I would like to get into stocks. How do I get started?
363157
read a book.  it changed my mind about wanting to play the stock market.
171907
If you have to ask this question, I would recommend that you not even pursue this course until you have studied the existing options for investing.  If you are referring to buying stock commonly traded on an exchange, you have several options, none of which is advisable for a beginner, nor for someone who does not have already, considerable savings on hand, especially if you are a student.\n\nIf you are referring to buying equity shares in a private company, then that is a different matter altogether.  Unfortunately, as terminology can vary from country to country, and as you haven't provided many details, it is impossible to reliably advise you.\n\nI will assume you are talking about buying "stocks" on an exchange.  If you are in the United States, one normally opens an account with a broker.  There are online brokers you can use like Scottrade, Ameritrade, etc.  Normally one fills out some paperwork and sends it in with a check/draft/wire deposit.  You can then buy and sell stocks through this broker.  You place an order on a stock, like GE for example, which the broker fills.  \n\nI would experiment with this on quote.yahoo.com before doing it for real.  There are also lots of places you can turn to for investment advice.\n\nA safer thing to do with your money if you are a student (at university if you are out of the house) is to put the money in savings, certificate of deposit, money market fund, or other low risk option.   An option many investors use to buy stock at slightly lower risk is called a mutual fund.  Research these options thoroughly.\n\nGood luck.
976458
If you are not into a lot of risk I would recommend proven, blue chip stocks like McDonalds, Coca cola, and others that have a good record and also pay dividends.\n\nIf you don't have a lot of money to invest (less than $5,000) than maybe one of the cheaper investment portfolios like PHY. (around $3 a share)\n\nThe key to any investment is research, research and more research.  Make sure you understand the company and what they do or sell.\n\nI would also recommend one of the online traders since they only charge $7 a trade.  Most like Scottrade and Etrade are very reliable.\n\nOne further recommendation, Yahoo has some excellent tools in yahoo finance to help you including stock screeners and portfolio management.  Before you invest, pick out a few stocks you are thinking about putting your money in and set up a free sample portfolio.  You can set it up to show performance (gains and losses). Watch it for a month or 2 and see how much money you would have gained or lost.  That may give you an idea of profits/risk before you invest any real money.
69628
Stocks represent ownership in a corporation.  When a company goes public, they sell shares to the general public thru an underwriter who sells the shares to large clients.  Once these large clients have the stocks any individual can buy or sell these stocks in the open market -- once you have access to the market.\n\nTo get access to the market you need to open up a brokerage account with an investment company.  If you have never bought or sold stocks before I highly recommend that you get your feet wet with mutual funds first -- reading the prospectuses could provide you with some information about what THEY look for when purchasing stocks and bonds.\n\nThe stock market is the bets place to have your money for the long term, but you really should leave it to the experts -- funds are a great way to diversify, particularly with limited funds.
488939
Generally speaking, there is no such thing as cheapest way to invest in stocks.\n\nYou need to have plenty of fluff and lot  of knowledge to really make it in the stock market
358597
None.  IMHO, you should start by learning how to invest, determining WHAT to buy through Fundamental Analysis and determining WHEN to buy with Technical Analysis. \n\nIMO, newsletters only make narrow recomendations based on their system of analysis and investment strategies, and often they are compensated heavily for their recomendations and therefore dangerously biased.   I firmly believe that to get a clear picture about any stock, and to determine whether you're actually going to invest in it, it's best to do your own research and adapt a system that meets your investment needs, style and risk level.  There are many stocks ripe for the picking just about at any time if you know how and where to look.\n\nStart with Investors.com, it's William O'Neil's online version of Investors Business Daily.  The How To Invest section is the best place to start learning the importance of Fundamentals and the basics of Technical Analysis.   The site has the IBD 100, a cross index list of the market leaders, the Stock Checkup, a great tool for checking fundamentals on any stock, and articles and analysis of stocks and general market conditions.  They also run various screens every day which in addition to the other lists, (IBD100, New America, stocks under $10, CANSLIM select, ect) are very helpful for finding investment ideas with solid Fundementals that are ready to move.  The CANSLIM method alone is a very successful and popular trading system, but I prefer to use a combination of Fund & Tech Analysis, rather that just the rating system alone.\n\nFrom there you can move on to more detailed study of Technical Analysis.  \n\nStart with StockCharts.com, they have an excellent free Chart School which helpfully explains various chart patterns and Technical Indicators and overlays.  Pay particular attention to the Chart Patterns section, and make sure you learn about Zig Zag patterns, Bollinger Bands, Moving Average, Volume, RSI, the MACD (Mac-D), The Williams %er, Stochastics, and the Chaikin Money Flow.  Sounds complicated, but when you start chart reading you'll want about a half a dozen or so of these overlays and indicators.  I personally rely heavily on the ZIG-ZAG, MACD, Chaikin Money Flow, Volume, Moving Average and RSI.\n\nStockTA.com is also an excellent Technical Analysis site, with charted Fibonacci resistance and support lines and will tell you if the stock is bullish or bearish in the short, medium and long run.  The site also has an extensive Candle Pattern Glossary and a fantastic technical screener.