Today, I wanted to focus on how to buy shares online.
Compared to the past, the individual investor has it easy.
It is so easy to buy stock these days.
All you really need is an online brokerage account and a computer.
That is all it takes.
You don't have to talk to anyone and if the market is open it will probably be executed immediately.
Now if you are a beginning investor, you might be a little intimidated by the whole process of placing the order yourself.
It's normal to be a little unsure of how to do it.
But, there are many stock market simulations online that will help you practice.
I know that my broker has one built right into my account.
What's probably harder than buying stock yourself, is actually picking which stock to buy.
The actual purchase is a piece of cake.
The first step is to log into your account.
Once you have done that, you will see a tab or button that says something along the lines of order or trade.
All you do is select that, and it will take you to an order screen.
Once there, you'll need to know the ticker symbol for the stock you want to buy.
If you don't know it, they'll have a way you can look it up.
Just make sure it is the exact one that you need to purchase.
After that, you put in the number of shares that you want.
Usually, people want to know if it should be a market order which means that it will be executed immediately if the market is open or right when it does.
Go ahead and choose market order and the additional option which is good til canceled.
Once you have the order screen filled out, place the order.
You should receive a confirmation screen that asks you to verify everything.
Once that is confirmed, place the order and you are all set.
Everything should be fine unless, you didn't have enough money in your trading account.
Make sure to allow for commission.
That's all there is to it.