Stock market questions from a beginner?

Im 21 yrs old and I have managed to save $20,000. I currently have $10,000 in a C.D. that will be mature in a few months. I do live at home and have very few expenses so I do not plan on needing my money in the near future but would still like it to be somewhat easily accessable.





I have always been interested in the stock market and would like to get involved. I would like to invest between $1K-$3K to start.





How do I go about choosing the stock or stocks that are right for me? Should I spend it all on the same company?





When I do decide what stock(s) I want, how do I actually buy them? I am not a big fan of just paying a broker or some other person just to purchase them for me. I work hard for a living and im not paying somebody to sit at a desk.





Do you actually get money while you own the stock or do you just get the profit when you sell them for a gain?





I seen the stock market went up 419 "points" today. What is a point?





Any other advice is appriciated.

Stock market questions from a beginner?
You have the right idea about starting off small. Learning from the school of hard knocks can be expensive. It is easier to loose money in the market than to gain it.


Before you invest in the stock market, read up on stock trading and technical analysis. Do some paper trading.


Check out the Yahoo Group: ComputerProgramPicks.





When you buy a stock, you pay the broker for it. The price of the stock will either go up or down. When you sell the stock, that is when you will realize your gain or loss. A fee is charged by your broker for handling the buy and sell transactions. Online brokerage firms such as TD-Ameritrade, ScottTrade, ETrade have buy-sell transactions fees less than $25. Online brokerage firms do not provide personal investment guidance. They do have lots of material, reports etc. that you can read.





Best of luck to you. Having luck is executing with a prepared mind.
Reply:you should try to invest your money in the stock market. Here is a great website that can help you out.
Reply:You can check out my new blog, but there's an easy way for the home gamer to dive into the market using ShareBuilder (just so nobody thinks I'm getting something from referrals, you can go there yourself by using www.sharebuilder.com ) and the money market may just pay more than what you'll get by reinvesting your CD.





I hope this helps.
Reply:I am 22 and I also invest. I dont recomend buying stocks, instead purchase etfs. They are like mutual funds, which own basket of stock. For begining investors, this is much safer, because you have more diversification.





In order to be fully diversifed, you would need to own stocks in varous sectors, so i would mitigate the risk and buy etfs. look at the s%26amp;p 500, etfs.