How to Buy Stock Without a Broker

Find an online trading company. There are many online trading companies that allow you to set up and trade stocks online. You may be familiar with some of these companies and new ones are popping up over time. Some of the companies you can look into include E-Trade, TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab. Whichever companies you look into, you should research them completely. Be sure to find out what the fees are for setting up and maintaining the account, as well as the per trade fee charged.
Set up and fund your account. Once you have researched each company and make a decision on which company you want to trade online, it is time to set up and fund your trading account. Each website will have step-by-step instructions on what you need to do to set up your account. Once the account is set up, you will need to either mail in a check or transfer money into the account to fund your online trading account. Funding an online trading account is placing the money in the account that you will use to make trades.
Research the stocks you want to invest in. Most of these online trading sites also provide research material so you can educate yourself on the stocks and bonds you may be interested in buying. You should do a lot of research on any stock before you decide to invest your money in the stock. These sites also help you to understand finance and trading terminology that you may be familiar with. It is important that you make informed and educated decisions to help reduce the risk of loss of your money.
Process the buy or sell trade. Once you decide to buy a stock, you will need to process the order. Every site is slightly differently, but each site usually has line-by-line buy 'forms' that you need to complete and submit in order to process the trade. This is true whether you are buying or selling a stock.

How to Bet on the Stock Market

Learn about market behavior, financial and fundamental analysis, and technical analysis of trading charts. The more you know, the better your decisions will be, particularly in a fast-moving market. The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) has a good online course in investing basics, and Investopedia has an introduction to technical analysis.
Practice your trading strategies using an online fantasy stock market. Read Investors Business Daily every day, and decide whether you want to buy, sell or wait for a better investing opportunity. Choose an ETF (exchange-traded fund) that interests you and fantasy trade that until you're ready to branch out into other stocks. Continue fantasy trading for at least three to six months. You are training yourself to react wisely to unexpected developments in the market and learning how the market moves in relation to economic indicators and company earnings reports.
Allocate only a small portion of your total trading account to your first few trades. Always keep a reserve in case you make a bad trading decision and take a substantial loss. As you make profits, take out and set aside your original investment amount in your trading reserve.
Control your risk by investing in mutual funds and ETFs, which give you maximum diversification for minimum investment. Diversification tends to protect against the risk of a single credit, or sector.
Use dollar cost averaging to avoid the risk of investing all your money at a market high. Invest a fixed amount at regular intervals in the same stock each time until you have established a full position. For most people, this means buying one or two different stocks, an ETF or a mutual fund. One of the best places to do this inexpensively is Sharebuilder.com. Investing a fixed amount at regular intervals in a variety of things does not achieve dollar cost averaging.

How to Invest in the Stock Market With Little Money

Open a discount brokerage account with a low minimum deposit requirement and low trade commissions. Some online brokers have no minimum deposit requirement to open an account and offer promotions and deals for free or cheap trade commissions.
Buy shares of a stock index fund, which is a low-fee mutual fund or exchange-traded fund that owns the same stocks as a particular stock index. An index is a group of stocks that represent a portion of the stock market. An index fund provides diversification, which spreads your money to many different investments. You can purchase index funds through your brokerage account or directly through certain fund providers.
Buy stock in a specific company using a direct stock purchase plan, or DSP. This plan is available through many large corporations, which allow you to buy stock in their company directly without using a broker. Matt Krantz says in his article 'Direct Stock Purchase is Cheap, but it Can Cost You Dearly' in 'USA Today' that the fees with a DSP are typically cheaper than buying stock through a brokerage account, but warns not to invest too much of your money in one stock.
Buy stock through a dividend reinvestment plan, or DRIP, which allows you to buy shares directly from a company and reinvest dividends in new shares. Many large companies have DRIPs that allow you to invest a small amount of money periodically and typically have low setup and maintenance fees. Many DRIPs require you to be an existing shareholder, so you may need to purchase a single share through your brokerage account before signing up for a plan.