What's the minimal amount of money to start trading stocks ?

Ok, so .. I've watched a few stock trading videos - quite interesting thing
However, I want to know - how much money I need to start trading ?
As I understand, there is some 7$ fee for closing the trade - that's why I can't figure out .. where and how to start ?

If someone could help me, would be awesome ..

Thanks, AF.

 

You can open an online stock trading account with Charles Schwab for $1,000 (U.S. dollars). At that low level, there is a $12.95 fee per stock trade.

 

Scottrade is $500--and they have offices in about every city in the US, so you can actually go and talk with someone face to face if need be.

 

i have an account with td ameritrade. great company. invest only what you can afford to lose.

 

I started trading stocks years ago using ShareBuilder. They allow you to invest weekly or monthly a set dollar amount into a basket of stocks and ETFs that you choose, you can even buy partial shares this way. You can also make traditional trades, buying a number of shares. Just be careful that you buy enough shares to justify the transaction fees! There is no minimum amount to begin trading. ShareBuilder is now owned by ING, and I'm even happier with their service. This isn't a great site for serious, technical trading, but it is perfect for getting your feet wet. I have a regular trading account and maintain a Roth IRA through them. Happy trading!

 

Honestly, if you're asking what the absolute minimum is to start trading stocks, you probably should wait until you have more money to lose.

There's strategy involved, of course, but you can never 100% predict the market. Like a poster above me said, only post what you can afford to lose!

 

I'm prefer scottrade it's low deposit to begin

 

Yes, I'm asking for what's the absolute minimum amount is, because I've never tried to trade in this market - I want to test it first, before going on bigger amounts

Thanks for the input - will definitely check what they can offer !

 

There are many company that offer online trading platform such as mbtrading.com.
The min amount to start is $1000
Commission is as low as $4.95/trade

 

You are more likely to earn more by betting on a horse

 

I'm not interested in gambling industry

 

Actually, that's not correct. If you go to the race track and bet on a horse, the track takes their "cut" first (the last I heard, their cut was around 15%) of all the money. Then they pay out the 85% that's left to the win, place, and show tickets (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place).

So if you bet $100 on a horse at the race track, before the race even begins your ticket has declined to an $85 value (the track took their 15%, or whatever the percentage is at that particular race track).

That's a bad investment, much worse than stocks. By contrast, over the long haul (not short term), someone who invested each month in an S&P 500 index fund, for example, would have gained about 10% a year, compounded. That's a nice return.

 

What do you think the stock market is? You are very green if you think shares and stocks differ from a bet on a horse, or a game of poker.

If you don't know that the stock market is one big gamble then I suggest you don't get involved. If you are that naive then it will not matter how much of a "minimum" you start with. You WILL get burned. Stock trading is THE gambling industry.

My wisdom is provided or free

 

Horse betting and poker are zero sum games where only the house is sure to profit. This is not true in the stock market. The OP refers to trading stocks which is similar to betting but the upside potential is still not limited by the amount of money contributed to the system so there is additional opportunity to profit.

 

forget the broker for such a small amount

search for a spreadbetting company, they offer leverage, platforms, charts and much more in exchange for a small spread between the offer and the bid

 

You are talking nonsense. People in the proper civilised world outside North America do not need to visit any track to place a bet on a horse. And no cut is taken by bookies. The only loss incurred is if the bet loses. And yes, here in the civilised world we do spell civilised with an "S". You can keep your "zees" for Sesame Street.

To the OP. Go ahead and "gamble" on the stock market. I'd suggest putting the lot on private banks.

 

$1k........

 

if you want to trade stocks for cheap
i got some sites for ya...

http://www.firstrade.com/ 6.95 per trade (direct to market to), no minimum deposit ,no hidden account fees, no maintenance fees, no inactivity fees.. (your best bet)

i'm not familiar with sharebuilder anymore, but they had $4buy trades and $15 sells back in the day(and the only executed orders on tues or something weird like that)..on the plus side you can buy fractional shares with them...

zecco.com they have cheep pricing plan but there are catches....they seem to change there commission structure every few months

now is great time to buy and hold long-range if you have the stomach..

And if your thinking about day trading I’d advise don’t do it…you’ll spend way more in commissions and taxes than you’ll make

But if you insist on day trading you should now that you have to have a $25,000 minimum deposit with whatever broker you choose…a rule they made after the last market crash…

good luck

 

I started trading years back with 5k on margin. Allowed me to trade 10k. Usually held 1-2 stocks max, so I chose wisely.

Quickly, I got to 10k, and things got really interesting.

However, I find that after I get much past 20k before margin, my stomach gets queezy with my old 10k tactics, or I diversify more (thus choosing some less than stellar stocks).

Stuff gets kind of hard to manage when there's to many moving parts, so I miss my 10k days. Anyways, to solve the problem, I started developing trading systems to help me manage my money.

If you're looking for trading ideas, check out my site. I publish some of my old trading systems as I discover better ones.

 

For day trading you will need about 25k. The idea is that you try to never lose more than $200 on a trade. So lets say you make five trades. The goal would be to make $400 on a couple of trades while breaking even or losing little on the rest.

You'll need a good amount of cash so that you can buy stocks in blocks of 1000. Even with an uptick of 1/8 you will make $250.

You will need nerves of steal to carry it off. Most day traders lose their money but a small few earn around 100k-200k a year.