grow weed, the money is better
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I'm not too sure how it works, but I have a buddy that makes a ton of money in the options market, he never invests in actual stocks. You design the level of risk you're willing to take on a bet, and control your losses, as opposed to watching the value, and thus your investment dollar, go up and down all day.
I'm using Ameritrade's Think or Swim paper money program trying to learn it. I just got started, so I know nothing as of yet. Its cool though, you open a free account, they give you $200k of fake money to invest. You have access to the entire trading platform to do with as you wish, and access to tons of free webinars and instruction to learn with. All for no cost.
I even thought I'd be getting calls from TD Ameritrade brokers since they have my info, and not one cold call yet. Its cool. Its nice to have 2 screens to do it easily though, so you don't have to click on every window to open and close.