[Vudoo4u2]

stop by tdameritrade.com

I had an account there for a number of years and had a fantastic experience. Ive even called them @ 2am regarding IPOs and they answered instantly. The fees are relatively low @ I think 9.99 per trade? which if youre trying to learn, you should be doing some research first, finding general sectors of the market you think will do well relative to the world, and then pick a company within that sector that you research to be outperforming vs its competition.

some great sites for market info, and some great reads on a daily basis:

-ft.com
-wsj.com
-bloomberg.com

bloomberg is usually a rehash of some ft and wsj articles, but you can get some great macro market news out of this.

once you find a sector that interests you, you can go to finance.yahoo.com and delve a little deeper into stocks within that sector, and you can start to do some more one on one research into companies in that area of the market.

rule #1, just because you like it as a person, doesnt mean its a good investment.
rule #2, just because a company is doing well, doesnt make it a good investment, it has to be doing well, and be undervalued for you to want it (the game is in valuation)
rule #3, once you make a decision, start small, buy a share to see how it goes, set an upside and a downside performance goal. (for reference: 20% is a very aggressive goal, 10% would be a stellar year, perhaps start with 10% up or down)
rule #4, no matter what a stripper tells you, dont buy penny stocks

**if you talk to the tdameritrade person on the phone and tell them you are starting and want to see how it goes, request a few free trades, and I am sure they will oblige to waive your first few trade fees.


as a general market quickie for you:
-rumors of federal reserve reconsidering its wording in reference to "extended period" of low rates...ie...they want to possibly raise interest rates sooner than they expected, which means that they are starting to get more concerned with inflation, than a recession
-the dollar is very weak, which is allowing our exports to flourish currently and it is fueling our market recovery, but beware, once the fed starts to nod at raising rates, the dollar will likely strengthen, and you will see some treasury related moves that may put pressure on equities
-some sectors that have outperformed as of late are the tech sector, companies like apple + intel have reported very strong earnings this quarter with good outlooks. financials have outperformed largely due to government assistance to help them out of the turmoil the fastest.

disclosure: i am long apple stock, and all the above are my OPINIONS only, brought together by no other basis than my own meandering experience