I have 20k to invest ...

[dknightx]

I have about 20K I would like to invest in the stock market, however, I don't know what the best approach should be. I'm not looking for a stock that will get me 5% year over year. This is 20k that I am willing to lose taking high risk, high reward (well, hopefully more reward than risk). Any suggestions?

[Sniper]

[ QUOTE ]
I have about 20K I would like to invest in the stock market, however, I don't know what the best approach should be. I'm not looking for a stock that will get me 5% year over year. This is 20k that I am willing to lose taking high risk, high reward (well, hopefully more reward than risk). Any suggestions?

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How much time are you willing to invest in managing the money?

[dknightx]

I have a lot of free time at work. Maybe 15-20 minutes of every hour.

[dknightx]

Anyone?

[cdxx]

i am assuming you are not asking for specific stocks, but a general approach.

read some stuff online. if you want, subscribe to some stock alerts from an "analyst". read their opinions, make a decision based on them. i can name a few websites for you, but i can't really recommend/guarantee you'll find what you are looking for.

[buffett]

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This is 20k that I am willing to lose taking high risk, high reward

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I think you should check out Rule Breaker investing at fool.com.

[dknightx]

The Rule Breaker subscription is $199 for the year. Is it worth it? I'm always a little weary of signing up for services with lofty claims, although I know the montley fool is pretty solid.

[Sniper]

You might do some research into swing trading!

Start with The Master Swing Trader by Alan Farley.

[galahad_187]

2 weeks ago i would have highly recommended blockbuster (bbi) after going to blockbuster one day i thought 'man, they've cut costs' so i did some research and mentally baught 2k at 3.51 - atm it's a 24ish% increase /images/graemlins/tongue.gif may be too alte to hop on though.

don't listen to me i'm stupid.

[Bosox]

If you're lazy like me, check out one of the pie charts investments sites have and go for the most aggressive one then put your money into solid looking mutual funds with the required criteria (like US equity small/mid cap and International small/mid caps). Use your 15 minutes an hour to play snood.

[buffett]

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Rule Breaker subscription is $199 for the year

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Whoa. I had no idea about this. Sorry.
I didn't know they've since turned this into a newsletter.
If you can search the fool.com archives to read the Rule Breaker (and Foolish 8, if you can find that) archives from the Good Ol' Days ('98-'03, roughly), that should be quite a good start for your "high risk, high reward" education.

[FatOtt]

I've been reading and posting on the Motley Fool for years. When you talk about Rule Breakers and identify them as "High risk, high reward", well, I'd say you're half right. Rule Breakers was a strategy that basically said, "Own the hot companies, price be damned". That's a strategy that worked pretty damn well in the momentum-driven late 90's.

Now, the Motley Fool offers a number of subscription-based services. I don't subscribe to any of them, but I don't think it would be a bad idea if you wanted to stick your toes in the stock market's waters. Bill Mann is a TMF writer that I respect a lot - if he's involved in one of the newsletters, I'd recommend that one.

I've also heard very good things about "Value Investor Insight", a newsletter (co?)written by Whitney Tilson. Tilson seems like a decent investing writer who follows (or at least claims to follow) the teachings of Warren Buffett. I believe I met him at a Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting and he seemed like a nice guy.

By the way (to the OP), no matter how much money you have or how much money you're making or how many years of income you have in front of you, $20k is a lot of money and I would sincerely advise you to not think about it in any way that approximates gambling or a "Hey, I'll try trading and see how it goes" kind of attitude.

[buffett]

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Bill Mann is a TMF writer that I respect a lot - if he's involved in one of the newsletters, I'd recommend that one.

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Ditto for me.

Btw, he co-writes (with one of the Gardner brothers) the Hidden Gems newsletter and edits the annual Stocks 200X guide.

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Tilson seems like a decent investing writer who follows ... the teachings of Warren Buffett.

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Ditto again.

Don't put your money on the advice of some liberal arts graduate who's a professional writer for fool.com or another site. These are novelty sites that display their good performing portfolios and downplay and eliminate their bad performing portfolios.

First, read a book like A Ramdom Walk Down Wall Street/Malkin. Then read the financial news and see how stocks are affected and what affects them. Think about industries that you are familiar with. If you think you have a worthwhile insight, buy shares of that company. I would start by doing some 'paper trades' to see if you're getting it.

Lastly, choose an online broker that doesn't charge more than $10 per limit order. Anything more than that is wasteful.

[cdxx]

choosing the right source to listen to is important. look at the author's quals. choose one with experience.

edit : stupid quick reply. here's the rest of my reply.

a book is a terrible source of information if the book is the only thing you have! yeah, i said it! there are great books, but by no means should you put yourself in the hands of one or a group of writers who finished writing it in the past and can no longer change what they said.

a daily/weekly newsleter, website, newspaper, don't replace a book but IMO they are so much better because they stays current.

[buffett]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't put your money on the advice of some liberal arts graduate who's a professional writer for fool.com or another site. These are novelty sites that display their good performing portfolios and downplay and eliminate their bad performing portfolios.

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On this forum, I’ve held my tongue in a lot of situations where my first instinct was to respond to voice my disagreement with someone regarding a stock or a philosophy or maybe even a person. 3-poster or pooh-bah, though, I won’t stand silent if another person tries to denigrate Bill Mann. He’s a great analyst, he’s got a lot more investing experience than most people on this forum, and he’s a great business/economic thinker. He remains at Fool for a variety of reasons, but his investing skill is at least on par with his former colleagues who have gone on to prestigious buy-side firms (Phil Weiss at T. Rowe Price, Randy Befumo and Dale Wettlaufer at Legg Mason, and Zeke Ashton at Centaur were his main Fool comrades.) Say what you want about the Fool site/brand/investing track record/other columnists. There are many parts of it that I don’t like. But Bill is the real deal.

From what I've read of the Fools, they are lightweights, imo. Their research is superficial, mostly surfing Yahoo and reading press releases. Researchers should read completely through all the SEC filings at a minimum. I prefer thestreet.com, or even better, their more sophisticated variant, realmoney.com.

[cdxx]

thestreet.com is a good source.