Stock Market For Beginners 2026 — Step by Step Guide

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: I want to welcome you to the Stock Market for Beginners Ultimate Guide. If you're new to the stock market, then this video will be perfect for you. So I want you to know that every experienced investor in stocks was once a beginner. So it is an honor to guide you in your stock market journey to help you achieve financial success and financial freedom. Now, let's begin. So here is what we're going to cover in today's Stock Market for Beginners video. You are not expected to absorb all this information in one sitting. So please subscribe and watch this piecemeal at your own comfortable pace. So let's begin with this. You should invest in the stock market because it is a proven way to grow your wealth. Just look at the historical data. These are the average annual returns that investors make in the stock markets. In the past 30 years, the stock market has gone up by an average of 9.9% a year. If you look at the past 50 years, it's 10.8% a year. In the past 100 years, an average annual return of 10.5% a year. But I'm going to tell you this because I want to be upfront with you. Yes, there are stock market crashes. But over time, the stock market recovers and essentially the stock market keeps going up. It's like home prices. Generally, real estate tends to increase in value. You know this, but I want to make this clear. So here are the median home prices in the past. A hundred years ago, a home cost, this is the median price, $3,200. 50 years ago, you could buy a home, the median home for $33,000. 30 years ago, the median home price was $126,000. And today, the median home costs approximately $400,000. So it just keeps going up. And it's the same thing with the stock market. The reason why financial assets such as properties or stocks continue going up is partly because of inflation. However, the stock market does outpace inflation. But ultimately, you want to put your money to work by investing it, and the stock market has a proven track record of growing your money. Now let's proceed. It is essential that you understand how the stock market works. I don't want you to throw your money in stocks into the stock market if you don't understand the basics. So in this section, let me explain to you. What are stocks? How to invest in stocks? How people get wealthy by investing in the stock market? And what stocks are best for beginners? So let's get started. I want you to know that the stock market is very simple. So let me explain to you what stocks really are. So let's just say that you own a business. So you're a business owner. And let's say that you want to raise a lot of money for your business to grow and expand. So what do you need to do? You need to find investors. And a great place to find investors is in the stock market. Now, in order for you to raise a lot of money for your company, you need to sell a portion of your ownership in your company to investors. And that's what stocks are. Stocks are just units of ownership in a company. So if you buy stock in Apple or Microsoft or Tesla, you are an owner of the company. So you probably own a very small piece of the company, but you are still technically an owner. Therefore, one person does not own Apple or Microsoft or Tesla. So there are thousands of people that own stock in those companies. So those companies have thousands of owners, which are the stockholders. Now let me tell you how to invest in stocks. So the stock market is a big marketplace where you go to buy and sell stocks. To participate in the stock market, you need an online brokerage accounts. So there are a lot of online brokerage accounts to choose from. I'm going to leave a link down below to some online brokerage accounts that are offering signup bonuses with zero fees, and there's no catch. It will cost you nothing. And some of these signup bonuses, they can be substantial. So please be sure to check them out. So you open up an account and then you transfer money from your bank accounts to your brokerage accounts. And then you're going to have money in your brokerage accounts, and then you're going to be ready to buy stocks. So you want to buy stocks in good companies. That's because if a company does well, then the value of the company increases. If the value of the company increases, then the price of your stock goes up. And in many cases, if a company is making a lot of profits, the company will take those profits and pay a dividend to whoever owns the stock. So you don't have to do anything to collect a dividend. It just gets deposited into your accounts, which is pretty awesome. So this is passive income in its truest form. Now, if you want to sell your stocks, it's very easy. So you may want to sell your stocks for whatever reason, such as you just want to cash out. Maybe you don't like the company anymore. Maybe you want to sell your stock to have money to buy a different stock. So you're free to do as you please. And again, this is all free, no fees, zero commissions. So when you sell your stocks, you'll have money in your brokerage accounts because again, you sold your stocks. And whenever you want, you can transfer that money back to your bank accounts, or you can let that money just sit there. Some brokerage accounts, they'll pay you interest on the money sitting in your accounts. Or you can use that money to buy stocks, you know, whatever you want. Now, I want you to know that many people get wealthy in the stock markets, and there's not just one way to do it. I'm going to tell you what most people do, and you can try to see which style is most appealing to you. Buy and hold, dividend investor, speculator, trader. And let me explain these styles to you buy and hold. Some people just buy stocks and they just hold onto them for a very long time. We're talking about years, even decades. Some people, they'll even hold onto their stocks until they die and they'll put it in their will. So this is a set it and forget it approach traders. Some people in the stock market will try to buy and sell, buy and sell frequently and make some money. So these people are known as traders, traders are not interested in holding a stock for the long run and watching the company grow. So I would recommend that beginners in the stock market, so if you're a beginner, please refrain from trading with a large amount of money. I would recommend that you get some practice in first, but it's true. Many professionals get rich by trading, but that comes with experience, speculators. Some people buy smaller, riskier stocks that have a lot of potential and could skyrocket in price. So these are speculators. I'm not saying that in a good way or a bad way. People speculated on Tesla early on and made a lot of money. So you could say the same thing for Amazon or Walmart and so many other stocks, but there's other people that speculate on stocks and lost a lot of money. So if you're going to speculate, don't invest too heavily in one stock and do not fall in love with a stock. Your emotions can cloud your judgment. Dividend investors. Some people buy stocks primarily for the dividends. Many investors take their dividends and reinvest them to get more dividends and your wealth accumulates over time. So this is a great way to build your passive income. So you can actually set your accounts to reinvest your dividends automatically. It's called a DRIP, dividend reinvestment program. I am personally a big fan of dividend investing because you literally get paid for doing nothing. So if you're dividend investing, your money is making you money. So you should know from the get-go which style is most appealing to you. It could be more than one, it could be a combination, but there's no one right answer. There's no one right method. So whichever path you take, you should understand the pros and cons of that method or that style. Now, let me tell you what stocks I think are best for beginners. There will be so many stocks to choose from. Small companies, big companies, companies in different sectors, energy, technology, real estate, retail, banking, pharmaceuticals, et cetera. There will be companies that focus their sales in the US. There will be multinational companies. There are just so many options. I would suggest that as a stock market beginner, you invest in bigger and more stable companies. The reason why I'm saying this is because of risk and reward. If