Vhootee bro, once you are 100% which company you want to buy I will tell you what I did. I went to scottrade.com and sign up for an accout and it is totally free. Once you get the confirmation in mail, send it back and your accout is all set up for you. Then you have 2 option, either mail your check to your local scottrade branch or go and deposite the check to the local branch in person. My case, I deposited it in person because it was going to take an extra day via mail. Once scottrade cash your check you will see that balance in your scottrade online accout and you are ready to buy stocks. It is very simple as you will enter the ticker name for that stock and click buy and BAMMMM you are now a partial owner of that company :-) Regardless of how many shares you buy, scottrade charges you $7 per tranaction, which isn't bad at all. Now once you have the share, how often you follow the market is totally up to you. If you are doing long term investment you probably don't want to be glued to TV or internet to check on the prices. But I do recommend it checking once a day after you get home from work to see how your stocks did today and other related news about the company. I use yahoo for mine and once i type in my stock's ticker I get all the info I need right there in the same screen (including the news and stock's performance for the day). One very important thing that I have learned to keep in mind is, when you buy any stock you need to make up your mind at what price will you be selling it. So, that is why it is important to follow the market at least once a day or once every other day basis. Once the stock hits that price, don't be greedy and sell the darn thing...how does that sound? :-) Let us know if you have more questions...and your questions were really good and I hope it will help others who want to look into stocks as well. My sole intention to start these threads here is to inform and educate my fellow nepali brothers and sisters and create a learning community where we can all learn a thing or two about grabbing our share of american pie or american dream...whatever you prefer :D