I don't know your age. But long term the best bet you can make is on high-cap stocks paying good, and regular, dividends. IMO, there is no reason to be in ETFs that pay no yield, when a portfolio of good dividend paying diversified equities regularly outperforms the S&P long-term.
+1 I would add: learn chart reading - technical analysis, money management, etc. There are many free videos on YouTube for this. Some are good and some are crap. Buyer beware - caveat emptor.
You really can't go wrong with Index Investing . you might try the boglehead forum http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=10 lots of smart people but moderation is OVERBEARING to say the least, I suggest you just lurk.
To OP - there was a recent thread about how trading paid off. Several around here sincerely posted about how well trading has paid off. Yes there are plenty of retail guys who have made it, but many more who haven't. It really is a difficult game. No one seems to know what the actual figure is of losses, but most clearly do fail. I think you should consider how much you plan to make, how much time you have to spend, and how much of a difference it will really make. If you are just interested in buy and hold equities, put it in a equities managed account. If you have enough cash, do a hedge fund. The difference between buy and holding equities yourself and day trading anything yourself on luke warm knowledge and work will just be the amount of time it takes to blow up your account. An in person mentor will really work. Have you cold called before? If you do decide to put in the effort to do the equivalent of an MBA* on your own, start with focusing just on futures. Forget equities. With small retail accounts, the only chance you'll have is in leverage. You obviously won't come close to using all the leverage. 2:1 or 4:1 on equities, or the nonsense buy-and-hold retail grandpa account, won't work but waste time and some money. Do you have any friends or former coworkers who worked in finance? Anyone in person? * I say the equivalent of an MBA in terms of work load. Getting an MBA will not prepare you. cheers get out of here loser
First you need to learn how to not loose money and preserve your capital, and only then talk about making money. Here's what I'm doing for my daughter's college fund: 1. Get a list of stable stocks that pay a nice dividend , and you believe that will never go to ZERO. I have 8 of them. 2. Separate each one into legs, Example: XYZ trading at 30 30, 25,20,15,10,5 Steps: 1. Buy XYZ at 30, have a sell target to sell for 50% profit. 2. XYZ drops to 25, buy a number of shares equal to the capital of your first purchase. Preferably rounded up to 100ds 3. Sell calls at 1 to 2 strikes higher. If XYZ stays at 25 ish, keep selling the covered calls and collect the premium. 4. XYZ drops to 20, buy the same number of shares and sell the covered calls again, only on the portion of the last leg. So that's basically is the concept, your time horizon should be at least 5 years. Throughout all that time you will be able to collect the dividend, collect the premium of the options and get in and out of the legs. This might seem complicated for someone not knowing much about options, but in my opinion, this is the only way to invest in a long term portfolio. I do get upset if I buy a stock and it doesn't drop. Good Luck....the main thing to do here, after understanding the initial concept, is to not get worried and stick to the monitor during the market hours and stick to the plan, if you start messing around with it, thinking to buy sooner or sell sooner, and different quantities, it might work the first time, then hurt you in a long run.... Make sure the dividend is at least 3%.. and if it's a cash dividend, reinvest it..
Trading is a lousy profession, after more than a decade as a full time trader, I would have rather become a professional in some other field, a lawyer perhaps, a dentist, who knows. Very few make it, and make it or not you will get wherever you get with plenty of scars. Scars from losses, stress, bag in your eyes, and probably back pain and a bigger belly. In some cases, divorce, quarrels with your significant other, and what not. Now, assuming you are wise enough not to pursue trading any longer. Don't give up on investing. I'll give you a few tips.... #1 Only buy reputable indices ie SPY, it will never go bankrupt, don't try to think you are smarter than Standard and Poor, it has built in diversification, let them work out the members for you, you are not any smarter than them as a group. #2 Only start to buy in bear markets ie Yes, that's how you do it, it's a psychological game #3 Dollar cost average it ie Add to your losing position and only in lower lows to get maximum displacement. As you wait for the market cycle turn you will be accumulating and getting paid a dividend. #4 Never overleverage Don't disobey this rule, ever #5 Distribute in bull markets Distribute on higher highs when there is complacency #6 Rinse and repeat It's that simple