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How to start trading online

Trading with Chris & Mike #1

Good morning and welcome to a new blog educational series that I will be hosting weekly. I have a few friends that want to learn how to trade and invest online. I will be meeting with them in person and turning our lessons into blog posts. Our first lesson was last Friday and the objective was to cover the basic steps of how to start trading and investing online.

Critical First Steps:


  1. Put together the funds that you will use to open the account. I recommend $2,000 to start. But if you can't start with $2,000, then as much as you can put together. The reason I recommend $2,000 is because it gives you a lot more flexibility with the types of trades you can make.
  2. Choose an online broker. There are a lot to choose from, but if you need help selecting, please reach out to us. We have our favorite platform.
  3. Negotiate the commission rate. Most people don't even know that they can ask for a lower commission rate with out any minimum commission rate. If you need help with this, reach out to me (at dominicdibernardo@gmail.com) and I will help.
  4. Explore the platform of which ever broker you decide to sign up for.
  5. Find Education. It could be from a mentor in person, online trading blog (wink, wink), a trading book. 
I sent Chris & Mike home over the weekend with homework to get some funds together and start the application process online to open an account. Once they have their accounts open, I am going to guide them in negotiating a sweet commission rate. The last thing you need is outrageous commission rates eating into your capital. THE SMALLER THE BETTER!

This week we are going to go into some basic trading terminology...Trading Lingo 101!

Here are some of the questions we will answer this week:

  • What is a stock?
  • What is the difference between being long or short a stock?
  • How does shorting work? How do you sell something you don't own?
  • What is a margin account? Why does it matter?
  • What is the difference between trading and investing?
  • What is a call option?
  • What is a put option?
  • I thought options were really risky...even more risky than stock?
  • How do I choose what to trade and invest in?
Stay tuned for a follow up post with answers to these basic questions next week.

Good Luck Trading!

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