How does one buy their own stocks

instead of going through a broker.


kathy_ann

get a seat on one of the exchanges. You need a broker's license to trade stocks or you get to spend Christmas with martha. Why not use a discount house like E-trade?

There are many different websites that will allow you to trade for a fair price. Most require a minimum amount of money or capital in your account. Check out Scott Trade. We have just started using them.

I highly recommend Scottrade. You do have to have a $500 minimum. Simple internet trades are $7. If you refer someone, you get 3 free trades. No inactivity fees.

Please check out Motley Fools.com . Free advice and it doesn't seem too bad. Unless you are willing to do the homework, buy a good stock and sit on it. Trading every day is what you pay somebody else to do.When will DG do a public offering? Maybe never, which is good. If Dave ever does, buy 'em. Frank

depends what you want to do. If you trade mutuals, commodities and or options you're probably better off with E-Trade or Ameritrade. Either way you are still using a broker of course, just the fee structure is different. I have had an Ameritrade account since 1988 and it works well but E-Trade also is a bank with all the attendent functions.

We have long term stocks, walmart, general electric, etc. We don't plan to buy and trade every day, but man, every time I buy stocks or sell it costs a fortune through my broker. Someone told me I could buy my own, that's why I asked how it could be done, Don't want to do anything that would get me into trouble, LOL I don't keep up with the stocks at all, except for what I have bought. I've got my walmart stock set to sell at a certain price and it will cost me about 85 .00 to have my broker sellit, and the same price for me to buy it back when it drops down.

kathy

Kathy, you can buy your own, some companies, GM for example allow shareholders to buy direct from the company. So, I bought 1 stock through my broker of several of these, of course he tried talking me out of it(less commission for him) but I stood firm and now can purchase direct w/o the broker fee and unwanted pressure to fill their stocking with incentives.

OK. You can buy and sell stocks for about 8 bucks a crack by setting up an account with an on-line broker like Scottrade. They have a minimum account balance that must be established to start an account but your stock counts toward the balance (someone posted that scottrade is $500.00). Then you enter trades you want to make with a few keystrokes and like magic it happens...8 bucks or whatever per trade. you can also call on the phone and talk to the broker but that usually costs a little more. What you are talking about (being set up to buy or sell at a given price) is called a limit order. Some on-line brokers charge a few dollars more for this service some do not (Ameritrade is 10.99 for either a market or limit order). Look into it because all your present broker is doing is charging you ten times as much for the same service.

We pretty much got rid of the middleman---the broker....and handle all of our buying and selling on Ameritrade. Just do your research. Motley Fool is a great place to set up your stock portfolio and you can watch it increase...or decrease each day. :) Deb

At the risk of sounding like a stickler-for-detail old curmudgeon (an oft heard allegation around here), I will for the last time (promise) point out that using an on-line discount brokerage does not truly get rid of the broker. You are really hiring a broker for waaay less money than the bricks and mortar guy. The United States stock exchange orgs require a licensed broker to perform stock trades on any of the recognized exchanges. I agree Ameritrade is an excellent choice IMHO but not the very cheapest available.

Taking the time and doing the work to know what you are about when spending or investing your money is called Due Diligence. ALWAYS EXERCISE DUE DILIGENCE !