Stock Trading requires a certain skill, an ability to identify good performing stocks and work out a plan to earn money for themselves and their investors. However, direct Stock Trading is limited to people with proper licenses and authorizations. To invest in stocks, most people need stock brokers or contribute in Mutual Funds. The difference is that when using a stock broker, partial control on the stocks bought or sold is retained by the investor. Also, the stock certificates bought are actually given to the investor. In a Mutual Fund, the fund manager has full control of the stocks and only remits proceeds of stock gains to the investor is the form of interests to the investment.

Stock Markets or share markets, like Share Market India, are the places where stock trading occurs. Actual stocks are not physically traded there and traders work purely with numbers. Thus, there are cases when traders promise sale of stocks which they do not actually control. They do this to sell more at a high price and then buy more later when the prices lower to cover their deficit. This is called selling short.