Help With Stock Investments
Before you open an account with a stock broker it will be better to have some idea of investment in stock trading. Several stock market news trading sites have education sections where they provide more information about important issues in stock trading. The subjects could possibly be discussed under several heads and sub heads.
In 'what is a stock' category, you may find the definition of a stock, why you should buy a stock, risks in stock investments, kinds of investments and then finally what is a ticker symbol.
In 'How stocks trade' category, you could find topics such as what is stock market, primary and secondary markets, NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX and so on. You may also find out about OTCBB and penny stocks.
You could get an idea about stock charts, news flashes, price quotes and just how they help in stock research. In trading mechanics section you may learn about order types, order expiration and trading cycles.
After you get some concept of stock trading basics, you are taught about how exactly to open an account. You find out about the kinds of account, just how to fund your account, how exactly to design your investment plan, what are real time trades, how you track your investments and so on.
The account opening process is generally very simple and short. It hardly takes five minutes to open an account. As you open an account, you might have several doubts and questions. The account opening page contains help sections which provides answers to all of your possible questions.
Several stock brokers put up demonstration videos which explain the stock account opening process step-by-step in easy and also easy-to-understand language.
Opening an account by itself cannot work unless you put some cash in it for trading or investing in stocks. The account funding process is very simple as well. Funds can be transferred electronically. For that you must open a savings account and know your account number and routing number. Just look-at your check from your check book. It contains your bank and routing account number for your savings account. Electronic funding won't cost you anything.
When you have setup a bank account, you can start a scheduled electronic funding from that account. For that you're going to have to decide the way you would want to schedule your funding. Would it not be one time, daily, weekly or monthly funding? If you have multiple bank accounts, you could have to choose which account to fund your stock trade from. You could in addition have to select a starting date for your fund transfer.
You could also fund your account with a wire transfer or by just mailing your check. Wire transfers are immediate. The cash is credited into your account on the next business day.
Wire transfer, alternatively, is a bit costly. It may take you around $25 to wire a fund transfer. Mailing a check requires only fixing postal stamps. It takes nearly 10 business days for processing the check after it is received by your broker.
Your stock broker may ask you to mail or fax a photocopy of your photo ID and signature along with a valid driver's license before funds are transferred. This kind of documentation just isn't essential for only opening the account but it's also required to ensure the protection of funds transfer from your account.
Scheduled investment plans are a great way of building wealth in stock trading. The very first step is to fund your account with your stock broker before your investment plan starts.
Choosing a scheduled investment plan is easy. There are several scheduled investment plans. You should choose one as outlined by your budget and personal needs. You can select what amount you want to invest and break it up between different investments. Investments are broken up either by the dollar amount or even the percentage of the total investment amount.
Scheduled investment plan can be set up to start on any day of the week. You may modify your plan, remove or add any scheduled investment plan any time. It must be noted that your funds for scheduled investment plan must reach your account by 1.00 pm on the trading day ahead of the scheduled investment day.
