Start a google Portfolio under finance - it's free... Choose a couple stocks, enter some pretend transaction data... See if you're still interested in the market after watching your stocks go up or down.

Then you'll feel more confident about getting a brokerage account, and investing your money. Just google Best Brokerage Firms. Schwab is awesome; I highly reccommend it - everything is free w/ no minimums req'd. Their checking account is free w/ no ATM fees.

Call Schwab, or just go to the site - they'll answer all your questions even if you don't have an account yet. They deal with n00b investors all the time. Which is a good thing. They'll get you rolling better than I ever could, but in the end when you invest your money - do what you think; don't get too caught up in what anyone else has to say.


I was just looking for a free checking account, and ended up with a free brokerage account as well; learned a bit about the market, and started making bank.

Today, NVDA went up almost a dollar in share price. So, for example: NVDA is trading at $13.25 a share. If you bought 100 shares, yesterday, when it was at 12.25 - you'd spend $1,225.00, and your 100 shares would be worth $1,325.00 today. You could sell it, and make $100.00 free and clear. There are brokerage commissions, but they are never that high in relation to a good or bad return. [anywhere from 4 - 9 dollars]

Another way to look at it is. The amount of shares you own in a company equates to how many dollars you'll make if that stock goes up one dollar in share price.

Example; 100 shares = 100 dollars 1000 shares = 1000 dollars & etc...

The lower the share price, the more shares you can buy...

I was thinkin about it, and you should just pick a few stocks and start a free portfolio in google finance. It would be a pretend portfolio; but you'll pick up some practice without risking any money. Practice in the sense of picking stocks, and seeing how they fluctuate.