If you are starting right now, then I would suggest you to at least wait 5-6 months to get the feel of what stock market is before you throw in your hard-earned money. In the mean time, select few companies and put them in your portfolio (in yahoo, msn, or wsj) for free and watch them closely. Follow news items of those companies and see how that affects the stock prices. Knowing a lot does not gurantee a great return, but not knowing what you should know can lead to a disaster.