TYPES OF STOCKS
Blue chip, secondary issues, growth stock, and penny stock corporations can issue different types of stock. The basic two types of stock are common stock and preferred stock. Both types of stock have their pros and cons, so before buying a corporations stock, you must decide which one pleases you most.
A common stock is the basic stock a corporation issues. It just shows that you own a fraction of the company. The common stocks are directly influenced by failures and successes of the company. Common stocks are more of a gamble. Since there is a higher chance of making profit, common stock owners are issued their dividends or profits after the preferred stock.
After all the common stock has been issued, companies begin to distribute preferred stock. The preferred stock owners are given their dividends before the common stock owners are. Also, if the company goes out of business, and liquidates, the preferred stock owners are paid back the money they invested before the common stockholders are reimbursed. The main drawback of preferred stocks is that they cannot benefit as much from company profits because they are only paid a fixed dividend payment.
There are also classes of preferred stock. These different classes are often labelled A,B,C and so on. The different classes usually have different market prices, restrictions, and dividend payments.
When no one is buying a stock because of a high price, companies will often issue a stock split. When they issue a stock split, a company gives you more stock for your money. They simply distribute more stocks, and decrease the price for a stock. This just allows someone who doesn’t have as much money to invest in a company. If you own stock in a company that splits two for one, you would get twice the amount of stocks that you had before, but each stock will have decreased in value by fifty percent. Stocks can split into any number, but they can also reverse split which means that the stocks double in value, but you only get to keep half the stocks you had before. In either split, you do not lose any money. It is just like trading in two five dollar bills for one ten dollar bill, or vice versa.
BUYING AND SELLING STOCKS
The first step when buying stocks is to decide what company to buy stock in. You can buy stock in any publicly held corporation, which means that the public can control the corporation. You cannot buy stock in a privately held or closely held corporation, which are corporations that are controlled either by a small group of individuals or by close friends and family. Fortunately, most of the larger companies are publicly held, and you can buy from them. When selecting a company to invest in, you should make sure they are in a strong industry, and make sure the company is strong or growing. For example, Coca Cola Enterprises is a large company that is one of the strongest in the soft drinks industry. This would make it a good stock to invest in, although finding a newer company that is growing rapidly might get you more profits quicker. Choosing the company to invest in is no easy job, and there are many different methods people have come up with to select one. Fundamental analysis is one method, in which you study the company’s current management and position in the market. Technical analysis is another method which is totally based on charts, in which you identify trends the company has, and invest accordingly. One popular method is just throwing darts at the stock page, which often beats out all the other methods.
After you decide what company to invest in, you need to find a broker. A broker is the only person that can make an order to buy or sell stocks. There are two types of brokers that every brokerage firm has. The first type of broker is a stockbroker, who researches investments, helps make goals, and give advice on investing. Discount brokers on the other hand, do not offer advice, and they do no research. They just are middle men in the transactions. When you give a stockbroker your order, they relay the order to the floorbrokers. The floorbrokers do all the actual buying and selling, and they hold a seat on the exchange.
After you find a broker and buy the stocks, the broker does the rest of the work. You just have to call him up and place an order with him. The most basic order is the market order, where you just ask the broker to buy or sell your stocks at the best price he can get his hands on. Another type of order which takes more research and predicting on your part is a limit order. In a limit order, you tell the broker to trade only when the stock is at a certain price or better. A stop order is an order which can save you from extreme loss. In a stop order, you tell the broker to sell your shares if the stock drops too low, and you tell him the price not to let it drop below.