Should I join E-Trade or not ?

Well, you will need capital to invest. And you may need some job to keep investing in your account.

The secret to successful stock market trading is to be close to the news. Not too close because you could end up in jail for insider-trading; but the folks just on the outside of that hazard do very well. They do well because of the unawareness of people outside of the loop who get in or out far too late. I should think that 18 year olds would be prime candidates for Loserville.

I can see that there is not much difference between having a hundred bucks and having nothing. But perhaps that C note will keep you going until something real turns up.

In addition to what others have said, I'd advise you to research other places to buy & sell stock; Sharebuilder only charges $12.99 or less for a real-time trade, but they encourage regular investing and are often a bit slower than the "big guys" like eTrade and Schwab. That said, I'm a patient guy who follows the stock papers and has made about $70.00 (on $1000 invested) this year. Think that stinks? The Dow is down 25% this year, so I'm probably doing better than many others.

The secret--read everything you can from many different viewpoints. Then think about the advice and ask yourself if you really think it's going to happen. I really thought Ford wouldn't go down from $4/share--and I was WRONG. I really thought GM wouldn't go down from $60/share--I was WRONG, and I kept buying until it hit $10.

I got lucky buying BUD (a/k/a Budweiser) before and after I found out about a merger. European brewer InBev bought them out for $70/share. Not all mergers get approved, but I kept buying all I could. That's my only source of profit this year.

Moral of the story: be patient, do your homework, and never read just one opinion about anything. Who's to say they're right?

If you where to open an account on e-trade ( i have one) i would recommend a cash account since you probably won't get approved on margin. I really like e-trade and i have tried many different platforms. Although with 100 dollars it is not practical since a basic accounts trading fee is 19.99. So with a 40 dollar trading fee buy/sell you would have to make 40 percent to break even. i would also suggest a minimum of 1000 dollars for an initial investment. A word of caution, this is no time to be learning the stock market you can easily loss most of your money.

you cant start with a 100 bucks. so if you could. you are looking at a 80 balance after a buy and sell. unless you pull out a miracle trade. youve already lost money and that is no source of income