Stock Market at Saks
September 15, 2017
Creating your own portfolio
2) Log in to this account and click on Yahoo Finance.
3) Click on My Portfolio.
4) Click Create New.
5) Give your portfolio a title. You can use a team name if you wish.
6) Add the number of shares and the ticker symbol of each stock you want to "buy".
7) You can research stocks all over the web, but one quick place to find the ticker symbols and more information is under Market Data in Yahoo Finance. Even team members who did not create a personal Yahoo account can use this feature.
8) Look at charts and graphs. Is the stock you are interested in on its way up, or is it headed downward? Is it near its 52-week-high? It may not have any room to grow.
Things to Consider
Dividends
Dividends are sums of money paid regularly (typically quarterly) by a company to its shareholders out of its profits (or reserves). When you research a stock, check to see if they pay dividends. Some do not, but people buy them anyway in the hope that the stock price will go up.
Commissions
Stockbrokers or online trading companies charge a fee for selling you the stock. Typically, stockbrokers who work for brokerage firms like Merrill Lynch or Edward Jones charge more for their services than online companies like TDAmeritrade or ETrade.
Taxes
If you make money on a stock that is held in your portfolio less than 12 months, you will be taxed on "short-term gains." This rate is much higher than the rate for long-term gains (those held longer than a year.)