How To Buy Stocks Online In 2024: A Beginners Guide

Did you know how the seventh richest man in the world, Warren Buffet, got rich? The answer: he began investing in stocks. In fact, Warren Buffet is now the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway as well as a noted philanthropist and investor because a lot of his wealth comes from stocks.

At the age of 11, Warren Buffet made his first investment in the stock market and continues doing so.

There’re countless such examples of people worldwide that are now millionaires and billionaires because they began investing in stocks.

In those days, Warren Buffet and many other investors did not have the facility to buy stocks online. Because the Internet simply didn’t exist and computers, as we know them today, were in their embryonic and infantile stages.

Today, it’s possible to buy stocks online. And you can invest in stocks right from the comfort of your office or home using a smartphone or computer.

If you’re among those people who would love to invest in stocks, read this article fully because it is a complete, step-by-step guide on how to invest in stocks online.

Why Invest in Stocks?

Investing in stocks over a span of time can help you build a wonderful portfolio and pave the way to get rich. In fact, buying stocks can also ensure you’ve enough money for retirement. 

While stocks are indeed a way to get rich, they also offer several other benefits.

• Owning stocks means buying into a company: That’s right. When you buy stocks, you become an investor in that particular company. Companies will invite you to their annual meetings, where they declare profits and losses and send emails or letters whenever there’s some important development in the organization.
• Stocks help your money grow: Though stock prices tend to go up or down depending upon various factors, such as the economic situation in the country, disasters, and political scenarios, you’re never a loser. Stock prices always swing upwards and continue rising over a period of time.
• Stocks offer two sources of earnings: There’re two ways you make money with stocks. One is when stock prices rise. The second is through dividends, when a bank shares part of its profits with shareholders.
• You can build diverse portfolios with stocks: Buying stocks allows you to invest in various companies with different business activities. For example, you can buy stocks of manufacturing companies, banks, Internet giants such as Google, and top retailers, including Walmart and Amazon, among others. There are no limits to the number of sectors where you can hold stocks.

As we can see from the above points, buying stocks is a superb way to grow your money and build an excellent portfolio of holdings in all sorts of companies in the US and abroad too.

Actually, there are three main ways to buy stock online. If you’re planning on investing in stocks, these are some superb options to consider. Continue reading to learn more about these.

Three Ways to Invest in Stocks Online

You can invest online in stocks in three different ways. These depend on what’s known as your “investor risk profile.” In simple words, it translates as how much risk you are willing to take with your money.

Stocks

You can buy stocks online through a stockbroker or stock trading account. There are two options available. Companies that are going public will list their stocks on stock exchanges in the US and elsewhere.

Therefore, they launch something known as Initial Public Offering (IPO). An IPO gives you the opportunity to buy stocks of a company before they open for trade on the stock market. 

Generally, stock prices during an IPO are fixed. This means you’ll pay only a specific amount to buy a block of, say, 100 stocks or a certain quantity that the company fixes. The price doesn’t change unless it gets listed on the stock market.

This provides you with an opportunity to buy stocks for a lower price by subscribing directly to the IPO through your stock trading account.

The second is buying stocks in what’s known as the secondary market, or after the company and its shares start trading on the stock exchange. Here, you can buy stocks online through a stockbroker. Unlike an IPO, there are no lower or upper limits on the number of stocks you can buy on any given day.

Mutual Funds

Another way to invest in stocks is through equity-based Mutual Funds. This is a relatively safer way to invest in stocks.

Basically, a Mutual Fund is a basket of different stocks that an Asset Management Company or a financial institution buys. They divide this basket of stocks costing millions of Dollars into small bits known as Units. And investors can buy these units online.

When you buy a unit of a Mutual Fund, you’re actually holding fractions of several stocks that are in the basket. You don’t become a direct investor in those companies, unlike stockholding. 

Mutual Funds have their distinct advantage. The first is a qualified and experienced Fund Manager who handles the portfolio of stocks in the Mutual Fund. They will buy or sell stocks in the basket to reduce losses while giving you the highest possible returns.

The second advantage is that your money grows when the price of each Mutual Fund unit rises, depending on the stocks it holds. You also have the option of getting the dividend on these stocks in cash or by direct investment into more units of the same Mutual Fund.

You can buy Mutual Fund units online in the primary market from a financial institution during New Fund Offers (NFOs) or in the secondary market when they reopen for subscriptions.

Mutual Funds aren’t traded on the stock market. Instead, you’ll have to buy or sell units online through a financial institution or a stockbroker.

Exchange Traded Funds

Equity-based exchange-traded funds are also a form of mutual fund because they consist of stocks of several companies. However, Exchange Traded Funds are listed on stock markets, and their prices rise or fall daily, depending upon the value of stocks in their portfolio.

