Stock trading is one of the easiest, purest ways of making money online. So, maybe you don’t think trading is for you. Maybe you’re a market cynic or just don’t think you have the head for it. Whether you’re just thinking about it for the first time or you’re someone who has wanted to try trading for a long time, I’m going to show you ways that you can make money trading stocks on the market, and teach you much more than just how to earn online. One of the most common questions I’m often asked by prospective traders/investors is, Isn’t it a bad time to invest in the stock market? The housing & credit default swap crisis of 2007 triggered a massive stock crash, resulting in one of the steepest (most bearish) market declines (recession) since World War II. The net effect of the crash wouldn’t effect ‘Main Street’ until nearly a year later in 2008. Since early March of 2009, the market has been in recovery mode and many great stocks have been reaching new all-time highs. Another common question is, What is a stock? A stock, or share, is a medium of ownership, just like buying a mortgage. When you use a mortgage to buy a house, the bank, technically, owns your property on paper. Shares are your entitlement to ownership of a company. The more shares you own, the more of the company you own. The next question usually is, What’s the difference between an investor and a gambler? The short answer is, a gambler will make repeated wagers against a house that he knows has an unfair advantage against him. An investor, particularly a smart investor, relies on a number of tools and techniques, varying from chart analysis to macroeconomic/microeconomic conditions to valuations. However, there is a big difference between an investor and a trader, and it is one not really talked about that much on TV or in print. An investor is someone who has taken the time to examine a company’s history, their products or services, and their long term growth outlook; in fact, much of an investor’s decision about buying the stock of a company is about the long term. Traders are the opposite way. Traders amass, or look to amass, large short term gains from making specific jumps into and out of a specific stock at a period in time. Thus, traders are largely immune from more mid term dangers, such as market crashes and bearish runs. So, now you’re saying to yourself, So, how do I get started? It is very easy to get started trading as you have a plethora of choices before you. I recommend going through a discount brokerage that caters to traders. I use two brokerage services, a premium broker for my investments and a discount broker for my trading. I would not go through a discount brokerage that is going to charge you over $5 in commission fees, because to both buy and sell your trades will cost you just $10, whereas the use of a discount broker at $10 in commission fees, will cost you $20 in a single trade. When selecting margin and options from the screen, I recommend, for beginners, that you decline a margin account and accept options trading. Once you’ve finished registering with your broker, you’ll need to link your bank account to the brokerage service via the menu on the screen. This is a simple secure service that brokers offer so that you have cash at the ready to place your trades. I’m going to teach you the fundamentals of buying orders. When you buy a stock, you’re given several different ways to do so. You can buy a stock using a Market Order or a Limit Order. A Market Order automatically accept the markets calling price for a stock at the moment that you order. A Limit Order, on the other hand, is a trigger that you place to buy a stock at a lower price than where it is trading now. Similarly, when you sell a stock, you have several different orders to choose from. You can use Market Orders, Limit Orders, or Stop-Loss Orders. The first two work identically to their buy order counterparts. Stop-Loss Orders, the most important order to sell, is a trigger to sell a stock if it falls below a certain price, keeping your money safe. As you begin to look more at trading, you will find lower risk ways to make money through a single trade. Keeping a watch list of stocks in your trading account can offer you valuable prospective into the way the market reacts under different conditions. Just remember, Bears make money, bulls make money, but pigs get slaughtered.