Investing in stocks is an excellent way to grow wealth. For long-term investors, stocks are a good investment even during periods of market volatility — a stock market downturn like the one we’ve seen this year simply means that many stocks are on sale.

But how do you actually get started? Follow the steps below to learn how to invest in the stock market.

Investing in stocks is an excellent way to grow wealth. For long-term investors, stocks are a good investment even during periods of market volatility — a stock market downturn like the one we’ve seen this year simply means that many stocks are on sale.

But how do you actually get started? Follow the steps below to learn how to invest in the stock market.

Once you have a preference in mind, you’re ready to shop for an account.

Step 2. Open an investing account

Generally speaking, to invest in stocks, you need an investment account. For the hands-on types, this usually means a brokerage account. For those who would like a little help, opening an account through a robo-advisor is a sensible option. We break down both processes below.

An important point: Both brokers and robo-advisors allow you to open an account with very little money — we list several providers with low or no account minimum below.

THE DIY OPTION: OPENING A BROKERAGE ACCOUNT

An online brokerage account likely offers your quickest and least expensive path to buying stocks, funds and a variety of other investments. With a broker, you can open an individual retirement account, also known as an IRA — here are our top picks for IRA accounts — or you can open a taxable brokerage account if you’re already saving adequately for retirement elsewhere.

We have a guide to opening a brokerage account if you need a deep dive. You’ll want to evaluate brokers based on factors like costs (trading commissions, account fees), investment selection (look for a good selection of commission-free ETFs if you favor funds) and investor research and tools.

Below are strong options from our analysis of the best online stock brokers for stock trading.

THE PASSIVE OPTION: OPENING A ROBO-ADVISOR ACCOUNT

A robo-advisor offers the benefits of stock investing, but doesn’t require its owner to do the legwork required to pick individual investments. Robo-advisor services provide complete investment management: These companies will ask you about your investing goals during the onboarding process and then build you a portfolio designed to achieve those aims.

This may sound expensive, but the management fees here are generally a fraction of the cost of what a human investment manager would charge: Most robo-advisors charge around 0.25% of your account balance. And yes — you can also get an IRA at a robo-advisor if you wish.

As a bonus, if you open an account at a robo-advisor, you probably needn’t read further in this article — the rest is just for those DIY types. Here are the top picks from NerdWallet’s latest robo-advisor comparison: Wealthfront, Betterment and Ellevest.

THE PASSIVE OPTION: OPENING A ROBO-ADVISOR ACCOUNT

A robo-advisor offers the benefits of stock investing, but doesn’t require its owner to do the legwork required to pick individual investments. Robo-advisor services provide complete investment management: These companies will ask you about your investing goals during the onboarding process and then build you a portfolio designed to achieve those aims.

This may sound expensive, but the management fees here are generally a fraction of the cost of what a human investment manager would charge: Most robo-advisors charge around 0.25% of your account balance. And yes — you can also get an IRA at a robo-advisor if you wish.

As a bonus, if you open an account at a robo-advisor, you probably needn’t read further in this article — the rest is just for those DIY types. Here are the top picks from NerdWallet’s latest robo-advisor comparison: Wealthfront, Betterment and Ellevest.

Note- This is only educational content, we do not promote stocks. Invest in stock market in your own risk.