How Do I Buy Stocks?

Ever wondered, how do I buy stocks? Where to buy stocks? Maybe you are just getting into the market and are feeling clueless. Well there are couple different things that people can do in order to buy stocks.

The most common thing to do is to sign up with a stock broker. You can easily go to any of the major stock brokers and open up an account with them (most of the time it takes a couple thousand dollars to open the account) and then start buying away.

Brokers do charge a small fee per transaction, so there are some drawbacks. But the ability to get real time information and be able to buy and sell with ease really do make up for this.

Types of Brokers

There are two different kinds of brokers out there. The first is called a full service broker, they give you advice and data on a company, help you when it comes to retirement planning and tax planning and they may even monitor your positions and help you learn when it is time to get out.

Sounds expensive? Well, it is. A full service broker may charge you $100-$150 per trade and are built for people who need someone to “hold their hand” when investing into the market.

A much cheaper option to buy and sell stocks online is to open up an account with a discount online broker. These brokers will not give you any advice, and are only there to place trades for you. You do get other benefits such as real time quotes, stock charts, and news articles.

But the thing that makes them such a great alternative to a full service broker is that they usually come with much lower rates. Instead of paying over $100 per trade you should have no problems finding a discount broker that charges under $10 a trade.

Bypassing Broker

There are also ways which let investors bypass a broker. For example many stocks will let you buy directly from the company and avoid any brokerage fees. The only problem with this is that it is much harder to deal with each individual company and if you want to sell the stock then you are going to have to go through another headache.

Personally I believe an online broker seems to be the best option out there. It is cheap, fast and doesn’t give you a headache.

Go From How Do I Buy Stocks To Stock Brokers

Go From How Do I Buy Stocks to Stock Market Books