Online Stock Markets...?

[enoriverbend]

When you place an order to buy with your broker, depending on what kind of order it is, it may take a little while to fill, or in some cases it will not be filled. But if you put in a simple 'market' order, which is saying that you will buy the stock at whatever the current price is, that order would typically get filled in seconds to minutes. And then you do own the stock. The same is true for selling.

The longer wait would be if you put in a limit order to, say, buy only at $20/share. If the price never hits $20 then your order will just sit there until it is cancelled. (You can designate how long to wait when you place a limit order.)

You do not have to sell that stock at any particular time You can sell it the next hour, or keep it for years. For some brokerage accounts, there may be a 'maintenance' fee if there is little or no activity in the account for a long period of time.

The Social Security is because the IRS wants its cut in taxes. So if you make capital gains (you sell the stock for more than you paid for it plus commissions) or get dividends, you know the IRS wants to tax you on it. This goes on your tax forms (Schedules B&D).