I just opened an account with TD Ameritrade. My first investment account. How should I invest?

I'd put it in Dodge & Cox funds, DODFX DODGX
unless you think you're smarter than all those folks who do that for a living.
in that case, i guess you'll have to learn for yourself.

your call.

The answer would depend on a great number of factors about you - your age, situation in life, whether you could afford to lose this money and still be okay in the long run, etc.

As a general suggestion, I would say, go with no load mutual funds. To do so, use Yahoo! Finance's mutual fund screener: .http://screen.yahoo.com/funds.html</html... Whatever fund type you want (i.e. all US stocks, international bonds, etc), look for something with a minimum Morningstar rating of 4 and no load. If you get a huge nimber of funds that meet these criteria, navigate back to the screener and keep adding things - like a minimum historical return over 3 and 5 years, to narrow the results.

When you determine which funds to buy into, you can do that online at TD's website.

I highly recommend the free articles at Motley Fool online, which can get you up to speed in a hurry.

Good luck!

This is all a8se about face. If you didn't know what to invest in what made you think that this was the way forward? How often you trade will impact which broker is best for you. What returns you expect and what risk you are willing to expose your capital to will dictate how often you trade and what to buy & sell.

Cripes, it's no wonder that people lose money in the markets if this is how most people start out.

Think. plan, do. You are doing, then thinking. As I said, a*rse about face.

Yours weeping for people who think that money grows on trees and that the stock market is a place to make money with just access to it and hope.

See you when you've lost it all.

How much money do you have and how much risk do you want to take?

I will help you for FREE. (I am a Portfolio Manager)

I would start with taking some investment test on your risk tolerance. Depending how comfortable you are with lossing money will help you make decision on what type of stock to purchase. For starters though, I would set a certain amount of "risk" money that you are comfortable lossing to invest in your education.