Be a stock trader with five thousand pesos

In the Cashflow 101 workshop I attended a few months back, I learned that it is not enough that you save. You must know where to invest your savings, know how to make your money work for you. One suggestion was to invest savings in stocks apparently because stocks offer a higher return on investment.

Simply put, a stock is a share in the ownership of a company. It represents a claim on the company's assets and earnings. It is also referred to as a share or equity in the company. As you acquire more stocks, your share in the ownership of the company also increases.

Like anything of value, stocks can be sold and resold. The trade of stocks are usually done through a stock market or a stock exchange. In our country, stocks are traded through the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). Its history goes back to the founding of the Manila Stock Exchange (MSE) in 1927 and the Makati Stock Exchange (MkSE) in 1963.

Traditionally, the buying and selling of stocks had to be done on the floor of the Exchange through licensed brokers. With the advent of technology, however, online trading is already possible. That means you can now buy and sell stocks at the comforts of your own home or office.

There are now 7 authorized online stock trading facilities authorized by the PSE. These facilities are in line with PSE's efforts to promote more local investments in companies listed with them. They provide greater access and removes many of the barriers to stock trading.

The big surprise is that you can now get an online stock trading account with as low as P5,000 pesos. Transaction charges are also very minimal at only .25 percent. With this, I think it is now very possible for you and I to earn from the stock market. For those interested, you may want to attend the orientation seminars conducted by Accord Capital's Philstocks.ph.

A word of caution though. Everyone says online stock trading requires a lot of research and monitoring. It is because when you are trading online, you practically don't have a broker to rely on. While your earnings can be limitless, your losses can be tremendous as well.

Still, I'm excited to plunge into this thing called stock trading. I feel like this is the beginning of something great. God bless me.