First, you need your NID (a photocopy of your passport also does the job), multiple passport size copies of your photograph and a small amount of cash to open different accounts.

Once you have all that, you have to open a bank account. It can be any bank account but it will be a smart move to look into which bank provides the best deals for students or young professionals. Every detail can be found online; all you need to do is look it up. 

Once your bank account is ready, open a brokerage (BO) account from any broker house, preferably a subsidiary of a reputable bank or financial institution, just to be safe. This will take roughly BDT 500. When you are trading stocks, you will be charged a small amount of money for every transaction. The percentage could be something like 0.04% of the transaction. You can compare the rates online and choose the broker house with the best rate. Make a judgment call based on the rates and the reputation of the broker houses.

In order to improve your investment experience, link your BO account to the DSEX (Dhaka Stock Exchange) mobile app. This app will help you trade stocks with the single click of a button.

You now have your bank account and your BO account. In the final step, simply transfer some money from your bank account to your BO account and start investing.

Seeam Shahid Noor is a 2nd year student at Harvard University studying Applied Mathematics and is passionate about inspiring professional development in communities around him. Email him at seeamnoor@college.harvard.edu to express opinions, requests and compliments.