~Lets Begin~ I started saving Money in trading account a few years ago as it was my way of investing. It wasn't much at first. I opened the account with $100 and saved a little of each pay check. I started purchasing a few companies that would give me dividends and some that were cheap enough to buy and companies that I knew or used or had some sort of connection with. Now I have $7000.00 (mostly from saving not gains) I feel that I should take the next step and look at my little portfolio and learn the ropes of trading. I am interested in the stock market, options and forex markets. My Aim: To gain knowledge and experience as a trader and to build on each of these accounts steadily every pay check. My allocation and strategy: It is not much but it is a start. $3500 - Stocks Dividends Investing - Pick a few stocks from the BMO Dividend ETF and follow closely $1500 - Small cap Investing - I not have a lot of money to start with and feel because they are cheaper I can buy enough shares and there is gain potential and the same time managing and controlling the high risks $2000 - Forex - trading very low lots till I get the hang this wild bull >.< Goals: - short and long term~ 1)Improve my skills on company analysis to make better company picks - especially for the small caps. 2) To Gain knowledge and experience trading forex 3) To Learn about options 4) Save more so that I can get an allocation of 50% dividend (I consider this safe) 25% small cap 25% forex 5) Clean up the dividends portfolio to fit your strategy Where I stand: Mosty Canadian Stocks Dividend and stocks I bought while I was saving: (performance: this section not doing badly) AGF ATP - this one gave me a lesson in paying attention! it lowered its dividends and I wasn't aware until too late - bought at $14 now 4.84 BA BBD FXCM HRB RY MNT SLF PWT Small Caps and my newbie thoughts: (performance: bad: needs a lot of work) MMY MRO (bought MMY and MRO both gave me gains before when gold was going up - but now down - breaking the rules keeping them now that gold has totally plummeted looking for something to replace them with? or wait? or sell I'm finding it hard to decide) VRS - (looks like a promising buy with approvals for its cancer machine and distributions starting and they just completed a private placement. However it is down from its $40 private placement price and far away down from where it was trading before which was around $54 too) LOY - (education industry for a little diversity, also just did a private placement for shares and it is up now good) Forex and my newbie thoughts: (performance: not sure just started will let you know) EUR/USD - working my way through the babypips school today was a good day for EUR/USD ... 06/04/13 Buy: 1.3080 - daily chart had a I nice uptrend and the MA 7 day and 14 day crossed nicely so I entered Stop: -90 pips Target: +150 06/06/13 - closed at my target I was lucky today I will have to find out why it went up so fast. I an learning and not risking much but I am happy about My $15 gain. I am going to sit tight until Monday and read more. Library book in hand: Peter Leeds Invest in Penny Stocks - came across it on the shelf today and thought perfect! I am open for more suggestions on reading materials