Texas Instruments Inc (NASDAQ:TXN) shares are trading lower by roughly 2.9% to $200.02 Tuesday. Traders and investors are watching for the company’s second-quarter earnings report, which is confirmed for Tuesday’s after-hours session. According to analyst consensus estimates, TXN is expected to report EPS of $1.17 on revenue of $3.82 billion.

Texas Instruments shares are also falling after NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) mixed results and soft guidance. The results might reflect broader issues in the semiconductor sector. If investors perceive NXP’s struggles as indicative of broader industry challenges, this could negatively impact other semiconductor stocks, including Texas Instruments.

With first-quarter revenue declining, investors will be keen to see if Texas Instruments can stabilize its revenue in the second quarter. Key indicators will be performance across various end markets and any signs of recovery or further decline. The company’s ability to adapt to market conditions and manage inventory levels will be under scrutiny.

Buying shares is typically done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many will allow you to buy ‘fractional shares,' which allows you to own portions of stock without buying an entire share. For example, some stock, like Berkshire Hathaway, or Amazon.com, can cost thousands of dollars to own just one share. However, if you only want to invest a fraction of that, brokerages will allow you to do so.

If you're looking to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You'll need access to an options trading platform, or a broker who will allow you to ‘go short' a share of stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of shorting a stock can be found at this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option, or sell a call option at a strike price above where shares are currently trading – either way it allows you to profit off of the share price decline.