How do I invest in the stock market? What are the actual steps?

Answer 1

Get an account on Scottrade.com, they only charge $7 per trade (whether you buy 1 share or 1 million shares, it costs $7), which is dirt cheap. Once you fund your account, you can start buying or selling immediately. Good luck.

Answer 2

Steps are as follows

1) Education. Buy a book on investing in the stock market, and learn all the basics first. Do not put any money in, until you have a reasonable understanding of how the stock market works. Do a short course if necessary. Also, read the various financial journals available. I have found that the more successful stock market investors tend to make their best decisions when armed with correct and up to date information. Pay for the advice if necessary, by signing up to receive a stockbroker newsletter, or one of those online newsletters.

* Do not underestimate the need for educating yourself about the stock market first. Otherwise, you will be predominantly relying on luck, and luck is not very reliable.*

2) Decide what type of trading and/or risk profile. Short term trader or long term investor. Short term trading can be riskier.

3) Sign up with an online broker.

4) Initially buy some larger blue chip stocks first, rather than the smaller, more volatile stocks.

Good luck..

Answer 3

Open an online account with Scottrade.com - they offer $7 trades. Figure out which stocks you want to buy. You might want to see what the best traders are buying at http://www.top10traders.com - this is a free site that lets you create a portfolio of stocks with $100,000 in "play" money. Each day the site ranks the best performing portfolios, so you can see how your picks perform compared to other investors. You can read posts on investing from the best traders, as well as share your own investing ideas. There is a charting feature, so you can see how your portfolio performs compared to the S&P 500. Also, you can create your own "group" so that you can see how you are doing compared to your friends.

Here are this month's best traders:

http://www.top10traders.com/Top10Standings.aspx

Once you are comfortable trading with "play" money, then you can start investing the real stuff with the stocks that you know.

Good luck.

Answer 4

You'll want to read up on how to do it first. There's plenty of info online. One book that I would suggest is called "How to Buy Stocks Without a Broker." You buy a single share of stock and then register it with the company. Then you send the company more money and it buys whatever amount of stock that amount will buy, even odd amounts, it doesn't have to be exactly one share, it could be .25 of a share. So, if you send the same amount every month, you automatically buy more when the price is lower and less when it's higher. You also save on fees this way. Whether you do it this way or through a company like ETrade or Charles Schwab, you still have to decide what stock you want to buy, and that takes time to learn. Good luck!

Answer 5

First you'll need to understand some basic principles of investment and understand which type of investment suits you.Stocks are great when it comes to good return, and it needs a wide understanding about the market .
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

Answer 6

Invest in the stock market when housing prices start to fall not raise.

Answer 7

Open a brokerage account at Zecco and invest in the ETF DIA.