Stock market?

Question

How does a person play the market? Like do you have to see someone or pay someone? How do you know what stocks to buy?

ok to some people I am sorry. I used "play" because that is what I have always heard. I know that it is not a game, I want to know how to invest.

Answer 1

First you have to open a brokerage account, either at a brokers office or online.
AA broker is the agent that facilitates the transfer of stock from seller to buyer, and the money from buyer to seller.

You have to have the money in your account or in some cases , a couple of days to buy stock, unless you have set up a margin account where you borrow money from the brokerage.

If you want to buy a stock, you contact the broker and tell him how many shares of what company, at what price per share you want to buy.
He gets them for you and you pay that cost plus a trading fee, which can vary from place to place or based on amount of the trade.

Selling is just the same, if you have stock you want to sell, you tell the broker, to sell how many shares at what price, he does this and puts the money MINUS the trading fee into your account.

Picking stocks is the hard part and I would not even think of explaining that to you.

Answer 2

If you want to "play" I'd suggest a sandbox.

If you want to invest, open a brokerage account and buy stocks.

The absolute best thing you can do for yourself is educate yourself on stocks, what to look for, how to read a financial statement, what makes one company a better stock than another ones. Even then, you'll still make mistakes but you have a much better chance of making money if you know what you're doing first.

There are a lot of great books on investing. One of the best for new inverters is Stock Investing for Dummies (available at most bookstores or Amazon). It will give you a pretty decent education on the stock market.

Answer 3

You do NOT have to open up a brokerage account with a broker. You can buy mutual funds (read "Mutual Funds for Dummies" by Eric Tyson for answers about them) directly from many no load mutual fund companies at web sites such as www.vanguard.com or www.troweprice.com. You can also buy stock in individual companies directly from the companies if they have a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP) with initial investment option. Google DRIPs for more information. Some companies charge a small fee to invest, some don't.

Answer 4

First of all, a person doesn't play the market, he/she invests money to the market. Of course you have to pay someone but you do not have to see him/her :) You can use www to decide which stocks to buy ...

Answer 5

hello
the stock market is a difficult and challenging place to make money. Only a small percentage of people are able to make money consistently buying/selling stocks. However, there are two ways to make money in the stock market. One, study the market, study businesses, and train yourself to be a qualified investor/trader, then you can make money from the market (not the reverse, namely, the market takes money from you). Two, if you can find someone who is a qualified trader/investor, by becoming his/her partner, you can make money without having to train yourself. Two examples come to mind. Warren Buffett is the first kind, who became good at making money from the market and had made enormous amount money from the market. The other example are friends of Warren Buffett. These friends of Warren, by joining him in his investment partnership, have become super rich, many of them billionaires or multimillionaires. (For the second type of investing, one may also trust a mutual fund, and, by buying shares from a mutual fund, one essentially is hiring a fund manager to make money for oneself. But, this kind of investing is slow and also subject to making the right choice among thousands of diffenrent funds.)
I caution you, though. It takes years of hard work to become good at trading/investing in the stock market. Personally, it has taken me 8 years full time to get to a level where i can consistently make money. If u have the patience, perserverence, and ambition to do so, by all means get started and you have a chance to succeed. If you do not like the hard work and long time, you better find an experienced trader/investor and let him/her make money for you.
if you have some cash capital, make sure that your top priority at the beginning is to preserve your capital. Otherwise, it can disappear very quickly. As the saying goes, to win is not to lose.
I commend you on that you are looking at investment. This opens the door for you to a better financial future than people without ever investing.
if you have any further questions regarding my comment, feel free to contact me for more discussions.

Answer 6

The Stock Market IS NOT A GAME.

Answer 7

First you'll need to understand some basic principles of investment and understand which type of investment suits you.
To achieve excellent returns on your investments it is important to adopt the right investing strategies. To Learn more about shares and stock trading check the website link below.
http://www.smart-investments.org/Best-Stock-Investments/How-To-Invest-In-Stock.php

http://money-review-site.com/shares.html