\n\nThe above sites do have premium services, but all the services I mentioned are free.  After you've absorbed some of the Technical information, do some reading on Fibonacci numbers and Elliot Wave theory, there are good links in the "School" section of StockTA.com.  I've been using Elliot Wave and Fibonacci's to help refine my in and out points.  StockCharts.com's "ZigZag" overlay helps me plot and count the waves and that helps determine where I am in the overall pattern.  \n\nSo basically I'll find interesting stocks through the screens on Investors.com or StockTA.com, run them through the Stock Checkup at Investors.com, if they measure up I'll run them through the Analyisis & Fib Analysis at StockTA.com and do an extensive chart study, examining the 2 yr, 1 yr, 6 mth, 3 mth, 1 mth & 5 day.  I'll also do my due dilligence, studying the profile, key statistics, headlines, etc. through Yahoo Finance and web searches.  If it all measures up and the stock is in a base or in a pull back and it's starting a wave 1 or wave 3, it's time to buy.\n\nRemember, always protect your downside with a stop loss or a trailing stop loss.  Once you have absorbed a few of the things I've mentioned, the fog will begin to lift and you'll start seeing which stocks should be bought or sold and you'll be able to do your own analysis on any stock, no matter where
100628
All information about public companies is, by definition, public.  If you want to invest in stocks, but know nothing about anything related to them, you will be walking into dangerous territory.  The first thing you have to do is READ, READ and READ some more.  Go to Yahoo money, MSN money or any other free board and start reading on public companies.  Find out what market cap means, find out what drives the prices of big companies' stocks.  Run stock screeners looking for good companies (look for low Betas, for example)  look at their price history (Is the company at the highest/lowest price it has been in a year?)  Then, when you narrow down your choices, made your decision and are ready to buy, pick a good brokerage house (cheap ones: Scottrade, Ameritrade, Sharebuilder)  and buy your stock.\n\nAn alternative is choosing mutual funds, Find one rated high my morningstar and leave all that research in the hands of people who know.
53924
Brokerage minimums vary...but Scottrade is $500 to open an account. Check out sharebuilder.com too if you want to buy small chunks..they have plans where you can invest X amount each month into a specific stock.\n\nAlso, some companies allow you to buy stock directly from them. Usually, it's a $250 or so min. Check out the website of a company you are thinking of investing in and look at their investors link. You can also go to www.equiserve.com (they manage direct stock purchase plans for hundreds of companies).\n\nAvoid cheap stocks < $10. They are cheap for a reason and usually of bad quality... Your money is better spent on high quality stocks....especially if it's your first purchase. "expensive" is relative.
1017513
You can open a share builder account. I can't tell you which stocks to buy, that would make me your broker.\n\nYou can also learn to trade options, which can also make you alot of money in a short amount of time.
767559
How about try these. \n\nhttp://www.sharebuilder.com/\n\nhttps://us.etrade.com/e/t/jumppage/viewjumppage?PageName=omnibus2&SC=NPNFG6D&tb=3847&WT.mc_id=CONPNFG6D\n\nhttp://www.tdameritrade.com/offer/special.html?a=kra\n\nhttp://www.scottrade.com/index.asp?supbid=68651
43595
visit zacks.com or cnbc.com, but I like yahoo the best.   Create a my yahoo home page and track your list of fifty stocks.  Go to the profile and visit the company's home page.  View presentations and listen to conference calls.
38676
You must be 18 to trade stocks.  Otherwise, you would have to have a custodial account, where a parent or guardian would authorize or sign for the transactions.
652159
Check this like out: http://www.indiahowto.com/what-are-stocks.html\n\nHere you will get all the basics of the stock market. It is written in a very practical way such that you can use the info!\n\nCya
521753
Investing in the stock market is generally a good thing, but stocks under $5 are usually the 'junk' of the market, and while you might make a lot on a few of them, the vast majority will only lose you money.  I'd recommend paying a few dollars more for something that has greater potential.  I've been following a $9 stock called Landec (symbol LNDC), which I think has potential.  In the under $5 range, you're usually gambling.  UNIB is a gamble that might be viable, but it's hard to know.  \n\nRather than just randomly buying stocks that anyone on the interet is touting, I'd suggest you do a little more reading about the market first.  Pick up some books by Peter Lynch or Benjamin Graham first, and that will help you become a better investor.\n\nBest of luck to you.
570824
Just go on line and in the search engine put in"buy stocks".\nOr I use  WWW.TDwaterhouse. They only charge $9.99/transaction.
17606
Assuming you live in the US investing in the share (stock) market is as simple as:\n1. Opening a brokerage account with one of the brokerage firms such as Wells Fargo, TD WaterHouse, Ameriprise with a deposit of say $1000 and start buying and selling shares online.\n2. Initially you could buy shares upto your deposit amount\n3. As you build assets you will be eligible to borrow against your assets and buy stocks on margin even if you don't have cash in the account. This is a risky strategy and should be employed by experienced investors
500949
I would suggest you open an account with an online broker like Ameritrade or Scottrade.  I suggest you go to your local library and see if they have the Value Line Investment Survey.  If they do, an new issue comes out weekly.  Value Line rates stocks based on timeliness (what are they expected to do over the next year), safety (the level of risk for the stock) and technical.  I use it to do my own research on stocks.  \n\nI found that I had to be an investor rather than a trader.  The difference to me is that I don't have the nerve to day trade.   By investing I don't get so caught up in the day to day of the market and I focus on the companies that I have stock in or am thinking about buying.\n\nIt works for me