Bigworld, >> gunslinger tendencies <<
I was like that too, but should have done an extended period of 'paper trades' first to determine if I was any good at it. Unfortunately I didn't learn TA/chart reading early enough in the process, which would have spared a lot of heartache and needless losses. After a period of paper trades, the next step would be to trade with only 5 or 10% of your portfolio, that way if you mess up it isn't disastrous. 90/10 or 80/20 is not a bad rule for the longer haul, you'll get the fun of trading but the stability of your 80-90% core holdings.
I learned from watching my dad's approach, which is to buy high quality stocks and bonds and just hold them for many years. He's not interested in the stock market and has a full service broker handle his investments, and has done really well. Of course it helps to have the tailwind of a 35 year bull market in stocks and bonds, lol. But even if things collapse again, even worse than 2008, there will be a recovery and you'll be made whole eventually if you own high quality companies and are diversified. In the meantime you collect the dividends and bond interest.
Thinking about what assets would weather a collapse, in addition to land, paid for real estate, art, gold, etc, high quality large cap stocks will continue on into the future, things like Exxon, Johnson & Johnson, etc. These big multinationals will continue even as nation states break up.
