Thinking about getting into stocks

[King Nud]

No idea where this thread should go, mods please move if necessary!

I'm just back from a summer job and have some cash left over, I'm interested in getting it invested in some cheap stocks that can get me an improvement fairly quickly (yes, the risky way of making money)

Trouble is, I have no idea what I'm doing!

Has anyone of you TWC guys n' gals got experience in this that they would care to share? Any advice welcome

THX in advance

[Adar]

Doing it risky and without knowing what your doing is the best way to loose money.

But starting with stock investment when your poor is a great way to learn how to manage future funds so I think it might be a good idea for you.

Going for domestic stocks is generally advisable (lower costs and better knowledge of local rules) but I am not very knowledgeable about the British stock market.

I currently got a small holding of BP stock as it was a bargain during the gulf disaster and Clarksons (worlds largest shopping broker) also seem like a nice company. Warren Buffet also bought a lot of Tesco stocks at 330 pence each so keeping an eye on Tesco might be a good idea considering that he is one of the worlds most successful investors.

When looking for more companies I'm a big fan of FT.coms stockscreener which is a really useful tool to find attractively priced stocks. I tend to screen by a high dividend (above 4 %) and reasonable price (P/E below 25), sort by dividend and browse until I find companies with a high dividend and low P/E. After that I go to the companies website and check what business they do and also google to see any related news about the company. Then I read some annual reports from the last few years (often this years report and quarterly reports as well as a 5 and 10 year old annual report).

Selecting a company also brings about a great financial summary for each company so that you can form an opinion on earnings growth and cash flow. A good example is here. http://markets.ft.com/research/Marke...als?s=SHFT:LSE


Edit: I also discovered a new feature where FT.com provide you with access to predefined stock screeners based on the writings of a successful investors: http://markets.ft.com/screener/predefinedScreens.asp