What is a Stock?
A stock
is simply a piece of paper, usually a certificate, stating
that you own a share of a company.
In order to own a stock, you must have a share. A share is a piece of paper saying that you own the stock, usually the part of the stock that you own is an extremely small part of the whole company.
To get the share, you must call a broker. The broker will ask how much money you want to spend and will probably tell you how you can afford with that money, including the amount you must pay for the his/her work. S/he will then take out his pay and use the rest to buy the amount of stock that you can afford. Sometimes, but not often, they will even give you a stock certificate. Presto, you have a purchased a stock.
It was not as easy for the broker though. As soon as you told him the price and the company, he had to call a person on the NYSE floor and tell him/her what you wanted. The person on the floor also known as a "floor broker" has to run* to the company's station and talk to the person who you can buy the stock from, also known as a floor broker. Once the stock is bought the floor broker report the trade s/he made through many computers then report to his brokerage firm that he bought the stock. The broker, however, keeps a record of all the stock you buy, so if you want to sell a stock, you can just call up your broker, tell him what stock you want to sell, and he'll do the rest.
*the reason the floor broker has to run is because that the prices of the stocks change very frequently and if the stock price changes(rises) before he bought it, his brokerage firm must pay for the extra charge.
Note: You must be over 18 to buy a stock yourself, but your parents can buy it for you.