Oil and their stocks are on a run, right now - meaning the last two days. If you are
interested in this sector (MRO?)... right now, it's a trader's sector. They might keep
running, but the recent action suggests a pull back, then another run, followed by a pull
back, then another run... Pull up a chart of the USO and start following it. Inventories
come out on Wednesday (for oil) and Thursdays (for nat. gas.), and they seriously affect
the direction of the entire sector. Then there's the news about what oil minister says
what, what analyst says what, ad-nauseum. What I'm saying is... get comfortable with the
action in this sector and then get your feet wet. I play this sector all the time, buying
when the USO is down and selling when I have a 4-5% profit. Then I wait for the next
opportunity to get in. In other words, I play this sector with a plan. If you buy just
one or two stocks and one of them is in this sector, either 'play' it... or don't look at
it again until oil hits $70.00.

misti, look into direct purchase plans alot of the major companies offer this and the
start up cost can range from $300 to $1000. After your 1st. buy then you can make monthly
buys from $10 or more. Some of the companies pay all of the fees others charge a small
fee, but this way you do not need to go threw a broker. Also see if the Companies offer a
(DRIP) plan then you can roll over any dividends into more stock. This is a long term
method but sucessful.

Thanks two... I'm really giving this one some thought as I do tend to see a few red flags,
but I'm not knowledgable enough at this stuff to know just how "red" they are. That's
interesting about purchasing in the morning. I would automatically do that anyway since I
live in the Pacific time zone myself so need to "set" my etrade to make the purchase at
opening. :) By the time the market opens I am at work. From my own original research I
was seriously looking at MRO for my next one and it looks pretty good. Tough tough
decisions. :)

LOL well there is certainly a lot to think about! :) However, in 30 years I will be
almost 90 years old so I don't think it is really practical to "shoot" for quite that far
in the future. :) I definitely plan to stick with my $500 at a time plan... for one
thing if I try to wait to save up more I will lose interest in doing this. This way I am
needing to constantly plan and research which stocks to buy while I am getting together
the $$$. :) Hey if this keeps me home rather than out just blowing the money somewhere,
it's worth a try! Thanks so much to everyone for your input... gives me things to consider
and yet will still have to dig things out and make my own decision. I really would like to
get some with lower value. I just deposited some $$$ into my account today so would like
to narrow down my next decision this week. :) It is wonderful to have so many of you to
help out and give encouragement.

Misti

I disagree with Henry. One of the major pitfalls to new investors is going in
guns-a-blazing. By slowly building up solid positions and averaging down gives you the
ability to play the market patiently and not get trigger happy. Your "$500 a
month" strategy is excellent as it's akin to setting aside money into a retirement
account. You're making small monthly gains that will (if you're patient and doing your
homework on the stocks) pay off in 20-30 years (or whenever you intend to retire). By the
time you could see putting money into larger positions, you should have quite a nice
portfolio that you can draw cash from (only weighing between whether the new stock you
want will give you better returns than the current holding). You're doing great!

Thanks! I do think I am going to avoid the OTC stocks and stick with stocks which have
more potential to remain secure. All too often "you get what you pay for" is too true and
with stocks maybe you don't even get that. :) As for saving up more $$$ first, again this
is not my main investments, which are being handled by professionals... it's more just
"fun" for me but definitely with the goal/hope of making a few bucks and since I have a
free etrade account, not that expensive. I do realize that most people probably would not
bother with this small an amount. :) But I do appreciate your cautions, and I will
definitely heed your advice about the cheapo stuff!! :)

Last edited on: 02-20-2007 08:12 am

Personally, Misti, I would save $500 6 times and start this with $3000.
Another thing is, I have been burnt more than once by stocks under $10 per share, but it
may work for you.
If you do decide to go this route, be very careful.

Don't be so hung up on the price of stocks, first off. Let's say you would have bought one
share of GOOG last year. You'd be up quite a few percent. If you would have bought 10-15
shares of YHOO, you'd be up a similar amount. Ignore price and look at P/E ratios and
other "relative" numbers that let you gauge stocks against one another. Unless you have
money to blow, don't bother with OTC stocks when you start out. I did this and learned the
hard way. If you really want to start out speculative, go into options trading. For a slow
and steady investor like yourself, stick to the NYSE and NASDAQ.

Good Luck!

Don't be so hung up on the price of stocks, first off. Let's say you would have bought one
share of GOOG last year. You'd be up quite a few percent. If you would have bought 10-15
shares of YHOO, you'd be up a similar amount. Ignore price and look at P/E ratios and
other "relative" numbers that let you gauge stocks against one another. Unless you have
money to blow, don't bother with OTC stocks when you start out. I did this and learned the
hard way. If you really want to start out speculative, go into options trading. For a slow
and steady investor like yourself, stick to the NYSE and NASDAQ.

Good Luck!

Misti,
Along with the excellent advice you have already received I would advise you begin with an
objective for your investment regardless of the price. It should be stated as a
percentage growth over a period of time. In otherwords you should be able to say that I
want my investment to grow in value by x% in (take your pick) a month, quarter, year etc.
Without doing this you wil not know whether your investment is meeting your expectations
and therefore have no basis to evaluate how well you did. You can benchmark the
performance of the Dow, Nasdaq, S&P etc. against your choices and say you want to do x%
better than them over the same period.

Doing well is relative and an opinion, performance against an stated expectation is a
fact. You can manage by fact, opinions do not pay the bills.