you invest in a smaller, no-name company, there's a higher probability that you can lose a lot of money. As a beginner, you should get a feel for the stock market, take it easy, and just learn. Once you get more experience and knowledge, then you can slowly move out of your comfort zone into stocks that offer more risk and reward. If you don't want to take this advice and you want to jump straight into risky stocks, then I beg you, please do so with a smaller amount of money. Please take my advice. The stock market is not a get-rich-quick scheme. In the stock market, you want to be an investor. You do not want to be a gambler. And I want to see you make money. As a beginner, it is better for you to make a little bit of money than to lose money. So I would recommend sticking with safer stocks to start and learning little by little. Slow and steady wins the race, and it's a marathon. And just so you know, if you want to be very safe and diversify, then you can always buy index funds. An index fund is a collection of stocks. It's like a big basket of stocks where you get diversification. So it's a way for you to buy a little of almost everything, which decreases your risk. Now in the stock markets, you can choose how to invest your money. So let me give you two options and you can decide which method that you prefer. So option number one is that you can search for good stocks to buy. This is known as stock picking. So you're trying to pick the winners. If you're going to stock pick, then it's important that you spend time monitoring your stocks to ensure that everything is going well. So later in this video, I will teach you more about stock picking. Your option number two is index funds or ETFs. So if you don't want to become a stock picker, you can invest in index funds or ETFs in the stock markets. If you invest in an index fund or ETF in the stock market, that's like buying a little bit of all the stocks in the stock markets. So there's pros and cons to this approach, which I will tell you about right now. So today I'm teaching you about index fund investing, which includes what is an index fund, the pros and cons, index funds versus ETFs, and how to invest in them. So let's start with this. What is an index? An index is simply a grouping of stocks or bonds or other securities. So for example, the S&P 500 is an index of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the US. So the thing is that you cannot invest directly in an index, but you can invest in an index fund. Now, let me explain to you how an index fund actually works. So let's say that you have an index fund that tracks the S&P 500. So that index fund will buy shares of stock in all the companies in the S&P 500 So therefore the index fund will mirror the performance of the S&P 500. If the S&P 500 goes up one percent, then that index fund, it will likewise go up one percent. If the S&P 500 goes down one percent, then that index fund will go down one percent. Now I want you to think about that. Really think about what I just said, because there's going to be pros and cons to this. So let me tell you what they are, and we'll start with the cons. Because the index funds will mirror the markets, that means that if you invest in an index fund, then you cannot outperform that benchmark. So for example, if you invest in an S&P 500 index fund, then you cannot beat the markets. So if you want to become a superior investor, an index fund may not be right for you. Another downside with index funds is the lack of flexibility. So for example, if there are some stocks that you don't like in the fund, then unfortunately, you're going to be stuck with them. It's take it or leave it. That means that if there are stocks that are underperforming in the index fund, you can't cut your losses and you can't have them sold off. And another drawback is the tracking error. An index fund will not perfectly track an index. So if the S&P 500 goes up 7%, the S&P 500 index fund, it might go up 6.95%. And you may be like, hey, where's the rest? Well, that difference, it includes the cost to run the actual index fund. So sometimes the tracking error may be tiny, like a difference of 0.01%. But with other index funds, it may be much more. But there also may be tracking errors if an index fund uses derivatives. In those instances, an index fund will not track precisely. Okay, so we just got all the bad stuff out of the way. But now let's talk about the good stuff. Because there are a lot of benefits with index fund investing. So the great thing about an index fund is that you can be hands off. You can become a passive investor. And this is great for someone that's new in the stock market or inexperienced. If you do know what you're doing, you're just too busy. Let's just say that you don't have time to research individual companies. Or you don't have the time to pay attention to macroeconomic conditions. Then this will solve the problem. So I understand that we're all busy. Life gets in the way. And this may be a good solution for a lot of people to become a passive investor with index fund investing. So here's another benefit. So the truth is that most people are not good at picking individual stocks. If you're not paying attention to the economy, if you're not staying current on the sector, and if you can't read financial statements, well, that probably explains why. So it's hard for even the professionals to beat the markets. So research shows that from 2001 to 2016, active fund managers underperformed their benchmark index. So honestly, if you put your money in an index fund, then you're probably going to do better than most people. I do want you to know this stuff because most people when they talk about index funds, they overlook this part. So recently, passive investing through index funds, it has been outperforming. However, active management generally outperforms passive investing when the stock market or an index is going down. That's generally because active managers to capitalize better during the market recovery phase. So in other words, when the markets are going up, an index fund tends to do better. When the markets are going down, active management tends to do better. Now, another big benefit is diversification. Diversification is so important for your investing portfolio because it lowers your risk. Index fund investing provides you with a simple solution. That's because when you buy an index fund, you're buying up a slice of up to hundreds or thousands of companies at once with diversification. It's going to balance your risk and your portfolio will experience less volatility. Now, here's what I suggest to you. I would say compare the pros and cons and see if see if this makes sense to you. So to review the benefits of investing in an index fund, it include but are not limited to passive investing, dependable returns and diversification. The drawbacks are, you cannot outperform the lack of flexibility and tracking errors. So I hope you enjoyed that educational information. But I want to give you my, I want to share with you my opinion as well. So I'm going to speak freely. This is like a heart to hearts about index fund investing. So if you're going to ask me for my opinion about index fund investing, I believe that it depends on the investor. It depends on the individual person, but for most people, for most investors, I believe that index fund investing does make sense. There are more benefits than there would be cons or negatives. Because just think about how practical it is. Think about how convenient it is. You could just throw money into an index fund and you don't have to, you don't even have to know what's going on. You don't have to manage it. You could just focus on your job, your career, your friends, your family. You could focus your energy and your attention elsewhere. It'll be more stress-free. You don't have to make these big decisions. You don't have to keep up to date on the macroeconomic environment or company specific news. So there's a lot of benefits that you have to take into consideration. So sure, the trade-off would be that you're not going to be the next Warren Buffett. So you need to ask yourself those types of questions and be honest with yourself. Are you trying to be the next Warren Buffett? Because if you are, then index fund investing is probably not for you. It's not a good fit for you. Not with the goals that you're trying to achieve. But if you're trying to find