US Stocks Investment How-To for Beginners

US Stocks Investment How-To for Beginners

Sean: All right. Hey, everyone. I am not going to show the usual ad as I usually do. We’re just going to go and hop in and answer the questions tonight with Ms. Toni Aquino. We’re going to have her again on the show, which is amazing. Shoot us your question. We have the Discord channel and we are going to have these questions on the show. So who’s excited to have Tony here. I know I am. And I know you guys are so.

Toni: Hello. Hi. It’s always an honor to be part of your show, even though this is, I think the, is this the third time?

Sean: Third time, seems like it’s – we could do this all the time. No problem, right?

Toni: Again, thank you for having me here. Yes. So I usually post content about personal finance, everything I do personal finance, insurance and investing also. So if you’re looking for a bite sized content, quick to consume, you can go ahead to my desktop account.

Sean: Perfect. So Toni, what do you say? Should we start answering questions?

Toni: Game!

Sean: All right, here’s one from Erika. I’m interested in stocks but don’t know where to start. What would you recommend as an advisor?

Toni: Well, you know, what’s good about stocks is that it’s a very accessible investment, especially for beginners, because you know, you can start with a low amount and at the same time, it can be easy to learn. So what’s good about that is that like, for example, if you invested in a large corporation or in 2014. In 2018, it was around 970 per share. So back in 2014, it was about 512, so it almost doubled its value in four years. And you know, you won’t be able to find that in a bank, it would take you around 72 years before your investment doubles.

Toni: That’s a long time right? So usually the main reasons why a lot of people would hesitate to invest in the stock market is number one, they don’t know how. Number two, they have that fear. And number three, a lot of people who’ve invested in the stock market probably just followed rumors, and ended up losing a lot. So for you to get started, you have to overcome those three hurdles. And that would be number one, of course, educating yourself. So the first thing that you should do is learn the ins and outs of stock market investing. So that’s the terminology, learn the strategies that you can apply. And then after that, you can open a stock brokerage account, and then buy your first stock, it’s that easy, So I hope that answers your question.

Sean: Do you help out with people, Toni, for those who go to you and ask you, “Hey, can you help me open my first stock brokerage account and stuff?” Do you do that as well?

Toni: Yes, it’s actually – I have lots of TikTok videos for teaching people how to do that. You know how to open a stock brokerage account, how to buy your first stock, how much you should start with. But if you want it to be personalized, then I also help out my clients with that. So actually, even if you just message me on Instagram and you ask questions like that, I’d be able to entertain that too.

Sean: So for me, I learned it all from Marvin Germo, a great guy and can’t promote him enough. Really good stuff. And you can also check out this YouTube channel. I am indebted to him when it comes to my stock trading prowess, and I’m not that great, but he’s really good.

Toni: Yeah, that should have just been the answer. So there’s a YouTube channel named Marvin Germo, just go to that if you don’t know where to start.

Sean: Yeah, but I’m sure a lot of people want it personalized. So if you help them? There you go, right? I mean, Antoinette Aquino. Second question, which US stocks would you recommend for beginners?

Toni: Recommend. OK, but first thing before I say my answer, I just want to give this disclaimer. Don’t transact or don’t buy stocks just because you hear it from me, or just because you hear it from Sean. So like going by Marvin Germo’s words, you know, investing in U.S. stocks even is all about conviction. So take the time to build your conviction on it.

Toni: But how I do it personally is I like to separate that into two categories. So one, is more on future U.S. stocks. Stocks that I know have potential value to go in the future. And then the second category would be branded stocks. So these are stocks that already have a large presence. We all know them. They’re familiar to us.

Toni: So if you want to choose what stocks to invest in, focus on the sectors that you have conviction in. Like, for example, there are tech stocks that I believe have the potential to grow or make you money in the future. Like, for example, a lot of people are now entering the EV market. People are now switching to sustainable stocks, and more and more people are buying electric cars, right?

Toni: And I believe that 10, 15 years from now, we’re all going to shift to that system. So that’s why a lot of people would invest in stocks like Tesla or even NIO, right? But for example, if you want to go for stocks that focus on streaming or online platforms like Facebook or Zoom, or Netflix, I think we’ve seen at the beginning of the pandemic that, you know, Zoom boomed because there was a demand for it.

Toni: So I still believe that even after the pandemic, once everything cools down, people would still be using Zoom because now we’ve sort of realized that, you know, we can do everything online now, we can have meetings through Zoom. So that’s why I also personally invest in platforms like that. Well, another thing would also be fintech stocks. So fintech stocks like Paypal or Square also have a lot of potential because more and more people are doing cashless transactions now. More and more people prefer that because, you know, we’re trying to limit contact and all of that.

Toni: But let’s say if you want to be more passive, you want a less hands on approach than Warren Buffett advocates index fund investing. So, you know, the index fund, basically it tracks the S&P 500 or the Fortune 500 companies. So if you don’t want to spend a lot of time thinking about what stock from the 500 to buy, then you can just simply own every piece of that stock in the Fortune 500. So that’s what an index fund is. You can look up Vanguard Growth Fund. That’s why I like the VOO or the Schwab S&P 500.

