As a teenager, what's the best way to learn about investing?
I'm a 16 year old from India who wants to learn the basic principles of investing in order to secure a better future for myself. I've been reading quite a bit on various websites but those that I have come across seem to be too simple or too complex.
I would like a list of resources that teach investing and its pre-requisites from scratch, including books, YouTube channels or websites that require no previous experience in this subject. Interesting and well-written materials would definitely be a plus!
Any recommendations?
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Welcome new user.
The only way to learn how to trade is to do so with real money.
Unfortunately the trading simulators just don't do it.
Like getting in to a punch-up, having a child, or playing pinball, there's no simulation, only reality.
You'll have to somehow or other come up with about .5 to 1 lakh INR which should be enough to open some sort of online trading account.
You'll just lose this, it's a cost. (There are many cost of learning in life - cost of going to college, cost of transport, cost of books, cost of courses etc etc. It's a cost.)
This will give you a foundation for life like no other. "Investing" is just letting someone else trade markets for you. A grounding in actual trading will set you for life.
In order to understand the financial markets, you need to become financially literate. The best place to start is the LIBRARY. Start by reading introductory material that isn't highly technical. There are a lot of "XYZ" For Dummies books. Build a basic foundation and then, move up the food chain.
As you increase your understanding of financial markets, look into more specific books about topics that interest you (Equities? ETFs? Closed end funds? Mutual Funds? Options? Futures? Long term Investing? Trading? ). Read everything that you can here, at Investopedia, at Seeking Alpha. Listen to Bloomberg TV/radio. IMO, avoid the talking heads at CNBC. Initially, some of it will make sense, some will not. If you find something of interest, Google it for more depth. Until you're somewhat literate, you won't have a clue what's worthwhile versus what's BS.
Most people new to investing start off learning about equity markets (stocks and ETFs) because derivatives markets (options) involve more complicated strategies. After that, the next logical step is usually credit markets (bonds) which is the other side of capital structure.
If possible, find a mentor so that you have someone to bounce your thoughts off of. This will help you to work through what you are absorbing from your reading. If available, find an investment club to attend.
Understanding financial markets is like learning a foreign language. It takes time and effort, something most people don’t want to do and as a result of failing to do so, they often lose their money. Financial markets quickly take the money of the inexperienced and uninformed. There's a lot of junk on the web. Until you learn some of the language, you're going to be cannon fodder.
Last of all, beware of investment advice from anonymous strangers on the internet, especially those directing you to web sites for fee based sign up :->)
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