I want to invest my money and I want to do it online with Ameritrade. Is this a good idea? What should I know?

I am a college student with a monthly income of about $1,700. I have a few thousand dollars saved and would like to start investing my money. If I can learn a lot about how the markets work using Ameritrade would allow me to guide my investments. But is this a good idea, to trade online? And what should I know before getting involved? Any advice on online investing or investing in general would be great. I don't know too much about finance.

Investing in "individual" stocks takes a lot of knowledge and practice; so I would not suggest doing this until you understand completely how the stock markets work.

Instead visit Vanguard.com and learn about mutual funds, index funds, and exchange-traded-funds (ETFs). Trading funds is less risky than trying to trade "individual" stocks.

Unless you plan on spending everyday of your life looking at stock charts trying to determine the best time to get in and out of "individual" stocks, I would look into some sort of fund.

Also be very careful about asking for stock tips online. Most are probably worthless or contain unethical motives. Do not fall for any Pump-and-Dump scams.

As far as books go, I actually started out with the Investing for Dummies books, and they definitely pushed me in the right direction. To many other books have their own agendas in my opinion.

Ameritrade or Scottrade would be my personal choice as far as a broker goes for a beginner. Once you learn more about trading and need less assistance from your broker; you may then want to switch to a zero commission broker such as Zecco.

The websites below all contain plenty of FREE information to get you started in the right direction.

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Good Luck
Offshore

i got a better idea for you keep saving it (and having your money in an online bank such as ING helps) and go to this link www.marketocracy.com its a free site and you can test any and all theories there and there is no risk involved.

The internet is a great resource for investing information. Most of the isps (yahoo, msn, google) have finance sections with all of the reference material you would need. For general reference and education, you might want to try the motley fool, or the public library. The smartest thing any investor can do is to start at a young age. That si to your advantage. If you choose to make your own investment choices, you should dedicate a little time researching your stock ideas. If you don't want to spend the time to do that, or until you gain the confidence to make your own choices, there is nothing wrong with mutual funds. There are all kinds. An index fund is a good basic choice. Don't pay a fee to buy mutual funds. Good luck.

Learn about the markets before you invest.

I keep my large investments with a traditional broker, and keep play money with Ameritrade. This way I am not easily tempted to sell a longterm holding everytime I am on the computer.

No.

TD Ameritrade is too expensive for you.
I suggest you Scottrade, TradeKing, SogoInvest, Just2Trade or Zecco.