In terms of buying a stock yourself, the easiest way to do so is to open up a brokerage account with a discount provider such as charles schwab or scottrade. Once your account is open and funded, you can login and buy and sell shares ofstocks as often as you'd like.

For stocks, one point equals one dollar. So when you hear that a stock has lost or gained x number of "points," this is the same as saying that the stock has lost or gained x number of dollars. Although one point always equals one dollar, the percentage value of one point movement can be different for two companies

Think of a supermarket when you go shopping for your groceries; under one roof you can buy pretty much anything.A stock exchange is a supermarket for the buying and selling of stocks and shares.Individual investors as well as banks and hedge funds are able to buy and sell stocks and shares on any of these exchanges. One smart way to focus on how yo