Basic tips for Stock market investments?

Standard investment advice is that you should invest in a diversified mix of stocks, bonds, and money market funds. If you are like most people you will invest part of your money aggressively in stocks, and part conservatively in money market funds and bond funds. However, some young people will go all stocks, and some very conservative people will go all money markets. The links below have on-line questionnaires which will give you an idea of how to do "Asset Allocation," determining how much to put in each type of investment.

You want to buy a diversified portfolio of stocks as individual stocks are too risky. Highly knowledgeable people can buy a properly balanced portfolio, but most folks have a difficult time balancing things on their own. They will misbalance their portfolio by buying all small stocks or all growth stocks, or some other misbalanced assortment of stocks. Back in 2000, Some people bought all internet stocks; they got burnt when they all crashed together. You have to diversify across industries. Unless you know what you are doing, it is best to buy mutual funds. Buy no-load, low cost funds. Mutual funds should have expense ratios of less than 0.5%.

If your company offers a 401K plan at work, try to invest the most you can. The money grows tax free, and some companies will match your contribution. Investing in a mutual fund IRA is also a good idea. If you have children, you may want to consider a 529 plan or other college savings plan that grows tax free.

I like index funds. Because of their broad diversification, you are less likely to have a dramatic drop in value. They also have the lowest expenses. For stock funds, I would suggest putting ~70-80% of your money in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. and ~20-30% in a foreign stock index fund. However, there are many different opinions out there on what the best mutual funds are. Read the links below and form your own opinion.

If you have high-interest debt, like credit cards, it is best to pay this off first before trying most of the investment ideas above. You should also have 3-6 months of salary saved up as an emergency fund in a bank or money market fund before trying more risky investments.

Believing advice you get on Yahoo answers can be risky, so read these websites for further information. If you find it too confusing, contact a professional financial advisor. They will charge you significant commissions, however.

Stock market is a racket.

stock market investment is very risky business before using tips u need to make reserch for the particular industry and stock if u r new to investment there r many sites which gives solid reserch reports for example moneycontrol.com and moneypore.com and many other sites and there are fwe sites which provide free tips for example: jumping stocks.com and there is one site called profit from prises which is use for new investers
all the best

You will get best from Prakash Gaba.com

There's only one way to make money in Stock Market;

1. Develop your own strategy.
2. Remember "Money Management" is more important than having the right "picks".
3. Take at least a year to really learn this stuff before putting down one cent. Read as many books as possible, mostly on Technical Analysis and Psychology of trading.

This is not the land of "big hits" (no trading is). Position Sizing and Money Management are the most important skills you can learn.

buy low sell high.

don't panic

don't be greedy

Sarah is 100% correct.

One more I might add is don't take stock tips from anyone (TV, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine, Friend or Relative).

Again...... Money Management and Position Sizing are more important than having the "right" stock picks.

DON'T DO IT!!!

Get out. And stay out.

Complete Report: Office of the Comptroller of Currency: 3Q 2007:
http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/200...

Democracy requires an informed electorate. If you agree, please copy and paste this to whomever you wish. And by all means warn your friends and family.

What's really going on:
http://bp2.blogger.com/_H2DePAZe2gA/R9sT...
or
http://tinyurl.com/2p5qyk
That's right: $91 Trillion in derivatives, financed by 1 1/4 trillion dollars of investor assets. That's almost double the total global GDP (approx. $48 Trillion) for JP Morgan alone. Funny money. IOU's. Another $34 Trillion for CitiBank and $32 Trillion for Bank of America, each with $1 1/4 Trillion backing their bets.

Original Source:
http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/200...

And how they got away with it:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080328/derivativ...
or
http://tinyurl.com/3b8vjn

As Paul Harvery would say, "And now for the rest of the story." These are very
interesting looking numbers. And very revealing. While it's true that existing
single family home sales were up 2.8% month to month-- they were down 22.9%
year to year. How does that old saw go? Figures don't lie; but liars figure?

Existing Home Sales: Feb 08 (preliminary): Single Family Only for Printing (click on the PDF Adobe icon): http://www.realtor.org/Research.nsf/file...
Things are going to get worse, too: U.S. Economic Outlook 2008: http://tinyurl.com/pehzp or
http://www.realtor.org/Research.nsf/file...
And commercial real estate looks like it's starting to go downhill too:
Commercial Real Estate: http://tinyurl.com/yw9hf5 or
http://www.globalindices.standardandpoor... Warehouse and Desert Mountain West have already headed south.