One way companies can raise money to fund their business is to sell stock to the public.
When people buy stock in a company, they're betting that investment will grow over time, along with the company in which they're investing.
As of May 2022, Gallup reports 58% of Americans own stock. One reason for this is the stock market’s increased visibility and accessibility, thanks to a number of trading apps like Robinhood, Acorns and more which have driven the cost of trading to zero and claim to make trading easier for the average investor.
If you’re a first-time investor or someone who’s just curious about the market, we’ve got the basic information you need.
How to buy stocks
If you’re saving for your retirement, it might be a good idea to open an Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA), a type of account that gives you certain tax benefits while limiting the types of actions you can take and the amount you can invest each year.
According to the Charles Schwab Corporation, an important step to trading stock to which you want short-term access is opening a brokerage account. Taxable brokerage accounts can give you more flexibility and access to your assets without time constraints, with the downside being that any capital gains resulting from these transactions are subject to taxation in that tax year.
Once you’ve opened an account, you should do careful research before deciding which stocks you would like to purchase. There’s no one right way to invest, so based on your individual financial goals and the types of companies you’d like to support, your stock portfolio may look very different from others’.
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What is a stock?
The words, “stock,” “shares” and “equity” all mean the same thing. They refer to a shareholder’s claim in a company’s assets.
In other words, owning stock is owning a small piece of a company. You even get voting rights for certain company actions that may need shareholder approval.
How do stocks work?
Companies sell stock when they need access to more capital. Then, as there is more demand for certain stocks, often because of a company’s success, the stock's price can increase, making your original investment worth more.
There are many ways skilled stock traders can determine precisely when to buy or sell shares to their benefit. In simple terms, you can generally expect your stocks to rise in value when the companies you invest in are doing well and to lose value when those companies are doing poorly.
Stock traders buy stocks with the intention of making a profit by selling them when they are worth more than their initial purchase price.