One of the first things you should look into if you’re interested in trading stocks is paper trading. Paper trading is trading with fake money, it’s a great way to start learning how to trade and seeing it first hand. A quick google search will give you access to virtual trading software. Also some brokers offer paper trading.
Once you’re ready to dive into real trading, you’re first priority is going to be looking for a good broker. Check out this post for more about brokers. After that you are going to want to fund your account. One important thing to know about trading is that if you want to be able to daytrade all the time you have to have a minimum of $25,000. This is called the pattern daytrading rule. Daytrading is when you buy and sell a stock in the same day. If you have below $25,000 you are allowed to do this 3 times in a 5 day span, any more and you’re account will be penalized for 90 days. If you buy stock A and sell stock A during the same day, that is a daytrade. If you buy stock B and hold stock B overnight and sell it the next, that is not a daytrade.
Most beginner traders make the mistake of using their entire account value in a single trade. You should only use a small percentage of your account on each trade that way if you mess up and lose your money you still have money to trade with.
