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Investing in stock market?

I'm completely new to stock market. I'm planing to explore it. Is it possible to lose more money than you invest?

For example: if I buy $100 worth of some company's stock, and let's say the market crashes, or that company goes down. Will I only lose that $100, or more?

Update:

Also, how can I tell which company is better to invest in?

10 Answers

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  • 5 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    When the market (crashes) you don't loose anything, you still holding on your shares. When the market is up, you still not make anything too. You are holding onto your shares. The loss and gain happens when you decide to sell.

    And no, you can't lose than 100% of what you initially invested

  • Adam J
    Lv 6
    5 years ago

    The price of a stock cannot go below zero, so the amount of money you can lose is limited to the value of your investment: ie if you buy 100 shares of a $10 stock the most you can lose is $1,000, the value of your investment. It is theoretically possible to lose more than you invest if you buy on margin (ie borrow money to invest) however you don't need to do this.

    Also if you aren't a complete junkie for the stock market it is easier to invest in mutual funds, or exchange traded funds. For example if you buy SPY or IVV--two funds that track a stock market index called the S&P 500--you'll get roughly the market rate of return without having to do much of anything.

  • 5 years ago

    If the company goes down then you will lose some of that money depending on the number of shares that you have as well as how low the drop went.

    You can lose 30 dollars or more

    But the commission is something that you need to take into account as well

    Do not short sell stocks

    You can buy stocks lower than 5 dollars and wait for them to go up or in the case of some investors, bet on a stock that is expected to increase in price dramatically and profit from there

  • 5 years ago

    First you have to explore more about stock market before investing in that.

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  • GA41
    Lv 7
    5 years ago

    If you have invested long on a stock, betting that the stock will go up, you can lose no more than you invest plus the commission you paid. If you are investing short, betting the stock will go down. You can loose more money than you invest if the stock keeps going up.

  • ?
    Lv 5
    5 years ago

    Unless you have a margin account and have borrowed from the broker, all you will lose is what your put in. However, if you are investing in a taxable account, you can charge the loss as carry forward capital loss on your tax return and use it to offset future capital gains. As far as what company for investing, look for a company that was not named after a piece of fruit or someone's face.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    Here's good place to start exploring: read "Investing For Dummies." It's an excellent overview. There's more to investing than just "the stock market."

  • 5 years ago

    Yes exactly you will only loose that much amount if company goes down. But it happens less rather than generally it goes up.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    Most investors would advise that you have an account of $15,000 to 20,000. If you have an earlier loser you can overcome it. If you are down below $10K, I think you are down for a long time.

  • 5 years ago

    You would only loose that amount of money.

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