Its official, the economy is in a recession. 

For the last couple odd months that I have been observing the markets, I saw that the DOW has been on a roller coaster ride. It keeps dropping for a day or two and then shoots up 400 points the third. Then it stays on the sidelines for a day or two and on any news (or the rumor of one) it might shoot another 400 or drop another 400

Very risky, but I figured, all these ups and downs, if you watch some of these stocks which bouce back and forth a lost and try (the impossible, as they say) to time any any of these : there is money to be made.

The professional traders and fund managers have the money and margins to back their trades. But what about mere mortals like you and me? What if we wanted to trade? I had this itch for over 2 years now and I had 2 fears -

1. What if I lose?

2. Am I going to really make any money after I give away the taxes on my capital gains and pay $7 per trade? 

The first fear is a matter of personal comfort, the second - I have a solution.

I opened a ROTH account with **Zecco trading. I started saving about $100 every month to the ROTH account for about 10 months and then stopped after I had the amount I think I am comfortable trading with. I already have a 401k which I am dligently saving to and will keep saving to. So the ROTH I opened is merely something to scratch my “trading” itch.

Zecco charges me around $4.50 for every trade and they recently had a No charge trades for the month of October. So the trading fees are about 49% lesser than say Etrade (I think they cahrge around $6.99) and the best part, there are NO CAPITAL GAIN taxes !

If you make good trades, you are allowed to keep all the gains you make and you will have to pay $0 gain taxes on it!

A word of caution, people should realize these are your retirement accounts, so be very careful and use only the amount of money that you will feel comfortable losing all, thats the worst that can happen.

Another thing I found out, if you already have a ROTH account and saving for your retirement in it, you can open another ROTH account and stash the little trading amount in that. (The total of both the accounts should always maintain the saving limits as stated by law)

** Disclosure: I personally have a stock account in Zecco and so used Zecco for my ROTH. Anyone else can as easily make any other choice of broker to support their trading itches !

These are all my individual personal views and opinions !