After I finished reading the book “The Small Investor” by Jim Gard, I have decided to practice what I’ve learned about investing. I don’t have the money yet to invest so the only way I can gain experience is to get a free investing practice account. Investopedia.com has one.

Actually, late last year, I already signed up for this practice account or Investopedia’s stock simulator. However, I didn’t know much about investing that time, that I just ignored my account after creating it. So today, I just reopened my practice account in Investopedia.com, and see how the account looks like.  It has a virtual amount of $100,857.75. I think the 857.75 was a profit from a default stock when I opened the virtual account last year. I really don’t remember. But anyway, with this amount I should really be able to get a good start.

Now what? Should I start investing with my virtual money? No.

I will evaluate first the different investment strategies in stock trading, and see what might work best for me. I would think about what risks I am willing to take, and what are my investment goals if this is a real portfolio. Yeah, this isn’t real money, why would I be worried about risks? I should. That’s why it is a practice account so I could test the water before I jump in. I want to take this seriously so that when I get the real money, I will have a better idea what stocks to buy, although of course the market may move differently when that time arrives.

P.S.

I still have not looked up for virtual practice accounts for bonds and mutual funds. I should have them so I would know how to diversify my real investments in the future.