So here I am, a college student, and I see some potential. The potential is owning stocks for a long amount of time. The trick is to get some stocks that will last that long–long meaning 10, 20, 30+ years. As is such, I would like to take the readers of pyktech on a ride. Here are a couple of my picks that I have invested with my five free trades from Firstrade.

INTC — Intel Corporation. This company is running on a low, and is my pick to move up a good amount in the coming years. It seems like a good time to buy a few shares, since there is some short-term resistance, ala AMD’s court case and missing quarterly earnings estimates driving the stock lower. Long term will hopefully drive this away, due to Intel’s more and more diversified business model into other sections of the semiconductor world. It also helps that I enjoy technology, and still see amazing growth for it in the future. At the center of that growth? Semiconductor companies of course.

JNJ — Johnson and Johnson. On a less technical side, Johnson and Johnson is my pick for a solid choice as far as dividends go over time. They pay out dividends quarterly, this combined with free DRIP (dividend reinvestment) will pay off in the long run, regardless of the fact that I own a very little number of JNJ shares at this point.

BAC — Bank of America. This is my “financial institution” stock, which will hopefully be a solid investment in the long term as well. Not looking for a huge gainer here, just a solid upward slope towards the positive side of the graph. They are riding a little bit lower lately, and my research seems to indicate that they can pull a better quarter, and keep that up in the future, barring a “second Great Depression.” I will go ahead and make a bold prediction that a 2nd GD has a small, 1% chance of happening (although a solid 1%, nonetheless), hence my confidence in BAC.So that’s it for now for the entertainment of watching me become either rich or slightly more poor. You will, in the future, be able to watch me lose or double my $1000, as I will soon be adding a new section of pyktech that will allow you to watch my $1000 grow or perhaps even crash into nothingness. Regardless, we can all watch it like it’s TV. Nice.

I have just finished my application for a Firstrade account, my first equities trading account, and soon will be funding it with some cash to take advantage of the free trades made available for new-traders. Granted, these trading comissions are very low, and I could probably gain the same amount from putting the money in a CoD for 6 months, but it’s a fine gesture nonetheless on the part of my new broker, and in the mean time (hopefully) I will make money on the money invested through my account far surpassing a modest CD interest rate.

This will be my second actual brokerage account, my first being my Vanguard account with some holdings in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Mutal Fund (VTSMX). This new account through Firstrade will be for my holdings in specific equities, and thus riskier. Only time will tell how well it will pay off, and given that I am young, I have quite a bit of time to wait.