'm in college and
just blew my tuition money...", then "I'm 19...", then "I'm just about to
graduate high school...", and now "I'm 16..." -- I can't wait for the
pre-teens.
Think about it this way: the 'States JUST acknowledged that this person is
responsible enough to drive a car without killing someone, and he/she is
wanting to "invest" - how responsible do you think they are likely to be.
What was YOUR state of mind when you were 16 years old? I can think back to
mine, and if I remember correctly, I was pissed because I had to be home by
10pm, worried about the girl that I "liked", creating ways to get out of my
afternoon classes and still get an A so I could go to McDonalds with my
friends, beginning my drinking career with beer, getting "blue passes" to
the principal for being immature in class, wondering who I should take to my
first prom....see my point?
I'm 17 right now, and I already have $1000 saved up to play the market when
I turn 18. I've been in this newsgroup for a while now. Please don't
automatically assume that if someone is young there's a panic seller or they cant
play the stock market. Many young people are like this, but they're not going
to be the ones to put alot of money in the market, or even play it at all.
I've been playing online stock games for a while now (yahoo, zdii, cnbc sst)
and consistently earning 20% - 50%+ on my money. While I dont claim to be an
expert, and I have made some mistakes, I have really learned alot about the
market, and cant wait to get into it for real.