One of the things you’ll probably catch right away when you first begin investing is the bewildering array of choices you’ll have for education, training, and information. And it won’t be long before you notice many of these resources come with a pretty hefty price tag.
You could spend $79 a year for a basic financial newsletter up to $2,000 or $3,000 a year for an alternative trading service.
You could take one of the many available online courses taught by financial experts who will teach you the ins and outs of stock trading, items trading, gold investing, swing trading or a whole host of acquisition strategies you didn’t even know lived. Courses like these can range anywhere from a low of a few hundred dollars to several thousand.
Or you could go to a multi-day “money conference” where the entry fee to attend a variety of exhibitions could set you back $1,500 or more (not to mention travel and hotel expenses).
Of course, if you’re a heavy hitter with a large investment portfolio or retirement account, expenses like these might make sense. You’ve already had some hit with investing and now you’re looking to expand and protect your investments even further. Most investors in this category have a budget set aside to continue their financial education.
But what concerning the new investor? Somebody who is just getting started and doesn’t have a lot of cash to bankroll their education? Should they just sit on the sidelines and wait until they can afford some of these pricey help?
Well, the good news is you don’t have to delay learning about investing.
Invest Like a Pro
In this roundup, I’ve put jointly free resources anybody can use right now to start learning the basics of
successful investing and (when ready) start funding in the markets with certainty.
Free Resource #1: Online investing courses
One of the biggest challenges to a new investor is understanding financial pictures, terminology and trading strategies. If you already have an online brokerage account, look for a section labeled “investor teaching”, “learning center” or something similar. Many brokers offer free online classes, webinars and trading tools to help get you up to speed.
But if you accomplish’t have a brokerage account (or you’re interested in exploring other learning options), Morningstar offers a free investing classroom with modules surrounding the basics of stocks, bonds, funds and ETFs. Morningstar’s site is a good one to bookmark. The company provides independent investment research and analysis useful for the beginning investor all the way up to experts.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) offers a free education library consisting of downloadable Microsoft Word files. The self-study modules cover a wide range of personal finance matters, including key investment ideas, retirement savings vehicles, picking the right acquisitions, safeguarding your investments and worksheets for goal setting and financial planning.
Free Resource #2: News and Stock Charts
Once you begin learning about the needs, you might be eager to start tracking the version of some of your favorite companies. Even if you’re not ready to invest in the markets yet, you can get some good experience by starting a watchlist of stocks, funds and other investments.
Without risking any money, you can “paper trade” stocks (also known as “virtual stock trading”) by simulating the trading process either on paper or using an app or program. This trading practice can help sharpen your skills and increase your confidence toward the day when you decide to invest for real.
Both Yahoo Finance and Google Finance offer free aids that help with your virtual and real-life trading. The locations offer financial news from around the world, stock knowledge, stock price charts, historical data, portfolio builders and watchlists.
If you’re interested in precious metals’ investing, then check out Kitco. The site provides free market updates, charts and spot prices for gold, silver and many other precious and base metals. They also cover updated news on a wide range of mining companies.
Free Resource #3: Crowd-sourced content
Looking for a sort of opinions (both pro and con) for a specific stock or investment category that catches your interest? Well, Seeking Alpha might be your cup of tea.
The site provides crowd-sourced content. This means writers from a variety of backgrounds submit articles to the site offering their take on a particular stock. Writers can be either bullish or bearish on the stock they write about and they must disclose if they own the stock in question. The site attracts writers who are individual investors with varying levels of expertise up to seasoned financial management experts.
Reading crowd-sourced content can help develop your analytical skills. Take some time to read the pros and cons of each acquisition that interests you. Do you consent with the writer’s analysis? Is he/she missing an important point that another writer discusses?
The goal of this exercise is to form the habit of doing research before investing. Before committing your hard-earned money, read thoroughly about the investment (both the pros and the cons) so you make the decision that’s right for you.
Free Resource #4: Investor relations pages
If you’re thinking about buying stakes of a stock, it’s a good idea to check out the company’s site as part of your due diligence. Go to the website of any publicly traded company and you’ll find a team called Investor Relations (IR). Here you’ll find business news, events and exhibitions, and quarterly and annual reports.
Of practice, the information you’ll find on an IR page will show the company in a favorable light. News about the company will inevitably have a certain amount of “spin.” Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean you should ignore IR pages when doing buy research.
Some IR pages do a good job of outlining the organization’s financial results and the moves management is taking to grow the company. While you shouldn’t rely on these carriers as your only source for research, it can be a good starting point as you try to decide if the stock is the right choice for your portfolio.
Free Resource #5: EDGAR
EDGAR stands for Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Return. EDGAR is a research database you’ll find on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s website. The EDGAR database gives free public pass to anyone who wants to research a public company’s operations and financial details.
Using EDGAR can be a big time saver, especially if you’re studying several companies at once. Simply enter the company title or ticker symbol into the search bar and you’ll have access to its financial filings and disclosures.
EDGAR is a helpful research tool for other investments as well. You can use the database to research mutual funds, money market funds, annuities and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The Big Takeaway: You don’t need to spend a ton of money to learn how to invest.
You don’t need to wait until some magic moment in the future to start becoming knowledgeable about investing. Even if you only have a small amount to invest (or are years away from making your first investment), you can jumpstart the process just by introducing yourself with some basic terms and ideas.
And with all the free online help available (many of which actually make the learning process easy and fun) there’s no reason to postpone.
If you’re looking for additional help, you’ll find this guide to the best investing blogs worth inspecting out.
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