Those who live in the u.k. all know how doomed the younger generation is due to the government with an estimated average debt of £140k + interest at the age of 25-30 with an average annum of £20k If able to get a job in the first place !

I could go into details why and how these figures have been worked out but it goes off topic of my post. ( Im creating another post on this to outline where the younger generations priorities should be for the future )

I want to get into the stock market/ foreign exchange as a side hobby hoping to build this up to become my only source of income. I understand some basics of it but basics aren't good enough as it increases your chance of risk . I want to know if anyone has any pointers or can lead me in the right direction of how to get started or gain experience without spending too much at first ( just recently got laid off from my current job ).

Any suggestions of software, cheap online brokers or any general tips will be appreciated

I dont know if these products are in the U.K but I used to use Bourse charting software (about 280 usd)it was the cheapest and quite decent product on the market ,Metastock charting software is popular but is slightly more expensive (about 400usd) with live market chart updates for $50 per month.But its unnessecary if your just starting so if you open a trading account with a bank that has a stockmarket trading section and they should have free charts ,google has free charts aswell they just arnt as in depth as charting software.
Trade your way to financial freedom by van tharp is a good book on trading and trading psycology.Motleyfool.com has great investor tips and info and theres always free courses and paper trading courses available at various websites.Join a stock forum aswel.If you really want to maximise your upside and protect your downside learn about options somewhere on your journey not for the newbe tho.
Enjoy..

cheers man that helped a bundle

I use a lot of warren buffett books. I used to have jim cramer books but his track record is bad. I'm more about buying stable companies for the long-term but I do believe in buying good companies that the market has tarnished and holding them for awhile. I had JOYG (American stock on the NYSE) that I bought 72 shares of at $20 bucks each during the fire sale in the US about 3 yrs ago. Now that stock is worth over $90.

Do your homework, look at their books and buy good companies. Stock tips that you hear from people around the water cooler are fine and dandy, but look at the company.

If you want to trade Forex, first of all, you HAVE to understand what money is.

So start with Rothebard, Mises, Hayek.

Go daily to mises.org. Jim Rogers and Marc Faber are pretty good too. Marc Faber publish a weekly report under "gloom boom and doom" (google it), you want to be subscribed to.

And remember... as of now, all paper money are doomed and in the long run they'll lose value vs gold and silver.

So if you want to trade Forex, you want to be in precious metal too...

Yeah I'v left school and my family want me to find a job but theres nothing I want to do for a living as all the jobs are shitty with shitty pay. What do you know about poker? There was a massive surge in interest after 2003 after a amatuer qualified for the WSOP Main Event through a online poker site for pennies. The entry fee was $10,000 and he won the whole thing for $2,000,000 or something. After that loads of people suddenly became interested in it as they thought they finally found their road to fortune.

This led to a massive boom through online poker where you can win money by sitting on your arse all day, which is currently what im doing This a big business and you must know your strategies to be able to compete with top players although you wont me playing any in the lower limits which is like $100 downwards. Its not a game of luck, more like a game of skill which involves a element of luck. If you know your maths and I think poker could be a very profitable career for you. I deposited £10 or $17 to start with playing $1 games grinding myself up to a $1000 bankroll. I currently average around £30 a session but I usually play for 3 hours a day so I could easily earn over a £100 a day if I played longer but this will probably put a major mental strain on you. BUT and I say BUT, and I cannot express how important this is, YOU MUST BE DISCIPLINED. You cannot play above your bankroll as every poker player will experience bad streaks. Many promising players lose alot of money because they had a bad spell and began to play higher limits to chases their losses.

I strongly recommand looking up on google bankroll managment and strategies on how to play poker. Travelling around the world to different cities playing cards for a living is my dream and the dream of many others. Some people make the salary of a average persons job in a year in a single day playing poker. Hopefully someday I'll reach that milestone but for now, im content to play for lower stakes until my bankroll grows.

PM if you have any question mate.

I've been playing poker "professionally" for 5 years.

All that said by TheLaw is true. I have to ephasize some thing though

1) It is the most stressful job I've ever done. The variance is huge and you need to have a huge "inner game" mindset to overcome the stress. There will be days in witch you play perfectly and you lose thousands of dollars. And even if you have a bankroll of 100 of thousands, of course it will still affects you! If you want to play poker as your only source of income, you have to be an emotional rock (much like a stock exchange broker)

2) There are some fields of poker there are almost sarged out (where you dont have that much edge over the players). The games that will never be sarged out will be MTT and HU cash NLHM.

3) You will give up a LOT of social life. The bad players will show up on the table on weekends and on festivities. You NEED to play on that periods. It's when the money will come...

4) You need to play in your perfect state of mind. If you didn't eat, if you feel slightly ill, if you're nervous because you had a fight with your girlfriend, if there is too much noise around, etc etc YOU WILL LOSE MONEY. And of course you can't drink and play.

5) You can't make a living with live tournaments if you don't have a sponsor.

Man Im loving all of this sure its a lot to take in but it gives me and anyone else interested a place to come back to , to get good material