If I had it to do over and could actually stick to a plan I would put it into a high interest acct with one of the larger banks for at least 3 months. In that 3 months I would get background info on as many companies as possible, study their charts, learn how to do technical analysis, learn about fundamentals, study companies that have made at least 20% a year and what went right, how close they were to prod'n etc, what sparked the rise. Leave your money in a bank for about another 3 months. Pick a few companies that you think might help you achieve your goal, paper trade them using all your new found knowledge. In the next 3 months develop your trading plan from your experiences. Maybe try trading after that. I think the main point is not to be desperate, otherwise you get caught up in a whirlwind. Stop losses are important. Get in later if you still like the company and the chart is looking better. In my head there is always the conflict of do I try and hold on to these for a year for less cgt or take the money and run. It's a tough call, I've only been doing this for about 3 years and landed in all sorts in the downturn of late. I could've reduced that by putting in stop losses, but I live and learn. I reckon they should be teaching some of this stuff at school.
