I have always been interested in financial markets and have been keen to invest. Being still in the University I never had any substantial cash to seriously investment. Nevertheless now I want to start off with 5000 franks and invest in stocks primarily. Though I do not know how to proceed.

I will be happy if the veterans amongst you guide me how does one start off with buying stocks. Practical tips such as do I need to step up a separate account? which ones are good etc. what are the bloopers? and other tips..

If you are a complete novice, I would strongly suggest that you sign up for a Fantasy Stock Exchange account, where you will have no financial liability.
Playing with this for a couple of months will allow you to understand the rythms of the various exchanges out there & also gain a good feel for what are natural stocks for you to deal in.
For example, I have an FSX account which trades primarrily in Tech/Internet stocks, which is my area of expertise & I have produced a 10% return over the last 6 weeks. So am now looking to put that to practice in the real world.
I have another in commodities, mostly mining & gold companies, which has been fluctuating hugely of late. New area for me & I have learned a lot.

Couple of sites that I use regularly to keep an eye on things are :

London Stock Exchange - General info & quotes

Reuters - Portfolio Watch

NewRatings - latest analyst briefings, target rates etc

hope that helps

Buy a copy of the financial times and see whats hot with investors this month. Buying property in the UK or somwhere like Dubai you cant loose but I don't think 5000CHF will buy into them sorts of markets.... Have you thought just buying shares untill you finish Uni and start earning... They don't require much work and somwhere like Natwest, Halifax or Barclays have been growing for the past few years...

I hear shares in carbon spoilers makers are hot this month.

I would strongly reccommend investing in the crowbar and coffin making market... These should start hotting up in the next few days... lol only kidding...

For your info I'm taking it back to the UK next week, out of harms way so you won't have to worry about being second best much longer

That's ok really - it's been a while since I stopped playing with my scalextric kit.

You need to answer a few questions for yourself...

How much risk are you willing to take? Would you be happy investing in something that offers say 20% return on your investment, but with a 50% chance that you will lose all your money? How about something that guarantees to return the money that you invest, but only pays 1% interest?

What duration are you looking at investing your money for? One week? Ten years?

Are there any particular markets that you would like to invest in? Switzerland? NASDAQ?

Is there anything that you would not invest in? eg Tobacco companies, weapons manufacturers, animal testing... ?

Do not waste time trying to outperform the market, answer the questions that bubbles asks, then choose stocks randomly within your criteria. That is, go with the Efficient_market_hypothesis.

Also, to state the obvious, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Spread your money across a few unrelated things, if you can. However there's always the tradeoff that it takes a chunk of capital to make an interesting investment, and diversifying reduces the money for each possible investment...

Blue chips are boring and tend to be stable and not offering massive dividends, but are probably easier to buy and sell than most things.

Invest in an area that you know something about. For example if you're a computer geek then do research and invest in things computer related. That way, you've got a slightly better chance of understanding the terminology bouncing around in news stories relating to your investment.

Don't bother with things such as eg bullion investments - once you take the dealer's 10% commission off the buy and the sell then there's not much profit to be made there.

Similarly with FX - unless you can get your hands on LIBOR sized funds.

Also, do not underestimate Euromillions . When there's a massive jackpot, eg 200 million, splurge chf 3.20 on a ticket. Somebody's got to win. It may be you...

Just my $0.02. No warranty express or implied. Use at your own risk. Warranty void if removed. Contents may settle in transit.

Hi Rahul

If you like I can set you up a demo account for a fund platform with over 5000 different funds.
Let me know

Scott

Before anyone sets up any fund platform, you would need to check the fees and charges, these active funds are very expensive, and do not perform over the long term, an index or tracker fund is cheaper and more realistic over the long term, all financial advisors claim they can beat the market promising better returns than the overall market, but if you think about it, they cant all beat the market, can they, and when you take into account all the charges, initial fees, management charges, bid/offer spread, you will be worse off.

Beware active funds, and commission based advisers. ask the questions, what are the charges, if you cannot understand them stay well clear.

First step, read a couple of HONEST books. Any book which guarantees (or hints broadly) at huge profits is a scam. I know nothing of investing in Europe, but Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street contains wisdom that is independent of the local markets.

What are the bloopers? Investing before you have a clue about what you are doing.

And always beware of the advice you get from internet message boards

Have you answered your own question here then??????:
Whats best Commission based investment advice or Fee based advice?

Yup, he's doing an ask-and-answer to agenda set and try and set up his business in Basel. Manouche: there are better ways, just explain what you're offering and why people could benefit, you can't sell yourself by putting everything else down.

As one poster mentioned, its good to know what your goals are and how much risk you want to take.

For me its the long-term growth with moderate risk, I avoid thinking about market fluctuations by what called, dollar cost averaging or DCA.

The way DCA works is that you continuosly invest a certain dollar amount (or franc) per unit time (every month or so) into your investment tool, whether that be a stock or mutual fund etc. etc. By sticking to DCA over a long period of time, you avoid thinking about market fluctuations, one month you may be able to get more stock, another month, less, but in the long term it averages out.

I have certain funds I DCA; but usually I do DRIP funds, or dividend re-investment funds. So basically I set up direct purchase of stocks from the companies I have interest in and every month they take an amount of money our of my bank account. They pay dividends per share. As the number of shares you own increase, so does the dividend payout. I have those dividends re-invested back into the purchase of shares so not only do I continosly contribute, but the dividends I get are also adding to my shares.

Ultimately, my goals is that I’ll accumulate a level of dividend pay out (say 20 years or 30 years from now or so) that at somepoint I can trigger back into my bank account instead of purchase of shares.

I’m not a finance expert, but this is what I do, and this was my first step when I started investing. I am not a short-term investment guy; I don’t know the market well enough to play fast money. There is enormous risk there for someone with my level of knowledge.

But anyway, check out DRIPs, and learn about DCA.

My disclaimer I do this in US dollars and use my US bank accounts/brokerage accounts.

When I started investing on my own in the early 90's, I used this site for a lot of tips and pointers (www.motleyfool.com). I even met the Founders at a board meeting for one of their first big hits, Iomega. 15 years later, they are still going strong. Have a look and good luck.

fduvall

If you are a US person (citizen or legal resident subject to US taxation) read this first: http://www.aca.ch/joomla/images/pdfs/agefi8.pdf It relates to the non-recognition of accretions and changes in asset value of SICAVs and other mutual-fund like instruments and trusts -- and the draconian provisions that then apply.

I am interested in researching CHF based trackers. Not sure where to begin. Firstly I'd like to identify some trackers offered by the 'blue' chip sized houses. Any one know the german terms I should use to search for a tracker?

When you say "CHF based" you mean tracking Swiss quoted companies? If not, then you don't need a CHF denominated fund since your money will be converted anyway.