Advice for Small Investors: 4 Beginning Hints for Investors

I've been an investor for a lot of years; I've made money and I've lost money. More importantly than that, I've seized and missed OPPORTUNITIES. Probably the biggest mistake would be investors make is missing the opportunities when they are evident; an even bigger mistake investors make is running after a departed train once it's already left the station. There are four key things that all would be investors should do before taking the plunge into the world of the stock market.

1)
Observe: I don't know how many people I've met who are so casual about their investing ("peh, it's only money!") If that is you, then that's great for you; however most of us want to have some kind of return on our money and aren't just foolishly flushing money down the tubes. So if you've got any interest in investing the best thing you can do is become familiar with the industry; learn the language, watch CNBC, read business section of the paper, go to Borders and look at the investing books and magazines (heck; why not support a writer and buy one!), see what people say. You'll begin to hear a lot of the same stuff being churned around the pot; one of these 'oh so common' themes are that many young investors...

2)
Aren't In it to Win It: Many times what young investors will do is see a phenomenon, the most recent one which comes to mind is Google; they'll watch as it goes up and up and then they'll buy into it and as soon as there's any dip in the price, they'll panic and sell out (usually at a loss). You've got to know what you're investing in and you've got to know that what you're investing in will go down. Prices go up and prices go down. But if you catch onto a flaming comet and then sell out at a loss, then no one wins. Especially when you look at the stock in three months and it's corrected itself and has fixed itself.