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lalovergel

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 14, 2008
2
0
i am new to stock and shares, and i would like to know how to buy apple shares, not only where, but what is the process and all that is required.

thanks.
 

lalovergel

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 14, 2008
2
0
hmm

thanks.

Funny, so according to you, all the people that buy stocks are born with that knowledge, i'm pretty sure they all asked first, there is nothing wrong in asking. Thanks for your opinion anyway.
 

nizz

macrumors regular
Aug 10, 2004
160
0
north philly
thanks.

Funny, so according to you, all the people that buy stocks are born with that knowledge, i'm pretty sure they all asked first, there is nothing wrong in asking. Thanks for your opinion anyway.

i kinda half agree with him, but more like:
you shouldn't make that decision to buy APPLE stock until you know more
 

Hankster

macrumors 68020
Jan 30, 2008
2,474
439
Washington DC
Do a search on "investing in the stock market" or "buying stocks". If you don't know how the stock market works you are FAR from ready to actually invest real money. It's not a game.
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
thanks.

Funny, so according to you, all the people that buy stocks are born with that knowledge, i'm pretty sure they all asked first, there is nothing wrong in asking. Thanks for your opinion anyway.

No, I'm not saying this at all. I am saying that a first-time investor would do well to stay away from buying volatile stocks like AAPL. Even as a long-time investor, owning this stock drives me crazy. Trust me, you'll be tempted to buy at the wrong time and sell at the wrong time. This stock will be a very difficult and possibly very discouraging lesson in investing. That's my best advice, which obviously you can take or leave.
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
Try trading it :p

I think this is supposed to be a joke, but I don't get it.

Anyway the point I was making is if you don't know how you will behave when 40% of your investment disappears over the course of six weeks, then you probably should not be make a stock which can perform this way your first investment.
 

Much Ado

macrumors 68000
Sep 7, 2006
1,532
1
UK
I think this is supposed to be a joke, but I don't get it.

Just pointing out that if AAPL is tough to judge long-term due to volatility, then trading it is a b*tch. Maybe I'm just not good at it yet. Lots to learn.

OP: Bear in mind that knowing a stock will rise at some point is only half the challenge. Until you sell at a profit, it's just paper money, so go carefully. I would advise doing masses of research and maybe even using a virtual stock market until you're sure you know what you're doing. I'm consistently amazed at how many people who own stocks can't even tell you what P/E is, which frightens me.
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
Sell high, buy low, right :)

Sure, but the problem is most people end up doing just the opposite.

Just pointing out that if AAPL is tough to judge long-term due to volatility, then trading it is a b*tch. Maybe I'm just not good at it yet. Lots to learn.

Buy, hold, don't trade. Sell when you think you need to sell for your own reasons, don't try to time the markets. AAPL is a very difficult stock to hold, especially for a novice investor, and especially if they think they can "buy low and sell high."
 

rhett7660

macrumors G5
Jan 9, 2008
14,224
4,302
Sunny, Southern California
I agree with IJ... Try doing some searches for how to invest in stocks. Try some of the following:

http://www.fool.com/
http://moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp (there are some good articles on investing)

Read books:
http://www.fool.com/Shop/Books/Index.htm

I really like the fools' books. Very easy to read and understand.

Learn how to read a stock: IE what does P/E mean? How they calculate a P/E.

What is earnings to share mean?

This should get you going.

I also highly recommend sharebuilder.com. They were purchased by ING recently. Another company that you might want to look into just for the high interest rate on their checking and savings accounts.


**note: not affiliated with the above in any way.**
 

mwpeters8182

macrumors 6502
Apr 16, 2003
411
0
Boston, MA
I've heard good things about sharebuilder as well. I've been doing research as well - I've got a decent retirement plan, but I'd like to put a little extra away in the market as well.
 

rhett7660

macrumors G5
Jan 9, 2008
14,224
4,302
Sunny, Southern California
If you qualify for one, I recommend a Roth IRA. If you are an active trader you might want to look into one of the other companies for online trading. Shareholder can get a little high with the prices. If you are in for the long haul and plan on mainly buying, can't complain about them. Have been using them for quite some time. I used to have a stock broker buy my shares for me, but once his company was purchased by another company and the price to purchase went through the roof.... I looked for an alternative and moved all my shares to them.






*****By all means I am not a financial advisor, just going off what I have learned and have been doing for the past 18 years or so.
 

wordmunger

macrumors 603
Sep 3, 2003
5,124
3
North Carolina
I agree with IJ... Try doing some searches for how to invest in stocks. Try some of the following:

http://www.fool.com/
http://moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp (there are some good articles on investing)

Read books:
http://www.fool.com/Shop/Books/Index.htm

I really like the fools' books. Very easy to read and understand.

A word of warning: I registered for the motley fool web site a while back and got TONS of spam from them. Maybe they've improved, but the whole experience really soured me on them.
 

jackc

macrumors 65816
Oct 19, 2003
1,490
0
Definitely go to the library and read some books on investment. No matter what your financial situation is, you don't want to make AAPL you're main investment or even a significant part of it. It may still be a good buy, but it is a risky stock, particularly at this price.
 

deputy_doofy

macrumors 65816
Sep 11, 2002
1,460
390
I just started using ShareBuilder (http://www.sharebuilder.com). They offer some interesting ways to buy shares. Since I consider myself a professional novice, it's great for me.

You can buy "real-time," which has a commission of $9.95. I put "real-time" in quotes because the price you see on all stock sites are always 15-20 minutes delayed.

You can also set up auto-trades and there are 3-tiers for auto-trading.
- Tier 1 (The basic plan) has NO monthly fee. All the trades purchased have a $4 commission. So, if you allot $20 for AAPL stock, they will actually take $4 and use the remaining $16 for the stock.

-Tier 2 (Standard) - $12 monthly fee. If you select this one, the first 6 auto-trades have a $0 commission (well, if you think about it, they have a $2 commission, but you paid it up front). If you choose to add more stocks to your trade, the additional stocks will have a $2 commission.

- Tier 3 (Advantage) - $20 monthly fee. The first 20 stocks are "free."
all subsequent stocks have $1 commission.

The main benefit, I think, for the auto-trading is that it will buy fractional shares. If all you have to buy AAPL shares is $50, then you would purchase .306 shares (assuming $163 share price).

Set it. Forget it. Keeps buying for you every month until you turn it off.

:)
 

rhett7660

macrumors G5
Jan 9, 2008
14,224
4,302
Sunny, Southern California
Set it. Forget it. Keeps buying for you every month until you turn it off.

To me that is huge. Reminds me of a DRIP program. It is one of the things that drew me to the site long ago. Was looking to invest online, had a couple of DRIP accounts through a couple different companies and someone recommended sharebuilder.com to do the same thing.

Huge plus in my book.
 

MattZani

macrumors 68030
Apr 20, 2008
2,554
103
UK
Anyone know of a Stock Simulator type game? I know it sounds weird, but im not old enough to trade in stock, yet im fascinated by it, would be great if there was a Stocks game which was sped up etc.
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
Anyone know of a Stock Simulator type game? I know it sounds weird, but im not old enough to trade in stock, yet im fascinated by it, would be great if there was a Stocks game which was sped up etc.

You can just do it on paper. Give yourself a theoretical stake, invest it in the markets and see how you do. Granted, it's "real time," but you can learn quite a bit about investing this way, risk-free. I did this when I was too young to invest real money.
 
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