Executives buying stock in the company they work for, how are they able to do this(non open market) for $0?
460933
They don't really buy the stock.  Normally, they can get stock options granted to them as part of their compensation package.  Usually, though, the exercise price of the options is above 0.  This doesn't really matter.  They're still getting "free" money in that they don't have to buy the stock on the open market.
171313
1) Employee Buyout\n2) Sell to another entity (company or person)\n3) Sell stock publicly (ipo)\n4) Sell off / license assets of the company
468147
You used the example of Microsoft, which is a very actively traded stock with huge volume. \n\nWhat you are suggesting is either arbitrage, or stock manipulation; probably the latter. Surely you aren't mad at Microsoft?\n\nFor the size of this company and number of outstanding shares, it would take hundreds of millions of dollars to move the price of the stock significantly. You would never move it to $1, because everyone knows the stock is worth more than that, and that the company is not going out of business. You could sell a billion dollars of that stock and not cut it in half.\n\nIf you're near a brokerage office, stop by and look at a quote machine and observe the active bids for Microsoft -- there are millions of shares bid at every price level close to the current price. Those are the people that you will have to take out before you move the stock price significantly. \n\nThe floor traders and dealer/brokers and specialists do not literally "set" the stock price; supply and demand does that, and you better believe there's going to be a huge demand for Microsoft at $15 or $20, after you sold your billion dollars of stock, and after you get through the millions of shares quoted at bid. The net effect will be that you lose at least 10% and probably 20% on your foolish endeavor to try and manipulate the price against market forces, when demand comes surging in and drives the price back up.\n\nThat's a cool $200 million loss to you.
1053236
There are different ways a big company may buy a small company depending on the reason.  In some cases, they may do a straight stock for stock purchase. In others, they may buy up the assets. Yet in others, it may be combination of both.  There are usually some type of financial institutions involved to underwrite the deal, and then they'll have to deal with the aftermath, such as reorganizing the management team and the production and sales/distribution process, etc.  \n\nIf you're a shareholder, you get a prospectus outlining the detail and if it's stock deal, they may offer to buy yours or exchange yours for the new company (if one of the company goes away).  If you're an employee, it may mean a layoff or promotion depending on your skill sets and positioning in the new culture.\n\nBut, this is a very broad question that would take a semester of a university course to answer in somewhat of a meaningful manner.
142457
Investors buy shares of stock in a company and are therefore owners of the company.  Many companies are private where perhaps a dozen people own all the shares but a large number of companies are publically traded.  Although direct trades of stock are legal, most investors place their trades (buy or sell) through a stock broker who charges a commission for each transaction.  You can trade on line through electronic discount brokers for as little as $7 per trade (buy or sell).  See Scottrade for example.  You can make money if you buy the stock cheap and sell it after the price appreciates.  If you choose the wrong stock and the price goes down you can lose money and if the company goes broke you can lose all your money.\n\nMany investors prefer to buy shares in a Mutual Fund that invests in perhaps 50 or more different companies.  Many (but not all) Mutual Funds are operated by experts who know how to invest wisely in stocks.  Also, if one of their companies performs poorly or goes broke the remaining good stocks can make up for the loss.  It is possible to invest in "no-load" Mutual Funds by contacting them directly or through a stock broker who will charge commissions for your transactions.  As an example T. Rowe Price has no-load\nfunds specializing in many different types of companies and risk categories.\n\nYou can invest IRA funds in a Mutual Fund and have the earnings compound tax free.  If you invest say $4000, multiply that by 1.1 as many times as there are years before you retire and you can see how it will grow and grow at a 10% annual rate (not guaranteed).  And that is only one deposit.\n\nI'd recommend investopedia.com, especially their dictionary, to better understand any investing terms you encounter.  Good luck.
1118646
Most stock games require that the price of the stock be over a dollar.  Finding "killer" returns in that time is difficult.\nShock her and buy Revlon Cosmetics.  No, I am not kidding.  They are trading around $1.30 and should come back to around $1.80 in a couple of months.\nCareful, too- most of those stock games are hard to play.  The computer eats your data (like it did mine on Investopedia.com - I don't play it any more...) or the computer doesn't work at all for half the country (like it did with CNBC SquawkBox Game...).\nGood luck!
