• Where to Trade Stocks

    Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

    If you are anything like me, you first decided that you wanted to buy stock, and then began to wonder about where you would go to do this. I hadn’t the faintest idea when I started. There are a few different ways to start buying and selling, three in fact that come to mind.  I will go over them here, saving what I believe to be the best, for last.

    Companies that Sell Stock Directly

    You might work for a large, publicly traded company where you can buy stock in that company.  They might even give you stock as a bonus, or as a part of your pay.  This is probably the case if you work at a place like Wal-Mart, Nike, or many others.  This of course won’t include most people, as 80% of people are employed by small businesses. In addition to this, however, there are many companies that will sell you stock in their companies directly. General Electric (GE), Home Depot (HD) and many others will let you take part in these direct stock purchase programs.

    The Traditional Route: A Stock Broker

    You know, the old guy that has an office down on Main Street.  Stock Brokers buy stock on behalf of clients, often times giving advice along the way. I know, I’ve heard the joke as well: Why is the guy who gives you financial advice called a stock ‘broker’. Good question.

    Online Stock Brokers

    Take the idea of the stock broker, but give him a webpage and now you have an online stock broker.  Something like that, at least. When you open an account with an online brokerage in this way, you are given what is called a trading platform. Basically this is a computer software where you are able to login, see charts and graphs of all the different stocks you could imagine, and place trades, deciding on the spot what you want to buy and what you want to sell.  Buy stock from the comfort of your own home? I know. A novel idea.  I worked for a period of time for an online broker. In a sense it was like a regular broker, only that we didn’t give trading advice of any kind, we basically helped people to set up trading accounts so they could get going on their own.  It is a very simple thing to do. The hard part? Know which stocks to buy!

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