A lot of people search online for investment advice. This is a common practice for people when they want to know the current state of the market, but sometimes these sources are not trustworthy. It can be hard to distinguish between legitimate online guides and scams or bad information out there on the web.
So here is a list of ways in which you can find more reliable sources:
Make sure it’s legit! – When going to a site, make sure that it actually looks professional. If it has excessive advertisements, if the articles seem very biased towards one point of view or product, if everything seems too good to be true then chances are it isn’t real. Plus you might also see ads for other scams or products on the site.
Read lots of different sources – If everybody is saying the same thing about a particular investment, then chances are it’s probably not great, but if you see that people have varying opinions then more than likely they are telling you what’s actually happening with that investment.
For example, let’s say everybody was selling gold so nobody wanted to buy any because they thought everybody else knew something bad was going to happen with the price. This means there is no demand for gold which will cause its price to go down since nobody wants to buy it at this point.
However, if some people think the price is over-corrected and others think that now is a good time to invest in it then there is probably not too much wrong with it. This means the price will either stay at this point or start to gradually go up as more people buy gold (if they are right).
Study up on legitimate sources – If you read an article that seems like it might be legit check to see if the author has any credentials that back them up; maybe he/she used to work for a large investment firm, have experience working in finance or with online payments, or maybe they went to an Ivy League school, whatever’s applicable.
The standard rule of thumb here is: “If they have nothing to hide then there should be no issue with showing proof of their background”. If you aren’t sure whether or not an article is valid, look places where other authors weigh in on each other’s articles like on investing blogs. A lot of times the readers will leave comments saying whether or not they agree or disagree with something one author said which may help you make a decision.
If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is – A lot of times people write posts that contain “hot tips” about investments that are supposedly guaranteed to go up in value; however, these posts often don’t include factors that you should consider before making an investment decision.
This means nobody can predict exactly what’s going to happen so if somebody says they can then chances are there is some sort of catch (which is not always right away obvious). If you invest without doing research you may as well just be gambling online with your money.
Ask yourself why you trust this source – If you are reading something that has the potential to seriously affect your life then it’s probably smart to do some research on the web or talk to somebody in person if you have a question.
Besides doing this, just generally being aware of what you’re looking at and why can help because if for example, somebody were trying to sell you a product they would probably say whatever they need to in order to get you to buy it so asking yourself why would help there.
If all else fails, go back to the basics – Sometimes you can find real legitimate information on simple word of mouth (i.e. like talking to your dad who has been investing for decades), but if that’s not good enough then try googling the topic you’re interested in and see what comes up. If you still don’t feel confident, go back to number one.