I want to invest some money?
 

If you are going to invest a few hundred or a few thousand dollars in the stock market.........How do you decide which stock to buy?

A tip from a friend or co-worker?

Something you heard on TV?

Where do you get information about this Company?

Other?

Stone energy!! It has quadrupled in price already this year..........came back down a little, but should take off again........

Watch mad money that crazy dude is right on about 80% of the time

He gets under my skin. :pissed:
Everyone who I work with watch him.

A tip from a friend or co-worker? NEVER

Something you heard on TV? NO

Where do you get information about this Company? Do your own research....its your money....search the internet.

Other? - Go to a professional

ya listen to cramer on CNN or cnbc or whatever

Amen to that!!!

If you are serious, make a few pics and then watch the companies for a few weeks. Put your investment ideas on paper and watch them - learn the trends, patterns, etc... Then, after you are comfortable with the stock, go for it.

I am a momemtum trader, but I NEVER invest without watching a stock for at least a week or two.

I thought of a strategy about a year ago. When the govt was bailing out all of these banks with TARP money, i started to research these banks. I am fortunate enough to have a good amount of money to invest so I decided to take a chance. All you heard about was AIG for the longest time on how the govt was investing billions in this company to keep it a float (with TARP money). My research showed that AIG would be one of the slowest companies to pull out of the recession and pay back Tarp money which means that this company had a long way to go and was at rock bottom. I contacted my financial advisor and told him that i wanted to invest in AIG; he said that i was crazy because the bank was going to go down and this was really considered a penny stock value. I thought long and hard about it and came to this conclusion "the govt will not let AIG go under because they have so much invested and riding on this company." I was able to buy in at .99 cents a share and since then, the company did a reverse split to encourage trading on the company and I have made substantial amount of money in less than a year; it is not so much about gambling with the stock market but seeing the best returns on your investments.

I did research and had some inside knowledge on Global Industries as well (several friends work for this company. I did research and visited with several managers on this and they assured me of work coming down the pipeline in 6-8 months (this was about a year ago). I bought GLBL and $2.90/share and just checked it and it is $8.74/share (it has fluctuated quite a bit this late summer but gains are all that i am worried about).

Do your homework and research your companies and you can't go wrong. Read the quarterly reports on these companies and that will tell you a lot (that can usually be found on the corporate sites.)

"I did research and had some inside knowledge on Global Industries as well"

Not really something you should be putting out in public on the internet.....just saying.

Most large const. companies make public announcements about big jobs they win.
It helps their stock go up. I don't think that would be considered inside trading.
I work for a major oil company and they make as many news announcements as
possible to keep the stock prices as high as possible.
But all it takes is just one "Awe Srap" and it goes south.
Knowing about an unannounced take over or something like that would be considered
insider trading, but not future pipeline work.

I am only posting this to try to elevate my status from "gafftop" to the next level. (status-whore). Seriously, when you go to an investment broker, they will ask you if you want safety (security) or growth(higher risk). Most times they will reccommend a combination of both stocks. Having pulled out of the market mid-year '08 , I was able to avoid the carnage that hit Wall St. later in the year and early this year. I am now back in the market but I remain very skeptical. I won't buy any bank stocks because I know they are still sitting on billions of $$$ worth of toxic loans that they don't want to dump on an already unstable real estate market. I bought a few energy stocks B.P. and Marathon which are doing ok but not burning the world up. Other safe stocks include food companies like General Mills and Coke. (My rationale is even if your broke and on unemployment you still have to eat). If you want something risky, there is a comp. called viaspace (VSPC) that is producing some kind of 'super grass' that they harvest to fuel different types of industry in China. Bottom line is all stocks are risky and kinda a crap shoot. Good luck whatever you choose and as the others said, "Do your homework". I have Google for Internet Browser and you can click on finance and research any company, track certain stocks. I want to get set up with Ameritrade to buy and sell on my own but presently I have to pay a broker a ton of money in commissions and fees every time I make a play.

The inside knowledge that i receive is perfectly legal and can be found on their reports. Inside knoweldge that i am referring to is what bids are outstanding and will be awarding within the next few months (which is public knowledge) whether they are awarded to GLobal or not. If you are a stock holder, which i owned very little stock before purchasing a large quantity, you can obtain this information. Trust me, i know what is legal and what is not when it comes to buying, selling and trading stock.

Risky......may be an under statment. Current price is $ .0315. MKT Cap only $ 27M. ROE is -162 %. No Analyst are following this stock.