If you’ve always been captivated by the stock market and the complicated world of investment, then you will probably be anxious to start trading stocks while you’re in college. By now you’ve probably learned a thing or two about economics and if you have a little bit of side cash you can play with then you might be feeling the urge to start investing. Even so, the stock market can really mess with a person’s head and if you’re not careful, you could really get yourself into trouble. Here is how to get started trading stocks while you’re in college.
Enroll in the Appropriate Courses
You definitely don’t want to start trading stocks until you’ve taken a few courses in investment management, corporate finance, and possibly even international finance. It’s not enough to have taken Economics 101 and expect that you have the wherewithal to really make smart investment choices. It’s also a good idea to take a course in the history of the stock market. If you’re not ready to invest this much energy into educating yourself in the market, then you definitely aren’t ready to start investing your money in the stock market.
Be Realistic About how much You Really have to Invest
Once you do feel like you have a strong understanding of the stock market and you are ready to start investing, you want to be very prudent with the amount of money you set aside. Bear in mind that if you don’t have enough money to pay all of your bills, feed yourself and fill up your gas tank – with enough leftover to make a small contribution to your savings account each month, then you don’t have enough money to start investing in the stock market. So be sure that you have all of your finances in order before you start setting anything aside for investments.
Start Reading Stock Market Publications
There are all kinds of stock market publications and news sources out there. From the newspaper, to magazines, to podcasts, the radio and beyond. Your options are almost limitless, but you want to make sure that you just choose a couple of different channels to tune into and make it a regular thing. You also want to make sure that your sources are solid and respected by all the major financial institutions. This is something you should already be learning to do in college if you go to a school like Rutgers Online, so make sure you’re applying that kind of integrity to your own personal research as well.
Read Up on Investor Psychology
In the grand scheme of things, the stock market is almost just as much about psychology as it is about economics. As we all know, the increase or decrease in any company’s share value is often based completely on how the public believes that company is being perceived by the rest of its shareholders and customer base. That’s why the fad products often see huge spikes and drops in their share values. There are all kinds of books that have been written about investor psychology, and understanding the psychology of other investors as well as your own is going to be your best defense against making poor investment decisions that are largely influenced by emotions like fear, excitement and urgency.