Discussions

What was the lowest amount of money you have invested on a stock  
$500, $1200, $2000? And how did it turn out for you?  
 
Penny stocks seem to be the best for turning a little into a lot so you can then invest in bigger stocks and snowball from there. I'm curious as to what fellow Brandon people have to say about this.

Are you talking about day trading or momentum/swing trading? Two grand might not be enough to get into manageable day trading.

Don't invest what you can't afford to lose.

You have to consider the cost of the transaction when buying/selling stocks. Example: most online brokers charge $10 to buy and $10 to sell. Therefore if you are only investing $100 then you need a 20% return just to get your money back!

9992 said "You have to consider the cost of the transaction when buying/selling stocks. Example: most online brokers charge $10 to buy and $10 to sell. Therefore if you are only investing $100 then you need a 20% return just to get your money back! "

yup, watch the costs, do your research !!!dont bet what you cant afford to lose!  
 
penny stocks can be a big hit but many are big busts too so be mindful of that aspect, RBC has a practice account you can play with to teach yourself so im sure other banks do too, look into everything before you start

I don't know why this didn't occur to me before. You can put your money into an index etf every month until you have enough to trade with. It should grow and pay dividends a bit, and you can research stock trading in the meantime.

You can invest as little as $100 on a stock. But be vigilant I've lost over $10,000 in hobby trading after initially making good $$$

Set a loss price and sell at that price. Keep emotion out of it. If you buy at $1.00 and the price goes down to $0.90, for example, sell. Cut your losses and try with another stock. Don't hope that the stock will come back because it may not. Then you will lose way more than if you sold at the lower price.

After fee's to trade, set up the account, etc you're already in the hole. So if you invest $100 on day trading or whatever hobby trading etc...and it costs $19.99 for the account you need to make a 25% return on the $80.00 you have left to invest. That's a stock going from $1 to $1.25. Doesn't seem like much, right? well stocks priced at $1 or a penny don't have wild upswings. If they did, guess who'd own them all? Billionaires.  
 
My advice is the same as my Dad's was to me. Set 5% of your paycheque aside every 2 weeks and put it in a box. At the year open the box and pretend you struck it big.  
 
You will lose more than you invest. I'm not being cliché, if you want to play with $100 here and $100 there go to a casino and play poker.

I sent you a private message Brayden.... You can do it, but it's not quick, it's not easy, and it requires an iron stomach

With a small amount to start, you want to be sure that you don't have fees eat up a significant portion of your money. Also, penny stocks are generally priced at what they are worth, if you get what I mean. You can hit it big, but you have a better chance of losing a significant percent of what you invest.  
3 avenues to consider. An ETF  
A monthly contribution ( and perhaps your lump sum) into shares of one of the big Canadian banks  
Options. These five small amounts of money more leverage, but are also more volatile. It can let someone with a smaller amount of money participate in more expensive stocks.  
Whatever you do, do your homework and try paper trading. I know RBC has a set up for you to practice.  
Highly recommended books by William ONeil and Peter Lynch. Once you read up, get a trial membership to IBD and a trial subs:cription to Chartsmart. They are costly so read first, then get the free trial so you know what they are talking about.