how to buy stocks online

Anyone looking into buying stocks for the first time needs a place where they can learn the ropes. A great place to get started is a fantasy stock market game. In this type of game, you will have access to a stock trading simulation that works just like you will see when you sign up for a real discount online broker.

The best stock trading game is called Wall Street Survivor and it is absolutely free to sign up and get started playing  Wall Street Survivor is meant for beginners and people who want to learn about the stock market and how to trade online.

I went ahead and signed up which takes about a minute and found out that there are a lot of exciting things going here. You have a good stock simulator game that includes both weekly and monthly contests where you can win prizes. Best of all, it is FREE!

In this game you learn how to buy and sell stock just like you will do when you graduate to the real thing and make your trades with an online broker. By playing the game you will learn how to make your trades and understand all the different options you will have when buying real stocks. There are many different kinds of trades you can make such as shorting stocks and limit trades and you can learn them all at Wall Street Survivor.

One thing that makes this the best fantasy stock market game is the amazing amount of material that is available for FREE. There are tutorials, training videos, a huge forum, and the numerous contests which you are automatically entered in just by signing up.  They also have a big research section where you can research your stock picks before you make them or just learn how to research them first. It is a real big community and getting involved is what they want you do do. Once you sign up to Wall Street Survivor you will realize what a great learning and fun site it is. 

At the beginning you will be given $100,000 in virtual cash to start making trades with. This will be the money you start your portfolio with and from there you can buy and sell stocks (with your fantasy dollars). During the day while the market is open you will be able to trade stocks just like you would for real at any real broker. After hours trading is the same and just like in real life, you can learn how to do all the different kinds of buys and sells and anything you can do at a real online broker you can learn how to do here. Here is a snapshot of my account right now:

In Wall Street Survivor you will be learning how to manage your very own stock portfolio and you will do it by making simulated trades that are executed on a real-time stock trading platform. This is a great fantasy stock market game and it’s FREE price makes it even better!

Last year (2009) was a great year for anyone who got involved with the market and was buying stocks for the first time. After the beginning of February, it was almost straight up for the rest of the year and you probably did very well with most any stock you bought.

2010 though, could be a much different year for stocks and it is already starting out like that. In 2009, we had a brand new President who preached hope and people were enthusiastic and upbeat about a change for the better. The market no doubt was helped along somewhat from this positive energy as people were willing to buy back into it in hopes that the economy would start to turn around.

Now though, after one full year and an economy that just keeps getting worse, people’s perceptions of the future aren’t nearly as rosy. The Obama stimulus isn’t working and there is growing disatisfaction coming from all parts of America as well as from both liberals and conservatives. Unemployment continues to hover around 10% and companies like Toyota are in trouble for the first time in recent memory. All in all, things look extremely dicey at the moment and the stock market is showing it. 

The Dow has now dipped below 10,000 for the first time in months and investors look like they are increasingly weary of the future that seems so uncertain. If you are looking  for the best stocks to buy right now, you might keep in mind that there is nothing stopping the market from going right back down to 7,000 or even lower than where it was before it made it’s big comeback.  

Investors seem to forget the past too quickly and sometimes get swept up in the euphoria of a rising market. Having the Dow rise well above 10,000 has made stock buyers forget how bad things were just one year ago. 2010 could very well be another really bad year as the Obama administration flounders with solutions and continues to spend money like they were printing it themselves (too bad they are).

High inflation, low interest rates, high unemployment, and a further deterioration of the economy could be what we have in store for this next year and beyond. It is my opinion that anyone thinking of buying stocks should be cautious and not spend all their money at once. Of course this could be a buying opportunity but it just doesn’t feel that way to me. It feels like some more difficult times for stocks might be right around the corner so I am hanging on to my cash for now.