More on Exploring On-line Stock Buying

As I have free time, I am continuing to educated myself on stocks. After finishing two books, I decided to sign-up for an on-line broker and have a look around. After reading reviews, I decided on OptionsExpress, partly because it has a virtual trading.

I must say, you almost need to give blood to sign-up for an account. About the only thing I didn't have to give to get on to check around the site was my bank account number.

I did set up a virtual account and have been playing around with buying various stocks and checking out charts and trying to read company spreadsheets for the past week. With the help of Wikipedia I figured out the difference between an overweight and an underweight stock.

Now I am considering signing up on a second trading site just to compare the differences of the two.

So much to learn . . .

The Stock Market, Scribophile and Life

I have always liked learning, as well as writing, so finally I have decided to learn about the Stock Market and investing. This has been somewhat of a challenge. I am discovering that almost everyone I know does not own stocks other than what is in their work-established retirement plans. The books available at my local library cover how to pick a good stock, but not the nitty-gritty of how to buy stocks. I've discovered the on-line brokers won't let you into their websites unless you give away you social security number and your bank account. I wouldn't mind that if I was a hundred percent certain their site is the one for me, but I sure would like to look at them first before I sign over all my vital stats.

I pumped the one person I know who has owned and purchased stocks today, but his experience was limited to buying utility companies, and only through a broker many years ago. He has no experience buying over the computer. He did say I need to make sure that when I buy a stock that it is registered in my name with the company and not held in some joint account. That sounds like sound advice. Clearly, I have more research to do.

Meanwhile, I have found a great website for getting my writing edited. The one glitch is I have to edit other people's work before I can post mine. That isn't so bad though, because almost all the stories I read are really decent.

This site is free (though you can pay for the extras). It's called Scribophile and can be found at scribophile.com.