How do I get started investing in stock? Simple terms and explainations PLEASE! I'm not a stock genius.?

That is a tough question because how you start and what you start with $ depends on your disposable income (money you won't commit suicide over if you lose some or all of it) and your patience. Unless you have major $ and a lot of savvy, don't expect to make a fortune overnight...it is best as a long term investment.

Two of my favorite sites are Sharebuilder.com and Scottrade.com. Both give you information on investing in stocks.

On each site you can add to a Money Market account (that does pay dividends or interest) and use that as a starting point. Add to the account on a weekly or monthly basis consistently as if you were paying a bill.

Key things to remember:

You don't lose money unless you sell when the stock is lower than what you paid for it or the company goes out of business. Start out with only a few stocks and get to understand a little about their business to see if they are going to be around for awhile. You can start with known companies. Good starts might be Altria (Phillip Morris) since they pay very good dividends (meaning you sort of earn interest on the stock you own whether it goes up or down in price... the dividends are paid quarterly. Another good stock might be Sonic, they seem to be doing very well.

If you are looking long term, don't panic and sell for a low price if the stock starts going down. The stocks always fluctuate up and down.

You can open a regular account or you might consider a type of IRA. An IRA will help lower your the amount you pay in federal or state taxes...read up on it to at least understand the principles of the IRA and what it can do for you. You can buy and sell shares in the IRA account.

Buy low and Sell high. Sounds simple enough.

If you are starting out with hundreds of dollars, not tens of thousands, don't simply sell high because it looks like you'll get a good percentage return. If you sell 200 dollars of stock for a 10% return ($20 to $24) it may sound good, but it will have cost you between 15 and 20 dollars to have bought and sold that stock. That means you end up with only $0 to $9 for a 0% to 4.5% return. Might as well open an online savings or market account that pays 4-5%. If you sold $200,000 dollars of stock for 10% return and it only cost you 0.5% to buy and sell, that's not too bad, but you have to do that a couple times to make 20% or better in a year.

Now, if you buy $200 a month of a particular stock for 5 months spending $1000 plus $5 per purchase or a total of $1025 and the value of the stock went up to equal $1600, it could be good to sell $1040 of it (costing $15 dollars to sell) and you will have over $560 of that stock left. That could be good. If the stock continues to go up, you still make some more money, if it goes down, you haven't lost anything. You can then use that money to buy other stocks.

The most important aspect is to build a game plan and even more important is to stick with the plan. If the stock market drops so bad and you have only half of what you started with, stick with the plan. Don't sell it out of panic. It is more likely that it will come back up in the future. If you panic and sell it all, and want to continue, you'd end up buying the same stock or other stocks at a higher price later. Not cool. Just ride out the storm, instead.

I turned $400 into $2100 in two years. It was my first time actually buying stocks. It could have actually been much more, but I didn't stick to my plan. I set the price I would sell at, but the stock jumped so high I though it would probably continue to go up, it didn't, as a matter of fact, the next two days brought it down lower than what I had set a buy price at. I could have earned about $800 if I'd sold half of it and bought back the same amount of shares for about $350 if I had stuck to my plan.

Check out Sharebuilders, Scottrade, Ameriquest and others online. They offer some good information. Sharebuilder is the easiest to work with online from my experience. You have to buy only on Tuesdays or the cost goes up...but it also helps you to stick to a plan a little better. Don't be in a hurry, just learn what you can and make good solid decisions based on what you learned.

If you learn, plan and stick to it, you will likely build a nice investment portfolio. If you start guessing and buying and selling on a whim, you will turn your investment into a lottery. How often have you won the Lottery?