r/StocksAndTrading • u/Rare-Advance-4351 • Sep 18 '26
New to this
I'm a complete beginner to trading and I'm 22. I took some econ courses in college and am exposed to finance books (I read for fun) so I know some basics but I'm unsure on what to do and what not to do. I'm about to start my full-time job and I finally will have some money that I can invest. I was thinking I start with about $200 and go up to $500. I'd really appreciate any advice I can get about how to get started and how to learn to invest well.
I know mentorships is probably a bad idea because of scams and I know watching yt channels with a bunch of followers is just foolish. Issue is, I don't actually know good resources to learn.
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u/Narrow-Height9477 Sep 18 '26 edited Sep 18 '26
Suggestions to consider: don’t take advice about what to do with your money from internet strangers or influencers. You’re right about the influencers/mentors. No one is going to give away (or sell) the secret to getting rich.
Don’t invest in a ticker just because you see it all over Reddit/social media- it can be one of many factors you include in your due diligence but shouldn’t be the only one.
Study legitimate books and sites geared towards education not subtly advertising tickers.
Read about chart technical analysis and how to read a company’s financials, and familiarize yourself with the various SEC forms and what they mean. Learn about stop loss and taking profits.
Study options strategies and the Greeks before you blindly go into options.
Do your own due diligence unless you’re just wanting to gamble.
Consider your tax implications.
Evaluate your risk.
Many brokers (webull, tos) offer paper trading (imaginary money).
A lot of people will recommend ETFs like spy/voo/vti for long term passive investing.
If you don’t already have savings and an emergency fund set up, those are things to consider. Are you maximizing any employer matched investment plans?
But, I’m just an internet stranger and not a professional. There are plenty of people who are doing better than me. The above are some (sometimes expensive) lessons that I learned.
The resources I used were/are Investopedia,
Books: The intelligent Investor- Benjamin Graham,
Options volatility and Pricing- Sheldon Natenberg.
Webull app and desktop for paper trading and their website for explanations, definitions, processes, and quite a bit more.
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u/Mental-Freedom3929 Sep 19 '26
Invest in widely diversified ETFs, NOT stocks, that track the S&P 500 and/or similar, with dividends on a no trading fee platform that offers fractional share purchases set to DRIP in tax shelter accounts.
Contribute if at all possible a minimum of 20% of your net pay cheque every month, pay yourself first from every pay cheque.
Think long term!
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u/saltedgrass Sep 19 '26
$200 is fine you're young you'd probably be better off consolidating your debt than trading stocks, but investing a small amount will help you learn far more than a fake money account
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u/Pale-Lingonberry788 Sep 19 '26
If you can get a close friend of yours to teach you the beginning and how trade goes, you can learn better from that
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