how do I get started trading stocks with a minimal investment for a living?

knowledge is important here. with courage, you can turn that knowledge into skill with some experience.

but what knowledge you need to know?

first, search information on how stock market works, who are the participant and what investment style are they using. you have 20% chance to win the match by only understand the rule of the game and another 50% by understanding who your opponent/ enemy are.

then, you must understand who you are and what are you made of? determine your investment goal, assess your investment risk and decide which route you'll be taking. if you new to thes stock market, invest for long-term rather than trading stock.

with good stock pick and you buy it within its margin of safety, you are on the way to potential high investment return with least possible risks.

last but not least, finalise your own 'exit strategy'; when you'll possibly sell the stock and what is the probability of that things happen? i can't guarentee you'll be making any money with this advice, but you'll definitely able to manage the possible at any market condition.

hope this helps...

It is very difficult to do better than the market average, even for the professionals. The easiest way to make a living on the stock market is to start with a million dollars, invest it in a stock index fund, and live off the 7 to 10% average gain per year, recognizing that there will be better years and years with a loss. But starting with very little and trying to make enough to live on will probably require margin accounts (borrowing money to invest with) which make it much more likely that you'll lose everything: not something to just play around with.

Hey,

I've been trading the market for just a few months. My cousin actually told me about this website ( http://pennystocks.toptips.org/ ) and I signed up immediately after. This is my honest review about their method. I'm not someone who has a lot of time to be researching for ideas because I work many hours. they made it incredibly easy for me to make money in the market. Their reports are easy to read and follow. I've tracked most of the stock ideas that I've received in my e-mail from them and MANY have seen some nice gains after their announcements. I've made a nice profit (55% return on my investment on one, and 112% on the other!) on a couple of suggestions he's given and plan to start trading his ideas a lot more.

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Cheers.

I suggest investing in ETFs.

They are similar to mutual funds but can be traded like stocks.

Here are 2 ETFs that I like:

QQQQ is popular and consist the top traded funds in Nasdaq:

PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1, formerly The NASDAQ-100 Trust, Series 1, is a unit investment trust that issues securities called Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock. The Trust holds all of the component securities of the Nasdaq-100 Index. The Trust's investment objective is to provide investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index. The Trust was created to provide investors with the opportunity to purchase units of beneficial interest in the Trust representing proportionate undivided interests in the portfolio of securities held by the Trust, which consists of substantially all of the securities, in substantially the same weighting, as the component securities of the Nasdaq-100 Index. Nasdaq Global Funds, Inc. is the sponsor of the Trust and The Bank of New York is the trustee of the Trust.

SPY is a good ETF consisting the top traded funds in S&P:

SPDRs, Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts, represent ownership in the SPDR Trust, Series 1 (the Trust), a unit investment trust. The Trust is an exchange-traded fund that was created to provide investors with the opportunity to purchase a security representing a proportionate undivided interest in a portfolio of securities consisting of substantially all of the common stocks, in substantially the same weighting, which comprise the Standard & Poor's 500 Composite Price Index (the S&P Index). Each unit of fractional undivided interest in the Trust is referred to as a Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipt (SPDR). The Trust utilizes a full replication approach. With this approach, all 500 securities of the S&P 500 Index are owned by the Trust in their approximate market capitalization weight.

This penny stock service has years of proven experience. Ultimately it is the best service for beginners to use https://tr.im/x7Ftg

You will have to wait between 3 and 10 days to get into the system in most cases. When I signed up it took 8 days. I wished it was faster, but if you can wait a week or two to start earn life changing money than you will have what it takes to make it in this business.

Buy what you know.

Diversify

Invest for the long term.

Remember that buying and selling stocks is gambling and that the price of stocks will fluctuate.

What I have recommended in the past is this:

Buy 2 or 3 kinds of mutual funds from Charles Schwab

By them in equal dollar amounts 2 times a month (like the 5th and the 21th of the month)

That way you diversify in the securities you buy and in the timing of buying them.

You can make arrangements for the purchases to be made automatically from your account as mentioned.

Schwab tel. No 1.800.435.9050

The first thing is to work out what sort of trader you are going to be.Your attitude to risk and to get to know the "Emotions" of trading that are involved.

Start of with the basics.

Now to save you time and money, I have designed a web site for the begginer in trading.Just click on

http://www.asxnewbie.com/

Here is a good place to start:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TradingZoom/

Review the books from the front page, follow the stock picks for a while, talk to other professional traders.

One thing nobody ever told me to do but I found helped is learn basic accounting so you can read the financial statements of the companies you wish to invest in.