How to Start Investing in U.S. Stocks as a Complete Beginner

Why Invest in U.S. Stocks?

In 1980, if you had invested just $10,000 in the S&P 500 index and simply walked away, that money would be worth over $1.1 million today. No fancy trading strategies, no insider tips, no staring at screens all day. Just patience and the remarkable engine of American capitalism doing what it has done for more than a century — creating wealth for those willing to participate.

Yet despite that staggering track record, roughly half of American adults own zero stocks. And for people outside the United States, the number is far lower. The reasons are always the same: it feels too complicated, too risky, or too much like gambling. Some people assume you need thousands of dollars to get started. Others believe the stock market is a rigged casino where only Wall Street insiders win.

None of that is true. And by the time you finish reading this guide, you will know exactly how to open your first brokerage account, place your first trade, and build a foundation that can grow your wealth for decades.

This is the guide I wish someone had handed me before I bought my first share. No jargon without explanation, no assumptions about what you already know, and no pressure to do anything reckless. Just a clear, honest path from “I have no idea what I’m doing” to “I just bought my first investment.”

Let’s get started.

Understanding the Stock Exchanges: NYSE and NASDAQ

Before you buy a single share of stock, it helps to understand where stocks actually trade. Think of a stock exchange like a massive digital marketplace — a place where buyers and sellers meet to trade ownership in companies. In the United States, there are two major exchanges that handle the vast majority of trading.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

The NYSE is the oldest and largest stock exchange in the world, founded all the way back in 1792. It is located on Wall Street in lower Manhattan, and its iconic trading floor — with traders in colorful jackets shouting at each other — is one of the most recognizable images in finance. While much of the trading is now electronic, the NYSE still maintains a physical trading floor with designated market makers who help facilitate trades.

The NYSE tends to list older, more established companies. Think of names like Berkshire Hathaway, Johnson & Johnson, Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, and Coca-Cola. These are often large, stable businesses that have been around for decades. The NYSE has stricter listing requirements, which means companies need to meet higher financial thresholds to be listed there.

The NASDAQ

The NASDAQ, founded in 1971, was the world’s first electronic stock exchange. It has no physical trading floor — everything happens digitally through a network of computers. This made it a natural home for technology companies, and it remains the exchange most closely associated with the tech sector.

When you think of NASDAQ, think of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), Tesla, and NVIDIA. The NASDAQ also lists many biotech companies, younger growth companies, and innovative firms that are pushing boundaries in their industries.

When Is the Market Open?

The U.S. stock market is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time. It is closed on weekends and major holidays (like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day). There is also pre-market trading (4:00 AM to 9:30 AM ET) and after-hours trading (4:00 PM to 8:00 PM ET), but as a beginner, you should stick to regular market hours when there is the most liquidity and the tightest spreads — meaning you will get better prices on your trades.

Choosing Your First Brokerage Account

A brokerage account is the gateway between you and the stock market. It is a special type of account — similar to a bank account — that allows you to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, bonds, and other investments. You deposit money into your brokerage account, and then use that money to purchase investments.

Choosing the right brokerage is one of the most important decisions you will make as a new investor. The good news is that competition has driven most major brokerages to offer commission-free stock trading, so the cost difference between them is minimal. The real differences come down to user experience, tools, research, and customer support.

Let’s compare three of the most popular options for beginners.

Fidelity Investments

Fidelity is one of the largest and most respected brokerages in the world, managing trillions of dollars in customer assets. It has been around since 1946, and it offers an incredibly robust platform with excellent research tools, educational resources, and customer service.

Best for: Beginners who want a serious, full-featured platform they can grow into. Fidelity offers fractional shares (you can buy $5 worth of Amazon instead of needing the full share price), zero-fee index funds (their FZROX fund has literally a 0.00% expense ratio), and 24/7 customer service by phone.

Potential drawback: The mobile app and website can feel overwhelming at first because there are so many features and options. It is designed for long-term investors, not for people looking for a sleek, gamified experience.

Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab is another financial heavyweight that merged with TD Ameritrade in 2020, combining two of the industry’s largest platforms. Schwab offers commission-free trading, extensive research, and physical branch locations across the United States where you can walk in and talk to a human being — a rarity in the modern brokerage world.

