Become an Investor
It’s time to dive in!
Over the past 9 days you’ve learned about different types of investments, how to create a diversified portfolio, dollar cost averaging, and how to manage risk. Now it's time to put your new investing knowledge into action.
We'll guide you through step by step how to use Hatch to complete your first trade, and make your very first investment.
1. Browse for companies and ETFs
Sign in to Hatch. From your ‘Portfolio page’, click on the ‘Browse shares’ button (1) to view all companies and ETFs you can invest in.
On the ‘Browse shares’ page, you can search (2) for the company or ETF you have in mind. Once you find what you are looking for, click on the item (3).
* Companies referred to in this course are referred to by way of example or illustration only. We don’t provide any opinion or recommendation on the buying or selling of any financial products.
2. Review the company or ETF
When you click on a company or ETF from the ‘Browse page’ you will see something like this. Here you can review changes in price over time and see other useful information.
Once you’re ready, go ahead and click the ‘Buy’ button (1). In the following steps you’ll be able enter your order details and review it.
3. Choose a way to buy and enter an amount
You will see the ‘Order page’, where you will see different ways to buy shares. On this page you’ll see:
- Available balance: How much USD you have available to invest.
- Buy SAMP: This is the ticker symbol (code). Every company or ETF listed on the US share markets has its own ticker (e.g., ARKK is the ticker symbol for the Ark Innovation ETF).
- Way to buy (or sell) your shares through Hatch:
Market buy orders: Buy and sell shares as soon as possible. This is the most straightforward way to start.
Limit buy orders: Give you control over the price you buy and sell shares for.
Stop-buy orders: Buy shares only if they increase in price (advanced).
Auto-investing: Set-and-forget your investments.
Many first time investors stick with a market buy order (4) because it's the simplest and fastest way to buy shares. As you get more confident with investing, you can read about the other order types and choose whether or not to use them.
4. Enter the amount to invest
Once you select the order type you want, you can now enter the exact amount you want to invest. It’s like online shopping with a few differences. When you choose a market buy order you can:
- Enter the amount you want to invest. You can invest your entire available balance or a portion of it.
- The total amount for your order includes our fee of $3 USD for every order of up to 300 shares (then it's just $0.01 a share - so 301 shares will have a $3.01 fee).
- Click on review order. Your order won’t be placed yet. You’ll be able to review the details in the next step before you invest.
Before you invest
Review your order! Check to make sure that you’re happy with the amount you’re investing (1) and other details (2) about your order. You can still go and change (4) the amount you want to invest from here but once you place an order (3), there’s no going back.
If the US markets are open, your order will be placed immediately. If the markets are closed, your order will be placed as soon as they’re open. You’ll be able to cancel your order at any time until it goes through.
If you decide to click that ‘Place order’ button
Then get in touch and tell us how you feel!
Seriously. We’d love to hear how you found this course, what confused you, what you’d like more of, whether you’ll tell your friends about it. Whatever really!
