Trade first on a simulator to test your theories at Investopedia.com

When you start making "virtual" money, then you can risk your own.

http://simulator.investopedia.com/home.aspx

http://investopedia.com

http://investing.sitesled.com/

http://futures.tradingcharts.com/learning/

Blogs

http://winners-and-losers.com/

Training & classes

http://bettertrades.com

http://investedcentral.com

ETF news and analysis

http://ETF-World.Org/

Article: Trading is Timing

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/06/TradingisTiming.asp

Stock Charts

Bigcharts.com

http://www.stockTA.com

http://www.stockcharts.com

http://www.incrediblecharts.com…

www.prophet.net
americanbulls.com

Books on Investing

"Which Is Better, Buy-and-Hold or Market Timing?"

"Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Market Timer

The Beginner's Bible in Technical Analysis is:
Edwards & McGee"Tech. Anal. Of Stock Trends"

Droke, ClifTechnical Analysis Simplified

Kahn, Michael N.Tech. Anal. Plain & Simple

Kamich, Bruce M.How Technical Analysis Works

Lefevre, EdwinReminiscences of a Stock Operator

Lofton, ToddGetting Started in Futures

Lowenstein, RogerBuffet (Warren)-The Making of a Capitalist

O'Neil, William J.How to Make Money in Stocks

Oz, TonyHow to Make Money From Wall Street

Rotella, Robert P.Elements of Successful Trading, The

Schwager, JackStock Market Wizards

Day trading is tricky, whether your doing it for real or as an exercise like you are doing here. The primary problem is that over very short periods of time, individual stocks as well as the stock market indexes can be extremely volatile. You might as well throw darts at a dart board marked out with all of the stock symbols because it pretty much is sheer luck over such a short time frame anyway.

I'm not familiar with CNBC's Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge, so I don't know what their investing time horizon is like for this task. Depending on how long that horizon is, I would probably make different sets of choices for your million dollars. Over a longer horizon, I would probably do some research and then pick 20 stocks, $50,000 each, and then let them sit there and do nothing for several months as that is, historically, the best way to get a return on investment. Too much "in and out" of the market would kill you on commission costs alone anyway.

It is a good way to make a small fortune — if you start with a large one.

I'm not sure about specific courses but here are some links to websites that are known for proven stock and option trading tools. They have some courses you can sign up for.

www.investools.com

www.shadowtrader.net

www.thinkorswim.com

For day trading commodity market is best they are not suitable for long term strategy.

if you desire stock market (even Indian Stocks) you should go with technical analysis (search engines like Yahoo, Google, MSN give you link to may sites) – it is like swimming in sea shore.

Some of the major trading websites offers initial 30 day or first 20 trades free….you can choose them and see how the service with them goes….I am sure you will find one of them better…good luck

Stops aren't working? are they in the right places?
and you're not hedged with options, I take it.

***
with the current capability of computers, browsers and broadband, why limit yourself to only one news site?

you can have multiple such sites open in multiple browser tabs or multiple browsers.

look for the upcoming news/events list in places such as
money.cnn.com
yahoo finance
your TDAmeriTrade brokerage site

and/or any subscription services you get such as
investors.com
wall street journal online
bloomberg news
etc.

You should watch Mad Money on MSNBC. Jim Cramer is awesome and he doesn't just suggest stocks but he actually teaches you how the market works and the strategies he uses to make money. Its at 3 pm Pacific Time.

Penny stocks, or pink sheet stocks, are so thinly traded, that they are not tracked by schwab, thestreet.com, bloomberg, etc. so you can't get the information as readily as you can larger, more established companies. You can call Schwab and ask your broker for an update. You can also go on the company website and see if there is any investor information. Before you buy a stock, you should look at the financials of the company. If you do not have that information, ask the company for it. Tell them you are an investor, and you want the company financials, quarterlies, updates,etc.-to be added to their mailing list. On some company websites, you can actually sign up to receive investor information by email. If it is a very new, small company, that may not be available to you via email. Good luck! Hope you have a winner. Those penny stocks are very difficult– it's not like buying Google- where you can find everything at your fingertips!

Day trading is tricky, whether your doing it for real or as an exercise like you are doing here. The primary problem is that over very short periods of time, individual stocks as well as the stock market indexes can be extremely volatile. You might as well throw darts at a dart board marked out with all of the stock symbols because it pretty much is sheer luck over such a short time frame anyway.

I'm not familiar with CNBC's Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge, so I don't know what their investing time horizon is like for this task. Depending on how long that horizon is, I would probably make different sets of choices for your million dollars. Over a longer horizon, I would probably do some research and then pick 20 stocks, $50,000 each, and then let them sit there and do nothing for several months as that is, historically, the best way to get a return on investment. Too much "in and out" of the market would kill you on commission costs alone anyway.