Best for: Beginners who value having access to in-person support and a wide range of account types. Schwab also offers excellent banking services, so you can use it as a combined bank and brokerage, which simplifies transfers.

Potential drawback: The thinkorswim trading platform (inherited from TD Ameritrade) has a steep learning curve. Stick with the standard Schwab app and website as a beginner.

Robinhood

Robinhood burst onto the scene in 2013 with a revolutionary idea: commission-free trading in a mobile-first app designed for millennials. It has since grown enormously and become synonymous with a new generation of retail investors. The app is clean, intuitive, and makes buying your first stock feel as easy as ordering food delivery.

Best for: Complete beginners who want the simplest possible experience and are primarily using a smartphone. Robinhood makes it very easy to open an account, fund it, and start trading within minutes.

Potential drawback: Robinhood has faced criticism for gamifying investing (confetti animations when you make a trade, for example) and for encouraging frequent trading. Its research tools are more limited compared to Fidelity and Schwab. There have also been past controversies around trading restrictions during volatile market events.

How to Open a Brokerage Account (Step by Step)

The process is remarkably simple and usually takes less than 15 minutes. Here is what you will need:

1. Personal information: Full legal name, date of birth, Social Security number (or ITIN for non-citizens), and current address.
2. Employment information: Your employer’s name and address, your occupation, and your annual income. This is required by law (FINRA regulations) but does not affect whether you can open an account.
3. Bank account for funding: A checking or savings account to transfer money from. You will link this to your brokerage account.
4. Government ID: Some brokerages require a photo of your driver’s license or passport for identity verification.

Once your account is open and funded (transfers typically take 1-3 business days), you are ready to start investing. Most brokerages will give you instant access to a portion of your deposited funds so you can begin trading right away while the full transfer settles.

Market Orders vs. Limit Orders — How Trades Actually Work

Once your account is funded, you will need to understand the mechanics of actually buying a stock. This is where many beginners get confused, but it is simpler than it sounds. When you want to buy or sell a stock, you place an “order” through your brokerage. The two most common types of orders are market orders and limit orders.

Market Orders

A market order is the simplest type of order. You are telling your brokerage: “Buy (or sell) this stock right now, at whatever the current price is.” The trade executes almost instantly during market hours.

Advantages: Speed and simplicity. Your order will almost always be filled immediately. This is the order type you will use most often as a beginner.

Disadvantages: You do not have exact control over the price. If a stock is trading at $50 and you place a market order, you might end up paying $50.02 or $49.98 due to price fluctuations. For most investors buying shares they plan to hold for years, this tiny difference is irrelevant. However, for very volatile stocks or stocks with low trading volume, the difference between the expected price and the actual price (called “slippage”) can be more significant.

Limit Orders

A limit order lets you set the maximum price you are willing to pay (for a buy) or the minimum price you are willing to accept (for a sell). You are telling your brokerage: “Only buy this stock if the price drops to $48 or lower” or “Only sell this stock if the price reaches $55 or higher.”

Advantages: You have full control over the price. You will never pay more than you intended.

Disadvantages: Your order might never be filled if the stock never reaches your specified price. A stock trading at $50 might never dip to $48, which means your limit order will just sit there unfilled until it expires.

Other Order Types You Should Know About

Stop-Loss Order: This is a defensive order. You set a price below the current market price, and if the stock drops to that level, it automatically converts into a market order and sells your shares. For example, if you buy a stock at $50 and set a stop-loss at $45, your shares will automatically be sold if the price drops to $45, limiting your loss to 10%. This is a useful tool for managing risk, but be aware that in fast-moving markets, the actual sale price could be lower than your stop price.

Stop-Limit Order: Similar to a stop-loss, but instead of converting to a market order, it converts to a limit order. This gives you more price control but introduces the risk that your order might not be filled during a rapid decline.

How to Research Your First Stock

Now comes the part that intimidates most beginners: actually choosing what to invest in. The world of stock research can seem impossibly complex — Wall Street analysts use sophisticated models, institutional investors have teams of researchers, and financial media throws around terms like “discounted cash flow” and “price-to-earnings ratio” as if everyone knows what they mean.

But here is the truth: you do not need to be a financial analyst to make smart investment decisions. You need to understand a handful of key concepts and develop a basic framework for evaluating companies.

