Just like in a sports draft teams will compile a list of players, begin looking them over on film, watching their games then they will develop their first opinions of the player. The same goes for stocks, I begin by just looking around for things to catch my eyes, reading headlines, various investing websites to see whats going on. Each time I find a stock that I have any interest in at all I write it down on a piece of paper.

Also if their is a sector that is hot I will go through the list of all listed companies in that sector (best found on Yahoo! Finance) and go company by company doing a quick 1 minute look at the news headlines, charts, balance sheet if it looks like it has any potential in any way I’ll add those to the list. Once I’ve got a list of stocks I’m happy with then I’m done my initial list.

Within that list their is a winner it’s just time to start finding it and that’s what day 2 will be about. Taking that list and cutting it down to a couple stocks that you do in depth research on and eventually get it down to 1 (maybe 2) stocks and then buy.

Here is a list of the sites I use most for stock related news and information.

Yahoo! Finance

The Street

Globe Investor

A limit order is setting a exact price you are will to pay for a stock, oppose to market orders which mean your willing to pay what ever it takes to get the stock.

Limit orders may be very frustrating because you don’t always end up with the stock because it doesn’t drop down to the price you set but in the end it will save you A LOT of money. And many times will be the difference between you making or losing money.

Many times I’ve put in a order for a stock and set the price at for example $3.00 and the next day the stock will drop from $3.10 to $3.01 but never $3.00 so I don’t get it. And in the following days the stock would rise up to $3.75 leaving me on the outside looking in.

But on the other side if I just set it to market pricing and the next morning that stock that closed yesterday at $3.00 and in after hours trading gets bid up to $3.20 and opens at $3.20 and I get in at $3.20 and the stock ends the day at $3.05, on the day the stock is actually UP $0.05/share but you are DOWN $.015/share. And $0.15 is a nice sized hole to be on quickly all because you didn’t use a limit order.

This is apart of my reminders at the bottom of my stock homework checklist (post coming this week on that) because it’s one of the most important parts of buying a stock.

Wells Fargo (WFC) set the tone early in the morning for a whole day of trading. Announcing larger then expected likely earnings for the first quarter of 2009, making about 3 billion dollars in that time. This is massive news because it tells everyone everything isn’t quite as bad as they thought it was, banks can still make money, and make a lot of it.

So with that information in hand it was time to BUY BUY BUY for everyone. In times like this everyone is looking for a good reason to either buy or sell. And today was obviously a great reason to buy. But that kind of gaining wont last but it does look like their will be more good days then bad ahead of us. In my opinion you start your stock research now, find the stocks you want to get in and wait for a pull back and jump in.

Here is the example I was given:

If person 1 was to contribute $1,000 per year for 15 years from age 20-35 and then stopped contributing. with a 10% return on their investment person 1 would have approximately $145,993 and has only invested $15,000 of his own money into that total.

If person 2 was to wait until he was 40 and contribute $3,000 per year for 10 years until he was 50 and with a 10% return his total would come out to about $52,594 with a total investment of $30,000 of his own money.

So it’s pretty easy to see how saving a little early will pay off big time later on. $1,000 a year is nothing. That is not even close to $100 per pay check. Along with contributing a little of your own money each pay check a lot of companies these days will match a percentage or up to a certain maximum helping to quickly grow your retirement fund and getting you off to a good start!

Thats about all I wanted to say right now but do check back this weekend (probably even tonight) because I’ll be pumping out the posts!

A few weeks ago I was having an issue with my bank account (I had reached my weekly spending limit, which by the way I didn’t even know I had), anyways so I had to call my bank and ask what was going on and during that phone call the girl on the other end of the line pointed a few things out. She mentioned that as she was looking over my account she noticed that I was paying way too much/many transaction fees.

I was paying $7.95 per month for my account, then I was paying around $20 per month for all the transactions I did (every time I used a ATM, every time I did something through online banking like pay a bill and things like that) so on average I was paying $28 per month in banking fees. She said instead I should be on the unlimited transactions account for $12.95 per month.

Each month I was paying on average an extra $15 per month on banking fees which in the grand scheme of things doesn’t sound like a ton but when you multiply that by a year that’s $180! You could do a lot of things with an extra $180 in your pocket.

So maybe you might want to look into some of the things you do a little closer and see if you can fix a few things like that could save you a lot more money in the long run.

My biggest way of getting away from everything is by going to Las Vegas. I turned 21 in March of 2008 and in just over a year since then I’ve been there 3 times already and plan on going back again in July.

As I’m sure are a lot of guys that love the stock market,  love to gamble. So I wouldn’t be suprised if most people that would read this blog would also be interested in this topic. The last couple times I’ve gone to Vegas I have seen a UFC fight (UFC 86 & 94). Both fights have been awesome which is why I’m already heading back to Vegas in July to take in UFC 100. UFC 100 is being hyped as the biggest event in UFC history.

So that gives a little more insight into my personal life and interests. During my next Vegas trip I’ll be doing some posts and updates during the trip and maybe even a contest or 2!

1. Learn - I’m learning daily about investing and making money just like most people and I find if I sure the things I’ve learnt it’s easier for me to understand what I was just learning, and if by sharing my experiences it can help others too thats awesome.
2. Share - This is kind of related to 1 but I want to share my experiences and in turn maybe have others share theirs with me too. I have future plans with this blog I would like to get to one day if possible which is including more then just my voice on this blog and if I can get to that point one day that would be awesome, if not then your just stuck with me.
3. Have Fun - I’m just trying to make investing a little more fun and interesting and I hope this blog can do a little of that, a lot of people and things in investing seem stuffy and boring so maybe I can help bring some entertainment to the whole thing.

A lot of times investments will come from places you would never think of and I’ve got a perfect example of that.

I love Las Vegas, I just turned 22 and I’ve already been to Vegas 3 times in the past year. And starting with my 2nd trip I’ve gone to a UFC fight. They are amazing events and is now the fastest growing sport in North America. So, later on this year I am planning on headed back to Vegas to take in what will be the biggest event in UFC history, UFC 100. Large fights for the UFC have recently been selling out very quickly and with this one been billed as the biggest night in UFC history how can this one not?

My point is in my opinion this is a perfect little investment for me, along with buying my own tickets to the fight I’ll be buying a bunch more which I will hold on to until about a month away from the fight and unload them for what will hopefully be a nice little profit.