How to Play the Stock Market for Beginners – One of the biggest misconceptions about investing in the stock market is that everyone needs expensive, high-powered computer systems or years of training to do it effectively. While this may have once been true, today anyone can invest in the stock market with little to no initial investment. This post will show you how to play the stock market for beginners .
The stock market is intimidating and often flashy. What if you could take this mysterious topic and make it understandable? That’s exactly what I’ve done here with this comprehensive guide that clearly explains how to play the stock market.
Table of Contents
Decide how you want to invest in the stock market
There are several ways to approach stock investing. Choose the option below that best represents how you want to invest, and how hands-on you’d like to be in picking and choosing the stocks you invest in.
A. “I’d like to choose stocks and stock funds on my own.” Keep reading; this article breaks down things hands-on investors need to know, including how to choose the right account for your needs and how to compare stock investments.
» See our roundup of the best online brokers
B. “I’d like an expert to manage the process for me.” You may be a good candidate for a robo-advisor, a service that offers low-cost investment management. Virtually all of the major brokerage firms and many independent advisors offer these services, which invest your money for you based on your specific goals.
C. “I’d like to start investing in my employer’s 401(k).” This is one of the most common ways for beginners to start investing. In many ways, it teaches new investors some of the most proven investing methods: making small contributions on a regular basis, focusing on the long-term and taking a hands-off approach. Most 401(k)s offer a limited selection of stock mutual funds, but not access to individual stocks.
Choose an investing account
Generally speaking, to invest in stocks, you need an investment account. For the hands-on types, this usually means a brokerage account. For those who would like a little help, opening an account through a robo-advisor is a sensible option. We break down both processes below.
An important point: Both brokers and robo-advisors allow you to open an account with very little money.
The DIY option: Opening a brokerage account
An online brokerage account likely offers your quickest and least expensive path to buying stocks, funds and a variety of other investments. With a broker, you can open an individual retirement account, also known as an IRA, or you can open a taxable brokerage account if you’re already saving adequately for retirement in an employer 401(k) or other plan.
The passive option: Opening a robo-advisor account
A robo-advisor offers the benefits of stock investing, but doesn’t require its owner to do the legwork required to pick individual investments. Robo-advisor services provide complete investment management: These companies will ask you about your investing goals during the onboarding process and then build you a portfolio designed to achieve those aims.
This may sound expensive, but the management fees here are generally a fraction of the cost of what a human investment manager would charge: Most robo-advisors charge around 0.25% of your account balance. And yes — you can also get an IRA at a robo-advisor if you wish.
Learn the difference between investing in stocks and funds
Going the DIY route? Don’t worry. Stock investing doesn’t have to be complicated. For most people, stock market investing means choosing among these two investment types:
Stock mutual funds or exchange-traded funds. Mutual funds let you purchase small pieces of many different stocks in a single transaction. Index funds and ETFs are a kind of mutual fund that track an index; for example, a Standard & Poor’s 500 fund replicates that index by buying the stock of the companies in it. When you invest in a fund, you also own small pieces of each of those companies. You can put several funds together to build a diversified portfolio. Note that stock mutual funds are also sometimes called equity mutual funds.
Individual stocks. If you’re after a specific company, you can buy a single share or a few shares as a way to dip your toe into the stock-trading waters. Building a diversified portfolio out of many individual stocks is possible, but it takes a significant investment.
The upside of stock mutual funds is that they are inherently diversified, which lessens your risk. For the vast majority of investors — particularly those who are investing their retirement savings — a portfolio comprised mostly of mutual funds is the clear choice.
Set a budget for your stock market investment
New investors often have two questions in this step of the process:
How much money do I need to start investing in stocks? The amount of money you need to buy an individual stock depends on how expensive the shares are. (Share prices can range from just a few dollars to a few thousand dollars.) If you want mutual funds and have a small budget, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) may be your best bet. Mutual funds often have minimums of $1,000 or more, but ETFs trade like a stock, which means you purchase them for a share price — in some cases, less than $100).
How much money should I invest in stocks? If you’re investing through funds — have we mentioned this is the preference of most financial advisors? — you can allocate a fairly large portion of your portfolio toward stock funds, especially if you have a long time horizon. A 30-year-old investing for retirement might have 80% of his or her portfolio in stock funds; the rest would be in bond funds. Individual stocks are another story. A general rule of thumb is to keep these to a small portion of your investment portfolio.
Choose your stocks
Now that we’ve answered the question of how you buy stock, if you’re looking for some great beginner-friendly investment ideas, here are five great stocks to help get you started.
Of course, in just a few paragraphs we can’t go over everything you should consider when selecting and analyzing stocks, but here are the important concepts to master before you get started:
- Diversify your portfolio.
- Invest only in businesses you understand.
- Avoid high-volatility stocks until you get the hang of investing.
- Always avoid penny stocks.
- Learn the basic metrics and concepts for evaluating stocks.
It’s a good idea to learn the concept of diversification, meaning that you should have a variety of different types of companies in your portfolio. However, I’d caution against too much diversification. Stick with businesses you understand — and if it turns out that you’re good at (or comfortable with) evaluating a particular type of stock, there’s nothing wrong with one industry making up a relatively large segment of your portfolio.
Buying flashy high-growth stocks may seem like a great way to build wealth (and it certainly can be), but I’d caution you to hold off on these until you’re a little more experienced. It’s wiser to create a “base” to your portfolio with rock-solid, established businesses.
If you want to invest in individual stocks, you should familiarize yourself with some of the basic ways to evaluate them. Our guide to value investing is a great place to start. There we help you find stocks trading for attractive valuations. And if you want to add some exciting long-term-growth prospects to your portfolio, our guide to growth investing is a great place to begin.
Stay committed to your long-term portfolio
Keady says investing should be a long-term activity. He also says you should divorce yourself from the daily news cycle.
By skipping the daily financial news, you’ll be able to develop patience, which you’ll need if you want to stay in the investing game for the long term. It’s also useful to look at your portfolio infrequently, so that you don’t become too unnerved or too elated. These are great tips for beginners who have yet to manage their emotions when investing.
“Some of the news cycle, at times it becomes 100 percent negative and it can become overwhelming for people,” Keady says.
One strategy for beginners is to set up a calendar and predetermine when you’ll be evaluating your portfolio. Sticking to this guideline will prevent you from selling out of a stock during some volatility – or not getting the full benefit of a well-performing investment, Keady says.
Conclusion
So, you’ve decided you want to make money on the stock market. Almost everyone has heard of the big players like Apple, Google, Microsoft; but for new investors there can be something foreboding about picking stocks. Taking on the stock market while having no experience sounds like a steep hill to climb. However there are ways to play the game while removing or at least reducing the risk involved.