Microsoft would be one that I would choose given its global reach and commonality of its brand name. What about Amazon? How would that be for a beginner?
I own a small amount of Amazon - I see them as an amazing company. I consider them "speculative" because on paper they are way overpriced. I keep a put option on them as well as a long stock position. Very volatile.
Is Amazon stock quite lucrative in the long run? Or does it fluctuate because of the inflation. I do not know the current price for Amazon stock right now and when would it be good to buy.
It depends what you are into. You can go into reliable multinational stocks that have been around for a long time (Chevron, IBM, Microsoft) etc. but you won't make real money off of these stocks. If you want to make money you go into more unknown stocks but through a reliable source - I personally use the Cabot Wealthy Benjamin Graham trading letter. They send a once a month letter giving 5-10 new recommendations, tell you why you should pick them and then give a list of 10-15 options to buy from now and previous months and a long term 250 stocks from all the letters. The best thing is you don't need updates though they give you occasional updates because when they first tell you about the stock they give you a Max Buy Price, and Minimum Sell Price. It costs like $99 a year. For me personally just to give an example they recommended to buy Alliance Bernstein stock in December 2013 at $22~ with a max buy price of $24.50~ and a minimum sell of around $33.50~. It also gives an almost 8% yearly dividend (great). I bought it at $22.14 and am still holding it with its price as of today being: $27.28
Where could I get that Cabot Wealthy Benjamin Trading Letter? How much dividends are you collecting solely on the Alliance Bernstein stock? That is not too bad of a trade since the price went up to $27.28 later on.
It's well over $300, was over $400 a few months ago. It is pretty volatile. It's one of those tech companies with very high volume / low margin business. They make lots of revenue and not much profit... but because they do so much business, they do pretty good overall. Not something I'd dump a huge amount of my nestegg in - more of a speculative play these days at these levels. http://quotes.morningstar.com/stock/amzn/s?t=AMZN
Hmm I think that seems quite high for a few months ago. I just clicked the link you gave JR and the price for Amazon just went to $354.44 for today. I wonder if the stock is going down further or would it go up.
Everyone seems to be suggesting very reliable stocks like Microsoft and the like. I would recommend starting on a simulator and test out your investment decisions first. Then you can see what kind of return you would get with both stable and risky stocks. Then when you get a feel for it you can actually put real money down.
I'd go with Microsoft, Apple (thanks to its lower stock price now after the split), and Intel, which is on the upswing. You can't go wrong with the established giants that post consistent earnings and gains. A stock with a decent dividend can point to a company that's stable, although higher dividends can mean the opposite. Invest in companies you believe in that have a good track record of success, and you should be okay.
I would recommend a stable stock which has been in the markets for years. A great plus is if the stock pays annual dividends. I started investing with these kind of stocks and I haven't regretted it. Profits may not be so big but it is certainly a safe way to learn by doing.
