How To Start Trading While In High School
Trading stocks is actually quite thrilling and quite easy if you know what you're doing. However, trading stocks for most people is disastrous, a 2006 survey showed that 90% of traders lose money.You need to make sure you are in the top 10% of this survey.
You first need some money before you can start up a stock account.
See if you can get a certification from your high school, so you'll be able to make more than minimum wage. If you can't become A+ certified, a certified nurses assistant, a pharmacy technician, or even an EMT you should become either a waiter or a lifeguard. Even if you are a terrible waiter, you will still be able to make $10+ an hour. If no restaurant will hire you, become a lifeguard. Although the pay is generally mediocre ($7.25-$9.00) the job is quite relaxing and you'll get a nice tan.
After you have saved up $5,000, cut your hours down to 8-12 a week and begin reading about investing in the stock market, then after a few weeks of education you can go invest.
Read about 10 books before you start investing, make sure to read highly acclaimed books such "How I Made 2,000,000 In The Stock Market" I cannot even begin to emphasize how important educating yourself is before you invest. I highly recommend timothy syke's trading style, dvds, and book. Tim's strategy has made me a ton of money and prevented me from losing my whole account when I bought into a scam.
Put $1500 into a savings account and open up a custodial trading account with the remaining $3500. I highly recommend scotttrade if you don't plan on trading very frequently and don't plan on shorting. If you would like to short, I recommend either speedtrader or thinkorswim. I'm currently with speedtrader, and they are fantastic.
Buy a phone which offers mobile trading. If you don't want to spend the $20-$50 monthly unlimited internet fee you can text 242242 for free stock quotes. Last Year I sent an average of 35 texts a day to them to check on my stocks. Whenever I needed to buy or sell at school I would simply say I'd have to use the bathroom then sneak away to the library. Create a good relationship with the librarian, so she won't rat you out.
Make sure to never seek advice from any of your relatives, friends, or even random people on the internet (yes, this includes me). If you're going to follow someone's advice make sure you're able to see their earnings. If they don't openly share their returns they're probably losing money like the other 90% of traders. Also never, ever, ever take any advice from any economist on CNBC.
When in doubt, do not do anything. I've only traded about 10-12 stocks and I only lost money on two of those trades. However, I contemplated trading about 50-70 stocks. I never traded them, because they weren't a perfect set up. The 10-12 stocks I did play were entirely predictable. Patience is key here.
If you would like further advice on trading stocks leave me a comment.
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