adeleg,
there can be no course because timeframe, available time, risk and target are different.
The first step is to define what you want and what you will accept. Then you can look
around and read what others do who have more or less the same parameters. Of course you
can also learn from people who do completely different things but you must be aware of
this.

Narrow things down and then start slowly with paper trading or a small sum. In this way
you learn if the choosen style is something for you.

Never forget. Most important is risk- and money mnegment. If these two match you can have
success with everything. If they don't you need a lot of luck to survive in the long run
(see your experience with real estate)

Thanks for the kind words. I’ve learned a lot. I created enormous wealth in three
years until the market fell out in Florida. I foolishly didn’t have a sound exit plan.
I had one but it didn’t include the market abruptly stopping…. No slowdown, just a
stop! It has been brutal and i am definitely about the diversity....just like JC says!
Good news is….as they say, once you figure it out, it’s easier to duplicate. One
thing to be said about accumulating wealth quickly, you MUST be prepared to accept it!
Luckily for me, my marriage is stronger and I found out who my true friends are (the few
that are left).
A

adelegs,
My hat's off to you for picking yourself up off of the ground.
Someone else has probably said this, but don't put all of your eggs into one basket,
or, as JC asks, "Am I diversified?"

Again, i think i have gotten great feedback and am excited about moving forward.

To Kurt, you are right about "learning from your mistakes vs. your successes" and i remind
myself of that everyday now that i have lost nearly $10M in Florida real estate. Total
devastation of money but lessons, aah! i have plenty. Trick is, not to forget!

I also agree, risk is an important element to success in life. You have to find your
acceptance level.

Thanks again for all the advice!

newtrader - of those i only really like INTC, and i dont even like it all that much. but
ill try to be constructive. AMD, yeah i think its getting to the point where they cant go
down further, but i dont find that to be a great investment thesis. so i--personaly--would
wait till it got back above 10 and establishes an uptrend.

autos? gonna be tough for them to do well in my opinon. they need to go more green and
cheaper given the economic times, thats a tough task. id prefer the railroads right here.

PFE? if i had to go with a pharma that has a dying pipeline id go with JNJ now that they
have their own *plus* PFE's consumer brand names. theyre becoming a lot more like PG, but
still have the health care portion added in. and of course when Buffett is adding to the
position, it doesnt hurt.

brokerages is all about preference. if you want the full service type (meaning they have
advisers and all that jazz), schwab and Fidelity are the best. schwab does it more often,
but they both offer you chances to go to certain trading expos. schwab often has someone
come into their local branches so if you live by them you may find it helpful. for all
this you of course pay more per trade.

if you want to trade a lot of different assets like futures youll need something like
interactive brokers. i hear from some traders that they like trade king for options. if
you want simplicity, i think scottrade and TD get it done. tradestation is pretty good if
you trade on technicals.

as for "getting your feet wet", yeah often you just have to do it. what ive found always
hinders beginners is they have no way of defining risk/reward. so once you can find a
strategy that youre comfortable with when it comes to that, i believe youll be less
hesitant.

GM and Ford common... I wouldn't long those. I've heard from several programs/people that
preferred is way to go with those two.

Last edited on: 04-14-2008 11:10 pm

Hi.

i have some stocks of intel,amd and pfe. i also try to deviify my profolio. i am looking
to buy El Paso, GM or Ford. Every 2 wks, i put $15 on my brokeage acct. What do you think
about those stocks i have and going to buy?

thank you.

Also, and I don't mean to be arrogant or anything....

I usually post some of my own personal market commentary in thread here in the Forum
called "Market Analysis"

Many users have said they enjoy my feedback so you might want to check it out from time to
time. Lately I have been a bit lazy and have been lacking a bit but overall, the
strategies are actually doing very well right now and I am pretty confident that they will
hold true for quite some time.

Other users have also provided some good commentary in that thread. Again, I am no pro or
anything but I do feel I have a decent handle on the market right now.

Nobody gets every trade right and that is the number one thing you should know going into
this game.

Good luck, and let me know if you find my work helpful when you have a chance to look at
it. I would really appreciate any feedback to help make it better!

You've gotten some very good advice so far. Rather than adding a lengthy response I'll
just keep it simple and say take a small amount of cash that you don't mind if you lose,
let's say $1,000. Go play with three or four stocks (stay diversified) and follow them for
a few weeks. See what happens.

Ask yourself why you got in, why you want to stay in, or why you should get out. Read
everything you can on those stocks and read market commentary here on Stockpickr as well
as in the news and in print.

The best way to learn is to lose, believe it or not. You learn nothing by winning every
single time and getting every single trade right. The true skill comes from making a
mistake and learning how to avoid making the same mistake next time.

I'm in the camp that the best way to learn how to swim is to jump right in and get your
feet wet. Now granted, I am exaggerating a bit, however, you seem like you have already
begun to do a significant amount of research.

-Kurt