a place where you can park your money, excess cash as an investments, and you can do it passively, just check up on it passively and conveniently, then index fund investing might be a really good fit for you. But I do want to say this last part, and this is especially important to beginners, because when people are talking about index funds, they usually think about a very broad index. Let's just say the S&P 500, right? However, you can use index funds, targeted index funds, to complement yourself as an investor, as an active investor. So for example, if I'm going to be actively participating in the stock market, then I'm going to be looking at stocks every day, and not necessarily buying or selling every day. But I'm staying up to date as an active investor in the stock markets. And I'm buying stocks in all different types of sectors. But I feel like that I'm lacking exposure in, let's just say, pharmaceutical stocks. Okay, if that's the case, then I could, I could use index funds, a targeted index fund like that, that specializes just in pharmaceutical stocks, to complement my overall investing style. And the other approach is that if you do want to park most of your money, the majority of your money with a broad index, let's just say an index fund, an S&P 500 index fund, right? You can park the majority of your money in that vehicle, the S&P 500 index fund. However, if you really have that itch to buy and sell individual stocks, well, you can have the majority of your money in a broad index fund like that, well, diversified index fund like that. But then additionally, you could complement that by buying the stock picks that you like. Let's just say, well, you really think Tesla is going to do good, or you really think Microsoft is going to do good. Then you could have the bulk of your money in an index fund that you could use smaller amounts of money to make your stock picks. But the bulk of your portfolio will revolve around index fund investing. Now, let me answer some really good commonly asked questions about index funds. Are index funds popular? The answer is yes. Index funds were introduced in 1976. Investing in index funds is the most common form of passive investing. It is estimated that passive investing in the stock market makes up about 15% of the markets. That's the official stat. Some estimates are that it's over 30%. So yes, it's very common, very popular. So this is nothing new. Another good question is how do you invest in index funds? Okay, so it's very easy. You will need a brokerage account or retirement accounts. You pick the index that you want to track and then you buy shares of that index fund. So it'll be very straightforward. Another very good question is how much money do you need to invest in index funds? Most index funds have no minimum requirements. So it could be a great way to get started with very little money. And I'll answer this last question. How many index funds should you own? So that's going to depend on how diversified a particular index fund is. If you invest in a well diversified fund, then you may only need to own one index fund or two index funds. However, if you invest in an index fund that's more targeted, you may need to own more than one or two in order to create diversification. Now, it's very important that you understand this. There is no one right way to invest in the stock markets. You can successfully pick your own stocks, invest in index funds, invest in ETFs, or a combination of these. I recommend that you choose what is best for you. And to make that determination, it's important that you understand the differences between the three: stock picking, index funds, and ETFs. So personally, in the stock market, I do all three. I invest in index funds, I invest in ETFs, and I pick my own stocks. Now, in this section, you will get a better understanding on whether one or two or all three are a good fit for you. I'm going to answer for you how are index funds and ETFs similar, how are they different, and how do you know which one is right for you? Okay, so I'm going to tell you the truth. The truth is that they are more in common than not. They have more similarities than differences. But I want you to be aware of the differences that could make an ETF or an index fund a deal breaker for you. I want to demonstrate to you what is going on with an index fund. So you could think of it like this: let's say that you, me, my brother, your neighbor, and my Uncle Bob, we're all pooling money together. And with this pool of money, we're going to buy all the stocks in the S&P 500. And let's just say we do that. And let's just say that you want out. When you want to cash out your portion, the fund has to sell some of its holdings to pay you out. Now let's compare this to an ETF. So with an ETF, an exchange traded fund, you could think of it like this. Let's just say that you bought all the stocks in the S&P 500. And you package them all up into one bundle. And you did that 10 times. And I say to you, "Hey, can you sell me one of those?" And you're like, "Yeah, sure." And I buy it from you. So it's simply traded from you to me like a stock. So I hope that helps to clarify what is going on. An index fund is a collection of securities that are financed by a pool of investors. An ETF is a collection of securities that are traded between investors. So that's it. That's the difference. But there are a lot of similarities. And let me tell you what those are. Both an index fund and ETF offer you a low cost solution, diversification, and a proven track record. So index funds and ETFs, they're both passively managed. This means that there's no human that is actively choosing what to invest in. Therefore, index funds and ETFs are low cost. They have a low expense ratio. Now, both index funds and ETFs, they will give you diversification because they hold a variety of assets. And index funds and ETFs generally outperform active fund managers over a longer period of time. Now, I want to tell you the differences, and this will help you determine which one is better for you. So the four biggest differences between an index fund and ETF are liquidity, minimum investment requirements, expenses and fees, and taxation. So let's get started with liquidity. You can buy and sell ETFs throughout the trading day like a stock. With an index fund, you can only buy or sell at the end of the day. Therefore, an ETF is more liquid. So this probably will not make a big difference for most long-term investors, but it does matter if you're going to do any day trading or shorter duration moves. Now, moving on to minimum investment requirements. So generally, an ETF will have a lower minimum investment requirement when you compare it to an index fund. So for example, you can buy as little as a single share of an ETF. In some cases, you can even buy fractional shares of an ETF. But with some index funds, they're going to impose a minimum requirement. It could be $1,000, it could be $2,000 or even more. Now, when it comes to expenses and fees, both index funds and ETFs are low cost investments. That's because both are passively managed. Previously, ETFs were known to carry lower expense ratios compared to index funds, but that gap has been closing. And the expenses for index funds and ETFs, they're now quite similar. So you're going to see expense ratios in the 0.05% to 0.02% range, which is a fraction of 1%, which is a very low cost solution. And of course, we have to consider taxation. ETFs are more tax efficient compared to index funds. That's because of their structuring. So I previously demonstrated to you how they're structured, and that structuring, it has tax consequences. So essentially, with an ETF, you're selling to another buyer, and the cash comes directly from that buyer. To cash out of an index fund, you have to redeem it from the fund manager. And the fund manager will have to sell some of the holdings to get the cash to pay you out. So if there is a gain on the sale, that gain is passed on to all investors of the fund. That means that you can end up with a tax bill even if you don't sell a single share. So ultimately, assets are bought and sold every time an investor enters or leaves an index fund. And anytime there's a capital gain, every investor that's part of the fund will need to pay capital gains tax. Now, I want to be very clear with you on this topic of taxation, because I don't want this to scare you. So this is going to be in relation to how much money that you have in the index fund. So if you have very little money in the fund, then don't expect the tax consequences to be significant. But if you do have a lot of money in the index fund, then yes, it could be a decent amount. Now, let me give you my opinion on which one is better, an index fund or an ETF. But I want to tell you this story to help you understand the situation, the whole situation. So the index fund was created in 1975 by John Bogle, who went by the name of Jack. So Jack Bogle was the founder of the Vanguard Group. Bogle created the index fund in 1975 so that everyday investors could compete with the pros. So that was 1975. It took a few years for index fund investing to catch on, but eventually it gained traction. So 18 years passed by, it's 1993. State Street Global launches their S&P 500 ETF called the SPDR. It's referred to as the Spider. But this wasn't the first ETF. This was preceded by the Toronto ETF in 1990, among others. But ultimately, the ETF is an improvement of an index fund. It's like an index fund 2.0. And that's why ETFs have been gaining in popularity very quickly. 