How to Start Investing

I know there are probably better forums for this and this question has also been answered numerous times but I think the collective intelligence here is very helpful.

Over the past 6 months I have been buying S&P indexes or Total Market Indexes and with whatever has been left over (less than 10 dollars) on each purchase buying random stocks on Robinhood. I will continue to buy these two Index funds as my main investment but wanted to start allocating 5-10 percent of my monthly purchase to things that may have better returns.

I also don’t want to look at this as a side hustle but rather as a long term plan to build wealth. Any ideas/articles that you think I could start looking into to give me better insight?

Step 1: 3/3 18 months;

Step 2: Superior analysis and results in any asset class;

Step3: Big monies.

I posted a similar question and received alot of good advice in the below thread.

https://www.analystforum.com/forums/water-cooler/91365113

Dude…you’ve been on this forum for something like seven years. How do you ask this now?

More importantly, are you still exercising shirtless at playgrounds?

TQQQ

Maybe this isn’t the right forum for you – try this. https://www.wikihow.com/Invest

Actually, CFA program is probably one of the best all around personal investment education programs. It’s pretty shallow, but since there are so many topics, it does force you to learn about areas that you might under value or just not think about. From there, you can figure out if you need to become more complicated or less complicated.

In terms of time investment, even though they recommend like 300 hours a level, for someone like you, it should take maybe 100-150 hours/level. The dollar cost of the program is pretty low compared to the dollar value of your investment goals (hopefully).

i dont recommend cfa. high failure rate!

I wish I was that smart.Lol

Easy. Find a universe of the following stocks, and then invest randomly.

  1. US Large Cap Growth 2. High ROIC companies 3. Low beta (as in like 0.9 to 1.0) 4. Top quartile momentum companies, defined as: ln(1+r12) - ln(1+r1) [r12/r1 are 12 months and 1 month returns].

re-optimize monthly.

In this landscape, that investment thesis ought to do the trick. I personally don’t follow it, because you’d need like a lot of money, but, it’s probably just as complex as anything anyone else is doing. PS: you can’t sue me if it doesn’t work.

look at their last 10 income statements and their current balance sheet.

winners typically grow their earnings and have a high net worth.

j ust buy and hold some low cost sp500 + emerging market etfs. Very simple and it saves time on the analysis side which you can use for something more productive

Just take a look on seeking alpha where you can find a lot of useful and practical information. CFA program will definitely help you better understand concepts and tools so make sure you study and take the exam, but try to apply everything you learn and start invest your money, no matter how much you have. Don’t take advices like buy this, sell this, just do your own diligence and go for it.

PS: I recommend to read some books besides technical stuff, maybe from Swensen or Graham.

follow nerdyblop

Yes except buy the leveraged sp500 :smiley:

Adam Smith: If a younger Warren Buffett were coming into the investment field today, what areas would you tell him to point himself in? Warren Buffett: Well, if he were doing – if he were coming in and working with small sums of capital I’d tell him to do exactly what I did 40-odd years ago, which is to learn about every company in the United States that has publicly traded securities and that bank of knowledge will do him or her terrific good over time. Smith: But there’s 27,000 public companies. Buffett: Well, start with the A’s.

I’ve looked through every company in the valueline elite database (3,300 or so companies) multiple times. Some you glance at and know it’s shit or can’t figure out what it does. Anything interesting, you can look at all sorts of details (profitability, multiple, capitalization, growth) over a long period of time and if it still looks interesting, then start reading filings.

Here is what I am thinking of doing:

  1. Buy one or two SPY/VOO each month
  2. Buy one SSO ( Have to research into the timing and what not of this) each month or something more risky
  3. Allocate around 100 dollars into buying crypto currencies as this seems to be a very inefficent market and could provide some upside,I will increase the monthly investment once I learn how the crypto market works.

I have found material to help me study and understand the first two points,but for crypto markets I don’t know where to begin and how to start.I am coming up with these research questions about crypto in general but could use some help into making a framework about the whole market in general,this is what I have come up with:

  1. Main drivers of crypto price (interest rate,dollar value,…)
  2. Interaction with various asset classes

I would appreciate any insight about how to go about making a sound framework and business model regarding the crypto market trading/investments.

I don’t know about crypto, so leave you to find other sources for that…

On the Leveraged stuff - I’d just comment that risk is a function of your portfolio consisting of Human Capital and Financial Capital. So, if you have a stable job, potentially long career, and high employability in general, you can tolerate more risk in your financial portfolio. I think it’s ok for now, but keep it in your mind as things evolve over time.

Valueline is a great place to see a 1 pager of relevant info for a co. I think before you need to learn anything about a business, you have to look at the numbers first. if the numbers look good then you can do a deep dive. - i stole this from some private equity dude. he said something like when he gets a pitchbook, the first thing he does is look at the appendix section with all the financials. if he likes those numbers then he continues to learn more.

Also Starting with the A’s imo is kind of dumb. when i first started i did it by filtering by value, then the ones i liked i focused on. but eventually once you’ve exhausted that list. i did it by market cap unfiltered and just went down the list looking at their numbers. the ones with good numbers, but shitty price. id do a deep dive just to learn the biz and i keep a list of them in case they fall in price in future.

anyways i think buffett did it before that way because he prolly couldnt sort shit the way we can now. also imo it is pointless to look at some companies. for example when you are trying to improve yourself, you study great people. you dont waste your time learning about homeless people.

Buy consumer non-discretionary equity and high yield bonds, add time, and voila watch your capital compound.