Start with What You Know

Legendary investor Peter Lynch popularized the idea of “investing in what you know.” The concept is simple: look at the products and services you use every day. What companies make them? Which brands do you trust and return to again and again?

If you use an iPhone, you know Apple makes great products. If you shop at Costco every week and love the experience, that tells you something about Costco’s business model. If you cannot imagine life without Google Search, YouTube, and Gmail, that says something about Alphabet’s competitive moat.

This does not mean you should blindly buy stock in every company you like. But it gives you a starting point — a universe of companies you already understand at a basic level.

Key Metrics Every Beginner Should Understand

Once you have identified some companies you are interested in, here are the fundamental metrics to look at:

Market Capitalization (Market Cap): This is the total value of all a company’s outstanding shares. It is calculated by multiplying the stock price by the number of shares. Companies are generally categorized as:

• Large-cap: Over $10 billion (Apple, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson)
• Mid-cap: $2 billion to $10 billion
• Small-cap: Under $2 billion

For beginners, large-cap stocks are generally safer and less volatile.

Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E Ratio): This tells you how much investors are willing to pay for each dollar of a company’s earnings. A P/E of 20 means investors are paying $20 for every $1 of annual earnings. A lower P/E might suggest a stock is undervalued (or that the company has problems), while a higher P/E might suggest the stock is overvalued (or that investors expect strong future growth). The average P/E for S&P 500 companies has historically been around 15-17.

Revenue Growth: Is the company’s revenue (total sales) growing year over year? Consistent revenue growth is a strong positive signal. Look for companies growing revenue by at least 5-10% annually for established businesses, or 20%+ for growth companies.

Earnings Per Share (EPS): This is the company’s profit divided by the number of outstanding shares. Rising EPS over time is a good sign — it means the company is becoming more profitable.

Dividend Yield: Some companies pay regular cash dividends to shareholders. The dividend yield tells you the annual dividend as a percentage of the stock price. A stock trading at $100 that pays $3 per year in dividends has a 3% yield. Dividends provide income and can be reinvested to buy more shares.

Debt-to-Equity Ratio: This shows how much debt a company has relative to shareholder equity. A very high ratio might indicate the company is heavily leveraged, which increases risk. Compare this ratio to other companies in the same industry, as some industries naturally carry more debt than others.

Where to Find This Information

You do not need expensive subscriptions to research stocks. These free resources are excellent:

• Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com): The most popular free financial data site. Search for any stock ticker and you will find price history, financial statements, analyst ratings, and news.
• Your Brokerage’s Research Tools: Fidelity and Schwab both offer excellent built-in research with analyst reports, financial data, and screeners.
• SEC.gov (EDGAR): The official source for company filings. Every public company must file quarterly (10-Q) and annual (10-K) reports with detailed financial information.
• Macrotrends.net: Great for viewing long-term financial data and visualizing trends in revenue, earnings, and other metrics.

Why Most Beginners Should Start with Index Funds

Here is the most important piece of advice in this entire article: if you are a complete beginner, your best first investment is probably not an individual stock. It is an index fund.

An index fund is a type of investment that tracks a specific market index — like the S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the United States. When you buy an S&P 500 index fund, you are essentially buying a tiny piece of all 500 companies at once. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, Alphabet, Meta, Berkshire Hathaway, Johnson & Johnson, Visa, UnitedHealth Group — all of them, in a single purchase.

Why Index Funds Are Perfect for Beginners

Instant diversification: Instead of putting all your money into one company (and praying it goes up), you are spread across hundreds of companies. If one company has a terrible quarter, it barely affects your overall portfolio because the other 499 companies cushion the blow.

Professional-grade performance: Here is a fact that shocks most people: over a 15-year period, approximately 90% of professional fund managers fail to beat a simple S&P 500 index fund. These are people with Ivy League MBAs, decades of experience, and access to research and data that you and I will never see. And they still lose to the index. Why? Because the market is remarkably efficient, and the fees that actively managed funds charge eat into returns.

Extremely low costs: Index funds have tiny expense ratios (the annual fee you pay to own the fund). Some examples:

An expense ratio of 0.03% means you pay $3 per year for every $10,000 invested. Compare that to actively managed mutual funds that charge 0.50% to 1.50% — that is $50 to $150 per year on the same $10,000. Over decades, those fees compound and can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

ETFs vs. Mutual Funds: What Is the Difference?

