Determine what stocks to pick?

It is hard to say which stock to pick as the historical prices of a listed company was only past performance and not the future. But these historical price may influence you to have an entries and a exit points when trading online. Determining to pick the right stock can be a simple coin toss as to weather invest in any company. The norm is to pick stock that have a large market capital cap to ensure safety of the company for better return on the price of share earnings. This will also add favourable outcomes as to company profits are paid to its share holders. For every share that you earn will be based on the last day of trading price of that company itself. A percentage will be paid based ranging from around 3% to high 8% , the company may pay taxes from their behalf in full known to be "fully franked 100%" or a 35-45% percent tax rate margin.

Profits from these companies are called "dividends" so pick stocks with dividend will be a great start for some safer measures. Safety measures but even giants such as GM had a big impact on shareholders. A little research will help you become more selective in these companies that pay dividends. If you heard about your major companies then they will differently have dividends but does it suit you?

I can explain that they may not suit your stock pick
If you had a sum of say $500.00 to invest in a company and the price issue was $2.70 and pays 3% quarterly then you will have earned the amount shown below.

Investment of  $500/$2.5 per share = sum of 200 shares
Price indicated last trade before release is $2.70 per share @ 3% = 0.081cents "dividend"
0.081 dividend per share x 200 shares= $16.20 1st quarter
if share price remained constant at $2.70 then 4x $16.20= $64.80

The first year you would have earned $64.80 your share portfolio for holding will have a balance of $540.00 that is more then a RIO of 10% which is great.

The only reason why it may be not suitable is that your entry and exit will cost around $60.00 on trading fees.
So the first year you would have earned nothing because your investment was only $500.00 dollars and that you haven't sold but have hold on for the year. As for the $540.00 is only on paper until you sell your shares you will have a $40 dollars profit.

The higher the price of the share will need a higher amount to invest, some amounts are to high for you to fund because of risk. Some aren't worth getting into because of the amounts that you invest. Smaller price share are better for minimum entry of $500.00 that you will get a return at the end of the year after trading fees.

Holding on to you shares is a completely different as you pay only one entry fee for the life of the company, the outcome will be different and may be a rewarding one as the price may hike or accumulate on your dividends.