[DWarrior]

My stepmother actually introduced me to investing when I was in 8th grade (1999?), and she made me read a crapload of fool.com articles until I had balance sheets flowing out of my ears. I probably know a little more than an average investor does, but by knowing that, I unfortunately understand that there is a lot I still don't know about (if that makes sense).

I've been reading Investopedia.com, and I'll most certainly catch up on my Fool.com as you suggested, since I'm sure everything changed over the past 5 years. Also, I've done pretty well in my HS investing clubs, although I realize that most of it was luck. So, while I'm not totally oblivious, I merely know the basics (financial statements, financial ratios).

I recently purchased some recommended books I found online:

* Use the News by Maria Bartiromo (I'm currently reading it)
* The Essays of Warren Buffet
* Security Analysis by Graham and Dodd
* Financial Shenanigans 2nd Ed by Howard Schilit
* Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher
* How to be a Billionaire by Martin Fridson
* One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch (what you suggested)
* The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William * Danko
* The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman
* The Intelligent Investor by Graham
* The Interpretations of Financial Statements by Graham
* Bull! by Maggie Mahar

Being in a community college leaves a lot of time for me to read and study on my own, and I realize that I have to if I ever plan on competing with my friends (who can afford to party in Ivies and still learn a great deal). Since this is about what I read for poker, I don't think the reading is all that great, although "Security Analysis" dwarves both Super Systems combined [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Also, would it be wise to trade on margin, or is that just a plan for disaster? I happen to work part-time in an accounting firm, and I've noticed almost every one of our clients got burned by making dumb trades and compounding it by buying on margin (making 20 trades of $100 in one day, paying commission on each one, then losing money on the trade)

Thanks again for your help.

PS: I thought Freetrade required something like 2 years experience with discount brokers, and yeah, it probably wouldn't be a wise choice to use for a beginner.