The Low Down On Stock Investments Exposed

Before you open an account with a stock broker it will be better to have some concept of investment in stock trading. Several stock trading sites have education sections where they provide more information about important issues in stock trading. The topics could be discussed under several heads and sub heads.

In 'what is a stock' category, you could 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 may find subjects such as what is stock market news, primary and secondary markets, NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX and so forth. You may also find out about OTCBB and penny stocks.

You may 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 notion of stock trading basics, you are taught about how exactly to open an account. You find out about the kinds of account, the way to fund your account, the way to design your investment plan, what are real time trades, how you track your investments and so on.

The account opening process may be very simple and short. It hardly takes five minutes to open an account. When you open an account, you might have several doubts and questions. The account opening page contains help sections which provides answers to all your possible questions.

Several stock brokers put up demonstration videos which explain the stock account opening process step by step in simple and easy-to-understand language.

Opening an account by itself can not work unless you put some cash in it for trading or investing in stocks. The account funding process will be quite simple also. Funds can be transferred electronically. For that you must open a banking 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 isn't going to cost you anything.

As soon as you have setup a banking account, you can start a scheduled electronic funding from that account. For that you'll have to decide the way you would want to schedule your funding. Would it be one time, daily, weekly or monthly funding? If you have multiple bank accounts, you might have to choose which account to fund your stock trade from. You might also have to select a starting date for your fund transfer.

You might also fund your account with a wire transfer or through mailing your check. Wire transfers are immediate. The cash is credited into your account on the next business day.

Wire transfer, conversely, 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 really 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 sort of documentation is just not necessary 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 first step is to fund your account with your stock broker before your investment plan starts.

Choosing the scheduled investment plan is easy. You will find several scheduled investment plans. You should choose one based on your budget and personal needs. You may 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 number of the total investment amount.

Scheduled investment plan can be setup to start on any day of the week. You can modify your plan, remove or add any scheduled investment plan any time. It has to be noted that your particular funds for scheduled investment plan must reach your account by 1.00 pm on the trading day ahead of the scheduled investment day.