360517
A) In level II quotes  you receive all bids and asking prices  at which participants are willing to buy or sell stock. Level II quotes had some use when nobody had them, maybe help you spot some obvious support prices that every market participant knows already. \n\nB) Yes, if you want to be market maker ?? you can only trade in cents increments. Thus, most liquid stocks you wont get that.  If you have a limit order you will receive the price you stated or better. If you trade thinly stocks, limit is the way to go.  Still, plenty of times, many of my orders have not been filled at the limit price. It is the worse believe me. Yes, you can make a market in some illiquid stocks, making your bid appear a couple of cents above the current one. Unless you are a day trader, no need to worry about it too much. \n\nC) When you make a market order, your buy (sell) will execute at the ask(bid) avalaible at the moment, you will get the stock at the price show on your quote. In fast moving markets, you will get different fills.\n\nSince, you are asking this questions go with limit or market orders whatever you feel comfortable and try not to day-trade. Be careful.
1122255
Yes, there are a limited number which is usually established by investment bankers and accountants based on the valuation of the company. A company can stop issueing new stock, but existing stock can always be traded on the open marked. Once sold, the company no longer owns the stock. They use the stock sale to raise money, usually for capital expansion. Companies sometimes decide to buy shares back, in which case they act just like a person or institution buying stock. Stocks are bought and sold on the market at the price which the market and the companies profitability (or prospects) dictate.
203768
You can buy a corporation in many different ways.  \n\nThe simplest way to explain this is to build up the amount of stock you own of that company, if it is publicly offering stock.  After you own more than 50% of the stock of the company, usually you will be able to make all of the decisions of the company.  Thus, you have bought the corporation.\n\nAlso, you can be another corporation that offers a deal to the corporation you want to "buy" by offering a merger.  This way, your company will merge with the other company at their own will.  The two corporations are normally friendly to one another.  You haven't really bought the other corporation, but the two corporations are now working as one.\n\nYou can also have a friendly takeover.  This is when another company actually buys a lot of a corporation's stock, but this buying is agreed upon.  After a while, one company owns the other.\n\nThere's another way of buying a corporation which is called a hostile takeover.  Basically, you and others from one corporation decide to buy stock from another corporation.  After you own a large amount of stock of the other corporation, you have a large say over what the company does (even if you don't have over 50% of the corporation's stock), even if the company doesn't like it.  One thing you can do is called "greenmail".  Basically, you tell the other company that you won't try to buy them, but what you do is sell the stock you have of their company at a very high price back to them, so you get profit from buying and selling their stock.  Normally, companies can be so fearful that another company is going to buy them that they'll pay you the higher price of stock you are selling back.\n\nHowever, there are tons of strategies for preventing hostile takeovers, and some people dedicate their careers to this sort of job.\n\nNow to answer your subquestions.  It isn't really possible to research everything about a corporation, and some corporations try to be more transparent than others (that is, they tell you more about their thoughts and debts and so on).  And a corporation that isn't registered as such is no longer a corporation.
1167822
check out their feedback first ! most off them use a service call 'Drop shippers' Which is like a virtual warehouse but they can buy stock at wholesale prices and then sell them at what ever price they want to, but some are SCAMS be very careful !! Even ask the seller a question first as well.
174993
You buy them with a broker just like any other stock.\nThe pros are they can possibly move faster (percentage wise) then higher priced listed securities. You can buy more shares because they are cheaper. The downside is that most companies that are very cheap are at that level because they have serious problems. So you are assuming more risk basically. Also ocean west holding is crap LOLOL.
938993
It could be. That is a very subjective question. Some people buy stocks without ever seeing an annual report or 10-k. What kind of analysis are you doing? What information are you looking for? In general, do as much research as you think you need to make sure this is an investment you're willing to make.
