Before you ask "How do I buy stocks?" you might should ask "what" to buy or "when" to buy, or what should I learn before I buy? You should ask, "What is my risk?" It can be measured and managed, but not if you don't ask the right questions. Learn about investing first by reading a couple of good beginner books like Investing for Dummies and The Millionaire Next Door. Once you've discovered your time frame, developed a trade plan, incorporated good money management techniques and become consistent, then you might want to read several more books and try trading.
Try a simulator first before you risk your hard-earned money, and use this site to define financial terms:
http://simulator.investopedia.com/#axzz1...
Stocks Basics: Introduction
http://www.investopedia.com/university/s...
Getting Started In Stocks
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/bas...
Five Minute Investing: How To Evaluate A Trading Strategy
http://www.investopedia.com/university/f...
The Cardinal Sin Of Beginning Investing -- And How To Avoid It
http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analys...
Listen up, it's really simple to buy stock once your brokerage account is opened and funds are added and cleared from restrictions. Then, depending on the trading platform, you locate the shares you want to purchase. If this question is a joke, then it's dull. If not, then it shows you need not worry about putting money into something you know nothing about.
See, it's all an artifice when you're seeing dollar signs moving up and it's so easy. You would have made so much money. Wow.
The individual investors never get anything out of buying stocks unless they're genuinely lucky. The individual or retail investors just hand everything over to the front-running scoundrels. Moreover, you should do well never to invest in stocks. You must have been about 11 years old when the people on TV were saying the Dow Jones would bottom out at 3 or thousand. Ahhhh. Ignorance is bliss. Bliss is dangerous. Ignorance is dangerous.
In actuality, you should know that a share of stock represents one share of ownership of the residual assets of a corporation. Many companies issue hundreds of millions of shares. So your share of ownership is less than the a heavy rainstorm in a river. Anyway, you determine how many shares you want to buy, and then you go on and put an order to buy at the open market ask price. Or, you can place an order to buy only if it reaches a given price. Oh yeah, each share of stock has a quoted price that represents the cost to the buyer - for stocks that are traded frequently (liquidity).
You would need to open a brokerage account. You will likely not be able to open this on your own since you are not yet 18. My suggestion would be to learn about stocks, investing and brokerage accounts now and then be knowledgable by the time your 18th bday comes around.
Okay, so I'm 17 and about to graduate. I'm good friends with a lot of guys from my church who are "older," but know a LOT about money and stocks. I downloaded an app on my phone that helps me keep track of different stocks. Like I was watching the stock named GNK and they were really low today, $1.20, and I figured "I'd buy it while it's this low," then it skyrocketed to $1.80. I thought to myself, "I'd sell what i bought, giving myself a 50% profit." However, I have no idea how to actually buy and sell these stocks. I know I could probably ask the other men, but they're generally very busy. I know I'd need an online broker for the cheapest method, I think, but how do I literally buy a set of stocks? Is there a place online where I fill out how much I want to buy? I have no clue...
