Stock Trading question

[select20]

Weird question to be asking on a gaming forum, but I've been here awhile and with the amount of people that come through here, I'm sure I'll get some good feedback.

Anyways, I'm looking to get into online Stock trading. I'm retired, don't have anything to do work wise and I've always found a bit of self-worth from the things I can accomplish and do. Well, again, being retired, I'm not really doing much productive and was wanting to try something i've not done before. I've always enjoyed auction houses in MMO's, trading and making a butt load of money. Now, I know this doesn't transfer over into RL per say, but I just think it would be fun to try out for a bit.

My plan is to set aside $5000 for this. If I lose it all then I stop. If I'm able to stay afloat then it will give me something to do, gives me a new challenge in life.

Now, I'm just looking for advice on which online trading site might be the most user friendly. Would be great to hear from someone that actively trades stock.

thanks much.

[Linkedblade]

Well real world economics is quite different from playting the AH. There are different types of investitures though. Some insetments are quite safe, but gain interest over a long period of time. Others like Activision fluctuate quite often. What I would suggest is contacting a stock broker or going to your local bank and ask the same thing.

[Stankymcgee]

TD ameritrade, sharebuilder, Etrade are all pretty decent. I am using TD ameritrade at the moment, but I do still have some left in the other two. TD ameritrade has more tools than the others but they are each equally good imo.

[anywherenotes]

With 5k, you should look for some of the cheaper trading places.
I traded a few years ago with same budget, and each time there was a 20 dollar fee, which is like 2% if you're making investments of 1k per stock. So it feels like they're already eating at the profit, so you pay 2% to buy stock and 2% to sell it, that's 4% down the hole - hopefully the stock grows for more than that.
I traded years back on etrade, and at least one other, and the experience was the same to me, but surely it changed by now.
There are few ways to buy and sell stock, for example you can buy at current price, or put limit orders - which says you'll buy (or sell) once the price is a certain point.
You can sell short (stock that you don't have), and maybe I'm missing some other stuff.
It's probably really exciting, if you can spare some money, but I can't at this point.

Sorry couldn't be of more help.
Wish you great luck, and fun, don't lose your shirt.