How to Play The Stock Exchange

Stock prices often move unexpectedly.

Playing, or rather trading, shares on a stock exchange in not easy. You have to understand what causes share prices to go up and down and learn how to forecast stock price movements. Often, stock prices move unexpectedly, responding to events you cannot predict (such as a deep sea oil drilling accident).

Instructions

1. Learn as much as you can about trading shares on a stock exchange. Read specialized books about stock trading, preferably written by successful stock market traders or investors. For more up-to-date information about stock trading, regularly access business news agencies such as Bloomberg or Thomson Reuters.

2. Open a demo account at a major stock broker and try you luck trading shares. A demo account is similar to a regular account, but the money is not real. Reputable online stockbrokers allow investors to open a demo account to try different trading platforms and test trading strategies.

   You can check your broker's "legitimacy" with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates the market.

3. If you are successful trading stocks on a demo account, open a live account, deposit funds and start trading. Opening an account is easy and can be done online. Deposit a relatively small amount of money. You can transfer funds to your trading account via a bank wire transfer, which typically takes about two to four days.

References

• The Sunday Times: How to buy shares
• CNN Money: How to Buy Stocks