Check out elitetrader.com

A lot of really good traders hang out there.

I work on the Canadian equivalent of Wall Street but not in anything related to trading equities. I'm also interested to see if there are other finance people on the forum.

In response to your question, you won't make money trading individual stocks or pursuing any sort of day trading strategy. If you are young, you probably just want to do what benjor said and put your savings in some equity ETFs. If you are closer to retirement, some proportion of your savings should probably be in fixed income. Time in the market is more important than timing the market. Finance is interesting stuff to learn about though.

Yea I wouldn't dream of using my own funds to day trade. I'm only 27. My investing strategy is long term mutual funds diversified between large cap, mid cap, small cap, and international. Or dave Ramsey's plan.

But I would really like to learn more and try investing in single stocks when I am more comfortable with it and with excess funds.

No, what is done in Wall Street is the opposite of work.

Put it all on 21 black.

Thanks for your contribution douche bag, please take your constant need to turn every thread into liberal drivel somewhere else.

21 is red you fool.....

Now 8 and 11 black, that's what I'm talking about .....

I think it's funny that we have a bankster named General Lee. Andrew Jackson would be rolling in his grave.

Meh, I tried breaking into Wall Street, but since I wasn't able to land a summer internship it'll be next to impossible to get a job there once I graduate.

The thing that I always, always hate are "chartists" who think that looking at patterns will identify where a stock price will move next. The problem is that if there are enough people who believe this, then the stock price will start moving as their "charts" predict. A large part of predicting short-term returns is merely behavioral crap.

Long term investments are where market timing and individual stock selection come into play. If you have one, then you may do alright, but to really do well, you need both. Tesla is a perfect example. Its a solid, growing company that will do well. But its earnings potential has not increased 530% since the beginning of the year. There's absolutely no point in buying Tesla at this point in time (I already have cashed out my investment).

It truly depends upon your style of investing. There are some stocks that give nice dividends (Conoco Phillips) which I buy and hold....well, pretty much indefinitely. There are others like Tesla that I buy and sell in the next 3-12 months.