I heard it's a good time to enter the market as a 1st time investor?

Don't rush into it.

Make a list of what you are interested in buying, do some research into the companies, decide what price you would be willing to pay, etc.

You are guaranteed to see another panic sell-off of 10-15% within the next few months, followed by a small recovery like we are currently in. The bear market will last until AT LEAST summer.. I have heard one expert say it could last all the way to 2014! So there is definately no rush.

From personal experience, any time I rushed in to purchase a stock because it seemed too good to be true, it ended up going much lower. All stocks will pull back at some point. You cannot be impatient with investing..... wait, stalk your target like a tiger and then POUNCE on good deals when you find them :P.

Rather than mutual funds, if you want to go that route I would buy ETFs (index funds) instead.

I'm not going to pretend to be an adept stock investor, but I do play around in the stock market a bit. I think a great way to start investing, is to not invest any -actual- money. There are numerous websites that allow you to make "practice" accounts where you won't lose any actual money. It's a good way to learn about how the stock market works and hone your skills a bit before actually putting any money forward. One great site I found is Wallstreetsurvivor(http://wallstreetsurvivor.com/) they run contests every quarter I believe with prizes and all that sort of fun stuff. They also have lots of great learning resources and stock research tools available which is always a nice thing ot have. Of course as always the rule of thumb when investing in the stock market (with real money) is to only use spendable capital (i.e. money you can afford to lose) because the market has a knack for being unpredictable.

I think it's never too late to get into the market. If you're looking to directly invest in stocks... now would be a pretty good time, but I would also think (I'm not a licensed broker) that you could probably wait, because I'm betting around march or April there will be another decline that will be linked to the sub-prime mess.

But, if you're going to invest in stocks you need to learn how to read and interpret 10-K's and 10-Q's. Those are the companies financial statements that have to be filed with the SEC. They give you a run-down of the companies financial positions. Never invest in a company without looking at that.

If you want to know your best bet... look at mutual funds and learn about how they work. They're safer and if you've found one that has a good track record of returns, usually fairly decent in the amount of money they return.

Individual stocks can be a great investment... but they can also be a very bad investment.

*** The person who said we're going into another great depression is the type of person that's afraid of his own shadow. When he's 60 and eating Alpo dog food and we're eating steak for dinner we'll have to wonder who's laughing right now.

There are so many safe guards upon safe guards in place to keep another market crash like 1929. One of them just happened with the sub-prime crisis. Feel confident that if people did things that were illegal to help contribute to this THEY WILL GO TO JAIL. Investors don't take kindly to unethical and illegal practices. Why people enjoy living in fear is beyond me. Why don't you do yourself a favor and move into a cave and wait for the apocalypse. Or better yet just go watch an end of the world movie and p*** iss your pants.

It's a great time and here's why: http://futurewealthplan.com/advisor/?p=7. Yes, the market's in turmoil. Yes, prices might go down more before they go up. BUT, there's tons of great companies trading well below their fair value out there. You also don't know for sure when the bottom is. Things may shoot back up tomorrow and you've missed.

For those talking about depression: The total collapse of the financial system as happened in the 20s and 30s is impossible today. Bank deposits are insured, as are holdings within brokers (against the broker collapsing, not drops in price). Even if the market drops significantly, it will still go up in the future.

Average price earnings ratios range from 10-20 depending on conditions. Many great companies are trading at 5-15. They are clearly not inflated, bubbled, etc. To find out how to find them, check out http://futurewealthplan.com/advisor/ starting Monday.

It might be and again it might not be. Bottom fishing for cat fish might instead yield carp, which are not nearly so tasty. I think you should have some time to determine which bait is best to use and which hole has the promise of the best catch. However, there are other fishermen and women out there trying to get those big catfish to bite also. A decent method is to fish a little today and after you catch one or two, go put them in the freezer and wait for your favorite hole to restock with other big ones. Then come back in a month or two and give it another shot.

It sounds as if you are a young individual.

our first option should be to fund fully a retirement account. If you do this, and you have extra cash, then one of the best things you can do is open a DRIP Plan.

Go to : low-cost-stock-recommendations

.com

They have a DRIP Section and it is free.

These powerful investment plans are seldom talked about because brokers make very little money when they suggest them. Yet, they have proven to be one of the best, if not the best, long-term strategy on Wall Street.

They are perfect for small investors, as well as big investors. They are safe and allow you to not care about whether the market is going up or down. They are a must for any serious investor.

I strongly recommend looking into it. They are great plans.

I had the same problem as you have.

I had a good amount of money, but didn't knew where to invest it.

So I looked around for something that gave me a great return towards a low risk.

And the only thing I could find was a mannaged account.

Here you can follow up my results of every day:

http://my-robottrader.blogspot.com/

I'm verry excited because I already have 40% ROI in one month and a half.

My moneymannager is giving me great support, and answer all of my questions almost immediatly.

Annyway feel free to contact me (adress on my blog) and I'll bring you in direct contact with my money mannager.

I am a young investor and I'm looking to invest for the first time too. What you can do is play around on www.stocksquest.com

That is what I've been doing for the past 6 months or so.

Have you heard of the word recession? Or better yet, real estate bubble bursting? It is happening right now and we have already entered the bear market. If you bought today or next month, your investment will just sink to another 10-15% before you break even in early 2009. The best thing you can do for yourself is to wait patiently and save as much money as you can and then pick up financial and real estate companies in 2009.

Stock prices are not really low, they are priced at exactly what they are worth.

What you mean is, they are below prior higher levels.

Timing is fickle, always just invest in companies that are solid and over time you'll make a profit.