(Part 2) Best products from r/stocks

I was in your position a couple weeks ago as a beginner, and here are some of the resources I found useful to learning the basics:

• Read all of the basics on the r/personalfinance sidebar, it has some pretty good advice.
  
  
• Read all of the sidebar frequently asked questions on the /r/investing sidebar.
  
  
• Read If You Can by William J Bernstein. Its a short pamphlet with some additional assigned reading found inside that will fit what you’re looking for. (I've personally read the first two 'homework' assignments and they were very good.)
  
  
• Read The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Clason.
  
  
• Read The Little Book on Common Sense Investing by John C Bogle. It's a very well written short book highlighting the power of Index Funds. It's very clearly biased (he was the one who basically invented them and also founded Vanguard), but is absolutely worth the read.
  
  
• Read The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. This can apparently be likened to the Bible of Value Investing. Certainly much longer than all the previous reading, but also worth taking the time to read and learn. I found the additionally commentary chapters by Jason Zweig very helpful.
  
  Im currently reading A Random Walk Down Wallstreet, and it’s definitely very valuable and worth reading. Highly recommend.
  Hopefully this helps and at least gives a starting point.
  
  Good luck!

I became interested in the markets around my sophomore year of college as well and have since spent a vast amount of time in self-study and reading about trading and the markets as a whole. If you are like me, you probably have an idea of what "stock trading" is to you. Let me promise you, your idea is probably vastly different than reality in the markets. Please, please take the advice below. I can't stress enough how important these resources were and still are for me.

Long-term investing/wealth building:

Read everything put out by Stansberry Research (I am not affiliated with them in any way)

A.) http://stansberryresearch.com/book/the-stansberry-research-guide-to-investment-basics/

B.) http://stansberryresearch.com/book/the-stansberry-research-starters-guide-for-new-investors/
-- After reading the two books above, pick up the books recommended in the back of the "Stansberry Research Starter's Guide for New Investors"

C.) Stansberry Radio also produces a fantastic educational podcast. Definitely worth a $10/month subscription. The quality of guests and interview segments are second to none.

Shorter-term trading:

Check out Investor's Business Daily (IBD) at www.investors.com

A.) How to Make Money in Stocks: http://www.amazon.com/Money-Stocks-Complete-Investing-System/dp/0071752110
-- This book probably taught me more about the stock market than any other

B.) Trend Following: http://www.amazon.com/Trend-Following-Updated-Millions-Markets/dp/013702018X
-- The book that started it all for me. The author also runs a fantastic podcast (Trend Following with Michael Covel). This educational value of this podcast is indescribable.


At a time when the stock market continues to break all-time highs, please be careful when trading/investing. Control your risk FIRST (http://www.vantharp.com/tharp-concepts/position-sizing.asp)

Feel free to shoot me a message if you have any questions. I love to talk trading!

The Motley Fool is a good place for beginners. There are a lot of good resources there that explain how to start out.

The Stock Market Course is also a good book that explains how to analyze companies. It is also a short, yet comprehensive tome on almost all aspects of the stock market.

To answer your question, "What exactly should you research when deciding which stock to invest in?", it depends on what your current situation is and what your goals are. Everyone has differing investment strategies. Some are looking for income, others are looking for quick money. Some want long term returns, some seek short term gains. All of these goals have differing risks and rewards. You need to examine your current financial position, weigh your risk potential, look at your time scale (are you under 30? approaching retirement?) then decide what type of strategy works best for you. Also, try to avoid the mainstream blogs and articles. Because most small investors follow the herd, the returns aren't as high as finding your own niche. I pulled a 48% return in 2013, and am at a 38% return for 2014 by choosing stocks on my own, rather than using recommendations of others. (No, I am not wealthy, because 38% of total investments under $3000 doesn't earn much. However, these are picks I put in for the long haul).

Good luck and come back with any questions you have. This sub has a lot of good people that are happy to help you succeed.

As far a learning to invest goes, one of the best books for those just starting out is Jim Cramer's first book:

Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World

A lot of people are down on Cramer because of his antics on television but the book is actually full of solid, value oriented investment advice. Also it's super cheap, available either for free at your local library, or for $5 used off of Amazon.

Cramer wrote this book for the average Joe and explains how the stock market works and the basics of how to look for the value in individual stocks. A lot of people will tell you just put your money in a low cost ETF that covers the whole market, blah blah blah, and of course this is solid advice. But, if you at least want to understand how things work and take your investing knowledge to the next level, Cramer's book is a good place to start (the first book, like most authors he put all the good stuff in the first book and didn't have much to say in the ones after that).

OptionsHouse requires a minimum of $1,000 to open an account. They also have pretty low transactions fees if you end up doing more trading than buy and hold. OptionsHouse also has a virtual account that is an excellent tool and one I highly recommend trying before using your real money.

