Indexing and diversification have been the only time tested methods for investing. Basically, by indexing you own the whole market.

Short-term, you shouldn’t be looking to invest in stocks. You can lose a lot of money quick in stocks. Short-term investments are better off in money markets, CD’s, savings accounts..etc

If you need help getting started my website is below and will try to answer any more questions you have.

Your investment plan should contemplate also options.

2. The "12 month" rule is either a rule of the custodian (the company where the account is kept), not the government, or a rule limiting how often you can move the account from one custodian to another. The government does not limit how often you can buy and sell shares within the account.

3. You cannot claim any capital loss for a Roth IRA while you still have a Roth IRA. If balance in the Roth goes all the way to zero, either because of withdrawals or really bad investing, then you can close it and claim a loss. However, if you withdraw money to achieve this result, then the tax penalties for the withdrawal (which is called a distribution) may exceed the tax benefits of the loss.

Definitions time folks:

Savings – reserve funds invested in a safe vehicle to protect ones assets and receive a small return in exchange for giving up current purchasing power.

Investing – putting capital at calculated risk in order to achieve higher returns.

Trading – Speculating on short term movements of securities prices, involves high levels of personal risks but provides benefits of providing extra liquidity & effecientacy to securities market.

Now professional traders, a) have the financial ability to withstand prolonged periods of losses, b) understand there is no "perfect" method, and c) even if they had found something even bordering on effective, wouldn’t distribute it freely as it would dilute the efficacy of their method (And with the current state of the mortgage markets we’re learning just how falliable even those "propietary" methods can be).

Sounds like you need to back up. Start building your savings, then your investments. After that, if you must, you can start a trading account. But, honestly I’ve made far more in two years of investing, than I did in 10 years of trading. (Simple math lesson one, if a stock drops 50%, from that point it has to go up 100% for you to break even — meaning minimize your loses is more vital than maximizing your gains).

Having said that I use multiple time frames to find my answers. Fibonocci works for me on a retrace. Usually I look for 38% – 50%
as my target……. depending on the momentum up. Some type of wedge or triangle or channel….. I will mostly use "buy stops" with a limit. There must be a breakout out of the indicator. I’ll also look at a Schotastic for final confirmation. Keep it simple. Always use stops. Never believe anyone suggesting that they’re "right" 80% of the time. Be happy with a win rate of 45% and above (with a win loss ratio better than 2 to 1).

My favorite ones are FAS and FAZ (financial sector) FAS goes up when the market goes up, and FAZ is a bear fund, or INVERSE leverage fund. So when the market goes down, like the last few weeks since the short term rally after newyears, the FAZ bear fund goes UP. So either way, you have a chance to come ahead no matter which way the market goes.

here are some other Direxion triple leveraged shares:

Energy sector ERX (bull) and ERY (inverse or bear fund)
there are several others for the Russel small, mid and large cap, but particularly follow the same pattern of each other.

These shares have 300% leverage that are adjusted to perform 3x of the indicies which they portray. These are not meant for long term trading, and you need to set your stop loss as well. It is like trading stocks on steroids. An index 3% gain will now be a 9% gain. BUT a 3 % loss can be a 9 % loss as well. So it is very important to actually watch them or set trailing stops or stop losses in place. You might want to loosen the stops though because fluctuations of 8 to 10 percent between a high and a low are not uncommon, but you can use this to your advantage too. For example, pull up a chart on FAS. the last few days (today is jan 24th, 2009) the high was above 9 and the low was well below 8. The last 2 days I set my entry point for 8.00 and my sell point (stop limit order) for 9. I had two days consecutive that i made 10%

This is the best advice i can give for short term trading. Because of the 300% leverage, you can triple your gains. But again it is not meant for a buy and hold or long term.

These funds can be traded just like regular stocks. I reccomend scottrade because trades are only $7. Some say free or $4 but are tied with so many restrictions.

Good luck, these have been a blessing for me. These Direxion shares just got available in November, and since i heard about them in December, i don’t bother trading with anything else. The nice thing about ETF’s is you basically trade the indices. You cant get any more diversity than that!

http://winners-and-losers.com/

http://biotech-news.org/

http://energy-markets.org/

http://gold-news.org/

http://mining-profits.org/

http://ethanol.v33.org/

http://tech-stocks.org/

http://airlines.v33.org/