Day Trading

It is not easy to trade with a small amount of funds, If stocks are sold the funds are not called secure untill 3 trading days after the sell and if other stocks are bought with these funds they can not be sold until the the funds are secure from the previous trade. If you do sell them you will get a warning and if you do it again you will be suspended from trading.

One bad trade can reduce $1,000.00 to $300.00 in one day.

Day tradeing is not as easy as many people think, it requires a lot of research and skill. Start by learning the basics and nvesting carefully and by the time your funds grow you will be more prepared for day tradeing.

And the most important one:
Discipline! Stick to your rules.

http://finance.yahoo.com/education

Try what you learn on demo sites. If you pick 75% right with play money then you might be ready to start slowly investing.

http://simulator.investopedia.com/

http://simulator.zacks.com/

http://www.fxcm.com/open-free-100k.jsp

http://www.alpari-idc.com/en/metatrader4…

Or just google for more.

I use Lightning Strikes Trading System for trading in any time frame and it works on forex, stocks, bonds, etf's, mutual funds, etc… They have 3 free training sessions a week and you don't have to buy the software to join in the live chat and text. You can even watch some recorded past live sessions. Here are some past charts that I used.

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/MB16R0zjjaZ…

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/MB16RxjOUQt…

There are 7 indicators (2 short, 2 medium, and 3 long term) and if volume is reported another one is added (on balance volume). Plus whatever time-frame is used the 2 green horizontal lines are the support and resistance for that time frame. So when indicators are all touching the bottom price is at or very, very near support. At top is at or very, very near resistance. Which helps my entry/exits and risk/reward ratio.

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/MB16R9Wv-wt…

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/MB16R9wSKdV…

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/QCt6R2fYIj6…

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/QCt6R3R0VQe…

If you can not view charts above I can email them.

Here are my favorite sites.

http://stockcharts.com/

Has basically all you need from fundamental to technical terms. Plus stock screens, charts, public chart lists, and much more useful info.

https://www.fidelity.com/

Has good learning resources.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp

In addition to yahoo finance.

http://www.reuters.com/

For news and more.

http://www.marketwatch.com/default.aspx

For news and more.

http://www.valueprime.com/index.php

For rating stock risk/reward ratio and reports.

http://www.barchart.com/

For investing in more than stocks.

http://www.investopedia.com/

For more great learning tools.

http://www.lightninglive.com/

For best software timing your entry/exits any time frame for day traders and long term investors.

Others worth exploring.

http://www.equis.com/

http://www.stockta.com/

http://www.secform4.com/

Best Wishes,
Burt Whitley

For you to start to invest on-line would be a gigantic mistake on your part, since you have no idea what you are doing.

Why are you worrying about low fees, when you don't understand the very basics of investing. You only have a minimual amount of capital so you are not in a very good bargining position for special discounts.

Before you invest in any security, the first investment you should make is in yourself, and the best investment you can make is by educating yourself.
Start your education by learning why you should invest and the importance of being able to make your own decisions or how the pro’s make theirs.

Here's some websites that will help you get started,

http://moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp

http://finance.yahoo.com/

http://www.investors.com/?tn=top

http://investorshub.advfn.com/default.aspx

http://www.thestreet.com

http://www.brokerage101.com/

http://www.1source4stocks.com/

http://www.decisionpoint.com/TAcourse/TACourseMenu.html

http://stockcharts.com/

http://www.grahaminvestor.com/

http://www.thestreet.com/

http://www.morningstar.com/

Learn what to do, before you do anything that will cost you money.

One thing you need to know is that you must to have a minimum of $25,000 in your brokerage account at all times if you will be day trading with a margin account. As soon as you buy and sell, or short sell then buy the same stock within the same day 4 times within a 5 day period, your account will be labeled a day trading account. In order to maintain a margin daytrading account you must have a minimum of $25,000 in the account.

I suggest you read this:

http://www.nasd.com/InvestorInformation/MarketsTrading/DayTradingInformation/NASDW_005906

These are official rules and should get you started.

http://www.alphatrends.net/

http://www.thekirkreport.com/

http://www.slopeofhope.com/

http://www.tradingwithtk.com/

http://www.thinkorswim.com/

http://www.redoption.com/

Also, some good books to start with are;
Trading In the Zone, Mark Douglas
Mastering The Trade, John Carter
High Probability Trading, Link
Trade Your Way To Financial Freedom, Tharp

Learn the basics of "Technical Analysis" before you read these books. Understand Candlestick Charting, Moving Averages, Support & Resistance, RSI, Channels etc.

There are many great books out there…. Don't read any of them until you've gone through these. Don't ever underestimate the importance of money management, position sizing & trading psychology.

This will take at least a year to get through. Do it and you'll save yourself from many costly mistakes.

Investing in a mutual fund IRA for retirement may give you an income tax break. Talk to your tax adviser. You may also be able to invest in a stock mutual fund via a 401K plan at work.

Believing advice you get on Yahoo answers can be risky, so read these websites for further information. If you find it too confusing, contact a professional financial advisor. They will charge you significant commissions, however.

However, NOT all options are liquid enough for you to do instant turn arounds. Some options are soooo thinly traded that you can put it up for sale for days and yet not get anyone pick it up. Option liquidity is still somewhat of a psuedo science to determine for sure but a rough guideline will be to ensure that it is based on a heavily traded stock of over 500,000 transactions a day, that it has a fairly high open interest of about 1000 at least (this tells you that at least this option contract has been actively traded before) and to make sure that there are at least some volume on the contract you are buying before you enter on it.

For more option trading basics for free, please feel free to rampage through http://www.optiontradingpedia.com/

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Your first dollars should be spent on getting educated on investing. You don't have to train to trade them professionally, but we are talking about your future here. So the more you learn, the more it'll help you! So let's start there.

You ask a very broad question, so be prepared for a pretty long answer. Just take it in chunks!

How to invest depends on what you already know. We'll assume that you're beginning since you say you want some books for beginners!

A good primer is How to Make Money in Stocks by William O'Neil. You can get it cheap just about anywhere. It’s widely available new or used.

Another good one is one of Jim Cramer's books (he’s got a few).

Once you finish those, read Mastering the Trade, by John Carter

But books will only get you so far. At some point, you'll also want to get at least a little training. There are some great education companies if you want to make the investment. Investools.com or optionetics.com are both very good companies as is tmitchell.com

For free, you can start by visiting thestreet.com and investopedia.com. That'll get you a pretty good primer so at least you'll understand what the markets are and what a stock is, etc.

If you get a chance, watch Mad Money on CNBC. Don't trade any of his picks until you track many of them over time. Just use the show to get you to understand some basics and get a feel for the market itself.

Next, subscribe to something like Investorsbusiness daily or something like that that can help you identify good stocks.

Once you understand stocks, go to 888options.com. It's a website that'll help you understand options (what they do, how they work, etc). You don't need to trade them, but the more you know, the more you'll see how options can really be the safest way to invest (once you're educated).

For discipline (which is crucial to successful trading), probably Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas or Mastering the Trade by John Carter

I know that’s a LOT to absorb. Just take it one step at a time for now. Start with a book or two to give you an idea of where to begin. Take your time, and let it seep in.

As you get up to speed, you should papertrade to practice (highly recommended). This should help reduce your losses in the beginning as you get used to buying/selling.

You can practice for free on almost any reputable broker site (optionsxpress, scottrade, thinkorswim, etc).

Start slow, then as you figure things out, you can buy more shares.

Congrats again on getting started. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Hope this helps!