Who can benefit from the stock market and how?

Things to be aware of before investing

In theory, the stock market is open and available to almost everyone, however there are certain barriers to getting involved which this does not take into account, such as the requirement to have a device on which to access trading applications, a stable internet connection, and most importantly the funds and time required to learn how the market works and develop a strategy to be successful. Stocks are very volatile and unpredictable at times, the risk of this can be minimalized with prior knowledge / experience and research into the relevant fields, but the chance to lose money on an investment is always present.

This is not a huge issue for wealthy individuals or companies who have disposable income they can comfortably afford to lose learning or taking risky trades, however for those who are struggling financially and need this additional income the most, this makes it very dangerous to even attempt getting involved with stocks as a failure could mean dire consequences for your wellbeing. Furthermore, trading platforms often take a flat cut of money for trades, this is a very minimal price if you are trading in bulk, but for small investments it makes it extremely difficult to make profits and thus is yet another barrier to entry for people in a weaker financial position.

Yet, the stock market can be utilised to earn massive amounts of money for very minimal effort if you are knowledgeable and have the funds to do so, as even if you lose money on one investment, so long as your success rate is high you will still be able to make large financial gains overall. In addition, there are ways to overcome some of these barriers to the market. One such method is trading platforms which do not charge a flat fee, but instead take a percentage of your profits, therefore allowing casual or beginner traders to still earn a profit and get involved, but this method is usually more costly to profits gained if trading in large quantities.

How to start trading

There are multiple other ways to get involved in stocks such as being paid in stocks from your employer, but for this I will be explaining the normal method which anyone can follow:

1. Sign up for any trading platform. This can be one with a percentage profit trade tax for small day trading or ones with a set trade tax for larger trades of higher value.

2. Research companies to identify ones with potential for profit - guides or trading advice videos can be useful to learn what to look for.

3. Using your chosen trading platform, purchase the desired amount of shares.

4. Either set an automatic sell price at which the platform will sell for you or watch manually and try to sell when it will make you the most profit. Share prices are volatile and can quickly fluctuate so you must be vigilant.