Keep in mind the difference between a Trader and an Investor.
When you see a guy like Kramer on CNBC he is speaking to traders or to use the term day trader. To me this is a very volatile way to make money, even the so-called experts struggle to come out ahead. Aggressive day trading is close to online gambling. it sounds good when you talk to your buddies about buying low and selling high. The truth of the matter is you have a better chance of losing money because you can't time the market.
Retirement fund: If you are young and have a 401k at work that the company matches I would suggest to max out your contribution. You want to be in very aggressive growth. If you don't have a 401K available at work then you can go to a brick and mortar like Fidelity, Edward Jones, and Charles Schwab to name a few. The online choice to me would be Vanguard. Let this fund grow without taking any money out for any reason. You can educate yourself on the difference between 401k, IRA, rollover IRA, and Roth.
Investing : Depending on your age, if you are married with kids, looking to buy a house, once you do have available funds to invest then you can look into stocks/bonds/real estate and invest accordingly. The retirement fund needs to be kept separate from all the things I just mentioned.
