I would like to start online trading but have very little knowlege about it

As a trader of commodities (power and natural gas), I would not advise trying to trade anything you know nothing about. Educate yourself before trading. Also, you won't trade for long with $300.

Good luck!

Like others have said, if you don't know what you're doing you'll probably lose more than you win. To day trade, you're goin to need margin privileges, which you aren't going to get with $300. There are tons of good books out there, go to B & N and browse some, pick out a couple that seem interesting and see what you learn. It also can't hurt to read the Journal every day and pick a couple sites online to read every day as well. There's just so much information it's best to tread carefully.

You sound exactly like me several months ago. Except I went in with $1,000. I played some biotech stocks during their FDA run-ups and got very lucky, I also made some very bad trades. I walked away last month up a couple hundred.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street gets major play around here. Also, I found sites like StockTwits and Fat Wallet very helpful. ST is essentially twitter for stocks and Fat Wallet has an Individual Stock Discussion thread that is pretty good.

ETA: Keep in mind, Sharebuilder charges $9.95 a trade, so before you buy your first share, your $300 has become $280.

Pick some key ratios that you like- P/E, EPS, dividend yield etc and use those to steer you. You can google them online to figure out how they work. Next, look for stocks that have dropped for an irrational reason. The smartest risk is to buy a big, good company that is in a temporary mess. If you bought BP after the oil spill or GE in 2009 etc, you are alot less likely to lose your shirt. Try to buy it when it is undervalued and enjoy the ride up. Discipline yourself and take your gains- it is better to get 10% and bail than get greedy and stay on if it drops back down. Lastly, be patient. I bought some blue chips that were down about 2 years ago. They dropped a little more after I bought em and I was sick about it. I held them and sold them all for anywhere from 12-16% gains this year.

$300 bucks isn't much to trade. And penny stocks would be a way to go if you are an expert but most people aren't and lose their arse real quick. I've seen people trade pennies and move hundreds of thousands of shares and make a good profit or lose it all. It's a complete gamble on pennies, you are pretty much going strictly on news that comes out and the volume of shares being traded or the momentum. You have to be on top of it constantly. I would advise saving more money and educate yourself as others have stated and be smart about your trades. Learn to use stop loss to limit your loss. Hope this helps.

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This. Perfect example of what my strategy is. I am wondering about INTC, I am guessing it might be near its bottom right now (total guess- heck I haven't bought any yet). With the recent drop in price, the dividend is much stronger and I think it is on the level of a company that will find a way to get back on top even if they have a bad quarter or 2 and have to make some changes.

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They need to establish their presence in mobile computing to grow. PC sales are down and I don't see anything changing next Q either.

It's still a good long-term stock but I don't see it going anywhere in the near future. It might trade in a range (with another 10-15% downside), but it could be a good day trade.

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$300 bucks isn't much to trade. And penny stocks would be a way to go if you are an expert but most people aren't and lose their arse real quick. I've seen people trade pennies and move hundreds of thousands of shares and make a good profit or lose it all. It's a complete gamble on pennies, you are pretty much going strictly on news that comes out and the volume of shares being traded or the momentum. You have to be on top of it constantly. I would advise saving more money and educate yourself as others have stated and be smart about your trades. Learn to use stop loss to limit your loss. Hope this helps.

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i would like to try the 300 to get my feet wet, but with the 9.99 per trade fee from share builder it seems that would be hard to do? it looks like you would lose more money just out of the fee?

it seems like i would do better having a lot of shares of a low value than a few shares of a larger value. is this the correct process?

Sharebuilder will also charge a "penny stock" fee. I cannot remember the amount, but it was essentially a fee put on certain stocks below $5/share. Some stocks I messed with had it, other did not.

ETA: Lets say you buy 10 shares of Stock A at $20/share. After the commissions (buying and selling), your stock will have to get to $22/share before you break even.

While I agree with the premise of buying companies with better fundamentals, etc., it seems you are just trying to make a quick buck, which leads me to point you towards "penny stocks". Now, if you are looking at adding to your intial amount as time goes on, I would definitely invest in a company you believe in and add to it as you get more money.