You can buy and sell ETFs on the stock market. Similar to buying stocks, you can buy or sell any quantity of ETF units through a stockbroker. There are no lower or upper limits. 

There’s a distinct advantage that ETFs offer: You can invest in a particular industry without having to buy stocks or that particular thing. For example, you can invest in real estate ETFs and make your money grow as property prices spiral upwards.

This means you don’t need to actually buy a house or land. The ETF will consist of stocks of companies that are in the real estate business.

Buying ETF units online also saves the hassles of investing in individual stocks of companies. Instead, you’ll be a shareholder in several companies at the same time.

Nowadays, vice and gold ETFs are very popular among all investors. That’s because vice ETFs consist of stocks of American and foreign companies that make liquor and tobacco products, own casinos, or grow and process Marijuana.

Given these three ways to invest in the stocks of American and foreign companies, let’s explore the best ways to buy stocks online.

Also read: Legit Ways To Double Your Money

How To Buy Stocks Online In 2024: A Guide For Beginners

Buying stocks online is a very simple process. But if you’re serious about becoming an investor and making your money grow, you’ll need to follow certain steps. Therefore, go through these steps carefully: they might make you a millionaire or even a billionaire someday.

1. Study the Stock Market

The very first step to buying stocks that make your money work and grow is by studying the stock market. You can find a lot of information online from websites such as Nasdaq.com.

These websites usually carry reports on upward and downward movements of stocks on US and foreign stock exchanges. These reports will clearly mention the reasons for the rise or fall of a specific stock price.

This is very important because stock prices are always volatile. Meaning they’re subject to change rapidly. However, a good stock investor can almost predict when a stock price will fall or rise.

Because it depends upon a lot of external factors such as the economy of a country, demand and supply for a product or service, wars and conflicts, famines, floods, and pandemics, as well as political scenarios.

For example, stock investors who saw the COVID-19 pandemic looming in early 2020 quickly bought stocks of medical and healthcare companies because they would rise.

And they did. The same holds true for Internet giants. As work-from-home becomes the order of the day, sharp investors put their money on Internet companies to find their stock prices rising.

It’s possible for you to benefit from these scenarios when you study the stock markets before buying stocks online. It’s your hard-earned money and hence, such study into the stock market could help prevent any losses.

Studying the stock market also helps in many ways, such as finding the right online stockbroker and stocks, which I’ll discuss further in this guide.

2. Take a Free Online Course on Investment

The second step towards buying stocks online is to take a free course on investment. Or you can opt for a paid one, too, available online from Udemy and other e-learning providers.

You can find an excellent range of free online courses on investments. Register for any of these and learn all the tips and tweaks they teach you.

While some of these online courses are fairly basic, they do give a lot of insights into various terms and phrases or jargon that’s commonly used for buying stocks online and trading. It’s very important to learn such jargon if you wish to make the best of your stock buying online.

3. Research Stocks You Want to Buy

The information and knowledge you gain from the first two steps will help you understand the nitty-gritties of buying stocks online and investments. The next step is to research the stocks that you wish to buy.

Researching stocks might seem like a scary or difficult process. But it isn’t. All you need to do is simply read the annual reports of the companies listed on the stock market.

Usually, you’ll find them on the company website itself. Or you can check the website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates stocks and stock markets.

Some of the things that you should be looking for in an annual report include the past performance of the company, expansion plans, and future growth prospects, as well as assets and liabilities because these factors decide whether a stock price will rise or fall.

Also, check whether the company would survive unforeseen situations such as pandemics, economic downturns, political uncertainty, and swings in trade between various countries.

For example, Amazon stocks rose exponentially during the Covid-19 pandemic as more people began to buy their household stuff online. 

At the same time, airlines, travel companies, and the hospitality industry stocks came tumbling down as people had to stay indoors and couldn’t visit other cities or distant countries.

4. Shortlist Your Stocks

Obviously, it’s not possible to invest heavily to buy all the stocks you want online. Therefore, start shortlisting the stocks that you’re actually interested in and believe would rise in value over the years.

You can add many more later. But as a beginner, it’s good to start with three to five stocks or ETFs, depending upon your choice.

Upon creating the shortlist, watch for the rise and fall of these stocks and ETFs online. You can get this information from the New York Stock Exchange website and NASDAQ’s MarketWatch.com.

All stocks are known by the Stock Symbol or International Securities Identification Number (ISIN).  For example, Walmart’s Stock Symbol is WMT, while the ISIN is US9311421039. This information is easily available if you Google the company name. 

It’s also possible to view the live ticker that shows the changes in the prices of stocks.

You could select four or five stocks from the same or different sectors. Or create a combination of stocks and ETFs that you wish to buy online.

