BACKNEXT

How do I buy a stock?

The most common way is through a broker. Brokers are paid to trade stocks and other securities on behalf of customers. (This is different than giving investment advice, though some brokers may also be registered investment advisers.) There are two kinds of brokers: full-service and discount.

Full-service brokers dispense advice and can even manage your portfolio - for a price. For example, a full-service broker may charge between 1.0% and 1.5% of the dollar amount of a stock purchase. So if you were to buy $5,000 worth of stock with a broker fee of 1.0%, you would have to pay $50 for that transaction. Some full-service brokers offer flat fees instead.

By contrast, discount brokers may do little more than complete transactions for you - at a more reasonable price. Some online discount brokers, for instance, offer trades for under $10. One type of discount broker, known as a share broker, charges a fee per share traded. Share brokers typically charge less per share for larger trades.

No matter what kind of broker you choose, read the fine print about fees. For example, sometimes there are strings attached to cheap trades, such as requirements to make a certain number of trades per month or to maintain a minimum balance.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.