You’ve saved up $10,000 to invest and you’re sure you want to buy Google stock, but you aren’t sure where to begin?
Never fear. Take just a few simple steps and you’ll see it’s relatively easy to understand how to set up your Google stock purchase. (Buying any other company’s stock will be a snap, for that matter.)
Contents
Step 1: Set up a brokerage account
In order to make any transaction in the stock market, you’ll need to set up an account with an online or local stockbroker.
Many brokers offer a variety of products and a suite of offerings. Choosing the right broker or any other large or small broker requires research into the fees and products available as well as any preferences on service and support.
Luckily, Benzinga compiled a list of the Best Online Brokerages to help you narrow down your choice. Don’t have time to read through the list?
Check out our quick picks for the best online stock trading brokerages below.
Best For
1 Minute Review
Webull, founded in 2017, is a mobile app-based brokerage that features commission-free stock and exchange-traded fund (ETF) trading. It’s regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Webull offers active traders technical indicators, economic calendars, ratings from research agencies, margin trading and short-selling. Webull’s trading platform is designed for intermediate and experienced traders, although beginning traders can also benefit.
Webull is widely considered one of the best Robinhood alternatives.
Best For
- Active traders
- Intermediate traders
- Advanced traders
Pros
- Commission-free trading in over 5,000 different stocks and ETFs
- No account maintenance fees or software platform fees
- No charges to open and maintain an account
- Leverage of 4:1 on margin trades made the same day and leverage of 2:1 on trades held overnight
- Intuitive trading platform with technical and fundamental analysis tools
Cons
- Does not support trading in mutual funds, bonds or OTC stocks
Best For
1 Minute Review
TradeStation is for advanced traders who need a comprehensive platform. The brokerage offers an impressive range of investable assets as frequent and professional traders appreciate its wide range of analysis tools. TradeStation’s app is also equally effective, offering full platform capabilities.
Best For
- Advanced traders
- Options and futures traders
- Active stock traders
Pros
- Comprehensive trading platform and professional-grade tools
- Wide range of tradable securities
- Fully-operational mobile app
Cons
- Confusing pricing structure to leave new traders with a weak understanding of what they pay
- Cluttered layout to make navigating TradeStation’s platform more difficult than it should be
Best For
1 Minute Review
This publicly listed discount broker, which is in existence for over four decades, is service-intensive, offering intuitive and powerful investment tools. Especially, with equity investing, a flat fee is charged, with the firm claiming that it charges no trade minimum, no data fees, and no platform fees. Though it is pricier than many other discount brokers, what tilts the scales in its favor is its well-rounded service offerings and the quality and value it offers its clients.
Best For
- Novice investors
- Retirement savers
- Day traders
Pros
- World-class trading platforms
- Detailed research reports and Education Center
- Assets ranging from stocks and ETFs to derivatives like futures and options
Cons
- Thinkorswim can be overwhelming to inexperienced traders
- Derivatives trading more costly than some competitors
- Expensive margin rates
Best For
1 Minute Review
Moomoo is a commission-free mobile trading app available on Apple, Google and Windows devices. A subsidiary of Futu Holdings Ltd., it’s backed by venture capital affiliates of Matrix, Sequoia, and Tencent (NASDAQ: FUTU). Securities offered by Futu Inc., regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Moomoo is another great alternative for Robinhood. This is an outstanding trading platform if you want to dive deep into smart trading. It offers impressive trading tools and opportunities for both new and advanced traders, including advanced charting, pre and post-market trading, international trading, research and analysis tools, and most popular of all, free Level 2 quotes.
Get started right away by downloading Moomoo to your phone, tablet or another mobile device.
Best For
- Cost-conscious traders
- Novice traders
- Active/Advanced traders
Pros
- Free Level 2 market data for all users who open an account
- Commission-free trading in over 5,000 different stocks and ETFs
- Over 8,000 different stocks that can be sold short
- $0 contract fee for trading options, no commission either
- Strong market data and analysis tools with over 50 technical indicators
- Access trading and quotes in pre-market (4 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. ET) and post-market hours (4 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET)
- No minimum deposit to open an account.
- Active trading community with more than 100,000 app users
Cons
- No phone or chat support
Most brokerages allow investors to set up an account online as well as over the phone. It’s a pretty simple process. They’ll require the following in order to set up an account:
- Basic information, including name and address
- Personal investing experience, goals, as well as social security number information.
Once the information has been gathered, the brokerage will notify when they will determine if the account has been approved or not. Click here to buy stock through a top broker.
Step 2: Fund the account
Once an account has been approved, the next step is to fund the account. If the brokerage is part of the same institution that you bank with, it will often allow you to transfer funds directly from checking or savings accounts.
Otherwise, funding will generally need to be wired or transferred from approved institutions. Brokerages almost never allow funding of accounts based on credit card, thus requiring actual funds to be transferred.
Step 3: Transact
After an account has been set up with a broker, the next thing to do is to purchase the stock. Most brokerages have similar setups to the picture displayed. The main components are:
- Symbol of the company: GOOGL
- Action: Buy or sell
- Order type: Limit, market, stop market and stop limit
- Limit price (if choosing a limit order), or stop price (if choosing a stop order)
- Duration: Day or good until canceled
In order to determine how much stock to purchase, take the dollar value that is to be invested and divide it by the current share price, rounding down to the nearest whole number.
That amount is the maximum amount of shares that can be purchased at the current stock price. The main orders most investors use are limit and market orders. Limit orders only fill at a specific price when it is reached, while market orders execute at the current ask price, which is the price currently offered for sale.
Once the buy button is selected, you’ll be asked to confirm the transaction before it is sent. Once sent, the broker displays a confirmation number or transaction number. The broker may or may not display an alert once the stock has been purchased, so check back often.
Step 4: Check the position and move forward
Now that the position has been established, most brokerages will have a screen or area where you can view your portfolio.The portfolio will generally display the average entry or transaction price that the stock was bought at, change since the close, as well as change since the purchase.
You can typically view the overall performance of the stock or their entire portfolio on one screen. The changes will be displayed in percentages as well as in total dollar value.
Step 5: Close out the position
When Google’s stock price gets near the level that you wish to sell, enter an exit transaction similar to the way that you did the entry transaction. Follow all the same steps; the only difference is:
- You select a sell order, and the amount of shares that are sold can be up to a maximum of the total shares that you own.
At this point the entire process is complete. You can evaluate your performance for the individual stock by looking at the difference between the entry and exit prices, as well as any dividends collected.
Final thoughts
Choosing a brokerage is the hardest part of buying Google stock. Once you are familiar with the stock-buying process, acquiring Google stock isn’t any different than buying Amazon, Facebook, or any other stock on the market.
Want to learn more about investing? Check out Benzinga’s guides to investing in the internet of things, how to trade stocks for free and the best investing books for beginners.
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Disclaimer: These stocks are not stock picks and are not recommendations to buy or sell a stock. Rather, these ideas should be viewed as potential opportunities for elevated levels of volatility and trader interest and thus increased liquidity. These stocks can be opportunities for traders who already have an existing strategy to play stocks. Benzinga does not recommend trading or investing in low-priced stocks if you haven’t had at least a couple of years of experience in the stock market. For a full statement of our disclaimers, please click here.