Recently, a friend asked me how to start investing in U.S. stocks, and it made me realize that many people are actually still quite unfamiliar with the U.S. stock market. To be honest, the U.S. stock market is indeed the most mature and the largest stock trading market in the world, but to truly take part in it, there’s still quite a lot you need to understand.

Let’s start with the most basic things. U.S. stocks are mainly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ, and the American Stock Exchange (AMEX). The standard trading hours are Monday through Friday, 9:30–16:00 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) in summer, and 10:30–17:00 Eastern Standard Time (EST) in winter. One special reminder here: if you’re in Asia, make sure you convert the time zone correctly, otherwise it’s easy to miss trading hours. The U.S. stock market uses a T+0 trading system—buy and sell on the same day—making it more flexible than many other markets.

As for opening an account, this is a part that many beginners easily get confused about. U.S. brokers usually give you two account options. Cash accounts have a lower requirement: generally, you can open one with $500, but short selling isn’t allowed—you can only buy long. Margin accounts require at least $2,000, but they allow both long and short positions, and you can use leverage, which is very attractive for short-term traders. There’s also another way to trade U.S. stocks through Contracts for Difference (CFD): the entry threshold is the lowest—some platforms let you start with as little as 50–100 dollars, and the leverage flexibility is also high.

I think the reason U.S. stock investing attracts so many people is mainly because of a few things. First, trading costs are low. There’s no “per lot” restriction in the U.S., and you can buy with as little as 1 share, which is very friendly for smaller investors. Take Tesla as an example—one share is just a bit over 260 dollars, far less than the starting capital needed for stocks in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or A-shares. Second, the selection is wide. The U.S. has more than 8,000 stock listings, and many high-quality companies around the world choose to list in the U.S.; non-U.S. companies like Alibaba and JD.com are also listed on NASDAQ. Third, liquidity is strong. The U.S. market’s average daily trading volume exceeds 10 billion shares, so the likelihood of the market being manipulated is low.

When it comes to investing approaches, I usually recommend beginners consider three angles. The first is directly buying U.S. stocks as real shares—this is the most traditional method: buy real assets and hold long term to earn dividends and price appreciation. The advantage is that risk is relatively controllable, but the downside is that you need to watch the market, and especially for Asian investors, time differences are a problem. The second is buying U.S. ETFs, which diversify risk and have low management fees (for example, VOO charges only 0.04%). This is especially suitable for “lazy” investing. Third is Contracts for Difference (CFD), which I mentioned earlier—high leverage, suitable for experienced short-term traders.

If you ask me which companies in the U.S. stock market are most worth paying attention to, I’d say tech stocks are definitely the main focus. Giants like Apple, NVIDIA, and Microsoft, along with new-economy leaders like Alibaba and Amazon, are all long-term candidates worth looking at. In addition, consumer and healthcare companies like Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble are also very stable and suit conservative investors.

Finally, I want to say that there are no shortcuts to investing in U.S. stocks. You need continuous learning and hands-on experience accumulation. Just like Buffett—after going through multiple financial storms, he was able to truly see through the market. So for beginners, don’t rush. You need to master both theory and practice solidly, so you can genuinely profit from investing.