First, you need to go to a brokerage house, such as Bestinvest. They will have you fill out some papers and then you deposit money into your new account. Then you can buy and sell stocks online, or just call the broker and place your order.
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Here is how stocks work:
Whoever owns the shares of stock are the owners of the public company, no one else. When you buy a share of stock, you are then one of the owners of that company. It could be any of over 13,000 companies that are traded with stock on the open market such as Lloyds Group, Coca-Cola, Amazon.com, Severn Trent, Rolls Royce, your local bakery or electric company.
As a company earns money, it becomes more valuable and this value is reflected in the price of its shares on the open market. You can collect this increase in value when you sell your shares for more than you paid for them.
The company’s board of directors makes the major company decisions and decides what to do with its net earnings.
?Some or all of the earnings may be re-invested in the company so it can grow, open new stores or make repairs. When this is done, the earnings money is used up but the company is more valuable by that same amount.
The per share price, having increased because of the earnings, retain that increase when the earnings are re-invested in the company.
?Some or all of the earnings may be given directly to the shareholders and this is called a dividend. They just mail you a check or send the money to your brokerage account. This makes the price of the stock decrease by the same amount as the dividend, so you have the same value in the total of stock and dividends.
Since you are an owner of the company, the members of the board of directors work for you. You can inform the board of your ideas, concerns or recommendations and these carry the weight of your shares.
Each year there is an election and you can vote for the board positions and some special rulings, one vote for each share that you own. If you own at least 51% of the shares then your vote always wins in the election.
You are also protected when you own stock. For instance, if your company gets sued and loses more than it can pay, the law cannot come to you, one of the owners, and confiscate your house or other property. The shares may become worthless, but that is all you can lose.
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If you buy stock hoping that you can sell it for a quick profit because of the daily or monthly swings in price, then you are gambling rather than investing. You are trying to guess better than the public, including professionals, how the price will change.
To truly invest, choose a company that has steady earnings each year instead of losses. If your company has very little long term debt, it will likely not get into financial trouble.
Buy quality stocks and hold on to them. When you hold these over a period of time, the share prices will go up for a real reason - the companies are earning money every year and becoming more valuable.
???This is not gambling; you are owner of a money making business.
If you save a portion of your income each payday and as it accumulates invest in stocks, over the course of several years you can grow very wealthy indeed. It is like hiring someone to get a job and earn money for you, and then using that money to hire more workers. Your money grows exponentially.
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LOL dream on, if you really had the money to buy even 5% of any business let alone 50% of it, you would have a team of qualified accountants to advise you instead of seeking advice for free from Yahoo Answers.
Keep on dreaming as no business will ever accept a 13 year old child as an investor no matter how much you large yourself up here.
Yes if you genuinely have lots of money and are experienced, you simply walk up to the desk and buy 50% of their business, there and then. It can be that simple if you are not just a little child.
o, you cannot just walk into a business, plunk down money and say now I own 50% of your company. That would be like me walking up to your house, handing you a one pound bill and saying now I own half your house. You need to find a company looking for investors who are willing to give up equity in their company in exchange for capital (the key term being willing). You would then negotiate a price you would pay for a certain amount of equity. Realize that you get a percentage of earnings, not revenues. If the company does not make money, you don't make money. If the company goes out of business, you lose your investment.
You pay and join a website which offers investors the chance to invest in business.
You will lose more than you make.
ha ha would be good wouldn't it you have to find the business that needs investment and are prepared to accept your terms the Dragons are well named they are predators they use peoples naivety to chisel them out of money they would cut each others throats for a pound they jump on ailing firms employ cheap methods turn them round and make a fortune Theo lives off the minimum
wage he pays most of his staff imports from China slave labour abroad light their eyes up so are you a killer a shark yes well watch the knives at the back of you
A bit like Dragons Den, but not. I'm living in the UK and wanting to invest in some businesses so I get maybe 50 or 25% of what they earn, that kind of thing. But I want to invest in businesses that already exist, like hotels, tattoo studios etc. so how so I do it? Can just walk up to the desk and say here's some money you now owe me 50% of what you earn.
- UK answers only please.
