I'm 15 and could somebody please explain what stocks are and how you make money investing off them ?

[Auroch]

Buying stocks is YOU lending money. If you have a wad of money, you can buy stocks like Ford Motor Company. That means that you loaned them $17 a share. And if the price goes up you can later sell them at a profit. But if the price goes down, you lose.

One thing the market can do is take everything you have and never think a thing about it. Lots of people have lost their entire fortunes in a few days. So be careful.

You're too young to invest yet - but you can pretend. You can go to E-Trade or something like Marketwatch and pretend you bought a bunch of stock. Let's say you have $10,000.... what do you want to buy? So you buy some Ford and some GM stocks - note them down on your "portfolio" on Yahoo..... and just see if they grow or whether you lose your money.

As time goes by, you just keep reading little things about stocks trying to understand them. Just keep in mind that even people who have been buying and selling stocks their whole lives can lose their shirt - so nobody is immune to loss.