STEP 1 : Buy a subscription. (Alternative: News, Internet)
This is an absolute necessity. A knowledge base must be created. The quickest way is to follow developments in the markets, and there is no better substitute than a well informed newspaper or magazine. There are countless to choose from such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Wired, and the list gets extensive. Find which of these sources style compliment your own.
For those that don't want to spend on a subscription, following the major news networks, or reading online articles from Yahoo Finance, or Google Finance is good exposure. As a precaution realize these stories are more opinionated in nature with massive amounts of speculations from the writers , and ultimately less credible.
STEP 2 : Test your confidence : purchase a share.
Now that you've read up, and your interests has been narrowed put some skin in the game! This day in age you don't have to pay $9.99, $7.99 nor $5.99 to buy stocks you can do it for FREE! Robinhood is an app that let you trade stocks for free. There is no minimum to purchase thus it is a great way to get involved with minimum risk.
STEP 3 : Patience
Ok folks! This is the hard part. Now that you are an owner of a company you might be enticed to watch the stock price every waking hour. Don't worry this is normal! However this is the time to trust your decisions, further watch developments, and decide what your strong and weak points are. Take notes on what works for you, and the fallacies you should avoid.
It won't be long till you have something to show!
- Millennial Mark