What's the best way to invest.....stocks???

[jrice]

Learn as much as you can about the market, and the target companies you plan on buying. Learn what alpha and beta means. You might want to buy a series 7 study guide--its alittle boring but well worth the investment. Also, do not speculate unless you can lose alittle money.

[John23]

The stock market in a nutshell:

It's simple and yet it's not what it seems to be.

It's simple in that stocks are simple pieces of paper, (ownership) of a company.

Generally, if the business does really well over a long period of time, you do well as a part owner. I.e. if you own a piece of Ebay or Starbucks, you'll do better than a defunct auction company or a fast food chain that fails.

The investment world is made far more confusing than it really is by all the newsletters, "coaches", personalities, gurus, experts, people on tv. They're all peddlers basically, no different than a peddler on the street that tries to hand you a flier for an upcoming club or they want you to buy something.

I would be extremely wary of the experts, the newsletters, the "try my subscription for $95", the world is littered with people trying to sell you information.

Common sense will go farther than the experts or the newsletters.

On tv you might here about the market "always going up" or companies that always "go up". Just completely crazy. Go to a mall or shopping center, lots of companies go out of business. Yet on tv, "companies always go up". Total lunacy.

I wouldn't worry about taxes, that's a good thing.

The bad information and the peddlers (i.e. gurus, people on tv) is what you should watch out for.

[travelmate38]

I have my cash in hand, but won't touch this market. Not until the DOW hits 7000, then I'm back in. I suspect 12-18 months ought to do it.

[total_genius]

I invest most of my stock market money in one ETF it is called VTI

It mirrors the value of the total stock market in one stock.

VTI

Another option is SPY (the S&P 500)

or QQQQ (The NASDAQ Market)