567706
Exchanges and Brokers\nThere are three big stock exchanges in the United States: \n•NYSE - New York Stock Exchange \n•AMEX - American Stock Exchange \n•NASDAQ - National Association of Securities Dealers \nA company "lists" its stock on an exchange. For example, the NYSE has about 3,000 companies listed. According to the NYSE \nAt the end of November, 1998, there were 3,104 companies with stock listed on the NYSE. These companies had over 236 billion shares worth a total of $10.1 trillion available for trading on the Exchange, giving the NYSE the world's largest market capitalization (in global market-value terms, the total global value of the NYSE-listed companies exceeded $12.8 trillion). \nAnyone who wants to buy or sell stock in any of these 3,000 or so companies goes to the New York Stock Exchange to do it. \nOf course, no one wants to fly to New York to buy or sell their shares. A person therefore calls a stock broker in a firm that is authorized to trade at the exchange. There are dozens of such brokerage houses, including such familiar names as Merrill LynchCharles Schwab and Morgan Stanley When you call up a broker at one of these companies, he or she relays your trade to the floor of the appropriate exchange, and a representative of the company (or, more commonly, a computer representing the company) makes the trade on your behalf. You pay the broker a commission (generally $10 to $100 per trade, depending on the broker) to provide this service to you. \nStocks that are not listed on an exchange are sold Over The Counter (OTC). OTC stocks are generally in smaller, riskier companies. Usually, an OTC stock is stock in a company that does not meet the requirements of an exchange. \n\nStocks in publicly traded companies are bought and sold at a stock market (also known as a stock exchange). The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is an example of such a market. In your neighborhood, you have a "supermarket" that sells food >. The reason you go the supermarket is because you can go to one place and buy all of the different types of food that you need in one stop -- it's a lot more convenient than driving around to the butcher, the dairy farmer, the baker, etc. The NYSE is a supermarket for stocks. The NYSE can be thought of as a big room where everyone who wants to buy and sell shares of stocks can go to do their buying and selling. \nThe exchange makes buying and selling easy. You don't have to actually travel to New York to visit the New York Stock Exchange -- you can call a stock broker who does business with the NYSE, and he or she will go to the NYSE on your behalf to buy or sell your stock. If the exchange did not exist, buying or selling stock would be a lot harder. You would have to place a classified ad in the newspaper, wait for a call and haggle on a price whenever you wanted to sell stock. With an exchange in place, you can buy and sell shares instantly. \nThe stock exchange has an interesting side effect. Because all the buying and selling is concentrated in one place, it allows the price of a stock to be known every second of the day. Therefore, investors can watch as a stock's price fluctuates based on news from the company, media reports, national economic news and lots of other factors. Buyers and sellers take all of these factors into account. So, for example, when the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) shut down the company ValuJet for a month in June 1996, the value of the stock plummeted. Investors could not be sure that the airline represented a going concern and began selling, driving the price down. The asset value of the company acted as a floor on the share price. \nThe price of a stock also reflects the dividend that the stock pays, the projected earnings of the company in the future, the price of tea in China (especially Lipton stock) and so on.\nStock Prices: Income vs. Growth\nThe price of an income stock tends to stay fairly flat. That is, from year
500413
Investors selling short a stock cannot drive down stock prices. The Stock Market cannot be manipulated at will (Like so many Hollywood Movies tell us)\n\nHere are the basics:\nThe Stock is $10.00 and there are 100 stocks.\nThe founder of the Acme Company has 51 stocks and he is not selling.\nTherefore the float is only 49 stocks.\nIf there are 49 investors buying 1 stock each at $10.00 then the price would be exactly $10.00 because the supply and the demand is exactly the same. In real life this scenario is impossible.\n\nIf the number of investors buying is 149 and the number of shares is only 49 there are not enough shares for everybody and that drives prices up.\nAt this moment 100 investors will be without shares and there is nothing we can do about it.\nSo 50 investors decide to PAY MORE for their shares let's say $11.00 and that takes care of half the demand but there is still another 51 investors without shares.\nSo 25 investors decides to sell at $12.00 and and they sell and takes care of the demand one more time but there are still 24 investors willing to buy.\nFor as long as the number of investors buying is bigger than the number of shares the price will go up.\nEventually the demand dries at $20.00\nSo of the current 49 investors (Some paid $10.00 some $11.00 some $12.00 and so on)\nEverybody says well, i have doubled my money already so let's sell at $20.00\nSo now we have 49 investors selling.\nAlas! nobody wants to pay $20.00\nSupply 49\nDemand 0\nSo they lower the price to $15.00 and 9 take the bait.\nSupply 40\nDemand 0\nSo they lower the price to $12.00 and 10 more\nSupply 30\nDemand 0\n\nSee?\nIf Supply is high and demand is low the price goes down\nIf Supply is low and demand is high the price goes up\n\nI hope you understand.\n\nWhen the stock is going down is only because the number of sellers is bigger than the number of buyers.\n\nThe Short Seller already sold their shares so there is nothing more he can do. (Except sell more)
64898
Always do your own DD when it comes to purchasing stock. People may recommend or suggest stocks but it's ultimately up to you to figure out if it's a worthy investment. \n\nIt probably isn't illegal to buy a stock someone recommends on Yahoo Answers...unless of course they say something like "oh, my friend works at company X and we are going to be acquired by company Y next week".
645060
Specialists make money on the small spread between the bid and ask prices on the stocks they manage. Usually they are buying at the "bid" price and selling at the "ask" price.
419136
It's possible to buy stock's for a penny a share and pay $10 in copmmission. If stock appreciates to, say, $10.00, you've earned a 999% return before commissions.