Purchasing Stocks

Video Transcript

"My name is Bill Rae. I'm with Alumni Financial Services. I've been in the business and finance world for well over 20 years and the question is, how to buy stocks. Good question. Most people would think it's a very simple answer, you simply get a hold of a brokerage firm, either a local or a national online such as E*TRADE, Charles Schwab, local bank, give them your money and buy stock. OK, however I'm not here to give you stock advice. Let's make sure you understand that. If you're going to seek that out, you need to talk with a licensed broker and you need to sit down and really take a look at where you are, what you understand, what risk you're willing to take and where do you want to go. When it comes to buying stock in today's environment, it is very easy. There are numerous places you can go online and open up an account, throw money in and start buying stocks and really not know what you're doing. Good way to lose a lot of money. We recommend you take your time. Get on some of these sites that will actually let you pretend to buy stocks and pretend to sell. Once you get a good understanding of the language, once you understand what it is that you're willing to risk, understand that when you play the stock market, you have the potential of great growth but as in all investments, there's also the potential of great loss. We always advise understand what agreements or contracts you're signing, understand what monies are expected of you, how and when you can get your money back and what reasonable returns you should expect on it. Of course as always we recommend you talk with counsel. Seek outside advice. Make sure you're talking with someone who is licensed and knows what they're talking about. My name is Bill Rae, I'm with Alumni Financial Services and as always, we're here to help you build wealth."