real stock market question?

Question

1)what i wanna know is if i place $100 on a stock, and the next day it decreases 13.41 is that $13.41 being taken from the $100?
2)If it increases in that amount is that amount added to the $100?
3)how do i research certain stocks that i may bid on?
4)if i buy it, how do i sell it?
thanks to those who are healping me, i'm from katrina and i'm trying to find a way many ways of investing my money.

Answer 1

Gains and losses are based on the closing price of the day before. They are not based on the opening price. Any gains or losses would be added or subtracked from the closing price to come up with a new price.

Investopedia.com, barchart.com and stockta.com should be on your list on how to research stock.

There are two ways to buy and sell stock. One is to use the phone and talk to a broker (find one in the yellow pages under "stock and bond brokers"). Generally these buy and sell fees can be around $25 or so per trade. The second way is to go through an online broker (such as sharebuilder.com or etrade). There are different things you can do over the phone (see investorpedia.com) that you won't be able to do online, but online trades are generally cheaper. You sell the stock the same way you bought it, unless it's a paper certificate and then you would have to go to a broker to get your money.