Question: how old do you have to be to buy stocks. How much do they cost.. what is the best stock on the market? 

Answer: You can buy stocks at any age as long as you have an adult to help you set up the account.  Just go to etrade.com or something and set up an account.  It's not hard, but you need a checking account I think.  Then transfer money from your checking account into your e-trade account.  Then go online and you can use that money to buy stocks.  \n\nUsing the web site, just decide which stock you want to buy (they all have a letter abbreviation), see how much it costs, and then figure out how many you can buy with the money in your account.  (they charge you about 20 dollars each time you make a purchase).   Then click the BUY button and you've bought it!  Once you buy the stock online, then you own it.  You don't actually get it, instead shows up in your e-trade account so you can sell it whenver you want.  \n\nThe price will move up and down over the hours/days/months as people buy and sell the stock.  The price is always the price of the last transaction and will go up when the stock gets more popular and down when it gets less popular.  \n\nThings that make it popular (go up) is that the company makes more money or makes a good deal, or hires a good executive, or buys another company which is very good, or something like that.\n\nThings that make it less popular (go down) is when the company loses money, or gets sued, or something happens where it might lose money in the future, like it's customers plan on spending less, or the price of something it needs to run (like gasoline) becomes more expensive.\n\nWhen you are ready, just go back to the web site and click the button to sell the stock.  The money will appear in your account (minus anohter 20 bucks) and if you did well, you will end up with more money than you started with, and you can transfer it back into your bank account, etc.....\n\nIf you have a job, put a little bit each paycheck into your stock account, and then when it hits about 500 dollars buy some stock.  You pay 20 dollars no matter how much you buy so it's better to buy every once in a while instead of once a week!\n\nIt's not so much buying a good stock as it is buying a stock that you think is cheaper than it should be and will become more popular later.\n\nFor exmaple If you notice that the stock for some clothing store has been sitting around $30 for the last year (the e-trade web site has all this information), but you recently noticed that everyone is starting to shop there and it's getting really popular, then buy the stock at $30.  Pretty soon other people will realize that hte store is making money and the stock will get popular, and the price will go up, maybe to $50 for example etc....  then when you sell it, you'll get back $50 for every $30 you bought!  (minus the $20 sell fee).  You can transfer it back to your checking account and spend it or use it to buy more stock!  (it can get addictive).\n\n\nGood luck!
This question from the Yahoo Q&A forum is categorized in the topic: Computers & Internet