[DWarrior]

I've wanted to start investing for a while also, but being a broke college student makes it very difficult. Meanwhile, I've invested as much as I could into books, and hoping to save up about 10K by the end of this summer to start investing.

With $1,000, there is really not much "trading" you could do, as the commission will eat up any % (think of it as rake in a poker game, in the small-limit games, the rake eats all your profits). Also, you will be restricted to putting all your money on one stock each time, which is a bad idea. I've personally seen one of these idiots blow half of his $1000 (birthday money, figures) trading options in one trade.

Also, as GeorgeF said, I think you're referring to "investing" rather than "trading". Investing is more long-term, while trading is short-term. From what I gather, most traders (day-traders) don't really know what they're doing, they're just in because it's the "in" thing to do.

As for the $1000, someone suggested that I put mine in an index or DRIP (re-invest dividends) directly with a company, while others suggested that I should stay out until I save up enough (10K) and invest in books and other things that don't yield direct profits (like gvibes suggests).