Re: Investing in stocks in Canada
Ok so here's the deal. First of all you've gotta decide which type of share you want. Like a new share from a company or a share which is owned by an invester. Then you're most likely in the need of a Broker. This is the guy that acts like an Agent between you and the market-maker for his own comission. The market maker is the one who buys shares in bulk and then whole sales them.
If you are looking to invest in shares, then these are the steps you should follow:
1) Do some market research into what companies share you want to buy. Look at profit and loss accounts or take advice from people or ask someone at the stock exchange. You will need to identify a company who is expected to make a profit, and so their share value will rise over time, meaning if you buy the share now you sell later at a higher price for $$$ profit. This is called the Bull stance! Conversely, if you already have share and think that this company will perform badly you can sell the sahre and then buy it at a lower price later for $$$ profit. This is called Bear stance. Anyway, in your case when you are going to buy shares, you gotta identify company that you think will improve!
2) Contact a Broker and give him specific details on how many shares you wanna buy! Don't spend too much at first. Try an experiment before going full-tilt!
3)Broker will contact market-maker and get you your share and take a comission from you.
The reason you cant buy shares yourself is that market makers only deal with Brokers.
I dont know about minimum amount required but I dont think it has to be very high. It's moderately affordable and also depends on your target company. The shares system is designed to be accessible by the masses so there shouldnt be alot of restrictions.
Have fun investing (I want my commission for the information)