That's doubly impressive. That's the difference, it's their job and they're supposed to be devoting their time to it. thenewgreen and glitchinthematrix, any good places to start for researching? I already have a handle on how IRA's work and a very basic understanding of stocks but that's about it.
To be completely honest, I learned much about investing while I was jailed for about a month, due to refusing breathalyzer test. I had a cellmate who straight up looked like a thug, tattoos and attitude to match. He was there for violation of parole, but before that he had been in prison for about 7 years for armed robbery! In that time he read books and books and even more books on investing and finance. He even got so far as to reading into currencies trading, according to him. It seemed he still retained some of that knowledge when he got picked up again and passed some of down to me. Things like mutual funds, bond funds, stocks, interest rates, high frequency trading, day trading, and strategy were topics covered during our very long conversations. Much of it flew past my head because at the time I had very little experience with finance and technicals, however. I took what I learned while in jail, and just sort of went with it. My advice to you is to read. I like Google Finance, but Yahoo! Finance is also very popular. Go to those sites and just try to figure out what the numbers mean. What the symbols mean. Look it up! Check out http://www.investopedia.com/ There you will find definitions to the many terms used by financiers. Go to reddit.com/r/investing and look through what people have discussed. Research, reading, and asking questions is what I recommend. Currently these are my positions: 3D Systems (DDD)
Corning (GLW)
Vale SA (VALE)
Exone (XONE) Two those are 3d printing technology stocks. Corning is the maker and supplier of Gorilla Glass, and Vale is a Brazilian mining company that I think is incorporated here in the U.S.
I'm well aware of Corning, it's a great company that's based in NY. The Corning Museum of Glass is very cool, would recommend if you're traveling through that area for whatever reason! If you're going to end up in jail that's the way to do it, come out with something you didn't know before. That's impressive. Just added /r/investing to my subscriptions on Reddit, I think that will be a good starting point. Thanks for the help!