Hi everyone, I'm a college student who is fairly new to the markets.

Because I'm still in college I'm pretty broke and don't really have a whole lot to invest but I do want to start early.

Right now I have around $1200 to invest and I'm looking for options.

Also, do you think I should save some more or us $1200 enough for now?

Please help me out!

Calleen

If you've only got $1200, you don't want to invest in a single company and you want to lessen your risks. Trading risks are for people who can afford to live with the losses if it doesn't work out. You really want to look at anchoring some of your investment (what little you can get) in some good safe options. Look at Mutual Funds who can spread that for you. I'd tell you to play around with a little if you wanted to risk getting your fingers burned but I don;t think you got enough to play with for that.

Are you looking to trade or invest? If you're looking to invest then a Mutual Fund or Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) may work better for you until you have more money to trade with.

If you want to trade then choose good stable companies say over several years you could buy very small lots and let them sit and accumulate. 10-50 shares at a time, whatever you are comfortable with. Always with the
understanding that the stock could tank and thats the end of that.

Calleen have you decided on your future investments? It would be interesting to hear how and if you are going to spread the amount over multiple funds (or not!)

You guys can't give advice without knowing more. What's your time frame, what are your objectives. Why do you want to invest.

You have to begin with the end in mind. Investing/trading for investment/trading sake is a recipe for disaster.

Skull Pilot raises a good point. The key question is what time period are you talking about? That will determine what the answer is. If it's $1200 that you want to put away and not touch for 30 years, then I would suggest, quality no load stock funds. But if you need the money in 2 years for a down payment for a car, you wouldn't go anywhere near stocks. So that's the question - What is your goal with money? What do you want to do with it?

Sometimes it is good to invest in a kind of trade that one is familiar with, e.g., forex - don't invest in here if you don't know anything about, also stocks, bonds, these kinds of investments require a lot of knowledge and info.

calleen, if you are in college and "still pretty broke" it may not be wise to put any of your money at risk. That money would do you more good in your schooling for now. Maybe take a few classes in investment studies and try your hand in the virtual world. It will help you better realise what goals you are wanting to achieve and give you a better understanding which way you will want to go.