Both ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds) and index mutual funds can track the same index. The main differences:

• ETFs trade like stocks throughout the day. You can buy and sell them at any time during market hours at the current market price. Examples: VOO, VTI, QQQ, SCHB.
• Index Mutual Funds are bought and sold once per day, after the market closes, at the end-of-day net asset value (NAV). Examples: VFIAX, FXAIX, FZROX.

For most beginners, ETFs are slightly more convenient because they trade like stocks and you can start with any dollar amount through fractional shares. But either option works perfectly well.

Building Your Watchlist and Developing Good Habits

Even if you decide to put most of your money into index funds (which is a wise choice), you should still build a watchlist of individual stocks. A watchlist is simply a list of companies you are interested in and want to monitor over time. Every brokerage app lets you create one.

How to Build a Watchlist

Start by adding 10-15 companies across different sectors. Diversity matters because different sectors perform well at different times. Here is a framework for building a balanced watchlist:

• Technology (2-3 stocks): Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Google/Alphabet (GOOGL)
• Healthcare (1-2 stocks): UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
• Financial (1-2 stocks): JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Visa (V)
• Consumer (1-2 stocks): Amazon (AMZN), Costco (COST), Procter & Gamble (PG)
• Energy (1 stock): Chevron (CVX) or ExxonMobil (XOM)
• Industrial (1 stock): Caterpillar (CAT) or Union Pacific (UNP)

The goal is not to immediately buy all of these stocks. The goal is to observe them over time. Watch how they move. Read their quarterly earnings reports. Pay attention to news about them. Over weeks and months, you will start developing an intuition for how stocks behave and which companies you feel most confident about.

Developing Good Investor Habits

Successful investing is less about intelligence and more about behavior. Here are the habits that will serve you well:

Check your portfolio sparingly. This might sound counterintuitive, but checking your investments multiple times a day is one of the worst things you can do. It leads to emotional decision-making and unnecessary anxiety. Once a week is more than enough for a long-term investor. Once a month is even better.

Read one earnings report per quarter. Pick one company on your watchlist and actually read their quarterly earnings report (the 10-Q filing). You do not need to understand every line. Just focus on: Is revenue growing? Is profit growing? What is management saying about the future? This practice will rapidly build your financial literacy.

Ignore financial media hot takes. CNBC, Bloomberg, and financial Twitter/X are entertainment, not investment advice. They thrive on urgency and drama. “Market CRASHES!” “Stock SOARS!” “You MUST buy/sell NOW!” None of this is helpful for a long-term investor. The best investors are often the most boring — they buy good investments and hold them for years.

Keep learning, but do not overcomplicate things. Read one good investing book per quarter. Some excellent starting points: “The Simple Path to Wealth” by JL Collins, “A Random Walk Down Wall Street” by Burton Malkiel, and “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel. These books will teach you more than a thousand YouTube videos about “hot stocks.”

Automate whenever possible. Set up automatic monthly transfers from your bank account to your brokerage account. Many brokerages also allow you to set up automatic investments — so every month, your money automatically buys more shares of your chosen index fund. Automation removes emotion from the equation and ensures you invest consistently.

Addressing Common Beginner Fears

If you have made it this far and still feel nervous about actually investing, that is completely normal. Every successful investor was once a nervous beginner. Let’s address the most common fears head-on.

“What If I Lose All My Money?”

This is the number one fear, and it deserves a direct answer. Can you lose all your money in the stock market? If you invest in a single company and that company goes bankrupt, yes — you can lose 100% of that investment. Enron, Lehman Brothers, and more recently, Silicon Valley Bank — these are real examples of companies whose stock went to zero.

But here is why that fear should not stop you: if you invest in an S&P 500 index fund, you would need all 500 of the largest companies in America to go to zero simultaneously. That has never happened. Not during World War II, not during the 2008 financial crisis, not during COVID-19, and not during any other crisis in the market’s history.

Yes, the market goes down sometimes. During the 2008 financial crisis, the S&P 500 dropped roughly 57% from peak to trough. That was painful. But if you held on and did not sell, you recovered all your losses within about five years and went on to massive gains. The market always recovers eventually — the key is having the patience to wait.