1993, the ETF market basically didn't exist. 2002, there are over 100 ETFs. 2009, over 1000 ETFs. Currently, we're close to 10,000. And right now, there's a competition for your money between index funds and ETFs. Now, let me tell you what I think. My opinion is that an ETF is an upgraded version of an index fund. And here's why. If you're on a tighter budget, an ETF may be better for you if you have less money to invest upfront. So I'm referring to the higher minimum requirements. So ETFs, yes, they do have a better tax structuring, and that's going to give you a greater control of claiming gains or losses. And because you can sell, so you can buy or sell an ETF throughout the day. So if that need ever arose, I'm guessing in most situations that it would not. But if it ever did, that you could take advantage of that situation of any major price movements throughout the day. And that is a benefit that you cannot have or do with an index fund. However, some of these ETF advantages, they might not make a meaningful difference to you, especially if you're a long term investor. So I want to be clear that I do like index funds, but if I had to choose, then I would go with an ETF. But that is just my opinion. But if there's a if there's a particular index fund that does not have a competing ETF, then yeah, I would buy you know, that index fund. So that's just the way I see it. So to be clear, both index funds and ETFs have my stamp of approval. However, personally, I like to pick my own stocks in addition to index funds and ETFs. Now, if you want to pick your own stocks, then it is essential that you understand the terminology and you know how to read stocks. Because if you don't understand the stock terms, then you're going to be lost and you're not going to be able to distinguish good stocks from bad stocks. So let's begin with the essentials. So in this next segment, you're going to learn the key data and stats when you're researching a stock. And it doesn't matter if you're looking at a stock screen on your app or a brokerage account or a website. So the information and terminology that I'm about to show you, it's going to be the same no matter where you look. So please follow along and make sure that you fully grasp this info because it'll be critical. We're going to look at finance.yahoo.com. So let's go over there. Once you arrive here at this top bar search bar right here, that's where you're going to put in your ticker symbol. That's your identifying letters of your stock. So let's look at Ally Bank. So Ally Bank is owned by Ally Financial. So let's go there. A-L-L-Y. That's the ticker symbol as you can see right here. We're going to select that. What we're going to do in this tutorial is give you the basic overview of what we are seeing on this screen. Let's begin. As of right now, when we are reviewing Ally Financial, ticker symbol A-L-L-Y. The price is $18.43 a share. The market is closed. So this right here, this will not be this will not be fluctuating because the market is closed. If the market is open during that time, you will see this fluctuating. You know, every few seconds, if you refresh it, it'll fluctuate. During this day, during the, during this trading day, it went up 99 cents. Therefore, it was up 5.68%. That's a pretty big gain. However, markets are very volatile these days. That's what you are reading. After hours, the stock market has closed. However, the stock will still be trading after the market closes. And also tomorrow, pre-market. That just means the stock will be trading before the market opens. The amount, the quantity of how much of these stocks or these shares will be trading. It's going to be very minimal compared to the shares of the stock that are traded on the market during the day. So there's going to be, in other words, in layman's terms, there's going to be a lot of buying and selling during the day. And there's still going to be a little bit of buying and selling after the market closes and before the market opens. Currently, it's after hours. The next day, tomorrow morning, before the market opens, you'll see this say pre-markets. So before, before the market opens. Let's go on to here. This is the meat of the dead. What I've highlighted, that's what we're going to be looking at closely. Today, Ally Financial closed at $18.43. The day prior, the previous close of Ally Financial was $17.44. This morning, today, the stock price opened at $17.90. So yesterday, it closed at $17.44 right here. And then at today's open, it just jumped open and started the day off at $17.90. So it was a good start. It was a good morning for Ally Financial. This is your beginner's tutorial. So we are not going to cover what the bid and the ask are. The bid and the ask, just for your information, this is more intermediate level, is what people are willing to pay for it. And ask is the price at which they are willing to sell it at a share. But again, for now, if you're a beginner, please ignore those. The day's range is the price fluctuation of the day. During the day, during today's trading day, it fluctuated from $17.41 all the way up to $18.55. The 52-week range, that just shows you the price where the price of Ally Financial has been in the past year. It has been as low as $10.22 and as high as $35.42. So you can see the current price to $18.43. You know, it's not near the lowest and it's not near the highest point during the 52-week range. The volume, volume is very important. This shows how many shares of Ally Financial has traded today. If you see a stock with a volume that's very low, that means that you can get trapped in that stock because you wouldn't be able to sell it. So if you see a stock with a volume close to zero, that should be a red flag and that should be problematic because even if the stock went up and you wanted to sell it, you probably couldn't get rid of it. However, if I'm looking at Ally Financial and I see that the volume is nearly seven million shares and one share is $18.43, that means it's very liquid. In other words, in layman's terms, that just means that it's very easy for you to buy a share of Ally and it's very easy for you to sell a share of Ally because nearly seven million shares trade hands each day. Well, that was today. The average volume is how many shares of this stock trade on average per day. So as you can see, today's volume was slightly less than the average. However, I mean, that's that's very easy for you to sell your position and get out very quickly because a lot of shares are trading each day. Moving up here, market cap, it's going to say 6.877 B. That means the company, the market cap means market capitalization, which means the value of the company. The value of the company is how many shares there are of that company multiplied by the price per share. So how many shares there are times the price per share will give you the market cap, which means the value of the company. 