I trade. Or, more accurately, I own stock I have my nest-egg in the market, basically, and it's about 10K. I bought $1,000 worth of apple (8 shares) when it was $120 and it closed at just above $400 today I've re-bought a couple times since then, as well bought a few other stock... I had Verizon for at least a year hoping it would jump up when the iPhone came out on their network, but it didn't. I'm actually ALMOST 100% into apple, which is a VERY risky strategy... It's MUCH SAFER to diversify. You don't want to day-trade. You want to "swing trade." The difference is that you don't mind holding it for a couple days. I originally decided to buy $1,000 worth of stock instead of making a casino trip, using the logic "If I lose, I can always hold the stock until it goes back up." There's a saying in the market... You haven't lost money until you sell the stock. The first stock I bought wasn't apple, though, it was a company called Smurfit-Stone container company, who made packaging materials from recycled cardboard. I got 1920 shares for my one grand. A couple months later, they declared bankruptcy, haha. My 1K was now worth 200-300. I held onto it, and with rumours of government help (This was during all the economy BS a few years ago) it went back up and I sold my 1920 shares for about $1300. So I still made out Okay. Anyway, when it comes to Penny stocks, I doubt you can day/swing trade them... At least not easily. You're probably interested in ETF trading (Online, like e-trade, of Charles Schwab, what I have) and they only do real markets like the NYSE, NASDAQ, w/e, and penny stocks won't be listed there. You can still "day trade" or swing trade apple/amazon/whatever using it, but commission fees will eat you alive... 8.95 a trade means $17 dollars gone from the buy/sell. Remember, you'll pay commission twice, not once. I've been watching apple daily for about 3 years, and the stuff it's been doing last couple of days is hardly normal... I mean c'mon, S.J. just died and they just released a new iPhone Anyway, I'm happy to answer any Q's I can, and thanks for reading my experiences In 2-3 years, I've turned 6 grand or so into 10 grand... but I got in when apple was pretty low, that's why. My other stuff has made profit, but not enough to make it worthwhile (Not that I'm complaining, I haven't lost money anywhere!). Then again... until I hit that "sell" button... I haven't MADE any money, either.