It is still a good start to "having war on paper = zhi3 shang4 tan2 bing1", better than being an observer. Focus on a few stocks, record the buying price, monitor the price and volume movements on daily basis to gain experience.
Another way of gaining "real" experience is through past data. Ask for someone's help to erase the name of certain stocks, only provide certain key information (FA) and chart of the price & vol (TA) a few months ago or a few years ago, using the info to make some decisions - short & long term. This is an useful training which is also given during Dennis' seminar.
Eventually, you still need to get yourself 'wet". In fact, it is "better" to lose some money initially, so that you can learn the lesson to avoid bigger loss in future. Usually the risk is someone gains some small money initially, thinking he is smart, ending losing lots of money eventually. Start with small investment first, buying in each correction phase (every few months), risk will be lower this way. This is like playing mahjong, real $ will make the player extremely serious, even if it is only $1.
My children only invest $500 initially (from their past saving), recently increase to $1000 (after adding Ang Paos from CNY) as they can see the return from phase1 investment. Of course, their investment is "capital protected" by their parents
Despite the small capital (in fact, this is nearly 100% of their saving), they are very serious in stock market, recently were cooled down due the correction, also a good form of education. Perhaps in phase3 investment, their capital shd not be protected anymore.