“What If I Invest at the Wrong Time?”

People constantly worry about buying at the “top” of the market. And here is the remarkable thing: even if you had the worst timing imaginable and only invested at market peaks — right before every major crash — you would still have made money over the long term.

There is a famous analysis of a hypothetical investor named “Bob” who invested $6,000 at the absolute worst time before every major market crash from 1973 to 2007 — right before the 1973 oil crisis crash, right before the 1987 Black Monday crash, right before the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, and right before the 2008 financial crisis. Despite having the worst market timing in history, Bob still ended up with over $1.1 million because he never sold and let compounding work.

The lesson: time in the market beats timing the market, every single time.

“I Don’t Have Enough Money to Start”

This was true 20 years ago when brokerages required minimum deposits of $2,500 to $10,000 and charged $7-$10 per trade. It is absolutely not true today. You can open an account at Fidelity, Schwab, or Robinhood with zero dollars. You can buy fractional shares starting at $1. You can invest $25 per month and still be building real wealth.

The amount you start with matters far less than the habit of investing consistently. Someone who invests $100 per month starting at age 25 will likely end up wealthier than someone who waits until age 40 and invests $300 per month, because of the power of compound interest over time.

“It’s Too Complicated for Me”

If you can order something on Amazon, you can buy a stock. The actual process is shockingly simple: you open your brokerage app, search for a stock or fund by its ticker symbol, enter the number of shares (or dollar amount) you want to buy, and tap “Buy.” That is it. The research and decision-making are the hard parts — the actual mechanics of buying are trivially easy.

Do not let the complexity of advanced investing strategies intimidate you into inaction. You do not need to understand options trading, short selling, or technical analysis to be a successful investor. You need to buy index funds regularly and leave them alone. That is the strategy that beats most professional money managers.

“The Market Is Too High Right Now — I Should Wait for a Crash”

This is one of the most expensive mistakes beginners make. The market has been at or near all-time highs for most of its history. That is what a long-term upward trend looks like — it regularly sets new highs. If you wait for a crash, you might wait years while the market rises another 30%, 50%, or 100%. And even when a crash does come, will you have the courage to invest when everyone is panicking and the news is screaming about financial apocalypse? Most people do not.

The best time to invest was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.

Your First 30 Days: A Step-by-Step Roadmap

Theory is great, but action is what builds wealth. Here is your exact roadmap for the first 30 days of your investing journey.

Week One: Set Up Your Foundation

Day 1-2: Choose and open a brokerage account. If you are unsure, go with Fidelity — it has the best combination of features, research, and zero-fee funds. The application takes about 10-15 minutes. Initiate a transfer from your bank account to fund the brokerage. Even $50-$100 is enough to start.

Day 3-4: Explore your brokerage platform. Spend 30 minutes clicking around the app or website. Find where the search function is, how to view stock quotes, where your account balance is displayed, and how to access the research tools. Familiarity with the interface will make you more confident when you place your first trade.

Day 5-7: Build your watchlist. Add 10-15 stocks across different sectors using the framework described earlier. Also add at least two index fund ETFs: VOO (S&P 500) and VTI (Total U.S. Stock Market). Watch how these prices move throughout the week. Notice that daily fluctuations of 1-2% are completely normal.

Week Two: Make Your First Investment

Day 8-9: Buy your first index fund. Once your account is funded, buy shares (or fractional shares) of an S&P 500 index fund. If you are at Fidelity, you can buy VOO (ETF) or FXAIX (mutual fund). At Schwab, try SCHX or SWPPX. Use a market order during regular market hours. The amount does not matter — even $25 gets you started. The important thing is crossing that psychological barrier of making your first real investment.

Day 10-12: Set up automatic investing. Configure a recurring monthly transfer from your bank to your brokerage account. If your brokerage supports automatic investments (Fidelity and Schwab do for mutual funds), set up an automatic purchase of your chosen index fund. This is the single most impactful action you can take for your long-term wealth.

Day 13-14: Research one individual stock. Pick one company from your watchlist and spend an hour researching it. Look up its P/E ratio, revenue growth, and recent earnings on Yahoo Finance. Read the most recent investor letter or earnings call transcript. You are not buying anything yet — you are building your research muscles.

