Beginner sites for Investing/Stock Market?

Thinking about dabbling into this stuff, my knowledge so far consists of RRSP's and Mutual Funds (limited). Also, are there any good sites for setting up a virtual account that I could try for a couple of months first? Thanks.

http://www.shakesprimer.com/
http://www.ndir.com/

SITES:

http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/

http://www.globefund.com/


BOOKS:

Personal Finance For Dummies (Canadian Edition)

Thanks Rehan, I have a couple of night shifts right now and will do a lot of reading, I just found this site and setup an account to try my luck for the next month or two with fake money. Seems like a lot of info to take in right now.

Edit: oops, thanks to you too samir.

http://www.investopedia.com/

www.forex.com

www.refcofx.com

foriegn exchange accounts free $50000 mock money trial. It's SUPER risky, but kinda fun.

www.stockcharts.com (they have a great chartschool available for free there).

A good book you may want to look into is: 'A Beginner's Guide to Short-term Trading' by Toni Turner. Book costs like 20 bucks at <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=32 target=_blank>Chapters</a>. I highly recommend it.

If you want to start, I say start with using real money. Say 50 or 100 bucks.

Using real money (even just a bit), you will see the emotional side of you in the market. Do you practice swimming by doing breast strokes on land? Or do the instructor take u right into the water (or someone just push you)?

Here is a great collection of information for begginers on another site:
http://www.marketmillionaires.com/showthread.php?t=347

I'd recommend you start with lets say $500... To trade each time, it costs around $24... so thats $48 to go in and out.... Thats like 50% of your $100 spent in transaction cost.

$50 transaction cost on $500 is 10%.... at least with 10% you'll have a better chance of making back your transaction cost. Even 10% is on the high side, I'd say. But I'd understand. I started off with $500 actually.

Originally Posted by ctam

If you want to start, I say start with using real money. Say 50 or 100 bucks.

Using real money (even just a bit), you will see the emotional side of you in the market. Do you practice swimming by doing breast strokes on land? Or do the instructor take u right into the water (or someone just push you)?

Great Thread! I was also thinking of getting into the Stock Market.

I'm a newbie to stocks too. Might try to play some with $500.
This is great info.

Originally Posted by Bzji

I'm a newbie to stocks too. Might try to play some with $500.
This is great info.

i wouldn't play stocks with $500 since the commission cost like 10% of your total value already..........unless you are hopping your stock goes up like 50% or more......i would buy mutual fund instead, since most mutual funds don't have to pay commissions

Keep in mind that short-term trading on the stock market is much closer to gambling than it is investing. If you put any real money in it, use only money that you can afford to lose.

lol.... the other guy suggested $50 - $100..... I looked at that and I thought, I'd suggest $500 instead.... knowing fully that its 10%.... Ideally I would suggest more, but since $500 for a beginner seems just about right I suggested that.

Originally Posted by coldWater

i wouldn't play stocks with $500 since the commission cost like 10% of your total value already..........unless you are hopping your stock goes up like 50% or more......i would buy mutual fund instead, since most mutual funds don't have to pay commissions