6.877 B just means the market cap or the company's value is valued at 6.877 billion dollars. If you saw this as an M instead of a B, then that would mean 6.877 million. But this is a B, so the market cap, the value of the company is 6.877 billion dollars. Beta, this is an intermediate level terminology or item, so please ignore this for the time being. This is P/E ratio is a price to earnings ratio. This is more intermediate level as well. This just means the price of the stock divided by how much in earnings each share of each share of the stock means. Again, this is more for intermediate level analysis. This, we're just going over the very basics during this tutorial. However, that's P/E ratio and we'll cover that, you know, we look on this very heavily in the intermediate level, so we'll be covering this very thoroughly. Earnings per share. This is intermediate level stuff too. This just means how much in net income the company makes divided by how many shares there are. So it's the earnings per share. The earnings dates. This is expected dates where the company will release their quarterly earnings. So it is expected. Today's date is June 1st and we are expecting the earnings to be released between July 16th through July 20th. There's forward dividend and yield. This just means the dividend that a company is paying. So Ally Financial is paying a dividend yield of 4.14 percent. Not all stocks, not all companies pay dividends. Ally Financial is one example of a company or a stock that pays a dividend. This just means that if you bought $100 worth of Ally Financial stock, then you would receive in dividends a rate of 4.14 percent. So if you bought $100 worth of Ally Financial stock, you would receive in dividends $4.14, approximately. Ex-dividend date. This just means the date that you need to be. This is more of an intermediate level thing, because this is representative of the date that you need to have been in the stock for the dividends, for you to receive the dividends. This is one-year target estimate. Honestly, you should do your own research and your own homework. Don't rely on other people's targets or estimates, especially from a generic site like a Yahoo Finance. All this other stuff, this concrete data, but these things where they're opinions or estimates, I wouldn't rely on a site like Yahoo or Google or just any generic. Again, this is just opinion. So do your own research. And again, this is not beginner level stuff. But we'll make videos on those topics. Here you're going to see the news regarding the company. This is particularly important if there's large price fluctuations in the stock. Then you can see why the stock moved up so much or why the stock moved down so much. So you can check your news here. Watch out for the ads, though. And it just goes on and on. Clickbait right here. That is the news section. And this section is very important to you, of course. This is the chart. 1D. That just means the one day chart. This is the price movement of Ally Financial during the one day. The X axis. Am I saying that right? Y axis. X axis. It just sounds funny. Okay. This is showing the time of the day. And this is the Y axis is showing the price. You can switch the time frame to five days to see how the price fluctuates. 1M is one month. 6M is six months. See, you see the price has dropped considerably from February 18th, February 14th, down to the second or third week of March. I would see the news during that time frame to see what the heck happened, what triggered this. Was it overblown? Was it justified? Or was it, or do you think that it can go down more? So I would check the news to see what happened during this time frame. That's why it's good to look at the charts as well. YTD just means year to date. So this will start January 1st. January 2nd was the first trading day of the year, up until today. 1Y is the one year chart. It was pretty stable and then it just took a real big dive. Early February. 5Y's five year chart. Click on the max. It'll take you back as far as it goes. You can do a full screen approach. Wow, that's one heck of a dive. Look at that. That went down really fast. We'll go back. Hit the back button over here. You're going to see some features here that are locked. Like the company outlook. I think you got to pay for. You got a freemium, huh? It's not worth it. Probably not worth it. You got the charts. We were just there. I would ignore the conversations. Let's see what this is all about. Don't trust anybody on the conversations on Yahoo's message board. That's just don't. Just trust me. Statistics. This is your more intermediate analysis. So we'll ignore that for now. You have the historical price closings. What the stock price was on a particular day. If you're interested in a particular day. Or from a set time frame. The profile will just give you a little bit more information about the company. Some nice paydays. Give you the executives. Titles. Pay. I really like to look at the. Who the executive team is. Because the leadership is key. And you can do your background. Or your research on these people. Give you the size of the company. Sector industry. The website. And all the basic information. More info here. Okay. This one's probably one of the more important segments. The financials. Here you can look at the income statement. The balance sheet. And the cash flow statement. So you can see how they are financially. If you look at the income sheet. Again. We'll do a separate video. About reviewing the income sheet. And the balance sheet. And the cash flow statements. I'm sorry to be going all over the place. Let's go back to income statement. And relax here for a bit. Generally. High level overview. You can see the history. This is their. One year. Figure. One year figures. From 2016. 2017. 2018. 2019. So this is comparative. Each line. Each row. Is a comparative analysis. Compared to the previous year. And what I would do. Again. This is very high level overview. Just see if their total sales. Are growing. Which is their total revenue. See if their total profits. Are growing. Or decreasing. Which is their net income. So that's how you would just look. At their financial health. From a fair. From a very high level overview. And then you can do the same thing. From their balance sheets. You know. You can see their assets. Their liabilities. Are their assets growing. Are their liabilities growing. To see the health of their company. And you can do the same thing. With the cash flow statements. On the analysis tab. Again. Don't trust these people. I mean. They're like. These analysts are like. Weather. Weather men. And it's just like. Weather reporters. Where they just get it wrong. All the time. Just don't listen to this. Do your own research. Number of analysts. Just look at this. This is just nonsense. This is just nonsense. We won't get into options. Again. That's more advanced. Holders. Well. This is more intermediate stuff. That a beginner. Probably would not need to know. This is just showing you. The top. Insta. Who. Is holding. These shares. Of this stock. People want to know this stuff. To see if there's smart money. Which is. You know. Big institutions. Or big. Big time investors. That are shareholders. Because usually. That's a signal. Of a vote of a. Vote of confidence. In that particular company. Depending on who the investor. Who the. Institutional holder is. And this is. I mean. You don't need to. This is. This is not practical information. Sustainability. So. That is a typical information. That you're going to see. When you look up a stock. In addition. It's very important. That you know. The common. Stock market terms. That you'll hear. Very often. So in this segment. I want to explain to you. 10. Common terms. That every beginner. In the stock market. Should know. So I'm going to teach you. The lingo. And some. Key concepts. Starting off. With number one. Is a bull market. When the stock market. Is going up. People call it. A bull market. That's because a bull. Thrusts its horns. In an upward motion. In a bull market. There's going to be ups and downs. Along the way. But the general direction. Of a bull market. Is up. A bull market. Can last. For a few months. Or for many years. The average bull market. Lasts. For three to four years. During a bull market. Most investors. Are making money. That's because. On average. Stocks gain. One hundred and ten percent. During a bull market. A bull market. Is good times. And that's why people love it. Everyday investors. Enjoy. Watching their account values. Go up. And it's a great time. All around. A bull market. Can be triggered. By various factors. Such as a booming economy. Or quantitative easing. Number two. Is quantitative easing. Also abbreviated. As QE. This is when the federal reserve. Is printing money. Which