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By Gary Bordeaux
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
The stock market is the 21st century’s version of the gold rush. You can make millions by just investing a thousand dollars if you know how to invest in the right stocks. You have to learn to read the signs of the stocks and you have to know which stocks to start your investments in. If you haven’t started your investments then here are the first six steps of investing.
1.) Find an App that works for you
If you’ve decided to invest in stocks on your own (instead of paying someone to do it for you) then you need a platform to work from. Apps like Robinhood are usually the best place to start since they let you invest for free without any fees. There are other apps that allow you to do the same thing as well. The trick is finding the one that works best for you. Some give you more features that are better for a more experienced stock trader but that can be a hindrance and confusing for someone who just started out with trading.
2.) Learn what you need to know about Stocks
Before you can put any money into the market, you need to understand what exactly you should expect. That is where sites like Option Animals come in handy. They have courses that will teach you exactly what you need to know in order to invest intelligently. Learn as much as you can before you put your money into a stock.
3.) Start Investing
It’s hard to make a massive mistake right away if you start small. So start small with what you have. Don’t put all of your money in at once. If you’re uncomfortable with it, only start at $100. Let it sit and wait until you’re comfortable with the unpredictability of the stock market. It’s okay to be nervous, but start with whatever you’re comfortable with. If you’re ready, then start moving faster and put more in it.
4.) Watch your Stocks
To be successful in the stock market there are a couple of things that you need to pay attention to. First, you need to be watching the money that you put in. You don’t want to be caught off guard and you need to know what to expect with the stocks. The second thing is that you need to be prepared to leave your stocks even when it looks as if it’s getting a little rocky. Don’t pull your money when the stocks are red. The stock market always rises back up so wait until it does. You’ll be able to make up the money that you lose.
5.) Remember the stock market is forgiving
The stock market is surprisingly forgiving. If you’re new to it then all you know is that there are extreme drops that cause people to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars overnight. But that’s never the end of the story. If you’re working the stocks right, the story never ends. After those massive drops, the stocks slowly rise back up to near their former glory. If you drop your money out right after the drop then you lose almost everything. If you remember that the stocks will forgive and you leave the money, then you’ll be able to make everything back.
6.) Remember you can only lose what you start with
The last thing that you need to know about stocks is that you can only really lose what you invested in the first place. If you invest $10 and that money grows to $20 then drops overnight to $15, you still gained $5. If you go around thinking that you lost $5, then the experience is going to be mostly negative.
You need to remember that your attitude towards the stock market is everything. If you continuously think that you’re losing then eventually your attitude is going to take over and you will start to lose. If you remember that you’re always gaining then you will make it out of the stock market gold rush as a winner.
Gary Bordeaux is a real estate professional and company owner based in Portland, Maine. As a retired real estate agent, he spends his time and energy investing, and writing about what he has learned. His goal is to help entrepreneurs and small business owners achieve their full potential.