Sean: There you go. I think you guys definitely got a lot from that advice. If you guys are going to ask me, I just say Google, but that’s because I’m in the SEO industry.

Toni: Well, I’m trying to be careful when people ask me questions like this. I don’t want to be so particular about just three stocks or all of that. I really want to explain that there are lots of different sectors that people can explore and you’re right, use Google. If you believe in fintech companies, go search if they’re a publicly-traded company, and you can buy U.S. stocks or shares from that company.

Sean: Yeah, true that those are good stocks, all of those that Toni mentioned earlier. And yeah, I’m also not that great when it comes to stock trading or investing. I do have a lot of stocks because I am not really that good at it, so I just bought from different sectors. Most of them, blue chips like Google, Tesla, one of them. Right, right. Yeah. You know, if you’re not that risky, want to play it safe? Those Zoom, Facebook, you know, obviously they’re making a lot of money now, so can’t go wrong with buying those stocks

Toni: True, that’s true. Another thing that I want to point out is also e-commerce. So you’re in the digital marketing space and, you know, stocks or companies like Amazon, Alibaba, Shopify or Etsy, they all disrupt the retail space. So if you believe that 10 or 15 years from now, everyone’s going to switch through e-commerce, then best to get into those stocks now while you know it’s still at its low or it’s still undervalued.

Sean: Yeah, true that. And then there are the softwares that just went IPO. By the way, again, this is a disclaimer that this is not an endorsement. These are very risky stocks because they just went IPO, but they are softwares that I personally know from seven years ago or some were there. Monday.com, SEMrush went IPO, and Payoneer went IPO. These are companies I know from way back. And finally, they got the traction and the funds to go IPO right now in the US, and you can buy them if you have a U.S. brokerage account now. So they’re still new on the IPO.

Toni: Oh, OK. Well, speaking of opening a brokerage account, it’s very easy to do one. Actually, there’s an app that allows you to invest even for as low as one dollar, which is called Gotrade, so you can even explore that, it’s open to Filipino based users as well. And there you’ll be able to see your trending stocks. You’ll be able to see the fundamentals of each company. Well, I mean, I mean, I think the video about it, too. So you can check that out on the global stocks playlist of my Tiktok account. Gotrade, yeah

Sean: Yeah, Gotrade. Check that out in Toni Aquino’s TikTok account. I’m sure you have an explanation there, which is going to be really nice. People who want to start doing it.

Toni: No one who I do, I have a whole review. I have a tutorial on how to buy and how to open an account so you can check that out.

Sean: There you go. Now, UITF’s. What are the benefits of UITFs?

Toni: Benefits? So first, let’s define what the UITF is just in case other people don’t know it. So it’s called the Unit Investment Trust Fund. And it’s basically where you join other investors and entities to form a trust fund. So it’s usually handled by a fund manager or a trust expert. And what happens is that in that fund, it’s invested with a portfolio of stocks, bonds, there are also money markets and other types of funds.

Toni: Well, in UITF, you’ll basically earn from the gain or the loss from the fund performance. So it’s different from a mutual fund, which is what other people get confused about. Because in mutual funds you have shareholder rights, when you own a piece of that fund, but for the UITF, you don’t, so you earn from the fund performance. And what’s good about the UITF is because it’s being handled by a fund manager, then that’s less risk for you. About all you need to do is to have that capital to invest in a UITF and choose your risk appetite. And another benefit to that is that there’s a wide range or variety of funds that you can choose from. So it will still depend on your goals. It will depend on your risk appetite. And another thing that I like about you, UITF, is that there’s no entry fees or it isn’t as, the management fees aren’t as costly compared to mutual funds. So those are the pros of a UITF.

Sean: Got it. I’ve invested in UITFs before, actually.

Toni: Before? Do you still hold it?

Sean: Yeah, we still hold it. It’s still open. It’s been a decade now, but you know, as the stock market went up, I didn’t. I didn’t withdraw because I was there for the long game and now it went down again and it’s still recovering. So I have no idea what happened to that anymore because it’s not a big amount of money. I just told the bank or put in a small amount every month and they do that. They can do that for you. So they put in a small amount every month. And last time I checked, which was maybe two years ago, it didn’t make money. No, so but again, that depends on the market and that depends on you.

Toni: Yeah, the type of fund also.

Sean: Yeah, yeah. There are really lots of choices where to invest our money, right?

Toni: That’s true. And also note that UITFs, it’s really recommended for long-term investors, so you won’t really see that much gain in the first seven years. So you have to wait for longer than that to actually see results. So UITFs are really for long term investors, it’s not for the mid-term or short term.

Sean: But what you said earlier really struck me, when you said that if you left it in a bank, it would take 72 years to double, that’s like your whole lifetime, right?

Toni: Yeah, right? So invest. And that’s what I am saying, to really convince people to start investing. Because there’s a lot who is still very hesitant, but yeah. I always say that it will take 72 years for your money to double in the bank, whereas if you invest it, it can just take maybe more or less four years for it to double.

Sean: Yeah.