The stock market hasn't been good for the ol' SoulHonky. I stupidly listened to Jim Cramer when I tried my first venture into stocks and it was a disaster. Cramer and some other stock "experts" had me choosing stocks that quickly lost 90% of their value. One stock delisted completely. I still have them in my Sharebuilder account because it would cost more to sell them than they are worth.

My second venture went a little better. I bought it after the stock market collapse, during the first jump up last year. Most of my stocks failed but IMAX showed some profit. The mini-controversy about a growing number of IMAX screens turning out to not actually be IMAX-sized screens got me worried so I put a stop loss order on the stock. I'll probably regret selling it but I'm going to bank on a couple of comebacks now with the money I have remaining (all in all, my second stock venture cost me 110 bucks with Southwest Airlines and Luby's Restaurant losing money. Yamana Gold is about even and I held onto that stock. I only own 44 dollars worth and a sale costs 10 bucks so it doesn't make sense to sell now.

Which reminds me, if you're buying stocks online, make sure you're investing enough money to make it worthwhile. Twice now I've spread myself too thin by buying a bunch of stocks and then, when all is said and done, wasting almost a fifth of my money on fees.

Speaking of wasting money, my latest two picks are risky ones but I'm thinking that there's nowhere to go but up. I invested in Ford Motors and Bank of America. Ford looks like it is going to be one of the only American auto companies left standing so they could be bouncing back. Bank of America is showing some signs of life and I could see them coming out of this financial debacle doing alright. Also, the stocks are at 5.50 for Ford and just a little over 11 bucks for Bank of America so you'd think they'd have to show some signs of improvement. A year ago, Ford was at 8 bucks and B of A was at 40.

I think every Monday I might try to give a little update on the stocks and eventually I might put a little bit more money into the market. As of now, I'm going to sit back and watch my latest picks to see how they do. Things aren't going well. IMAX is up 50 cents since I sold it. I might have to put in an order to buy some of it tonight.