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Investing in Stocks

Investing in stocks is a great investment strategy to increase your wealth. The stock market is one of the most reliable ways to create wealth over a long period of time. However, for beginners and seasoned pros alike, knowing when to buy and sell stocks at the right time is difficult if not nearly impossible.

Before you can start investing in stocks, let's do a checklist of what you may consider. The image below provides a high-level overview of the steps required to get you ready for investing in stocks.

Investing checklist

Investment strategy
Open a brokerage account
Identify the stocks
Execute your orders
Diversify
Repeat

Investment strategy

When investing in stocks, you can choose to invest in a number of different types of stocks. Individual stocks, index funds, ETFs, and mutual funds are some of your options. The key in this is to have a strategy of what kind of stocks you want to select.

As stated above, you have many options at your disposal. If you are inclined to research and evaluate individual stocks, then this a route you can take. Keep in mind, evaluating any individual stock (earning reports, forecast, fundamentals, technicals) can be time-consuming. There is nothing wrong with this approach. You just have to be prepare for investing the time to make it work. It is entirely possible for a diligent and intelligent investor to beat the market with this strategy.

You can also choose to invest in index funds which will track a stock index like the S&P 500 or Nasdaq. Another options are the actively managed funds that aim to beat an index. If you do not have the time to review the earnings, fundamentals, or technicals of a stock, you can use a more passive approach. Buy and Hold individual stocks, mutual funds or a stock index.

Another technique is to use BullGap's Momentum Market Timing Strategy. It has over a 90% win rate and has consistently beaten the market. Let us pick the stocks for you! Beat the Stock Market

Open a brokerage account

You need a platform where you have the option to buy, sell, and store your purchased stocks. A brokerage account can be opened through TD Ameritrade, E*Trade, Schwab, Webull, Robinhood, and many others. The good news is most if not all of these now provide zero-commission trades.

The process of opening an account is pretty quick and painless. In fact, opening an account can be done in a matter of minutes and you can easily fund your account through their mobile app or web front.

Additionally, you should consider the type of account you will be opening. Please discuss this with the brokerage account but you may consider a standard brokerage account or an individual retirement account (IRA). Both accounts allow you to buy stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs. However, IRAs differ in how you can access your money and annual limit. Please consult with your brokerage account when you begin this process.

Compare service, features, and cost

Review the trading platform features. Some broker's trading platform offers a wealth of educational tools and services. If you are just getting into stocks, you may want to join a brokerage company that offers educational services as well as good customer support.

For newer investors, having access to educational services, investment research, technical indicators, charting can be invaluable. Additionally, you will want to review the trading platform software. Since most if not all of the brokers provide online trading. User experience is important when you need to place an long or short order using the broker's mobile or web app platform.

Select your stocks

There are five types of assets that most investors will likely own when they trade stocks.

Common stocks
Preferred stocks
Bonds
Money Markets
Real estate investment trusts (REITs)

Diversify

Continue investing

Rinse and repeat. Of course, this is easier said than done. But at the end of the day, if you are serious about getting into investing in stocks, you want to do your homework. Gather information and formulate a plan.

How to Invest in Stocks