Week Three: Deepen Your Knowledge

Day 15-17: Learn about asset allocation. Asset allocation is how you divide your investments across different types of assets (stocks, bonds, cash). A common rule of thumb for beginners is to subtract your age from 110 to determine what percentage of your portfolio should be in stocks. So a 30-year-old might allocate 80% stocks, 20% bonds. But honestly, if you are in your 20s or 30s with a long time horizon, being 90-100% in stocks (through index funds) is reasonable because you have decades to ride out market volatility.

Day 18-19: Understand taxes on investments. In a regular brokerage account, you will owe capital gains taxes when you sell investments at a profit. Short-term capital gains (investments held less than one year) are taxed at your ordinary income tax rate. Long-term capital gains (held more than one year) are taxed at a lower rate — 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on your income. This is one of many reasons to buy and hold rather than trade frequently. In a Roth IRA, you owe no taxes at all on gains.

Day 20-21: Start reading a book. Pick up “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel. It is short, engaging, and will fundamentally change how you think about money and investing. It requires zero financial background to understand.

Week Four: Establish Your Long-Term Strategy

Day 22-24: Consider buying your first individual stock (optional). If you have done your research and feel confident about a specific company, consider investing a small amount — no more than 5-10% of your total portfolio — in an individual stock. Remember: the bulk of your portfolio should remain in index funds. Individual stocks are the seasoning, not the main course.

Day 25-27: Write down your investment plan. Document your strategy in a simple one-page plan. Include: how much you will invest monthly, what you will invest in (index funds + maybe a few stocks), your time horizon (10+ years), and — most importantly — what you will NOT do. Write down: “I will not panic-sell during market downturns. I will not try to time the market. I will not chase hot tips from social media.” Having this written down gives you something to refer to when emotions run high.

Day 28-30: Review and reflect. Look at your portfolio. Check your watchlist. How are you feeling? Are you anxious, excited, indifferent? All of those feelings are normal. The most important thing is that you started. You are now an investor. The hardest step was the first one, and you have already taken it.

Conclusion

Investing in U.S. stocks is not reserved for the wealthy, the financially sophisticated, or the Wall Street elite. It is available to anyone with a smartphone, a few dollars, and the willingness to start. The barriers that once existed — high commissions, large minimum deposits, limited information — have all been torn down by technology and competition.

The path forward is remarkably simple. Open a brokerage account at Fidelity, Schwab, or Robinhood. Fund it with whatever you can comfortably afford. Buy an S&P 500 index fund. Set up automatic monthly investments. And then — this is the hardest part — do nothing. Let time and compound growth do the heavy lifting.

Will the market drop 20% at some point while you are invested? Almost certainly. Will you feel the urge to panic and sell? Probably. Will the financial media tell you the world is ending? Definitely. But if history is any guide, the market will recover, your patience will be rewarded, and future-you will be grateful that present-you had the courage to start.

You do not need to be perfect. You do not need to pick the optimal brokerage, the perfect stock, or the ideal moment to invest. You just need to begin. Every expert investor in the world was once a complete beginner who bought their first share and felt nervous about it.

The difference between you and someone who never invests is not intelligence or luck. It is action. And after reading this guide, you have everything you need to take that first step.

So open that brokerage account. Buy that first index fund. Start building your future today.

References

1. S&P Dow Jones Indices. “SPIVA U.S. Scorecard.” Available at: spglobal.com/spdji
2. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “Investor.gov: Introduction to Investing.” Available at: investor.gov
3. Federal Reserve. “Survey of Consumer Finances.” Available at: federalreserve.gov
4. Vanguard. “Principles for Investing Success.” Available at: vanguard.com
5. Fidelity Investments. “Getting Started with Investing.” Available at: fidelity.com
6. Charles Schwab. “Stock Market Basics.” Available at: schwab.com
7. FINRA. “Understanding Brokerage Accounts.” Available at: finra.org
8. IRS. “Roth IRA Contribution Limits.” Available at: irs.gov
9. NYSE. “About the New York Stock Exchange.” Available at: nyse.com
10. NASDAQ. “About NASDAQ.” Available at: nasdaq.com