Things You'll Need:
- Personal computer
- Internet access
-
Step 1
Log onto the internet and research stockbrokers or go to your local bank. Open a trading account with your favorite stockbroker or bank and add funds to your account. Most stockbrokers and banks accept funds through bank-to-bank transfers, wire transfers, money orders and personal checks.
-
Step 2
Search for stock symbolsResearch the stock market. Go to any financial website of your choice. Enter the ticker symbol for the company and click Search. If you don’t know the ticker, click Symbol Lookup, enter the name of the company and click Search.
-
Step 3
Stocks informationClick the ticker symbol of the stock on the results page. This opens a new page with information on the company’s stock. This page shows you the name of the company, the stock symbol, the industry the company belongs to and the current price. It also tells you the day’s price change (green color when the price is up and red when it is down), the price of the stock when the market opened in the morning and the number of shares outstanding or how many shares of stock the company has available for buying and selling in the stock market.
-
Step 4
Look at the day’s high price, the day’s low price and the 52-week (one year) high and low prices. You also learn the bid and ask prices and sizes, or the price people want to pay for the stock now and the price people who currently own the stock are asking for. Sizes indicate how many stocks are willing to change hands.
-
Step 5
Read the charts to see how the stock is performing now. Charts available are for one day, five days, three months, six months and one year. These allow you to compare where the stock is today with where it was a year ago. It also shows you the other stocks in the same industry group as your stock and how they are performing in the market.
-
Step 6
How to place orders for stocksLog on to your trading account using the username and password supplied by your stockbroker. Following on-screen instructions, select Buy or Sell, enter the ticker symbol and the number of shares or quantity you are buying, order type (limit or day), the price (if you selected limit on order type) and instructions for your stockbroker, if any. In Limit order type, you tell the broker the maximum amount you want to pay for the stock. The stockbroker will not buy the stock for you if the price exceeds your price limit. If you select Day in order type, the stockbroker buys the stock at its current price. Click Review Order when you are done.
-
Step 7
Place your stock orderReview your order to make sure you have entered the ticker symbol of the right company, the correct quantity and order type. Verify the total cost of the order. Place your order, cancel the order or save for later date.
