How to Sell Stock Without a Broker

Transfer stock in lieu of cash donations to any charity you are gifting. Besides the tax advantage of giving appreciated stock to a charity, most brokerage houses charge charities little or nothing for gifted stock. If the stock is in physical form, merely sign the transfer power on the back of the certificate. For stock held by the broker, the charity will have instructions for you to follow.
Find a buyer for your stock---a family friend, neighbor or relative. It will be necessary to contact the transfer agent to have the stock transferred into the purchasing party's name. Use the stock price as of a certain date as the trade date, so there will be no disagreement among the parties as to the trade amount. Be certain there are no dividend payments pending, and if so, they should be paid to the selling party.
Use DRIP programs where possible. DRIP or dividend reinvestment plans allow you to buy as little as one share of stock from a participating member or a broker and then arrange for all dividends to be paid in the form of additional shares. Not all stocks have such a program, but the stocks that do tend to be large dividend-paying stocks. Shares can then be sold to plan participants, allowing the investor to pay no commissions for either buying or selling stock.
When making large purchases, use stock and sign the stock over to the buyer. He can sell the stock at his expense when he is ready. You avoid the commission and the buyer receives secure funds through ownership of the stock certificate.
Sell stock through an in-the-money covered call. This means writing an option below the current stock price. The premium paid by the call buyer to you, the seller, will more than cover the commissions for the option and the stock sale. This is a popular method used by large institutions to move large quantities of stock.

How to Invest in the German Stock Market

Work with a financial adviser who has experience helping people invest in foreign stock markets. Most of the larger financial services companies have advisers on staff who specialize in overseas investing.
Create a trading account at one of the United States' major brokerages. Together with your financial adviser, determine the amount of your initial deposit to your trading account and have the money transferred into it.
Research the major German indexes. Each has its own website, available in an English-language version, on which you can track the market's gains or losses for the day, see what companies and industries are the biggest winners and losers and get a sense of general trends in German investing. To complete this step, you'll need a working knowledge of stock trading, which you can gain by reading a reputable introductory book on the subject from your local bookseller.
Choose an industry to focus your attention on. Ideally, it should be an industry with which you have some familiarity in the context of the German economy. Your industry of choice will also depend largely upon your personal risk tolerance.
Identify a company you want to invest in, review the trading history of its stocks and bonds and discuss it with your financial adviser.
Have your licensed stockbroker act on your behalf to place a buy order on the stock you specified. Don't forget that your order must be placed through a German broker licensed to buy and sell on the German stock markets, so you may experience a slight delay. This could conceivably affect the price you pay for the shares.
Use the index of the German market on which the company you invested in is listed to track the performance of your investment. Overseas investing is not recommended for day traders because the third-party process can make it difficult for you to pinpoint your expected sale price with the kind of precise accuracy day traders thrive on.