causes. Inflation. When you have high inflation. Most things will go up. In price. Including stocks. In the stock markets. So stock prices. Tend to go up. During quantitative easing. That's just because. There's simply more money. In the economy. All that newly printed money. It needs to go somewhere. And a lot of that money. Finds its way. Into the stock market. Driving up the price of stocks. Number three. Is a bear markets. When the stock market. Is going down. People call it. A bear markets. That's because a bear. Swipes its claws. In a downward motion. People use the term. Bear market. When the stock market. Has fallen. At least 20% from its peak. The average bear market. Lasts for nine months. On average. You can expect. The stock market. To fall by 36%. Therefore. You can understand. Why most investors. Do not enjoy. A bear market. Number four. Shorting. When the stock market. Is going down. Not everyone. Is going to be sad though. Because in the stock market. You can make money. By betting. That stocks. Will fall in price. In the stock market. Most investors. Make money. By buying a stock. At a low price. And then selling it. At a higher price. You buy low. And you sell high. However. You can switch. The order around. You can sell high. And then buy low. You're doing the same thing. Just in the reverse order. Therefore. When you're shorting a stock. You're hoping that the stock. Goes down in price. If you want to make money. Shorting a stock. Then you should be searching. For companies. That have a very bad future. Ahead of them. This could be. Bad management. A dying industry. A product or service. That was just a fad. Too much debt. Competitors. That are out competing them. Etc. When you're looking to short a stock. You want to make sure. That they're as bad as they come. The more terrible. The better. Number five. Quantitative tightening. We spoke about how quantitative easing. Is money printing. Quantitative tightening. Is the very opposite of that. When the federal reserve. Prints money. That's quantitative easing. When the federal reserve. Takes that money back. That's quantitative tightening. Quantitative tightening. Tends to be harmful. To the stock markets. If the federal reserve. Is pulling money. Out of the economy. There's going to be less money. To go around. If there's less money. To go around. There's going to be less money. In the stock markets. This means that the price of stocks. Will generally go down. So it's pretty straightforward. Quantitative easing. Pushes the stock market up. Quantitative tightening. Pushes the stock market down. At number six. We have dead cat bounce. When the stock market. Is going down. It's not going to go straight down. It's going to go up and down. Up and down. But the general direction. Is downward. In this downward trend. You may see stocks. Bounce in price. Only to fall down. Even further. A lot of amateur investors. Lose money in a dead cat bounce. Because they think that a stock. Has reached a bottom. At this point. They see the stock price. Going back up. And they FOMO. They have the fear. Of missing out. However. That was not the bottom. And this bounce. Will be short lived. This bounce in price. It's something that always happens. Because nothing will ever go straight down. It's like a law of physics. In the stock markets. Even stocks. That announce. That they're going bankrupt. Will have a dead cat bounce. They call it a dead cat bounce. Because when a cat. Jumps out of a tall structure. Let's just say a tree. The cat hits the pavement. It dies on impact. It still bounces up. Because of physics. Newton's third law of motion. But the dead cat. That bounced up. It's coming right back down. When a stock is going down. It may bounce back up. Investors may think. That the stock is coming back to life. And it's going to shoot back up. But no. It's going right back down. That's a dead cat bounce. Number seven. Don't fight the Fed. The Federal Reserve's monetary policy. Is a big factor. On whether the stock market. Goes up or down. If the Fed prints money. It pushes the stock market up. If the Fed takes that money back. It pushes the stock market down. Of course it depends on how much money. They're printing or taking back. The bigger the quantity. The bigger the impact. The Federal Reserve's decisions. Have a big influence. On the direction of the stock market. The Federal Reserve. Can have more of an impact. On the stock market. Than the health of the economy. This was clearly. Evidence in 2020. During 2020. The economy locked down. Unemployment skyrocketed. And GDP fell. However. The Federal Reserve. Printed an excessive amount of money. And it sent the stock market. Up 18%. So that's how powerful. The Federal Reserve's influence is. On the stock market. Therefore. You don't fight the Fed. Number eight. Dollar cost averaging. You'll see investors. Abbreviating this as DCA. When you buy a stock. You never want to go all in. So let's just say. That a stock. Is at $10. And you think it's a good price. Don't act like a crazy person. And use all of your money. To buy it at $10. Even if you think it's a good price. So sure. You can buy some at $10. But save some money. In case it drops to $9. And save some money. In case it drops to $8. By doing so. You'll be averaging down. On your purchase price. In this example. Let's just say. That you thought it was a good price. At $10. And let's say. That nothing has fundamentally changed. With the stock. And on no news. The stock falls to $9. So this would be a great opportunity. To DCA. Dollar cost average down. And buy more shares. At a cheaper price. A benefit of dollar cost averaging is. If you buy some at $10. And then it goes up. Then you'll make money. If the stock goes down. Then you can buy more shares. At a cheaper price. And this will allow you. To make even more money. Because you got in. At a better price. Number nine. Tax loss harvesting. This is when you're selling. You're losing stocks. Taking the loss. So that you pay less taxes. So let's say that you bought. And sold a bunch of stocks. During the year. And you're up $5,000. In that case. Congratulations on your success. However. You're going to face taxes. However. If you're holding on to some stocks. That went down in value. You can sell them at a loss. So your total gains are reduced. By tax loss harvesting. You end up paying less in taxes. Number ten. Support and resistance. These are very important terms. That you're going to hear often. A lot of people in the stock market. Like to look at the stock charts. And identify patterns. If there's a certain price. That a stock has a hard time. Falling below. That's called the support. If there's a certain price. That a stock has a hard time. Going above. That's called the resistance. In a lot of cases. When the support is broken. It will turn into the new resistance. And a lot of times. When the resistance is broken. It will turn into the new support. Now. Let me tell you. How to find good stocks to buy. So it's a simple two-step process. Step one is discovery. So how do you even find companies. That are listed on the stock markets. And step two is your evaluation. So that's researching whether a stock. Is a good buy or not. So let's talk about step number one. Which is finding stocks. First. You have to find out. Which companies are listed. On the stock market. Right? So how do you do that? And the answer is simple. There are multiple ways. So here's one way. There are many free websites. That list all the companies. That are on the stock markets. And you can filter your search. For which stocks. That you want to look at. Based on. The size of the company. The price of the stock. By industry. Stocks that are trending up. Stocks that are trending down. How popular stock is. Etc. So that's one method. Another method. Is that you can find stocks. By reading financial news outlets. So we're talking about. Wall Street Journal. Google Finance. Yahoo Finance. Etc. Another method. Is that you can subscribe. To free newsletters. About stock picking. There are subscription services. For stock picking. You can always ask your friends. Your family members. Or coworkers. Now step number two. Which is very important. Is doing your research. Do your due diligence. Before investing. Your hard earned money. Into a stock. Because your money is on the line. You want to make sure. That you do your homework. To maximize your odds. That you pick a winner. If you