You don’t have to be a full-time day-trade warrior to make money buying and selling stocks. You can start with a few dollars and few clicks. The emergence of investing apps has pushed fees down as low as $0, and many of them offer sophisticated tools to help you learn the ropes or reach the next level.
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Stock trading is simply the buying and selling of stocks (also known as “shares”) of a specific company in order to make a profit. Think of stocks as small individual pieces of a company. If you own stocks you own part of that company. Stock values change with each sale, depending on whether more people are buying (because they think its price will rise) or selling (because they think it will fall).
Here’s an example: a company is trading at $5 per share on January 1st and you buy 100 shares for a total of $500. By February 1st, the shares are trading at $5.50, so you decide to sell your shares, giving you a 50-cent return on each share for a profit of $50. This also works in the opposite direction: if the stock price was $4.50 when you decide to sell, you’d be losing 50 cents per share for a net loss of $50.
Newbie investor? Never placed a trade before? Don’t worry, it’s never been easier to start trading. You simply choose a stock trading platform, open and fund an account then make your trades. Check out our guide on how to buy stocks online to get started.
Traders buy and sell stocks throughout the trading day on the NYSE and Nasdaq, and other markets around the world. Here are some of the world’s biggest stock markets by market capitalization, based on World Federation of Exchanges data as of March 2026:(1)
| Stock exchange | Short name | Market capitalization |
|---|---|---|
| Nasdaq (US) | NASDAQ | ~US$35 trillion |
| New York Stock Exchange (US) | NYSE | ~US$31 trillion |
| Shanghai Stock Exchange | SSE | ~US$10.2 trillion |
| Japan Exchange Group | JPX | ~US$7.6 trillion |
| Hong Kong Exchanges | HKEX | ~US$6.2 trillion |
This the most common type of trading is where investors buy and sell company shares through stock markets and then monitor continuous updates on the prices of those shares. The value of a company’s shares changes daily, so shareholders aim to buy shares when they cost less and sell when they cost more to make a profit.
Example: Company X is trading at $5 per share on January 1st and you buy 100 shares for a total of $500. By February 1st, the shares are trading at $5.50, so you decide to sell, giving you a 50-cent return on each share for a profit of $50. This also works in the opposite direction: If the stock price was $4.50 when you decide to sell, you’d be losing 50 cents per share for a net loss of $50.
Finder data suggests that men aged 35-44 are most likely to be researching this topic.
| Response | Male (%) | Female (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 65+ | 9.56% | 5.75% |
| 55-64 | 10.64% | 6.64% |
| 45-54 | 11.34% | 7.39% |
| 35-44 | 11.60% | 7.94% |
| 25-34 | 9.74% | 6.43% |
| 18-24 | 8.29% | 4.69% |
Options are essentially a bet on how you think a stock will move within a set time. If you purchase a contract of 100 shares, that gives you the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a stock at a certain price, called the strike price, within a certain time frame. Here are two options:
Call. If you believe the price of a stock will go up by the expiry date, you buy a call option contract. This gives you the right to buy shares at the strike price. If the share price is higher than the strike price, either buy the shares at a discount when the contract expires or buy and immediately sell the option for a profit.
Put. If you think the price of a stock will go down by the expiry date, buy a put option contract. This gives you the right to sell the shares at the strike price. If the share price drops below the strike price, you could buy shares at market price and sell them at the strike price.
Example: Company Y is trading at $20 per share on January 1st and you can buy a six-month options contract with a strike price of $20 and a premium of $5 per share.
If you expect the market price of the share to reach $25 — the strike price plus premium — or higher by the expiry date, buy a call option. Since this contract gives you the right to purchase the stock at the strike price, you could either sell the contract for a profit or purchase shares at below market value.
However, if you expect the market price of the share to drop to $15 — strike price minus premium, or below — by the expiry date, buy a put option. This contract gives you the right to sell shares at the strike price, meaning you could either sell your contract for a profit or purchase the shares at market value and sell them for more than you paid.
Bonds are issued by companies or governments to generate cash flow, finance debt, fund investments and more. Bonds have predetermined term lengths and pay interest (also called the coupon rate) at set intervals for the length of the term. Once the bond reaches maturity, it can be cashed for the principal amount.
Example: Company A is looking to raise money for the development of a new product, so it issues five-year bonds with a $1,000 principal and 5% coupon rate, paid annually. If you purchase 10 bonds for a principal investment of $10,000, you’ll receive a $500 interest payment each year until the bond reaches maturity. After five years, you would have accrued a total of $2,500 of interest on an initial investment of $10,000.
Foreign exchange (forex) trading is the process of buying and selling currencies. Unlike the stock market, the forex market is not one central exchange but rather a network of transactions between traders. In this market, buyers purchase one currency in exchange for another. Since exchange rates change throughout the day, traders are able to make money by buying low and selling high, just like the stock market.
Example: Say one US dollar buys $1.35 Canadian. Expecting the Canadian dollar to strengthen, you sell $10,000 USD in exchange for $13,500 CAD. Later that month, the exchange rate drops so that one US dollar now only buys $1.30 Canadian. If you decide to convert your CAD back to USD, your $13,500 CAD is now worth about $10,385 USD — a profit of roughly $385.
Futures are contracts to buy or sell an asset at a set price on a future date. They’re traded mostly on commodities (like oil and gold), stock indices, currencies and interest rates — single-stock futures exist but make up a small portion of the market. When you enter into a futures contract, you commit to the trade at the agreed-upon price regardless of where the market ends up.
Cryptocurrency trading is very similar to stock trading in that it involves buying or selling assets to make a profit. Just like stocks, there are numerous cryptocurrencies allowing you to choose where to invest your money. Once you purchase cryptocurrency on an online exchange, you can either sell it, hold on to it, or buy other assets like stocks, other cryptocurrencies or even goods and services.
Short selling is a bet that a stock price is going to fall. Traders borrow shares and sell them, anticipating they can buy them back later to settle the loan at a lower price and pocket the difference. But if the share price rises instead, they have to buy at the higher price and take a loss.
Example: Company X is trading at $5 per share on January 1st and you think it will go to $0. You borrow and sell 100 shares for a total of $500. By February 1st, the shares are trading at $1, so you buy 100 shares to close your position for $100, and pocket $400. This also works in the opposite direction: If the stock price rises to $10, repaying the loaned shares costs you $1,000 and you lose $500. If the stock hits $20, you lose $1,500. The most you can gain is $500, but your potential loss is unlimited.
| Response | % of investors |
|---|---|
| Yes | 49% |
| No, other reason | 3% |
| No, I'm not optimistic about the market in 2023 | 13% |
| No, I'm just not interested | 13% |
| No, I want to buy other investments | 4% |
| No, I do not understand stock trading | 4% |
| No, I do not have any spare money to invest | 14% |
Investing in the stock market has never been easier. But before you dive in, make sure you compare trading platforms and carefully research the companies you want to invest in. Get familiar with your personal level of risk tolerance and make sure you diversify your portfolio in order to minimize losses. Ready to begin?
Learn the basics of short selling to profit when prices are down.
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Finder is not an advisor or brokerage service. Information on this page is for educational purposes only and not a recommendation to invest with any one company, trade specific stocks or fund specific investments. All editorial opinions are our own.
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