Hi unclesam, If I were you, I would sign up with one of the online brokerage, as they are fairly simple to use. I use scottrade (www.scottrade.com) and they charge you flat $7 for buying and selling stocks, regardless of the number of stock. Guest4 has a good point about observing the market for a while before start investing, so that you get a better feel for market flow. Go to this site and download the 2006 stock recommendation by Motley fool. http://www.savefile.com/files/7629400 This should be a good starting point for you. Let us know how is it going, and we'll be glad to help.