Investing guides, answered with today's data

Plain answers to the questions beginners ask most about investing in US stocks, each with live numbers from the S&P 500 that update every trading day.

How to Start Investing in Stocks: A Beginner's GuideDecide what the money is for, open a brokerage account, and start with a low-cost S&P 500 index fund that you add to on a fixed schedule. Add individual stocks later, once you can explain why each one should beat the index: over the past 12 months, 190 of 468 S&P 500 companies did.