get stock recommendations. From a newsletter. A subscription service. A friend. A family member. Or coworker. It doesn't matter where it comes from. Always do your own research. And I want to tell you this. There is no one right way. To evaluate a stock. Some investors. Will pay more attention. To sales growth. Others to profits. Or dividends. Price to earnings ratio. Cash flow. The charts. Etc. Your evaluation. Will most likely encompass. A variety. Of these factors. So everyone has their own style. Of stock picking. Now let me give you my honest opinion. About where you should buy. And sell stocks. So a brokerage account. Is where you buy. And sell stocks. And the majority of brokerage accounts. Have zero commissions. So that means that it costs you nothing. To buy a stock. Or to sell a stock. So they don't charge you anything. It's literally free. That's because these brokerages. Have other ways of making money. They make money from lending. From interest. From market making. So they make money in a lot of ways. Not limited to just those. So they don't even bother. Charging you a commission. To buy or sell stocks. So the question is. Which brokerage accounts. Is the best. Where should you open up. A stock market accounts. My honest answer is. They're all the same. Now of course. There's going to be exceptions. Like if you're a professional day trader. But for the vast majority of investors. It doesn't matter. If you have a million dollars. Or a hundred dollars. Any name brand brokerage accounts. Will be good. So I'm going to leave a link. For you. Down below. Of a good brokerage account. That I use personally. If you use that link. Then you'll receive a sign up bonus. Of free stocks. To kickstart your accounts. Now moving on. To stock market taxes. This is very important. For two reasons. So the first reason is. Well you don't want to get in trouble. At the IRS. And the second reason is. You want to minimize your taxes. On your stock market gains. So I'm going to teach you. What you have to do with. The money that you make. In the stock markets. Money that you lose. In the stock markets. Your dividend income. Your interest income. And how to reduce your taxes. In the stock markets. If you have more advanced questions. Or if you just need clarification. On what we cover today. Then please write them. In the comments down below. And I will do my best. To help you out. So let's start with the basics. In the stock market. Your taxes. Will be based off. The calendar year. So we're talking about. January 1st. To December 31st. Your brokerage account. Will keep track. Of all your activity. For the year. And this is going to include. The gains. Losses. Interest. Dividends. Etc. Now. I want you to be prepared. So I want to give you a timeline. Of the events. So that you don't miss. Any important tax. Deadlines. Or documents. So let's say. That it's December 31st. It's the last day of the year. And then the day ends. And then the year. Just ended. So happy new year. It's now January 1st. And your brokerage account. Has until February 15th. To give you a tax document. That you need to report. On your tax return. This tax document. Is called. The consolidated 1099. The consolidated 1099. Will include. The 1099 B. Which states. How much money. That you made. Or lost. In the stock market. That year. The 1099 INT. And that states. How much interest. Income. That you earned. That year. In your brokerage accounts. And the 1099. Div. Which states. How much. Dividend. Income. That you earned. That year. In your brokerage accounts. Now. You would think. That in this day and age. Everything is computerized. Right? So why can't your brokerage accounts. Immediately. Generate your tax documents. On January 1st. Like. What's up with that? So that's a good question. But there's actually. A good reason. Why it cannot be done. That quickly. It's because. Even though your tax period. Ends on December 31st. There are certain types. Of stock transactions. That can retroactively. Affect your taxes. So for example. Let's say that the year 2023. Ended. And it's January 22nd. Of 2024. So with certain transactions. What you do in January. Can affect your taxes. In the previous year. One example. Is the wash sale rule. That's why brokerage accounts. Cannot immediately. Generate your tax documents. On January 1st. So you're most likely. Going to get your 1099. Tax document. In early. To mid. February. Which should be. Enough time. For you to finish. Your tax return. By the April. Due date. So that's an overview. Of how this all works. Now let's go over. The most common situations. In the stock market. You will only pay taxes. If you make money. If you lose money. In the stock market. Then you will not pay taxes. So as a matter of fact. If you lose money. In the stock market. Then you will receive. A tax deduction. Now let me give you. An example. To clarify. So let's just say. That you buy. Tesla stock. For $100. In January. Of 2023. And let's say. That you sell it. One month later. In February of 2023. For $120. So congratulations. You made a gain. Of $20. You sold the stock. For $120. But you will not pay taxes. On the full sales price. Of $120. You will only pay taxes. On your $20. Of gain. So how much. Will you pay in taxes. That's going to depend. On which tax brackets. That you're in. And that depends. On how much money. That you make overall. If you're in. The 10% tax bracket. Then your $20. Of gain. Will be taxed. At a rate. Of 10%. Which means. That you will owe. The IRS. $2. You made a gain. Of $20. You need to pay. $2. Of taxes. To the IRS. So you came out. Ahead. By $18. Now here's. What you must know. To save yourself. A lot. In taxes. If you hold. The stock. For one year. Or less. And then you sell it. For a gain. Then you will pay. Regular tax rates. This is called. Short-term capital gains. So it's just based. On how long. You hold the stock. One year. Or less. Is classified. As short-term. So if you're. In the 10% tax bracket. And you make money. In the stock market. Then you will pay. A tax rate. Of 10% on your short-term. Capital gains. If you're in the 37% tax. Brackets. And you make money. In the stock market. Then you will pay. A tax rate. Of 37% on your short-term. Capital gains. But. If you hold the stock. For more than one year. And then you sell it. For a gain. Then it will be classified. As a long-term. Capital gain. So it just depends. On how long. You hold the stock. Short-term. Is a year or less. Long-term. Is longer than a year. So long-term. Capital gains. Receive much better. Tax rates. And it doesn't matter. Which tax bracket. That you're in. Your tax treatment. Will be much better. Regardless. It is a game changer. So let me explain. If you make a lot of money. At your job. And you're in the 37% tax. Brackets. Your long-term. Capital gains. Will be taxed. Around 20%. If you're in the 25% tax. Brackets. Your long-term. Capital gains. Will be taxed. At 15%. If you're in the 10% tax. Brackets. Your long-term. Capital gains. Will be taxed. At a rate. Of 0%. So that's right. 0%. If you don't believe me. You can look up. 0% long-term. Capital gains tax. Therefore. Regardless of. Whichever tax rate. That you're in. Long-term. Capital gains. Will receive. Favorable. Tax treatment. So keep that in mind. This is going to save you. A lot of money. Especially. If you're sitting. On a big winner. And this leads. To another important. Point. That you must know. You only trigger. A tax consequence. When you close. Your position. So let me explain. So let's just say. That you bought. Microsoft. Stock. In the year. 2020. For $100. By the end of the year. By the end of 2020. The stock. Goes up. From $100. To 130. But. You didn't sell it. You're just holding on to it. Because. You did not sell the stock. And you did not close. Your position. You did not trigger. A tax liability. And let's say. That it's next year. So now. We're in 2021. And 2021. Ends. And Microsoft. Went up. To $150. So congratulations. But you just held the stock. You still. Didn't sell it. Then it's going to be. The same thing. You did not sell your stock. You did not realize the gain. Which means. That a tax consequence. Has not been triggered. So still. There's nothing to report. On your tax return. And you don't have to pay. Any taxes yet. Because you haven't sold. A position. You have not closed. Your position. And then. Let's say. That we're now. In the year. 2022. And you finally. Decide. To