5. Draw Your Weekly or Monthly Budget

It’s good to have a weekly or monthly budget to buy stocks online. This helps you plan the investments for a year in advance. It helps in planning to keep away some money from your income and savings for investing in stocks.

Additionally, a proper budget can help prevent over-investment in stocks. A lot of people get very enthusiastic and are carried away by the prospects of making a quick buck on the stock market. Hence, they end up over-investing, sending their household budget into a tailspin.

You could either keep aside money from your main income or take a side gig to earn extra income to buy stocks online.

Having a budget also helps you practice the Income-Savings=Expenses formula. It forces you to save money from income and use only the balance for expenses. However, use the formula after careful consideration of the household budget and other necessary expenses.

Also, use the Time Value of Money formula to find out how your investments in stocks would help overcome the depreciation of the Dollar value over time and conventional savings methods. 

These would help you to draw a good budget to buy stocks online.

6. DIY, Financial Planner, or Robo Advisor?

Before you buy stocks online, decide whether you’d like to be a Do-it-Yourself (DIY) investor who requires no external assistance with investing. Or would you rather use the services of a professional Certified Financial Planner or a Robo Advisor? 

A CFA would charge fees but provide you with the best advice to buy stocks online. A human CFA is ideal if you wish to buy stocks online worth a large sum of money. A good CFA can guide you well on where to put your money for building a superb portfolio of excellent stocks.

On the other hand, a Robo Advisor is a computerized program that several banks and financial institutions offer for a small monthly fee or even free of cost.

Robo Advisors are good for beginners and smaller investors since they can guide you correctly. They can help in financial planning to help achieve your goals despite having a smaller amount of money to invest in stocks.

If you wish to use the DIY way, study the stock market and the various techniques that I mentioned above very carefully. Remember, we’re discussing money here and how buying stocks online can help build wealth.

7. Select the Best Online Stockbroker

The next obvious step is to select the best online stockbroker. There are several of these in America. But you can choose one depending on your budget and features. Refer to this list of top online stockbrokers in the US, their features, and their services.

You’ll require a stockbroker for two reasons. First and most importantly, as an individual, you can’t buy stocks directly on a stock exchange. Therefore, having a stockbroker is necessary and compulsory.

And secondly, a stockbroker account is the place where you can hold the stocks. It’s somewhat similar to a bank account, where you can deposit or withdraw money. A stockbroking account allows you to buy or sell stocks online.

8. Full-Service Broker or Discount Broker

While selecting an online stockbroker, consider whether you prefer a Full Service Broker or a Discount Broker. Both have their distinct pros and cons, though both offer online services.

A Full-Service Broker provides vital insights on stocks, provides some advice on investments, and helps execute trades. However, all these services come at a small fee. They’ll charge a fee on every transaction and trade. As beginners, some of their tips can prove very useful for buying stocks, ETFs, and Mutual Funds online.

On the other hand, a discount broker doesn’t charge commissions on trades. It’s all DIY. This means you’ll have to do the necessary research on buying or selling stocks on any particular day. There won’t be any expert advice available from a discount brokerage.

Weigh these pros and cons carefully before you settle for one stockbroker and open an account with them. This is the first and most important decision before you buy stocks online.

Best Brokerage Accounts for Beginners in 2024

9. Consider Using Apps

Nowadays, it’s also possible to use various apps to buy stocks online. You can download these apps free from Google Play and Apple Store.

The most popular app is Robinhood. An advantage of Robin Hood is it allows you to buy fractional shares.

Meaning even if you don’t have enough money to buy a full stock of any large company because of its price, Robin Hood allows you to buy a part of that stock. By frequently investing small amounts of money, you can become the owner of one very high-value stock.

It’s possible to buy stocks online for as low as $5 on Robin Hood. Additionally, they also provide excellent information about companies and stocks that help you invest.

The other such app is Webull. They don’t charge commissions when you buy any stocks online. They also have a referral program for US investors. If you refer a friend successfully to Webull, you can get a stock worth $8 to $1,600 for free.

Also, check out IQ Option, which offers a full trading platform as an app. For $10, you can get started with the IQ Option. This app allows you to invest as low as $1 on stocks and ETFs. And if you hold Bitcoin or its fraction, the Satoshi, you could buy stock online with that cryptocurrency, too.

10. Buying Foreign Stocks Online

It’s also possible for Americans to buy stocks in foreign countries. In fact, some foreign stocks can prove to be very safe because those companies have a long history and are financially stable. Furthermore, a lot of people buy foreign stocks to diversify their portfolios and override any volatility in the local stock markets.

If you’d like to buy foreign stocks online, open a global investment account.

Check out the links below for opening a global investment account.

• Fidelity Investments
• Charles Schwab
• E*Trade
• TD Ameritrade
• Interactive Brokers

Before rushing to buy foreign stocks online, it’s better to research a bit about the economy of that country and the details of the company, too. You can also invest indirectly in foreign stocks online with Mutual Funds and ETFs.

