The actual trade is simple. You merely fill in the name of the stock, the number of shares and a limit price (if desired). They show you the likely total cost of the trade and if acceptable, you click on the "Place Order" button. You could also just phone the brokerage and tell them and they will make the trade.

I use Scottrade. They charge $7 per trade. I think there are a couple brokers that are cheaper, but not by much.

There is no penalty. You can sell the stock immediately after buying it if you choose. (The Security and Exchange Commission has limits on “day trading”, that is, buying and selling the same shares in one day. You can get the rule for that at the brokerage website.)

You must have your money already at the brokerage in your account and verified before you can trade with it. No, you can’t use PayPal to pay for stocks. You can transfer funds directly to your brokerage account, but it must be verified before you can trade with it – that may take several days.

To open an account, the law requires the brokerage to have certain information from you concerning your income and investment goals. You will need to fill out a form.

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My investment advice:

First, avoid gambling! If you buy stock hoping that you can sell it for a quick profit because of the weekly or monthly swings in price, then you are not investing. You are trying to guess better than the public (including the professionals) how the price will change.

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 these sturdy stocks and hold on to them. When you hold these stocks over a period of time, the 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. It takes time for that business to earn money.

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.

. .

I suggest you check out the site bogleheads.org before trying to purchase any stocks. Basically it's a site by people who are into investing in index funds. Basically the genius of the index fund is that instead of trying to pick individual stocks, you are investing in a fund that invests in a wide variety of stocks. You see, stock market indexes generally trend upward over time. Sure they can stay down for a time, but eventually they trend upward. So instead of trying to pick the right one, you try to buy hundreds of them at a time by investing in a fund.

When you buy an index fund, you need to try to find out one with a low cost. Generally .30 % or below is good, but avoid anything higher than that like 1%. E trade sucks, don't use it, unless you want to lose money trading stocks and go broke. Use the long term buy and hold approach and don't try to trade. Vanguard and Fidelity are pretty good. You can set up an account there online. But read bogleheads before anything.

If you asked " what is the most difficult way of purchasing stock?" I would struggle to find an answer. There is nothing difficult about buying shares. Shares are traded on stock exchanges and stock exchanges have members through which the general public trade. All member firms (brokers) get the same price feed from the stock exchange and follow the same rules and regulations laid down by the stock exchange. Some on-line platforms have more bells and whistles and the charges may be slightly different but best bet is to sign up with one of the big ones and "suck it and see"

Barron's periodically rates online brokerages:

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB5000...

In general you'll want to look for a broker who offers low commissions and won't nickel and dime you with fees. Also if you just want to get a feel for the mechanics of trading, some brokers allow you to open a paper account--I think trade monster lets you do this.

http://2851c9f6wgym4u0n0q5pg5om32.hop.cl...

Now before you answer this question, don't freak out. I'm a 20 year old Engineering major and working on a Business minor so I am not completely negligible on the topic of the stock market and I am well aware of the Risk and Rewards, and things like dividends, buy low sell high etc. However, things that they fail to teach in these classes are things like, HOW to actually invest in a stock? I know that their's various websites like Scottrade, E-Trade and probably others, but based on your experience, which one(s) do you prefer? To narrow this down further, here are the questions I have:

Which Trader do you prefer?

What is the cost per trade?

When you purchase a stock, are you penalized for selling the stock (Like a certain percentage or something, I am not sure?)

I'm also assuming that you use Pay-Pal or online banking to set up the funds for these websites, so if you have any commentary on that I would appreciate it. Also, if there's anything else you think I should know I would appreciate it!