By: Jeen

Stocks are a big part of our society today. If you are new and do not know how to invest in stocks, this article will give you the gist of it. You will be amazed at how much money you can potentially earn just by trading stocks. The key is research and understanding what you are doing.

Before getting into further details, it is important you understand what a stock is. A stock is a paper asset that various companies use to raise money. By purchasing a stock you are becoming a part owner of the business depending on how much you purchase. So how do you know how well you and your company are doing?

Each company that has stocks is given a ticker symbol to be used as an identification tag. You can then follow your company by looking for the symbol and reading up on how they are doing. When it comes to companies selling stocks, there are a couple of different stocks including blue chip and penny stocks.

If you are going to invest in stocks, typically blue stocks are the ones you want to go with. They are the best stocks and are considered the safest for you. What makes a stock a blue chip stock is that the companies stocks are financially secure. This way you know the company is not going to go bankrupt, allowing you to safely invest a little more money than usual.

When investing in stocks you have a few options. One method is to go through the company’s direct stock purchase plan. Not every company has a direct stock purchase plan, but many do. Do your research to see which companies offer one.

A second method is using a DRIP program. Many companies that do not have a direct stock purchase plan have a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP) you can get into. This is a great tool to allow you to grow your portfolio.

A third method is purchasing a stock through a specialized service. There are a number of companies that sell individual stocks if you want to just get your feet wet first. After purchasing a few stocks, you can then buy more later.

Everything mentioned thus far does not have to do with a broker, but getting a broker is another option. Using a broker is great if you do not want to deal with stocks directly yourself. But you do have to realize that using a broker calls for you paying a commission to pay for their fees.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com