How to Buy Stocks—A Quick PrimerWhen you are beginning to delve into the stock market, you need to start with a goal.

What is the reason for your investment? Do you need a quick return on your investment, or do you want to watch it grow over time?  Answering these questions will help you to determine your own strategy for how to buy stocks. To select the right stocks for your portfolio, you’ll want to monitor stock alerts. But what do you need to look for? Below is a strategy that might assist strong companies that have better-than-average growth in earnings.

Try selecting between fifteen and twenty stocks across at least seven different industries. Stocks with above average rates of growth may be the best buys, because high-growth stocks can be overpriced. just work for you.

Keep in mind that there are many types of stocks. You can search for stocks by company size (measured in market capitalization), sector, and various kinds of patterns of growth. You might hear traders speak about energy vs. technology stocks, or value vs. growth stocks, for instance.  Regardless, investing in stocks is your optimum way to see a return over the speed of inflation.

Another tip is to remember that you must look at other factors beyond stock price to determine value. The track record does not foretell future performance. For this reason, over the long term, it makes good sense to hold onto solid stocks than to partake in emotional trading, unless you keep up on minute stock fluctuations. But you can do exactly this, and be ahead of other traders, if you have the right tools.

Barchart, a company that serves both novice and experienced traders, has the perfect tool to help you keep abreast of solid trading opportunities. With their Strategic Alerts Service, you can keep up on what’s happening in the markets with intraday alerts that check conditions every five minutes and report back to you via email or text. With the free 14-day trial subscription, you also get your own portfolio builder to help you get off the ground. Get your own personal market feed on your homepage that you can configure to your liking, viewing just the part of the market that interests you. Your membership also includes the ability to connect with other members of the Barchart Community to build a network of traders. View and participate in community voting on your favorite stocks to get a pulse of what may interest other, more experienced traders.

Discover more about how to buy stocks with a stock alerts tool from Barchart. Learn more about what Barchart has to offer to help you make sense of the stock market at Barchart.com.

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