Is $500 enough to invest in the stock market short term?

Is there a program where I could trade stocks with only $500 to spare. Something short term, but not FOREX. It seems you need a lot of money to do that stuff.

Are there any programs or tutorials out there that could help?

 

FYI
for forex you can start from as low as $100 with 50:1 leverage

 

How does that work? I tried signing up through a website but they told me i needed 1000 min

 

Be very careful with Forex, you can find brokers by searching google and many will offer "mini" accounts that you can start with $250 etc...

But Forex relies on lots of capital to be effective in that market. Its a zero-sum market and more often than not your are competing against national banks and world-class financial organizations. Not something you can do easily with little capital.

Stocks and ETFs are a better bet in your situation.

 

Yikes -- with 50:1 leverage, you could lose many, many times your original investment. If you put in all you have, you could wind up in some really serious trouble.

Yeah, you could invest in stocks with that amount, but whether or not that makes sense for you depends on a lot of factors. Like, are you a young adult just starting out (and able to absorb losses), or are you closer to retirement? And do you need that investment money to pay the mortgage? Maybe you have (or don't have) health insurance, maybe you have (or don't have) kids, or a spouse with additional income. And do you know enough about finance to be able to read a balance sheet and income statement?

And is that $500 a loan of some sort? How much do you value your kneecaps?

Disclaimer: I have no connection with the person who initially posted the possibly off-topic remark. But I do have a blog. Which won't teach you enough to invest wisely.

www.streetsnarks.com/blog

 

I have $500 just sitting in my paypal account with nothing to do with it. I want to do something short term...really short term.

 

i think you can join for micro lot. which make you stand last longer. pm me if you want assist on forex.

 

What are online stock trades that you can use? Kinda random, but just wondering.. Kinda interesting.

 

Which stock market are you talking about? If it's the USA stock market, please don't fall for dp member websites that say you are going to make a killing in forex or stock trading with $500. You will lose everytime.

Do yourself and in the paypal account there is a moneymarket fund account. Put it there. Otherwise, continue investing in websites as they are something that you know how to do.

The time you will spend just learning leave alone trading, will be more than the 500 dollars. So invest your time wisely, more wisely than the stock market and do something that you actually already know how to do with the 500.

 

Even the best fund managers alive (like Buffett or Soros) can't guarantee that you won't lose a sizeable fraction of your investment, at least in the short term (several years, at least). I don't know anything about the rest of your situation, but I wouldn't bet my next term's tuition on which way the stock market's headed. Even sophisticated "hedged" stock strategies have a way of imploding, especially if there are a lot of people using the same strategy.

One thing I noticed is that there are quite a few money market and CDs out there that actually give you less interest than a Treasury bill. In theory, they should give you more because they're somewhat more risky, but banks seem to take advantage of people who don't shop around. Then again, you won't get a whole lot of interest on $500 anyway, especially if it's "really short term." Let's see, $500 and a 3%-ish interest rate would give you about $15/year, or maybe somewhat more than a dollar a month. You might end up spending more than that on gas just driving to the bank. Plus, if I remember right, Paypal actually gives you some interest on your balance, no? It's been a while -- I haven't checked recently.

Remember, get rich quick schemes almost never work, but get poor quick schemes almost always work. Best of luck!

http://www.streetsnarks.com/blog

 

There are penny stocks on most of the stock exchanges which you could buy into but with $500 your options may be quite limited and the profit prospects may be low. With that said, although you can buy penny stocks but some broker firms may require you to place a deposit of $1000 to protect them against any default on your part. Pretty much so if you are a new unestablished customer.

 

with $500 do arbitrage, easy money
pm if need details

 

For $500 you could easily buy a website making $25-$50/month which would be a far better investment than FOREX or stock trading.

 

$500 in the stock market is not worth your time.

 

stock isn't doing well now days

I rather use those money to buy some articles and build backlinks for my sites

 

Depends on where place in the world you live. Some banks offers a sort of "revenue share" so small investors can put their money trading stocks.

HSBC had this modality a few years back, not sure if still though, but one of those banks with international presence.

 

I don't quite agree -- learning how to invest well is time well-spent. There's a saying that it's best to start saving money early, and the same goes double for learning how to invest. Suddenly becoming an investment genius at the age of 65 won't help you a whole lot if you only live to 70. But if you're even slightly better than the average investor (even just 1% or 2% per year better than the market average) at the age of 18, you'll be a *lot* richer later on in life. The difference between a good investor and a mediocre investor increases exponentially with time.

Also, the skills that make a good investor will help you in your other business(es) as well. You'll need to know about markets and which products are likely to succeed or fail, some accounting so you know if the company's finances are strong or crumbling, some ideas as to what makes a management team good or bad, and the all-important B.S. detector, etc.

Finally, most people make at least a few mistakes along the road to being
a good investor. And if you're going to make a mistake, wouldn't it be better
to make a mistake with $500 early on, rather than messing up a $500,000 portfolio later on in life? One of my friends got lucky with stock options in the
dot com boom, and then made the mistake of entrusting the entire amount to a financial adviser who was both unethical and incompetent (he churned the account to generate fees for himself, and invested ALL of the money in companies that soon went bankrupt.)

http://www.streetsnarks.com/blog/

 

The stock market is best used as a long term investment. Also, if you are interested in putting your money in the stock market, put it in a mutual fund. This way if one company goes out of business you don't necessarily lose your money.

 

if you are interested in stock trading...do a google search for stephen bigalow. The concepts he teaches are very workable. You're better off setting up a "dummy" trading account first though till you learn the ropes.

 

I'm sure its enough....