if you are going through an online broker (like tdameritrade) there is a commission fee for each trade (buying is a trade, selling is a trade). Lets say your commission fee is $10. If you have $1000 in your account, and you buy 1 share of AAPL at $650, you will own 1 share of AAPL, and have $340 cash left in your account. ($1000 - $650 - $10trade = $340). If you sell it right away at the same $650 price, you will have $980 ($340 + $650 - $10trade = $980). If you sold it at $670, you would have $1000. If you sell it for anything higher than $670, you would make a profit.

It gets more confusing with..

1) the stock could go down, not up

2) it isn't a realized gain/loss until you sell

3) if you sell at a loss, you can claim against taxes if you didn't sell it within 30 days - see wash sale

4) taxes on gains are 30% for short term, and 15% for long term

What happens if people people stop buying Apple products?

Buy an index fund matching S&P 500. That way you own Apple stock as well as the stock of any significant competitors. So no matter which laptop, tablet or cell phone a consumer purchases, you make money.

less than 91 days if Apple pays a dividend. If the stock jumps higher overnight and you sell, less than 24 hours (assuming the sell price covers all of your fees, like brokerage commission. Then you will still lose a little to income tax).

If the stock never pays a dividend, and the price goes down, never.

apple is about $99 a share. It pays a dividend of about 1.9% per year, payable in 4 quarterly installments.

you generate money as it pays dividend, but the value of the shares depends on the market.

check yahoo finance for the value of AAPL

Im very new and trying to learn about the market. So say for instance i purchased one share of apple for an estimated $650. How long do i need to hold onto the share before i start generating more money? Hope that makes sense. Also if anyone has a siggestion on a book for beginners, please share it.