What are the best ways to learn about the stock market?

Don’t Buy a book. First use the public library, take out a few investing books. The one you can easily comprehend is the one you buy.
Get the Wall Street journal, start watching the money channel, such as CNBC. Research online any questions you still have.
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Start off by making sure you know all the terminology and try opening a practice account, this way you can practice with virtual cash and not lose any money.

Whilst practicing try and develop some trading strategies, sites like investopedia.com are good for this.

E trade are good but for beginners id recommend TradeKing as they have the cheapest buying and selling fees and no account minimum.

I have sourced a website that is ideal for beginners and has links to some good practice accounts, Matt.
References :
http://www.sharesexplained.com/tradingguide/stock-market-practice-accounts.html

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Read about the stock market in financial newspapers and also study about some of the big companies and the ir stock movements,their financial performance etc.
Then visit a broker and get yourself familiarised with the market, stock movements etc.
Once all the above are over you can enter the market as a trader or investor. Initially you deal in small numbers and once you gain confidence they go for higher volumes and numbers.
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If you’re a rookie in investing or stocks, go to

http://www.finance.yahoo.com.

Open up a portfolio without using real money. You can give yourself as much or as little money to try out the market. The stocks you want to focus on is consumer staples, consumer discretionary, and healthcare. These are DEFENSIVE stocks that will survive through good and bad times. Most of my positions are in these stocks. Some names include 3M, Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, Exxon Mobil, Walmart, Costco. Everybody’s got to eat and wipe their butts regardless of the state of economy. Many of these companies survived through the Great Depression.

That’s the benefits. You can sleep at night knowing your money is doing well. There are NO guarantees that you won’t lose money. It’s just that these stocks are the best. They pay good dividends too.

Then once you’re comfortable and test the waters of the market, you can finally put some real money in. Go to Scottrade.com. They’re excellent for beginners.

If you’re new to stocks, DON’T DAY TRADE. You’ll a rookie in a world of professionals. I tried day-trading with Citigroup and AIG when they were a little bit over $1. I had some luck at first, making about $30 a day but I was way over my head. My luck didn’t last long and I had to rethink my strategy.

Day trading involves A LOT of commissions to the broker. With all the commissions deducted from each trade, you’ll be lucky if you only lose half your money.

I would just day trade using Yahoo! Finance. Open a stimulation account, give yourself $100 worth of fake money and play it in the stimulation format. You’ll see what I mean by losing money every easily.

Good luck.
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