playin' the stocks game
nas: Read "The Intelligent Investor".  It was written many years ago and is still relevant today (it's actually scary how history seems to repeat itself).  Regarding fees, note that commissions are not the only costs to transactions.  Remember the bid/ask spread and that as a small investor you will be taken advantage of.Long term is the way to go, IMHO.  It is nearly impossible to predict short term price movements.  Also, forget the efficient market hypotheses; if the SP500 can go up 5% one day and down 5% the next it's obviously bogus.  You can count on the average stock owner to be either overly optimistic or overly pessimistic (and not just a little bit).  Do you homework first and keep your head.Find companies with business models you can understand: how are they making revenue, what are their costs, what are their risks?  Use discounted cash flows (i.e. NPV) to find a fair market price (P/E is good rough estimate).  Be very conservative when doing this, especially with regards to expected EPS and growth.  Double digit growth cannot be maintained and generally high growth companies are overvalued.  Most libraries have S&P reports that you can study for free (good for EPS data although take it with a grain of salt).  Some discount brokers also offer stock reports.  Note that analysis recommendations are usually bogus but it doesn't hurt to take note.Index funds are a good way to diversity but watch out for fees (I like Vanguard, especially their ETFs) and too much portfolio turnover (some are just badly designed).  However, it's my opinion that you can do better than the indexes with a little common sense (see above) and if you can stomach the extra risk.  Stick to large cap stocks because they are more liquid and less susceptible to insider information.  It doesn't hurt to look at insider activity (although note the effects of stock options).$2000 is not much money, probably not enough to start messing with individual stocks.  I would stick it low fee, value ETF and forget about it.  $10,000 is probably a more reasonable starting amount, say 25% in high-grade bonds, 25% in a index fund, and 50% in individual stocks of your choosing (say 2 or 3).