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CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved.

How to buy and trade shares

The stock market is full of opportunities for every trader, with over 13,000 shares and ETFs to choose from with IG. Whatever your level of expertise, follow this step-by-step guide to start buying and trading shares.

Start trading today. For account opening enquiries call 1800 601 799 between 9am and 6pm (AEDT) weekdays, or email newaccounts.au@ig.com.

Contact us: 1800 601 799

If you’re ready to open a position on a share, here are three steps to follow:

1. Decide whether you want to invest or trade

You can buy stocks with our share trading service or trade via leveraged products such as CFDs.

2. Choose which stock to focus on

You can use our market screener tool to choose from over 13,000 stocks and ETFs.

3. Open a live account with IG

To open an account, fill in our simple application form to create a CFD trading or Share trading.

Learn how the stock market works

The stock market works much in the same way as an auction – buyers and sellers negotiate a price that they are both comfortable exchanging for an asset, in this case shares of companies.

Companies that wish to raise capital will list their shares through the process known as an initial public offering (IPO). Once their stock is public, individual investors and institutions can start to trade the shares.

How does the stock market work?

Individuals who believe that a company will see strong growth will buy the shares, hopefully for a low price so that they can make a profit when they sell it at a later date. While individuals who believe a company will face trouble would sell the shares, aiming to make as much as possible for their shares so that they turn a profit or cut a loss.

You have to be registered to trade directly on an exchange, so most people will go through a stockbroker. In the case of leveraged trading, your provider will take the place of a broker – opening and closing positions based on your instructions. Today, the majority of retail stock trading takes place via an online trading platform.

What moves the price of shares?

Initially, a company will set a price at which it will list on a stock exchange – known as its IPO price. After that, fluctuations in the share price are caused by changes in the supply of and demand for the stock.

There is always a limited supply of a company’s stock. A company can make the decision to issue more shares, or buy back shares from investors to reduce supply, but the number of shares in circulation is always known.

If there are more buyers than sellers on the market, then demand grows and the share price will rise. However if there are more sellers on the market, indicating a fall in demand, then the share price will decline.

There are a number of reasons that the demand for a share can fluctuate over time, including:

  • Earnings reports. Companies usually release interim reports on their financial performance once every quarter and a full report once a year. These influence the company’s share price as traders and investors use figures including revenue, profit and earnings per share (EPS) as part of their fundamental analysis
  • Macroeconomic data. The state of the economy a company operates in will affect its growth. Data releases such as gross domestic product (GDP) and retail sales can have a significant influence on company share prices – strong data can cause them to rise, while weak data can cause them to fall
  • Interest rates. If rates are high, individuals won’t need to take big risks to get healthy returns and can save instead, which may cause the stock market to see less investment. So if it looks like a central bank is likely to raise interest rates, demand for shares may fall
  • Market sentiment. Share price movements aren’t always based on fundamental analysis. The view that the public, as well as market participants, have on a particular stock can also cause demand to fluctuate. This is how speculative bubbles are formed

Know the difference between buying and speculating on the share price

Before you can take a position on a share, it is important to understand the difference between how to buy a share, and how to trade on its price movements. The main differences between these two methods are the timeframe that the positions are held over, and the means of making a profit.

Buying shares

Traders buy shares outright in the hope that they will increase in price and can be sold at a later date for a profit. They uphold the traditional mantra of buying low and selling high – known as going long. Traders may also take positions over a longer period of time, attempting to profit from share price changes as well as dividend payments.

With IG, you can buy shares by:

  • Share trading. This enables you to have ownership over the share. You’ll usually only be able to go long but will benefit from dividends if they’re paid
  • Trading ETFs. These funds can be used own multiple shares at once, such as entire indices or sectors.

Speculating on the price of a share

Traders use derivative products that take their value from the price of the underlying market. These do not require traders to own the shares so, while traders will not have shareholder rights or receive dividends, they can take a position to profit from both falling and rising prices. Traders will tend to hold positions over the short to medium term and focus on smaller market movements.

You can trade shares with IG by:

  • CFD trading. You can go both long and short, and trade certain share pre- and post-market hours. You will also be trading on leverage with CFDs.

A good trading plan can be hugely beneficial to your stock trading or investing, as it will outline exactly what your aims are, how much capital you have at your disposal and what your appetite for risk is.

The aim of a trading plan is to take the emotion out of your decision-making, as well as providing some structure for when you open and close your positions.

When you own a share, your risk is always limited to your initial outlay. If you were to invest $1000, all you could ever lose is $1000 – even if the share price fell all the way to zero. You’ll also be charged a fee for entering and exiting each position.

