re: Wall Street Survivor - Anybody else tried it?

To supplement retirement savings, you may want to consider a Roth IRA account as well for tax diversification purposes. There is a 5,500 limit per year, assuming you are below a certain threshold of income.

For the car note bit, I wouldn't worry too much about paying down any debts early if not necessary. Basically like working with leverage you can use to invest.

I'm by no means an expert on daytrading, but I wouldn't use it as a casual retail investor as a means of understanding what happens in the market. People that do that trade on technicals, which can get a little granular and employ certain concepts and techniques that have more to do with volatility and buyers/sellers driving swings in prices than the underlying fundamentals of a security. If you want to be a more informed investor, honestly, just get subscriptions to WSJ and Barron's. In terms of what industries work best, it depends on your objectives. Industries are generally either cyclical (energy, consumer retail) or stable (staples, utilities), so your exposure depends on what your goals and risk tolerance are. There are no right or wrong answers for that, and a 3-6 month timeframe won't really give you much insight on that IMO.