Seeking the wisdom of investors.

[MrFun]

Does anyone use TD Ameritrade for investing decisions and portfolio? I'd like to use an online investing service that has minimum fees and very few conditions or restrictions.

Where do you go to find objective sources of information that accurately presents how financially fit a company or organization is? And to determine what companies or organizations fit your values? Obviously company websites are not reliable as they won't give any information about themselves that puts them in a less-than-glowing light.

How often do you monitor the ups and downs of your investments online? Every few hours? Every day? Every couple days?

And if your investments sink so bad that you lose out, and you actually owe money, how do you pay it? Is it automatically withdrawn from your checking account? And the flip side - when you've done very well in your investments and want to take the money and run, is it transferred to your checking account?

Is the book, "Investing for Dummies" a good start to learn the basics?

[Dauphin]

Given your investment knowledge displayed in this thread, you're more likely to make money betting on the races.

[Boris Godunov]

And if your investments sink so bad that you lose out, and you actually owe money, how do you pay it?

Oh dear.

Given your investment knowledge displayed in this thread, you're more likely to make money betting on the races.

This.

[DaShi]

And if your investments sink so bad that you lose out, and you actually owe money, how do you pay it?

I do believe that Ameritrade is legally allowed to break your kneecaps in this instance.

[DanS]

I have a TD Ameritrade account, but I never use it. You can do options, short selling, and the like through TD Ameritrade. But most of that's not investment, rather speculation. Some can make money on speculation, although I would avoid it given your level of expertise and (I assume) modest bankroll. I avoid speculation on my own account.

Since you probably aren't investing a lot of money, even small brokerage fees or administrative fees will eat away drastically at your investment returns. Further, it is very tough to diversify to a proper degree in a small portfolio. Index funds or index ETFs solve both of these problems. You can buy into Vanguard index funds with minimal costs and the funds themselves have very low administrative fees. For your education, focusing on index funds and index ETFs will prove fruitful to you. Investing for Dummies probably has a good-sized section for that.

Good luck.

[MrFun]

Oh dear.



This.

If I don't know about something and want to learn about something, I ask questions.

[BlackCat]

And if your investments sink so bad that you lose out, and you actually owe money, how do you pay it?

I don't get this. Are you going to invest with borrowed money ?

If you are, and if you end up loosing it all, I'll suggest that you go to your local mafiaboss, ask for a short term loan, fly to Vegas and start playing the roulette - that should fix the problem

[MrFun]

No, not with borrowed money.

Say I invest $100 with my own money, and the stocks go down far enough that I actually lose money - more than the $100 I started with.

My question was how do investors usually pay money back if they lose more money than they had put into their stocks/shares? Do they receive an e-mail bill/statement on what they would owe due to their loss, and then pay? Or would the money be automatically withdrawn from your checking account?

[BlackCat]

No, not with borrowed money.

Say I invest $100 with my own money, and the stocks go down far enough that I actually lose money - more than the $100 I started with.

My question was how do investors usually pay money back if they lose more money than they had put into their stocks/shares? Do they receive an e-mail bill/statement on what they would owe due to their loss, and then pay? Or would the money be automatically withdrawn from your checking account?

Ehrm, no offense, but I really think that "Investing for Dummies" is a bit too advanced for you. Try something not so challenging such as an ABC for kindergardens.

[MrFun]

So the worst that could happen then is you go down to zero with the money you invested and you never would owe any money beyond what you had put in.

[BlackCat]

You buy say $100 worth of stock in GM - as the company crumples those stock gets more and more worthless - when it finally goes bankrupt, you have a stock worth nothing that you can use as toilet paper.

Well, a real loss it isn't - you have wiped your ass with a 100 dollar bill

[MrFun]

Alright. I thought that people could actually suffer worse though, and go into debt by losing more than what they had initially invested in.

[BlackCat]

Well, TBH there are ways that you can end in that situation, but ordinary stocks and bonds doesn't.

[MrFun]

So I wasn't completely off-base then.

[Solomwi]

Alright. I thought that people could actually suffer worse though, and go into debt by losing more than what they had initially invested in.

That's the beauty of the corporation. Investors can't lose more than they put in. If you and I each invest $100,000 to incorporate a trucking company (but have no role other than investor), and on the first day, one of our drivers wipes out a school bus full of kids, leading to a $500 million judgment against the company, we're not obligated to give another penny. If nothing that drastic happens, and it just runs at a loss and needs more money, we're not obligated to invest another penny unless we've expressly agreed to do so.