All that said, I'd really recommend reading a couple of books before you jump in. When looking to buy and sell stocks there are different strategies which you'll know doubt pick up upon by reading the various replies to your post. There is the buy and hold versus a more active trading by buying on dips and selling on peaks.

Also evaluating the company and its stock is divided among the fundamental evaluation versus the technical evaluation. There are tools out there to help, vuru.com for instance can assist you in the fundamental evaluation. Technical analysis is basically looking at the price history, reading the charts, looking for technical indicators of when a stock might be oversold or over bought, and looking for buy and sell signals. StockCharts.com has a chart school section that can help learn about technical analysis.

If you get the impression that this subject is a bit intimidating and you have a lot to learn, well it is, and you do. I'm not trying to dissuade you from buying stocks but I really, really recommend reading and learning as much as you can before jumping in. With little knowledge and understanding on the subject you may get lucky and buy a stock that will increase in value, then again you are just as likely to pick something that will lose value and you'll just get frustrated.

Here are three books I recommend reading before you start to at least help you understand a bit more about what you are getting into.

Fundamental

Amazon - Value Investing

Technical and understanding markets and their cycles

Amazon - The Visual Investor: How to Spot Market Trends

Practical and the psychology behind markets and trading

Amazon - Trading for a Living: Psychology, Trading Tactics, Money Management

Since the seems to be a common question I'm just copy pasting some of my older responses.

Books to read:

• This book while perhaps a bit dry has all of the information that you are looking probably looking for. It is widely considered the definitive guide to investing in individual securities.
  http://www.amazon.com/The-Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Investing/dp/0060555661
  
  
• Here's a PDF of the Intelligent Investor.
  http://www.set.in.th/ben_graham_the_intelligent_investor.pdf
  
  
• This book, is a solid guide to building a stable portfolio. However, it doesn't get into the nitty gritty of individual stock evaluation. It is a good read, and offers solid commentary on how to avoid making bad choices.
  http://www.amazon.com/The-Investors-Manifesto-Prosperity-Armageddon/dp/0470505141/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334165783&sr=1-1
  
  General Advice
  
  
• On individual stocks: Without a lot of prior knowledge and research, the best you could hope to be doing buy buying an individual security is speculating. This is not a good way to invest for the long term.
  
  
• Until you get a better background in how the markets work, you are much safer going with an Index fund or ETF. Personally I like the S&P 500. Over the long term you will earn about 8% on your money (not bad!). Park your money for now, and do some reading to become more informed.
  
  
• Also, avoid penny stocks at all cost. You might as well take your money and go play blackjack at a casino, at least you get free drinks there.

After reading the Intelligent Investor the below books are pretty good for a read as well.

You Can be a Stock Market Genius (Stupid title but great book) by Joel Greenblatt

Dhandho Investing Mohnish Pabrai

Rule #1 investing this is a good podcast for beginners they have a book as well

One up on Wall Street Peter Lynch

common stocks and uncommon profits by fisher

Berkshire Hathaway letters to shareholders

Security analysis by Graham and Dodd. This was written before The Intelligent Investor by Graham as well and covers how to value companies. It's a very dry read and originally written in 1934 but there's a gold mine in there.

> how the economy works is detrimental to stock investment

Incorrect word usage but I digress.

As far as books go, I have two helpful macroeconomic textbooks and study sheets that you might find helpful. I go to NYU currently and here is the macroeconomic textbook we use, as well as a cheat sheet for economic principles.

http://www.amazon.com/Macroeconomics-Principles-Applications-Robert-Hall/dp/1111822352

http://www.amazon.com/Microeconomics-Quickstudy-Business-Inc-BarCharts/dp/1423208552/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450065997&sr=1-1&keywords=macroeconomic+cheat+sheet

In addition, the Kahn academy videos on Macroeconomics are super helpful,

I recommend starting out with kahn academy and following along with the textbook.

Feel free to ask me any questions, I am leader of the stock investing club and I got an A- in Macro with Professor Edward Steinberg this past summer.

You cant grow (enough) tobacco in your backyard. You can buy an entire plug and play system on Amazon and grow a LOT of weed.

Weed is one thing that doesnt scale up particularly well. To get the best price point, you have to have the best product. The bigger your operation, it becomes exponentially more difficult to grow fire. You can grow good or really good on a large scale, but certainly not the best. Cannabis enthusiasts will always pay a premium for the best stuff.

Yeah, the questions been asked before. But here's a summary.

Wish you the best.

