How to Invest in Nigerian Stock

Decide whether you want to invest in individual stocks, ETFs (exchange-traded funds) or other indices. It is advisable for beginners in overseas investing to start by studying the different indices in the markets they are considering. These indices mirror the stocks in those markets. Examples include the Dow Jones Africa Titans 50 Index (DJAFK) and the Market Vectors Africa ETF (AFK). See links in Resources below for more on African ETFs and indices.
Pick an online brokerage based on your decision in Step 1. Investing in indices and ETFs will allow you more brokerages to choose from than if you pursue trading in individual Nigerian stocks. There are many online brokerage firms to choose from. They normally charge a monthly fee and between $3 and $20 for individual trades. For a fixed monthly fee, some will allow you to make automatic monthly investments for a specified number of trades with no minimum amounts.
Open a brokerage account that allows you to trade in Nigerian stocks directly if that is what you plan to do. Some brokerages may require that you submit a separate application to buy overseas stocks. Euro Pacific, for example, allows you to trade in overseas stocks directly. See a link to Euro Pacific in Resources below.
Use a Nigerian stockbroker. Contact the stock brokerage firms in Nigeria and closely follow the Nigerian market. See a link in Resources below to the Nigerian stock exchange for contact information for brokerage firms (also called issuing houses) authorized to trade stock in Nigeria.
Open your brokerage account and link it to your funding account. This allows you transfer the funds needed to begin investing.

How to Find Dow Jones Stock Market Historical Prices and Charts

Access Yahoo! Finance (see Resources). Enter the date you want to check. For example, if you enter 03/04/1965, you will see that on March 4, 1967, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 846.60. Notice that Yahoo! Finance offers a range of dates so if you pick a wide range of dates for Dow Jones historical pricing, click on 'last' to get to the first day of your range. If you are familiar with using a financial calculator, you can use the Time Value of Money feature to determine the annualized rate of return between a date in the past and today's Dow Jones Stock Market price.
Access the StockCharts website if you prefer to see the Dow Jones historical pricing in chart form (see Resources). You will see a more visual representation of stock market price changes over the past century, particularly the enormous dip that occured during the Great Depression. Also, notice the major downward volatility in 1973-1974 and the crash in 1987. Again, in no way should you use chart to predict the future but it can certainly provide you a quick history lesson. When you see volatile periods, both good and bad, you may find it interesting to research the news headlines of those years.
Use these same websites for other historical information, such as historical individual stock prices. For example, on the Yahoo website, if you change the symbol to KO and enter the date 6/7/2000, you will see that Coca-Cola stock was priced at $53 per share at close of business on June 7, 2000. It will also show you a price adjusted for dividends and splits. While still on the same Yahoo page, click on 'Basic Chart' on the left-hand side to see a chart of Coca-Cola stock. You can adjust the chart from one day to beyond five years.
Use the historical information to make yourself a well-informed stock investor. This will, in turn, make you a more confident investor.