Generally, investing in a portfolio that includes American and foreign stocks is one of the best ways to build wealth.

11. Building a Portfolio

There are two main purposes for buying stocks online. One is to build a strong portfolio of some of the best stocks whose prices will increase over the years while earning you enough dividends. 

The other purpose is to trade in stocks to make profits regularly. 

First, let’s look at what it takes to build a superb portfolio by buying stocks online. 

Regardless of whether you choose American stocks, foreign ones, or a mix of the two, one thing is for certain: Always research well into the company and its stock prices. And arrive at a realistic figure on how many stocks you wish to own at the end of a particular year.

This helps you to plan the way you buy stocks online and arrange the necessary amount of money in advance.

Also, consider how the company would fare in the future. For example, some companies might not be doing too well right now, and hence, their stocks are cheap.

Other companies may have a limited future scope, but their stocks could come at a very high price. Proper research would help you identify such stocks.

12. Buying Stocks for Online Trading

Trading in stock can be quite thrilling if you get all things right, such as research and external factors that can affect prices. 

There are two distinct ways to buy stock online for trading.

• Value Buying: This is done when you buy several stocks of one or more companies when the price is low and wait for the prices to rise to the highest possible value.
• Prospective Trading: A system followed by investors worldwide.  They buy and sell stock without actually owning any. Instead, they make money on prospecting on stocks. They bid for the stocks at lower prices and sell off when their value rises.

Here are some terms and phrases that you’ll require when you buy stocks online.

• Ask Price: This is the price that sellers want for their stock.
• Bid Price: The amount of money you’re willing to pay for a stock.
• Market Order: Place a market order when you’re willing to buy stock online at the prevailing rate.
• Limit Order: If you’re looking at or expecting a price drop of a certain stock or ETF, it’s possible to place a limit on the money you wish to pay for it. You’ll own the stock when the price drops to the limit you’ve set.
• Stop Loss: This is a system that investors use to sell stocks when the prices are falling. It allows you to fix a limit for the price you want for the stock. Your stock gets sold only when the price reaches that level and prevents your losses.

You can learn a lot about how to buy stocks for portfolio building or trading from any good online investing course that I mentioned above.

Rules to Buy Stocks Online

To buy stocks online, you’ll require a lot of discipline to invest. Here’re some rules you should remember to become a successful investor.

Avoid Panic While Buying Stocks

This is the golden rule when you buy stocks online: never panic. This means don’t worry if the prices of one or more stocks in your portfolio suddenly start plunging downwards.

This could be a temporary phenomenon due to low investor sentiment, the effects of foreign stock exchanges on American ones or political scenarios, or anything. If all stock prices start dropping, it might indicate an opportunity to buy more.

At the same time, find reasons why stock prices are falling. If prices of a single stock begin spiraling downwards, something could be wrong with the company.

Avoid Emotional Attachment to a Stock

That’s right. A lot of investors have some vague emotional attachment toward stock and are unwilling to let go even if the prices start dropping drastically due to some problems with the company.

Or, they get too greedy and start buying a stock online heavily when prices drop in the hope of making quick money.

These are things to be avoided at all costs. As Steve Forbes puts it, never get emotionally attached to a stock. Instead, go on investing small amounts in them gradually and at the right time.

Diversifying Your Portfolio

Buying stocks online makes it easier to invest in multiple sectors. And that’s exactly what you should be doing. As the old adage goes- never place all eggs in the same basket.

Similarly, never invest heavily in stocks from a specific company, industry, or sector. Instead, diversify your portfolio by buying stocks from different companies in different sectors.

Diversification of portfolios allows some hedging or protection against stock market volatility. If your stocks in a particular industry are down for the moment, other stocks in different sectors will cover up the loss.

Generally, a well-diversified portfolio consists of stocks held also as Mutual Funds and ETFs. Therefore, consider buying these online, too to diversify your portfolio.

Buying Stocks Online is Addictive

And finally, a word of warning. Buying and selling stocks online can be highly addictive. It can disrupt your normal lifestyle while sending your finances haywire. Therefore, use extreme caution while buying and selling stocks online.

Online stock trading isn’t exactly gambling, but it does cause a similar rush of adrenaline when one thinks about the money that’s to be made from stock trading online.

One of the reasons is that all stock trading platforms are also available as apps and on computers. This online facility to buy stocks can prove addictive.

In Conclusion

Before concluding, here’s a famous quote about buying stocks by Ben Graham. The American economist, professor and investor says: “Investors should purchase stocks like they purchase groceries, not like they purchase perfumes.” Following Ben Graham’s piece of advice can prove valuable to buy stocks online.