This is my first post of many more to come. I am going to use this to help improve my knowledge of the stock market. This post is mainly to give everyone a background of how I became involved in the navy. First off my name is Michael. I am 21 years old and currently in the Navy. Ever since i was a little boy, i always wanted to work for myself. I even made a promise never to have a boss. Then reality hit me. I had to get money from somewhere right? So my naval career began. In the Navy, i have played around with different ways of making money such as Poker. I made about $5000 my one month that i actually played it professionally but i decided that it was not for me. Then I began betting on sports and was pretty successful as well. I made about 9000 in about 2 months. Again though, I realized it wasnt for me. It was stressing me out too much even though i was winning most of my bets. Now, one of my good friends from the boat, Jesse, started reading books about stocks and investing in the stock market. He failed currently he is down about $800 investing in penny stocks. So being the competive person that i am. I decided to give it a go. So i read his books and did a little research of my own and when i felt comfortable with stocks. I waited to find the right stock. I selected Apple. I invested $3000 into it and quickly made $450 off that and so my journey began. I got involved in some other stocks but sold them shortly after. As I realized that i was listening to the advice of others and not myself. So I took the losses on commission. At this point I am still up $450. I have orders in right now to buy some new stock. That I feel pretty confident will ride up. i am going to have SKFT-1083 Shares TASR- 200 Shares ADSX-600 Shares USAK-24 Shares WMT-28 shares TALX-23 Shares GVA-12 Shares ENER-14 Shares I am hoping to get some critiques along the way as right this. So feel free to help me out =) Goals To Make at least 3% a month.