Have a look around the Challenge and if there is anything you are not sure of - see the 'How to' guides or watch the following Challenge video tutorials:
It would be helpful to watch the ‘Get the basics’ tutorials which will give you an understanding of how the sharemarket works.
Review the companies: Once you have registered, go to the Company list and you can see all of the companies you can trade in the Challenge.
To help with selecting stocks there are some helpful videos on the Investment videos page.
Plus here are some articles that may help
Other tools to help you with research – there are many good books out there on the basics of the Sharemarket and how to get started, how to research, as well as selecting a strategy. The ASX Way book is available - it will help if you are new to the sharemarket. Plus there are also some helpful news sites available, see the list on the right to get started.
Watchlist and charts: From your selected list of companies you can 1) set up a Watchlist of the companies you are interested in and 2) review their performance via the charting tool.
Sectors & diversification: As you decide which companies to invest in, remember also that diversification is important. This means investing across a number of sectors (rather than just focusing on one). So that you know which companies are in which sectors, take a look at the Challenge company list & sectors (Excel 32KB).
Dividends: A dividend may be something that you want to consider when you are choosing a company to invest in because dividend income is added to your cash balance in the Challenge. Dividend paying stocks are popular with investors looking to earn income from their shareholdings. To learn more about dividends you can watch the tutorial - What is a dividend?
If this is your first time playing the Challenge, it will help to do some reading on how to create a trading plan.
For your first Challenge, it may be that you simply select some of the companies you know, do some research on these companies, keep it simple and then select a few that have a good balance sheet and place your trades. It may also help for your first Challenge to simply buy and hold, add in your falling sell to protect the stock and have a few parameters that if the stock isn't performing as you want, you will sell and make another selection.
Don't put pressure on yourself first time around, as this is a learning process and as you develop your knowledge, the strategy or plan you want to use will become clearer and next Challenge you can expand and test what you have learnt.
There are a lot of books available on getting started on your share trading journey and putting a trading plan together.
Plus here are a few articles to help get you started: