1.First step before  investing in equities is that you have to understand the financial terms and how to decode financial statements because this lays foundation to fundamental analysis ,reading some good books by successful investors , books teaching trading techniques, read a financial daily which will helps you understand the latest happenings in stock markets, many stock exchanges conduct certificate programs try getting one and this will help you in understanding how much knowledge  you hold in stock markets.

2.Brokers play a important role because they act as a agent   between the shares of companies you want  to buy and the stock exchanges where they are traded as  you cannot buy directly, either from stock exchanges or companies you need a broker to do that but before zeroing in a broker you have to see how long he has been there in the industry are your shares and money  safe with him as he acts as custodian on behalf of you and doing online trading in this internet age is best and also check what is the brokerages offered by the different brokers compare them  get the best deal as  this will reduce the expenses in final profit and loss.

3. There are always rumours in markets listening to them and investing is what you should avoid and getting advice or tips from a person who is successful and buying based on that is generally most of the people do. but every person has his own assessment about investing and you cannot copy that and you have to understand that it is you money and it is your decision and you have to keep yourself open to ideas but take the final call based on your decision. 

4 before investing your real money try practising it  write down the stocks you want to buy and why you want to buy them , the entry price ,exit price and do all this without investing real money .instead writing down this will help in your decision making. If you made money analyse what was the decision that made you pick the right stock at right time, if you go wrong then also repeat the same process

5.dont invest your entire corpus in one go try to spread it out over a time horizon and in invest in different sectors ,avoid penny stocks .see what are the different market cycles and based on them make your investment. And avoid speculative trades

6 .if you are making money   try to skim out the profits don't invest back the profits you made as your capital make it a quarterly strategy and depending on the market conditions revise your risk capabilities and then fix  a with a revised capital exposure  and try to keep  save some cash  you never know when you spot a opportunity.

7.remeber the saying don't keep all the eggs in a one basket same rule applies here diversification is  the name .when you are investing in stocks  buy in three or four sectors investing all your money in a single stock or sector is a very bad practice