Can I start buying shares without a broker?

Hi all.
I've got a bit of money sitting idle in the bank, and think it's about time I started investing in the stock market. My question is... where to start?

What's the easiest / cheapest way to trade shares? Can I do it directly, or do I have to go through a broker?

Thanks all... I'm totally clueless!!

The fact that you're asking these questions, to me is a clear sign that you shouldn't put a single cent into shares yet.

You'll be better off doing the following - get yourself educated on the Australian sharemarket, how it operates, how shares operate, how to buy and sell them etc. I can highly recommend Roger Kinsky's books for beginners to the Australian market:

Shares Made Simple: A Beginner’s Guide to Sharemarket Success RRP $27.95 or
Online Investing for the Australian Sharemarket RRP $29.95

Once you've read up, you can join some brokers for free, but some others might require opening an account with a minimum of about $5000 balance on them. Go for a free one, and do what they call Paper Trading, where you basically, pretend to buy and sell shares, but track them against the real prices.

Be careful though, paper trading rarely reflect real actions, but for a beginner its a good start, as long as you stick to your rules for when you want to buy and when you sell (on paper that is).

I've been trading shares semi-fulltime for the past two years, and have been learning about shares for about 4yrs before that, and have held shares (basically buying and holding on for long term) for about ten years before all that.

I've walked away from the long term buy and hold strategy these days, but i'm very much learning things every day, every trade.

As an start read a few books about trading and find out if trading is for you.
Not everyone can be a successful trader.

Few books to consider:
Christopher Tate - "The Art of Trading"
Daryl Guppy - "Share Trading" + "Chart Trading" + "Trading Tactics"
Douglas Mark - "The Disciplined Trader"
Dr.Alexander Elder - "Trading For a Living"
Stan Weinstein - "Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets"

Tropo, i certainly agree this books are good, have a few of them myself. I think the original poster needs guidance more on the mechanisms for purchasing and selling shares, and an understanding of how to participate in the market. The books above would be a bit more about strategies and trading concepts which i believe is the next level of education. Well suited to be done in parallel with paper trading.

Well, in my view buying/selling process and how to participate in the market is the second step.
Knowing/understanding what trading is all about, how to prepare for buy and sell process and how to evaluate risks is a first step.

Hi everyone. Thanks so much for your responses. I have applied for a Commsec account. I've spent a bit of time researching, and I'll just invest very small amounts of money to start with and get a feel for how it all works. I certainly won't go crazy!

Good luck with it, if in doubt stay out. Ask plenty of questions but one thing you'll start realising is that most answers you get will always be someones opinion (eg "I believe this stock will trend etc.."), and it'll be upto you to form your own opinion.