Look for good solid performing stocks rather than try to make an overnight killing on one stock.

As Cramer says, "Are you diversified"? You won't be diversified on your first stock, but you need to keep this in mind as you invest more of your money.

You need to understand the dynamics of Mutual Funds and other large stock holding companies. They can manage your money in a rising market, but when the market falls and people panic, they can lose value rather quickly. In 2009 when the market fell off, the big brokers and funds were advising their clients to HOLD and not to sell. Many of those people that held on lost almost half of their portfolio value. I was one of the odd ones to sell and go to cash early on.

Cash is an asset, especially in a falling market. The big problem is where do you put cash when no one is paying any significant interest. In a normal market stock prices cycle up and down. Hopefully they trend upwards over time. When indicators show the stock is peaking you could sell. Let the stock settle to a low point and then reinvest near the bottom of the cycle. You need training and software to help you see the cycle. Another way is to weed out the least performing or lowest potential stock. And have a list of higher performing or higher potential stocks to buy. Don't time the sell of one to the buy of the other. Once, you have cash, wait for the proper timing to buy the new stock.

You need education on stock analysis, both Fundamental Analysis and Technical Analysis. Fundamental Analysis is about the financial statements, industry comparisons, management and analysts projections, and past performance related to these projections. The Technical Analysis, my most favorite, involves the price, momentum, and sentiment charts, and how to read them. They are very visual and give you a lot of signals about what has happened in the past. Is the stock trending up, are the highs getting higher and the lows getting higher, are they converging? Is something about to happen? In which direction? By how much?  

Investors, buy stock and hold it for a long time. Traders, buy stock and hold it for short times and try to stay on the stocks that are moving up.

I used Cramer, his books and his TV show, plus the CNBC stock shows to help learn about the market. I took formal training with a company called Investools which is now a TD Ameritrade company. This training was extremely valuable. I use ThinkorSwim as a broker account because of their great technical software and their low brokerage rates. I pay only $5 per trade and the software is free. ThinkorSwim is now a TD Ameritrade company. One of the tools on both Investools and ThinkorSwim is "Paper Money". You start out with $100,000 play money and use it to buy and sell stocks in the market using their software tools. It's a real time experience. But nothing takes the place of watching your own money.

I am working on setting up a discussion group for both Investools and ThinkorSwim in our community. If you are ready to try one of these, start with ThinkorSwim. www.thinkorswim.com