Getting Started Guides
Ready to invest? Step-by-step guides on opening brokerage accounts, buying your first stocks, and choosing between market and limit orders.
All Getting Started Guides
How to Buy Stocks: Your First Trade Step by Step
Your first stock trade takes 60 seconds. This guide walks through buying 5 shares of Apple at $185 on Fidelity — the exact order form, the confirmation screen, and the market vs limit order tradeoff. Then we cover what happens after you click buy: settlement, taxes, and building from here.
How to Start Investing with $100: A Beginner's Guide
You can start investing with $1 through fractional shares. The barrier is not money — it is starting. This guide walks through a $100/month starter plan: $50 into VOO (S&P 500 ETF), $30 into SCHD (dividend ETF), $20 into bonds. We show what that looks like after 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years — then cover every step from emergency fund to first purchase.
Market Order vs Limit Order: Which Is Safer?
You want to buy Apple at $185. A market order fills at $185.12 — you just paid $12 more than expected on 100 shares. A limit order at $185.00 fills at exactly $185.00, or does not fill at all. This guide walks through both scenarios, then shows how the stakes change across liquid stocks, small caps, fast-moving markets, and options.
Brokerage Account Types: Which One Should You Open?
You have $5,000 to invest. In a taxable brokerage account, your gains are taxed every year. In a Roth IRA, they grow tax-free. In a Traditional IRA, you get a tax deduction now but pay later. Over 20 years, the difference is thousands of dollars. This guide compares every account type with specific numbers, then walks through opening your first account in 15 minutes.
Paper Trading: Practice Stocks Without Real Money
You paper trade Apple: buy 10 shares at $185. Two weeks later, Apple is at $192 — you are up $70. Feels great. Then you go live with real money, Apple drops 3%, and you panic-sell at a loss. Why the difference? Paper trading teaches mechanics. Real trading teaches emotions. You need both. This guide covers how to paper trade effectively, its real limitations, and when to switch to real money.
How AI Trading Works
AI trading is an umbrella term for four very different layers: rule-based algorithms, machine-learning models, LLMs used as research analysts, and the newest agentic AI that can connect to a broker and place trades. This guide maps that full stack in plain English, walks through how a trading system runs from market data to a placed order, explains what reportedly changed when brokers opened accounts to AI agents, and shows why the human stays responsible for every order. Educational only.
How to Paper Trade an Algorithm (No Code Required)
Paper trading an algorithm means running a fixed set of trading rules against live market prices with simulated money, so you can watch an idea behave without any capital at risk. This guide gives you a simple illustrative strategy to test (a moving-average crossover, used only to teach the process), then splits the work into two hands-on paths: Path A, where you follow the rules and record each signal by hand, and Path B, where the strategy runs through a broker or simulator API and submits simulated orders. It includes a completed sample journal, walks through what a real result does and does not prove, and points to where automated execution introduces brand-new failures like duplicate orders and disconnects.
Can AI Trade Stocks for You in 2026?
By 2026 it is mechanically possible to let an AI agent place trades in a real brokerage account, usually an isolated, pre-funded one you set up on purpose. This guide is the current-state reality check: what products actually shipped, the permissions ladder that controls how much an AI can do, the difference between an LLM that advises and an agent that acts, the real failure modes, and the scam red flags regulators have warned about. Being able to connect an AI is not the same as making money, and you stay responsible for every order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Start by opening a brokerage account, funding it with an amount you're comfortable with, and buying a diversified ETF or index fund. Our guides walk you through each step from choosing a broker to placing your first trade.
Many brokers now have no minimums and offer fractional shares, meaning you can start investing with as little as $1. The key is to start early and invest consistently, regardless of the amount.
Limit orders give you price control by setting the maximum you'll pay (or minimum you'll accept), while market orders execute immediately at the current price. Beginners often benefit from limit orders to avoid unexpected price fills.