Obviously I"m pretty biased on the stock vs option front. I think the best return I ever had trading stocks was 12% in a year followed by a couple of losing years. My option returns are in the 20+% per year so obviously I'd say ditch the stocks and learn to trade options. I wouldn't bother with the covered calls because the margin requirements with your limited funds won't give you the return you are looking for. I've actually switched to trading strictly index and ETF options only. I prefer more trend following and Tech analysis to base my trading decisions so the index and ETFs are nice cause I don't have to waste my time on learning about each individual stock and worrying about waking up to a stock option backdating scandal or a run on the bank type of situation, and instead concentrate more on a sector as a whole. Unfortunately with your small start up amount you'll be pretty limited to just simple strategies on the long side (i.e. buying calls and puts, debit spreads, calandars, stuff like that). If you're lucky you can buy 10 debit vertical spreads for $300 ($30 each) and if the market moves in your favor it can easily go from $30 to $40 so you've made $100 profit on your $300. This is not unreasonable in the options market, the problem is that the opposite is also true. You can just as easily lose that $100....but if you spend a lot of time studying the markets (spy, iwm are a couple great ETFs to trade options on) you can definitely make decent coin. Again this is coming from someone that had no luck trading stocks so I'm sure others on here can give you better suggestions if you want to trade stocks. Finally, definitely do a lot of reading up on options and watching the spy and iwm markets and paper trade them to see when you would get in and get out and learn position sizing and loss management.
Look you only have 1500 bucks you are going to blow that money gambling. What you are doing is called gambling since you will be throwing money at the craps table and you will come home with empty pockets. I suggest you go take the 1500, visit Vegas, play blackjack and you will get free drinks, maybe hook up with some hot chick and have a good time. Seriously put that cash in GE and reinvest, it will be worth more in 3 years, keep saving up and start reading books I suggest reading the Warren buffet way, Security's analysis (Second edition), I would also learn how to fully understand and interepret financial statements. Read lots of books learn, practice by paper trading etc..
Buy EWZ instead or EEM if you want growth. Why GE of all things? GE is horrible. The stock fell 12% recently and is ony up $3 in the past five years. Wallmart or IBM is a much better bluechip anyway.
So I've heard many insightful comments regarding the possibility of profiting with a limited amount of funds. I don't feel comfortable dealing with options, futures, and currencies as of yet, so I think im just going to go with the buy and hold strategy investing in stocks (as short term as legally possible). I understand that the odds are against me because of the limited funds. I obviously also can't scalp. I guess my new goal should be changed from being able to profit to just being able to stay afloat in a turbulent market. As I mentioned in the initial post, my other goal is to "learn". If I dealt with paper trading, I wouldn't put the same effort (knowing myself). This is why I want to use real money, as low or insignficant, because I will focus on my positions. Now I need develop a logical buy and hold for several days strategy. Some of you described my project as similar to gambling, but I don't think that is the case. I'm doing too much research to call it gambling. Otherwise, any speculative venture could be labelled as gambling.
stop acting queer and save up 5k and trade. u will blow out but u will learn alot (atleast i hope so) before i got my discpline i blew out twice. those was off of very dumb mistake tho.