Thread: new to stocks!
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Old 09-09-07, 07:10 PM
Fredledingue Fredledingue is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 384
As I understand you are not looking to trading stocks (buying-selling-buying-selling...) but rather for a stable investment with a regular dividend.

The best way is to go to a large, renown bank in the biggest town of your country and tell them that you want to invest your money this way.
They will offer you to invest in some funds. Tell them you want a dividend and bond fund of american companies.
Ask from several banks and review carefully the conditions, fees and risks.
Go preferably to international banks such as CityGroup.

A good fund should give you a cushy 10% to 25% return per year while preserving your capital. Beware of those boasting 50%, 100% or even crazier numbers. These are often traps.

If you realy want to buy specific stocks that you choose yourself, you still can through the brokerage service of those banks or through a internet broker.
That's riskier. Companies don't share their profits with shareholders: Share go up or down following good or bad news. And that's not obvious to predict or even understand.
It's only undirectly linked to profit. For example a company can make big profit, yet the shares fall because these profits are slightly lower than last quarter.
When they give a dividend it's often a tiny portion of what you would want to earn from your investment. As a conclusion investing in stocks means inevitably taking a profit out of trading them.


Good luck.
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