Before you get into the game:

1. You invest in products using a brokerage account and/or a broker.  A brokerage account is a web-based tool that you can use to buy and sell investment products such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

2.  A broker is a person you can pay a commission to in order for them to execute an order for you on your behalf.  Unlike the brokerage account mentioned above, they not only help you execute trades, but they also give you advice on what you should or should not be doing.  Since they are doing the work for you, (giving you advice, executing the trade, handling your money) they are going to charge you a fee for their services.  Using a broker is certainly appropriate in certain instances, but it is almost always more expensive than investing on your own with a brokerage account.

3.  Stocks are bought and sold continuously via exchanges from the hours of 9:30am-4:00pm Monday through Friday, but they also occasionally put in overtime and trade after hours.  The exchange is a place where individuals negotiate pricing for each stock.  Think of this as an auction where stocks are sold at different prices based on an interaction between buyers and sellers.  For example, let’s say an individual owns a stock and wants to sell it.  He thinks it’s worth $15 so that’s what he put it out there for.  However, there are no buyers at that price.  So the seller lowers their price to $14.75.  Nope, still nothing.  The seller will continue to lower their price until someone is willing to buy the stock.  This also works in reverse when a seller is selling a stock that people like and lots of people are gunning for it, essentially raising the price.