Does anyone know any good websites (paid or free) that almost have a chat room style forum to bounce ideas/news off eachother?
Get a dog. He'll listen patiently and give you better feedback than anyone in an online trading room.
My comment is slightly less facetious than most would think. @jeffbeil: I sounds like you're feeling some uncertainty in your trading. That goes with the territory. The more certain you are, the more likely you are to be disastrously wrong. Embrace the uncertainty.
You're very vague about your needs. Therefore, my suggestion to you is to just log onto IRC on the Othernet server or FinancialChat server. There are dozens and dozens of free chat rooms that you can visit to determine which one suits your needs. You can use the /list command to locate the list of trading rooms on the Othernet or FinancialChat server. Then, after entry into any particular room, you "right click" on any particular user name to see what other rooms that person is using. That /list command will show the free public rooms. In contrast, some of the better rooms are "free private". Thus, password required and you'll need to ask someone you meet in the public room about how to get the password to a private room you're interested in joining. Good luck Mark