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Community


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Online Share Trading

Engage and learn about markets and trading online

Education for juniors

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fortknox
New Contributor
Simon, I have a 13 year old son who's interested in the markets. I've shown him the online A/C and a bit of technical analysis but he want's to know a lot more. Money knowledge and investing is a life skill so how about running some courses for junior investors?
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14 REPLIES 14
djw
Regular Contributor
My kids are only interested in Cell Phones and spending cash. Would just love them to get out of the house and kick a football or something - just not the dog
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john_1
Super Contributor
Start by dressing the dog as a football...
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john_1
Super Contributor
Teach him about compounded interest...then teach him about compounded interest again...Have a look out for a book called the Motley fool they really make this point quite clear...then start him off with some satrix top 40 and every day ask him how he can outperform this benchmark... OMO
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Not applicable
I am 20 now and when I was younger (about the same age as your son) my parents took a small amount of money and invested it in in nuclicks for me. It just got me interested in the market and just made me realise a few things and then the last year or 2 my interest has taken off. I think exposure at that age is good. But I don't really know how you could do it
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Alonzo7
Frequent Contributor
I think it's great that you get your son is interested in share trading. I have 2 girls (14 & 9). I try & teach them as much as I can about how the Mkts work/ Dividends/Growth/"time in the Mkts" as wll as Day Trading etc (I often show them physical examples of how I make profits & sometimes losses on a daily basis). There are times when I let them compete over a 6 month period (Choosing 10 Shares with R100K imaginery money), they monitor the shares on a 2 weekly basis and at the end of the 6 month period...the winner receives a prize (normally a small cash prize). This way,I believe that they are learning a few skills/knowledge that many kids including some adults no very little of.
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SIMBA
Super Contributor
When i was growing up in the late 1950s in the east end of London England. We never had a T.V. let alone ashare account. I made money seeling icecream, paper round and all the usual kids stuff. I then graduated to making money out of things that did not exist, i.e. I used to get Vim and rub the lion stamp off of co-op chicken eggs and sell them as farm fresh free range. My mum used to provide the tools but it was my eagerness to make a profit that enspired me to think of ways to creat wealth in my own little way, which is why i am so scathing of people who believe charts and T.A. are the be all and end all of trading. Rather give your kids some cash and allow them to creat wealth from what they know and understand whether its buying and selling marbles on the school playground or as my own son does each term at his very elite private school, he takes boxes of Med lemon and cepacain and sells them to the kids in his dorm and never askes for pocket money.Let the kids learn but let them learn in their own envirerment...........
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Preston
Super Contributor
Simba, teaching a kid about chart pattern/resistance/support level at a very young age will allow them time to understand these concepts and appreciate trading. I wish my dad could have taught me this at a very young age. I do understand you viewpoint also. Being streetwise is also an advantage. When growing up , i use to help my best buddy sell roses in dance clubs.Surprising enough, years later my buddy make 2.5 X more income than me.
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Not applicable
This is crazy. Let the boy go to school, learn some basic accounting & economics.. Then he should focus on the markets!
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doomsdayza
Super Contributor
I think kids need to be aware of value and what drives it. Also, understanding the impact of time value of money and showing them the power of compounding your returns is critical. There are many ways to earn a return on your capital, each to his own. And make it clear to them that they're not going to retire young on a salary. Also not to be afraid to take risks, and the relationship of risk versus reward. Key to all of this is mathematics, as boring as it may be at school.
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jasonbeedle
Occasional Contributor
if i knew about compound interest and started watching the markets at 13 I would be 12 years smarter than I am now about the markets. The sooner the better. Every year spent learning a new thing is a year well spent. Your son needs to have a kid's life also, you know kicking a football or playing cricket. Too many kids spend all day inside these days. Still try and balance it. I dont have kids so I cant really say how you must raise your kid. Still think him learning the markets is great.
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john_1
Super Contributor
we teach our children..Emotional, physical, linguistic and numeric intellegence...but very few teach finacial intellegence..The quicker and more comprehensive that teaching is the better...
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Cherry
Regular Contributor
Let him paper trade. They teach them to papertrade at school. I read about some Private School in Houghton doing this +- 3 years ago.
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SimonPB
Valued Contributor
jse has a schools challenge that inccludes about 300 schools nationally ..
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PaulC
Super Contributor
As for let him goto school and leran economics ... I majored in economics and comp sci. The stuff I learned in eco's (aside from the intro supply and demand stuff) was all about keynsian deficet spending which is what got us into the mess we are in. Im sure technical analysis is interesting for him and visual making it a lot easier to grasp. Technical is more tangible to most people that reading up on fundamentals. If it were my child Id teach him economics from a supply and demand perspective. The tricky part is to the look forward and say given the following economics enviroment and current central bank policy what kind of stock will do well. Are we in a bull market where a rising tide lifts most boats or are we in a recessionary market where most people will move into more defensive stocks like consumer staples and medicine. What you need to teach your kid is how to look at what is going on in the world today and based on that look at the fundamentals of companies to invest in. Then use TA for entry / exit points. To be honest I dont know many kids that age that will grasp a bigger picture. Bottom line teach him not to waste his money on ***** and how to accumulate wealth over time. He may not thank you now but he will when he's 40. Hope that helps - P
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