Video Tutorials

• Khan Academy
  
• Yale University / Robert Shiller
  
• the rather basic ones at our site
  
  Great Books
  
  
• Peter Lynch: One Up On Wall Street
  
• Joel Greenblatt: The Little Book That Still Beats The Market
  
• James Montier: The Little Book of Behavioural Investing
  
• Richard Oldfield: Simple But Not Easy
  
• Phil Fisher: Common Stocks and UnCommon Profits
  
  Stock prices & news
  
  
• Google Finance
  
• Yahoo Finance
  
• CNNMoney
  
• CNBC
  
• Reuters
  
  Investment commentary & ideas
  
  
• MarketWatch
  
• Seeking Alpha
  
• Business Insider
  
• The Motley Fool
  
• Bloomberg BusinessWeek
  
• Forbes
  
  Stock screeners & stock picking tools
  
  
• FinViz
  
• Google Finance Screener
  
• MarketWatch
  
• Reuters Screener
  
• Stockflare DISCLAIMER: this is our site
  
• Yahoo! Stock Screener
  
• Ycharts
  
  Stock exchanges & useful wikis
  
  
• Nasdaq
  
• Nasdaq's list of all recent IPOs
  
• NYSE
  
• Wikipedia's List of Stock Exchanges
  
• Wikipedia on Value Investing
  
• Wikipedia on Growth Investing
  
  Great investors profiled on Wikipedia
  
  
• Warren Buffett
  
• Ben Graham
  
• Phil Fisher
  
• Shelby Davis
  
• Hetty Green
  
• Peter Lynch
  
• John Neff
  
• Sir John Templeton
  
  Relevant Subreddits
  ================
  
  
• /r/business
  
• /r/economy
  
• /r/finance
  
• /r/invest
  
• /r/investing
  
• /r/InvestmentClub
  
• /r/pennystocks
  
• /r/options
  
• /r/stockmarket
  
• /r/theartofsimpletrading
  
• /r/wallstreetbets
  
• /r/securityanalysis
  
• /r/stocktraders
  
  

• Paul Tudor Jones' "Traders" documentary. You'll have to search the net for it as he keeps on forcing people to take it down ;)
  
  
• "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" (https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Lefèvre/dp/0471770884).
  
  
• Buffet's shareholder letters: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html
  
  
• Schwager's "Hedge Fund Market Wizards" book is pure gold!
  
  Lastly, when it comes to technical analysis I'm a huge fan of market profile. Here's a great free ebook about it: https://www.cmegroup.com/education/interactive/marketprofile/handbook.pdf

I really liked this book about stock charts. it was an easy quick ready, and really helpful

http://www.amazon.com/Stikky-Stock-Charts-professionals-smart/dp/1932974008

I can't seem to locate the exact paper, but I'm pretty sure it was by this guy:

http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~lharris/

He touches on similar topics here:
Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners

It's a bit dated, and doesn't get into what modern quants do at all, but I would consider it required reading on the fundamentals of how markets actually work.

I would advise you to learn more about the history of the stock market, and how difficult it is to beat the market. Books like A Random Walk Down Wall Street will give you a great history of the market.

I personally have a hard and fast rule of never putting more than 10% in a single stock. I'd recommend putting the majority in a retirement account in an S&P 500 index fund, and then using whatever money you're completely OK with losing entirely as a trading account you can go crazy in. :)

This is one of the books I used to buy every year, last 4 years, and read it

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1507208944

​

First year, it was very useful and I read a lot.

Later years, I know the stuff, but I always buy this book and read once during the dec holidays as they publish around that time.

Every year, they drop around 10 stocks out of 100 and add new 10 stocks.

Each one, they write 2 - 3 pages analysis, fundamentals, moat ...etc

​

I would also recommend this book for CANSLIM

https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Money-Stocks-Winning/dp/0071614133

​

Stick to the dividend paying stocks as well as those stocks that are splitting. DD is spinning off its performance chemical business http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/24/us-dupont-spinoff-idUSBRE99N1I220131024 as well as RYN is spinning off its performance fibers unit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-27/rayonier-to-spin-off-performance-fibers-to-become-two-companies.html Warren Buffet and the Art of stock arbitrage is the book that helped me understand the money making opportunity of spin-offs. http://www.amazon.com/Warren-Buffett-Art-Stock-Arbitrage/dp/B0051BNWLW

The Richest Man in Babylon

A Random Walk Down Wall Street

http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Exchanges-Market-Microstructure-Practitioners/dp/0195144708

Although a little old (and arguably outdated), I read this casually over the summer and found it insightful for getting a better understanding of how the markets function.

These are investing and trading books I'd read. Even if you don't believe their strategy, others do, and that makes them important to read.

http://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Investment-Classics/dp/0471770884

http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Living-Psychology-Tactics-Management/dp/0471592242/ref=pd_sim_b_27

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393315290/$%7B0%7D

http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Analysis-Financial-Markets-Comprehensive/dp/0735200661/ref=pd_sim_b_28

http://www.amazon.com/One-Up-On-Wall-Street/dp/0743200403/ref=pd_sim_b_26

Use this link so no one gets a nickel:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC12C8