How do I go about participating in the stock market?

[Xanthia Alysha]

Always heard of shares and news about stock but not sure what to make of it but am interested in those shares. So an explanation of how the stock market works for me would help.

[tomcruisesky]

try to invest in google inc
700 dollar per share.
and its just the beginning

[investor123]

I am also a newbie on this business and would like to know more about stocks and how to play it right. I came across this site: CharlesD.net - BUY GOOD STOCKS And Retire Young(er) and it is very informative. They provide great information that we newbies can learn from. I hope this helps.

[LafserMarketplace]

If you are interested in building a stock portfolio, you might want to consider buying stocks of stable companies that pay a dividend. You won't get rich quick like you could speculating on the next hot stock, but you won't lose all of your money either when it implodes like the banking stocks did in 2008, or like the dot.com stocks (also known as the dot.bom) stocks did in 1999/2000.

If you aren't familiar with accounting or finance, you might consider taking a class or buying a text book. It's extremely helpful if you have a general understanding of a balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. This will enable you to look at information provided by firms when they file their quarterly and annual reports. (Another option is to buy the book we are close to finishing which puts this material into a very basic, easy to read ebook). It's also good to do some prep work to better understand the company and how it is doing versus it's peers.

My suggestion would be to build a small but diversified portfolio of dividend paying stocks. In general these stocks faring well right now, and if you watch CNBC, you will hear them over and over again refer to investing in dividend stocks. If interested, check out my website, LafserMarketplace.com - Subscription services: Your source for stock analysis, stock selection criteria, diversification, dividend yield, price targets, P/E ratios, operating margins, profit margins & more. Let us get your portfolio back on the right.

At the LafserMarketplace, we sell subscriptions to our monthly newsletter, which contains information on approximately 300 firms. We provide a wealth of data in an easy to read format that includes each firm's:

- company stock ticker
- industry/sector
- stock price, analysts' estimated price & the current delta
- EPS and P/E ratio
- dividend yield
- operating margin & profit margin
- PEG and growth rate
- Levered Free Cash Flow

Our goal is to provide you the info you need to build a diversified portfolio by selecting one or two dividend yielding stocks per industry. We help you choose by providing the aforementioned data so you can easily compare a number of stocks from each industry. With the newsletter we include a free guide to help you in understanding the data provided, and we also offer a wealth of free information on our website. If you were to try and recreate what we provide, you would easily spend 15-20 hours per week maintaining your spreadsheet, not to mention all the time spent building it and keying in the initial data.

Our goal is to help you become a better, informed investor, and then build and manage your own porfolio. Why buy a mutual fund, or a handful of mutual funds, shell out 2-3% of your money each year in management fees, and hope to beat the indices. Instead, pick a diversified portfolio of dividend stocks.

If the stock prices rise, your yield will go down, but the value of your stock will appreciate. If the stock prices go down, your yield increases. The good news is, as the yield increases, it will pull in investors, act like a natural floor, and your stock price will go back up.

Here is an example. If a stock has a price of $27.27 and a dividend yield of $1.68 per share, that means it yields 6.1%. (1.68/27.27 = 6.1%). So what does this mean, this stock will pay out $1.68 per share, and in this example it pays out quarterly. So the $1.68/share is divided by 4 and pays 42 cents per share. If you own 100 shares, that means every quarter you would receive $42, and over the course of the year you would receive $168. The yield moves inversely with the stock price. If the stock price increases to $32, the yield would now be 5.25% (1.68/32 = 5.25%). Your yield is lower, but the value of your stock has increased by close to $5 per share. If the price goes down to $25.27, your yield would increase to 6.72%, but the value of your shares would be $2 less per share.

For more info, check out the following link:
Dividend Yield LafserMarketplace.com - Subscription services: Your source for stock analysis, stock selection criteria, diversification, dividend yield, price targets, P/E ratios, operating margins, profit margins & more. Let us get your portfolio

Sign up for a subscription or inquire about a one month free trial subscription and make a risk free decision. Just keep in mind the data is only a snapshot in time, which is why we update it monthly.

For more info, send an email to sales@lafsermarketplace.com or check out our website at LafserMarketplace.com - Subscription services: Your source for stock analysis, stock selection criteria, diversification, dividend yield, price targets, P/E ratios, operating margins, profit margins & more. Let us get your portfolio back on the right