@RONNIE and @ ARCHITEKT.
I wont recommend CNBC or bloomberg. In my humble opinion, reading a good stocks book will suffice.
There was a time when CNBC had "fast money" with dylan ratigan. That was the only good financial show...you have five active traders giving reasons and rationales as to why they plan to take a trade...with dylan ratigan regulating and moderating the discussions...and you get to see the thought process of these 5 people....Also, when they get it wrong, dylan ratigan will air their stock failures.
On penny stocks....i will send you, architekt, a PM....let me just say that penny stocks are difficult/dangerous/addictive. scottrade is the best broker for penny stocks...T/S and level 2 is also important in reading penny stocks....the spread can be as wide as the grand canyon. The liquidity is sporadic....and of course, an insane amount of manipulation by individuals, pump-and-dumpers, and marketmarkers. I can show you where all the bodies are buried.
Fundamentals and Technical analysis are both required(in my humble opinion) to trade stocks(micro, macro, bigcaps or blue chips). Are there people that trade successfully based on technicals alone? yes. I have done it before....But ignoring the larger macro picture will limit your potential gain, in my view. However, for beginners, i will recommend technical analysis familiarity, first.
And there are people that focused on just one or two stocks and live and breath them. They develop an unconscious rhythm for it....
shootanappleofmyhead is such a lad. He scalps AAPL and sometimes RIMM....in and out...the downside is the limited diversifications and of course, it will only work on highly liquid stocks like AAPL.
Timothy sykes is annoying....American hedgefund? wtf? not sure he just wasnt a one-hit wonder. In certain countries, you cannot short stocks under $5, if you are retail trader...i dont think timothy sykes registers himself as such, that is why he is able to borrow funds and short stocks under $5. In europe, you may be able to
CFD(contract for difference).
Anyways, on how to get started in stocks/trading....
Here is a
repost:
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Reading materials. I will recommend these(below). Curled from my own personal experience(these are books that i have actually read and applied to my own personal trading) :
Level 1:
Market Wizards Books by Jack d schwager.(3 series of books)
Reminiscence of a stock operator by edwin lefevre.
(i will recommend you start here first...it will give you a taste of what is to come. of what lies ahead of you. the failures and triumphs.)
Level 2:
How to make money in the stocks market by william o'neal(also subscribe to IBD)
One up on wallstreet by peter lynch
methods of a wallsteet master by victor sperandeo
Trading in the zone by mark douglas
Level 3:
Fire your stock analyst by harry domash
you can be a stock market genius by joel greenblatt (silly title, brilliant book)
Options made easy by Guy Cohen
The Bible of Options strategies by Guy Cohen
Level 3b:
for technical analysis: Getting started in technical analysis by jack schwager; Encyclopedia of chart patterns by Thomas Bulkowski; candlesticks by steven nison.
Level 4:
Handbook of Fixed Income securities by Frank J. Fabozzi
Options, Futures, and Other derivatives by John C Hull.