Answer
I have to agree with the 1st responder. Commodities are extremely risky. The reason they are is because they are purchased as futures on very low margin requirements--10%. And such events as a droubt or a freeze in Florida or Russia buying up the entire soy bean crop can cause prices to advance dramatically. Or in the recent case of oil and natural gas, prices can fall dramatically. In either case if one is caught on the wrong side of a position, the results can be catistropic, as a hedge fund recently discovered with their natural gas positions. Currency trading on the Forex falls also into that category as margin requirements are similar.

Similarly commodities and currencies and also yield the highest returns. Anyone who shorted oil back in June made a ton of money. In fact could have easily become a millionaire overnight. Similarly anyone who had shorted the dollar 3 years ago would also have done very well or bought gold contracts.

Someone mentioned selling naked calls as being very risky. That is a common belief but is not supported by the facts. There are instances, very few instances, where that strategy does yield large losses but in general it is a very rewarding strategy, yielding good returns about 85% of the time.

T-bills yield about the least returns of the sophisticated investments. Savings accounts by far yield the least returns of the un-sophisticated investments. And perhaps whole life policies. And social security contributions. ROI on social security contributions is about a negative 5 to 25%.

How do you buy stocks?

I've never been a stock buyer before. So i just want to give it a try
and buy any stock. How do you buy a stock on Toronto Exchange for
example? Can you do that on the internet?

Answer
I'm assuming since you are asking about the TSX, you are from Canada. I am from Vancouver and use questrade but there are plenty of discount brokers available with low minimum deposits and no inactivity fees. As well, I can buy Canadian and US equities as well as options and forex.

Your statement - never been a stock buyer before want to give it a try worries me. Please remember that this is real money on the line and before you even consider buying stocks, please do some reading on the basics.

I can't stress enough to people that the equity markets, particularly in this environment, are still extremely dangerous. The best traders cannot come to a consensus on whether this is a true bull market or bear market rally. We are in uncharted waters here. Personally I am being extremely particular with stock valuations and am pulling the trigger quickly on gains due to the uncertainty in the marketplace.

The TSX is so heavily weighted in materials and energy that it makes things extremely volatile. Canada has lot of exposure to the fluxuations in the US dollar (commodities are priced in US $ so a drop in US $ means a rise in commodity prices as a general rule and vice-versa). Commodities are extremely volatile so please use extreme caution when trading TSX (even if it is the IShares index) due to this weighting. If you have any doubt about this please check the charts on Natural Gas, Oil, Copper, etc...

The majority of my trading is done on the TSX and due to currency risk I tend to use ETF's to play foreign markets. So if you have any specific questoins, I would be happy to try and answer them for you. Just know I'm not a professional,but I do have some experience that I'd be happy to share.