The high fees that some brokers charge investors can eat into any long-term gains. However, with IG you could invest in US shares for as low as US$10 and AU shares from $8 per trade.2

The risks associated with trading are extremely different. CFDs use leverage, a feature which enables traders to open a position for just a fraction of the initial outlay required of investors. While leverage magnifies your profits, it could also magnify your losses.

There are tools that traders can use to manage this risk, such as stop-losses that enable them to define their exit point for trades that move against them. Normal and trailing stops can be impacted by slippage, which is when market volatility causes a disparity between the price you have requested and the price your provider can execute the trade at. However, you can protect yourself against slippage by attaching a guaranteed stop-loss. Unlike other providers, IG doesn’t charge you anything upfront to use a guaranteed stop, but there would be a small premium to pay if it is triggered.

For example, let’s say you want to buy 1000 shares of a company at a share price of $1 per share. To open a conventional trade with a stockbroker, you would be required to pay $1000 (ignoring any commission or other charges). If you had opened your trade with a leveraged provider instead, you might only be required to put down a margin requirement of 20% on the same shares – this would give you a $1000 exposure, with just $200 needed to open the position.

Creating a live share trading or CFD trading account with IG is a straightforward process, as both can be applied for via the same form. You could be ready to open your first position in minutes with these simple steps:

Simple online form to start trading stocks

Fill in our simple online form

We’ll ask a few questions about your trading experience.

Instant online verification for share trading

Instant online verification

We can usually verify your identity immediately.

Three shares trading accounts with IG

Choose your account type

Decide whether to open a CFD trading or share trading account.

Fund your shares account and trade

Fund your account and trade

Withdraw money easily, whenever you like.

If you don’t feel confident enough to start trading on live markets, you might want to consider opening a demo CFD trading. An IG demo account comes preloaded with $20,000 virtual funds, which can be used to practice trading thousands of shares. Once you've familiarised yourself with the platform and how to place trades, you may want to consider upgrading to a live account.

IG offers a wide range of trading tools that will enable you to identify your first opportunity, including our:

  • Stock market screener. Filter shares by country, sector or index – and sort by EPS, market cap and more
  • Technical analysis tools. Use our powerful HTML5 charts that include indicators such as Bollinger bands, RSI and moving averages
  • News and trade ideas. Find information on stocks to watch and market opportunities from our team of expert analysts and in-house financial writers
  • Trading alerts. Set notifications for when a share price reaches a certain level or moves by a certain amount

Once you have chosen a share to focus on, you can open your first position.

To start trading shares, the first thing to decide is whether you’ll ‘buy’ the market to open a long position, or ‘sell’ to open a short one. When you open a trade, you can also attach orders to your position. This includes stop orders – which automatically close your trade if the market moves against you by a predetermined amount – and limit orders, which would close your position when the market moves in your favour.

You can also buy the share outright through our share trading service to benefit from dividend payments, owner's rights and potential long term increases in the share price.

Whichever method you choose, you’ll be able to monitor your open positions on your workspace. Any running profit or loss will move in line with the underlying share prices. Once you are ready to close your trade, you can do so by clicking on the open position.

When share trading, you can fully close your position by opting to sell your shareholding. When you trade, you’ll just need to select the ‘close’ button. Your final profit or loss would be realised upon the closing of the trade.

You can also close your trading positions manually by taking the opposite position from your initial trade (unless you force open the new position). So if you opened your position by buying a share, you would close it by selling the same share – and vice versa.

FAQs

Can I make a profit trading shares?

If you are buying shares, you could only go long and profit if the share price rises. However, if you decide to trade shares with derivative products, you could take advantage of falling market prices by going short.

How can I trade shares online?

You can trade shares online via the IG trading platform, which offers you a fast and smart way to trade via your web browser. You will have full dealing functionality and be able to open, close and edit positions with just a few clicks.

Learn more about the IG online trading platform.

How can beginners start trading shares?

Beginners can start trading by learning as much as possible about the market before they open a position. One way to do this is to take a look at IG Academy’s range of online courses and live webinars.

Another way for beginners to gain confidence trading is by opening an IG demo account. Where they can practice trading in a risk-free environment with $20,000 in virtual funds.

How do you buy shares in a company?

  1. Decide whether to trade or invest
  2. Create a live account
  3. Choose which stock to focus on and perform analysis
  4. Open your position

What are the costs of share trading?

The costs of trading shares depend on whether you decide to trade with CFDs or through our share trading offering. In both cases, you will be charged a commission per trade. However, there are other charges to consider, such as overnight funding.

Learn more about our costs and charges.

Develop your knowledge of financial markets

Learn about how to trade, and get better at identifying opportunities. Whether its through free online courses, or live webinars delivered by our global team from IG and DailyFX.

Learn how to trade stocks with IG Academy

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2Other fees and charges may apply. Please visit our Share trading fees & charges page to see our full list of charges.