sell the stock. For $180. Now. I'll tell you two things. One. Your gain. Is $80. You sell the Microsoft stock. For $180. You bought it. For $100. So your gain. Is $80. And you will be taxed. On your $80. Of gain. The second thing. Is that your tax rates. Will be much better. Because. Remember. You held on to the stock. For longer than one year. And this makes it. A long-term capital gain. And long-term capital gains. Receive much better. Tax rates. Now. Let's talk about. Losing money. In the stock market. Because it happens. When you make money. In the stock market. You have to pay taxes. When you lose money. In the stock market. The IRS. Gives you a tax deduction. And a tax deduction. Allows you to pay less taxes. Which is a good thing. So let's be clear. Losing money. In the stock market. Is bad. Try not to do that. But. If you lose money. At least. You get a tax deduction. When life throws lemons at you. You make lemonade. So use this. To keep a positive attitude. Towards losing money. In the stock market. At least you get a tax break. So let's run through. Three examples. Of you losing money. In the stock markets. So example number one. You work a job. And at your job. You make one hundred thousand dollars. Of taxable income. So congrats. You make six figures. You have all this extra money. And you're like. I'm going to invest some money. In the stock markets. And you buy two thousand dollars. Of Peloton stock. And your investment declines. From two thousand dollars. To one thousand. In the same year. And you don't sell it. By the end of the year. You just keep holding on to the stock. Hoping that it recovers. You know what the tax consequence is? There is none. Because remember. You didn't sell the stock. You did not close your position. So you did not realize your loss. Therefore. There is no tax consequence. The tax implications. Will be triggered. In the year. That you sell the stock. For a gain. Or for a loss. Example number two. It's going to be the same setup. You make one hundred thousand dollars. At your job. You buy two thousand dollars. Worth of Peloton stock. It declines to one thousand dollars. And you can't take it anymore. The stock is just stressing you out. And you end up selling it. The same year. For a one thousand dollar loss. In this scenario. You realize the loss of one thousand dollars. But hey. You have to look at the bright side. You get a one thousand dollar tax deduction. So on your tax return. You make one hundred thousand dollars. A taxable income at your job. But now. You get a one thousand dollar. Stock market loss. To reduce your total. Taxable income. So on your tax return. Your taxable income. Goes from one hundred thousand dollars. To ninety nine thousand. So hey. You save some money. On your taxes. An example number three. Same setup. You make one hundred thousand dollars. Of income at your job. And let's say that you bought. Twenty thousand dollars. Of Peloton stock. Like you went overboard. Like you yoloed. And let's just say that the stock. Fell in value. From twenty thousand dollars. To ten thousand. You know. That sucks. But it happens. And you sold the stock. And you lost ten thousand dollars. Okay. So here's what happens. So there's a rule. That limits. Your losses. Per year. You can only use a maximum. Of three thousand dollars. Of losses. Per year. As a tax deduction. So if you lost. Ten thousand dollars. This year. You can take a three thousand dollar. Tax deduction. This year. And then your tax return. Would look like this. Taxable wage income. One hundred thousand dollars. Capital losses. Three thousand. Taxable income. Ninety seven thousand. And then you would have. Unused losses. Of seven thousand dollars. So the seven thousand dollars. Of remaining losses. Would carry forward. Into the future. So don't worry. Even though you can't use. All of your losses. As a tax deduction. This year. You can use them. In future years. So you don't lose. Your losses. They carry forward. And if you don't use. All your losses. Next year. Then the losses. Just keep carrying forward. Until you're able. To claim them all. In full. Now. I have to clarify this. This is so important. Do not be confused. If you lost. Ten thousand dollars. On Peloton stock. But you made. Ten thousand dollars. On Walmart stock. Then you can use. The entire. Ten thousand dollar loss. From Peloton. To offset. The ten thousand dollar. Walmart gain. So they net. Together. The three thousand dollar. Limitation. Is when you lost money. In the stock market. Overall. And three thousand dollars. Is the maximum. Tax deduction. That you can claim. To lower. Your other. Taxable income. Such as taxable income. That you made. At your job. To clarify. If you made a gain. Of ten thousand dollars. On Walmart stock. But you lost. Fifteen thousand dollars. On Peloton stock. That means. That you lost. Five thousand dollars. In the stock market. And then you can use. Three thousand dollars. Of that. As a tax deduction. To reduce your. Wage income. So you lost. Five thousand dollars. In the stock market. Overall. You can use. Three thousand dollars. As a tax deduction. That year. And then your. Two thousand dollars. Of remaining losses. Will carry forward. To next year. Now. Let's cover your. Tax obligation. On your dividend income. In your interest income. So this is very easy. But I don't want you. To overlook this. So remember. Around early February. You should receive. Your tax document. From your brokerage account. This tax form. Is called. The consolidated 1099. And this will tell you. How much money. That you made. From interest. And dividends. For the tax year. That just ended. And you have to report. This information. On your tax return. But it's very easy. To do that. If you're filing. Your tax return yourself. With a do it yourself. Software. Then you just simply. Look at your 1099. Tax form. And then type into. The software. The figures. That your software needs. But in today's modern society. Many tax software. Allow you to directly connect. To your brokerage accounts. And the software. Will automatically retrieve. The relevant tax information. That your tax return needs. And just for your information. You may have interest income. In your stock market accounts. Because. You may be earning interest. On money. That you're not using. Within your accounts. If you get paid interest. It's listed. On your 1099 tax documents. And you. You have to report. On your tax return. But that's very straightforward. To do. Your interest income. Will be taxed. At your regular tax rates. You will not receive. Any special treatments. On your interest income. And here's a little. Extra information. On dividends. So some of your stocks. May pay dividends. It's listed. On your 1099 tax document. And you report it. On your tax return. Some of your dividends. May be taxed. At your regular rates. And these are called. Ordinary dividends. Some of your dividends. May be taxed. At lower rates. And these are called. Qualified dividends. So it just depends. On the classification. Of the dividends. So we're not going to get. Into that today. On your 1099 tax document. It will separately. List out. Your qualified dividends. But long story short. Be on the lookout. For your 1099 tax document. By mid February. Use that information. For your tax software. If you're self preparing. Your return. If you're using an accountant. Give them the consolidated. 1099 tax documents. If you do not report. Your 1099 activity. It will most likely result. In an IRS letter. Unless your activity. Is extremely minimal. Again. This was a beginner's guide. To taxes. In the stock markets. If you have intermediates. Or advanced questions. Please ask them. In the comments down below. I intentionally. Did not go into the details. Of estimated tax payments. Equity options. Commodities. Foreign tax credits. Etc. So I don't want to scare. Beginners. Because those issues. Will not be applicable. To most people. And I want to clarify this. If you invest. In stocks. Or index funds. Or ETFs. Or mutual funds. In a retirement account. There are no tax consequences. Until you take that money. Out of your retirement accounts. So if you buy or sell. Within a retirement account. Those are non-taxable transactions. And they will not be reported. On your tax return. I hope you learned something. And enjoyed this video. Thank you so much for the support. Please subscribe. And I wish you a very nice day. Happy investing.