college student trying to learn the market

[ak47angler]

i am currently a college student and have always had an interest in investing in stock. i never had the funds for it before but i finally saved up about 10,000. what is a good way for me to get my toes wet and learn about the market? i have done research and i think index funds might be a good start but i really have no idea. let me know what yall think.

[redfishchick]

I think your best bet is to find someone who knows the market and knows where to put your money. I have stock, but my mom has a lot of stock...she has never made a move cause its so risky

[JW AKA JEFF]

Risk and Return............what's your Risk Tolerance? (Word of warning risky stocks at this time in the Market can eat 10k in the blink of an eye, my portfolio changes that much every min. on some days so make some safe picks to offset your risks)
Aggressive: High Risk with a possible greater return on investment.
Moderate: Investors willing to put a portion of their principal at risk for the higher return.
Conservative: Emphasized principal preservation over return on investments.

Starting off with 10k to build a stock portfolio at a young age gives you lot's of options but I'd start out with 5 stock picks...........try and look at it this way, if you spread your investments out to thin you'll never see enough return even if a stock splits, doubles or does a walmart on you if you don't have but a few shares it won't amount to much where as if you picked 5 stockes chances are 3 will do well over time 1 will tank and 1 will double (you hope) the 3 that held fast and made a steady safe return in the Global Market and the 1 that doubled will have made up for the 1 that tanked! A good place to start would be to pick a Portfolio managers brain (Edward Jones much less pompous then most managers....LOL) make an appointment and see what they think would be a good start and you can tell them what your expecting from your investment and get some insight toward building your stock portfolio over time and then run with it on your own. Keep in mind if you do a lot of trading you'll need to eat and sleep over your stocks (remember the Tech stocks of the 90's although they made a lot of money they took more with them when they tanked) and trades cost money to!!!!!!!!!
Best of luck with your Stock portfolio.

[Sharkbite]

I'm a financial advisor and my suggestion is exactly what Redfishchick said. Find a broker you trust and work with that person to build a portfolio that fits your risk tolerance. I don't work with individual clients anymore, but when I did I had a lot of "first timers" that I had absolutely no problem explaining how things worked. My thoughts were always that if you take care of young new clients, they eventually grow into old rich clients.

Best wishes & tight lines
DJ

[Sow Trout]

Call Vanguard Funds.