okay, for your own reasons you have decided you would like to buy royal mail. that’s a good start let’s see what awaits her before she can officially declare that she is a royal mail shareholder! the process is pretty much the same for any company’s stock, and again, we’re just taking real mail as an example.
step 1: find a good broker online
One of the characteristics of an online broker is the exchanges they have access to. Not all brokers allow you to buy Royal Mail stock, simply because they don’t have access to the LSE. It goes without saying that you need a broker that gives you access to this exchange. The next important thing with a broker is that it must also suit you. not all brokers allow all citizens to open an account with them; Some brokers are very expensive if you just want to buy a couple of royal mail shares from time to time, some brokers can be absolutely free. in fact, you can get great recommendations for choosing the right broker by using our quiz:
find my broker
When recommending a broker, we take into account different factors, such as the broker’s fees, the trading platform, the markets accessible to trade, and how easy it is to open an account. security is also very important, but since we only recommend secure brokers, you don’t have to worry about that.
step 2: open your brokerage account
after you find your broker online, you need to open an account. this is much like a normal bank account and opening one is usually a completely online process. At some brokers it’s as quick as opening a new gmail account, at some brokers it takes a couple of days until they do a background check on you. however, instead of storing money in it, you will store your shares in it, so you definitely need this to buy royal mail shares and store them.
step 3: deposit money into your account
You will pay cash to buy those Royal Mail shares. this cash must first be sent (deposited) to your broker. this is usually very easy and quick, actually even easier than opening your brokerage account. the most common way to deposit your money is by bank transfer and credit/debit card. In some brokers, you can deposit to your investment account even from different electronic wallets such as paypal, e.g. in etoro.
step 4: buy the royal mail stock
You have the account, the cash and the goal to share. the last step is to press the buy button! You log in to your online brokerage, search for royal mail shares, enter the number of shares you want to buy, and click buy, which will initiate the purchase of shares (in trading jargon: execute the buy order).
A couple of tips on this: When placing an order, you can choose between different types of order. the market order buys at the actual market price, while the limit order allows you to specify the exact price at which you want to buy the stock.
Step 5: Regularly review your position in Royal Mail
You are not done after buying your royal mail shares. now it is key to monitor your investments. this basically means following your investment strategy. If you bought Royal Mail stock to keep it longer, you can take part in the annual meeting and collect all the news and information about the company.
If you plan to sell it shortly after seeing a rise in price, you can use different position management tools. eg you can set the target price at which you want to sell the stock at a profit, or use stop-loss to set the price at which you want to sell the stock to avoid further losses.
Now that you’ve mastered the 5 steps to buying stocks, take a moment to look at the top 5 brokers we’ve selected for you.