Here is your chance.  Join the [1] Quarterlife Finance game at Investopedia and you can try your hand at playing the market without running the risk of getting burned. 

Here is how it works:  First, visit the above link to join the game.  You will automatically receive $100,000 in game dollars.  You can then place trades to buy stocks that you think will increase over time, buy and sell stock options, and short sell stocks that you think will decline.  There are a few rules regarding volume (your target stock must trade at adequate volume to be traded) and diversification (you cannot bet the house on a single security), but otherwise you are on your own.  I have also disallowed margin trading for the purpose of this game. 

I personally advocate a buy-and-hold strategy using an well-diversified but aggressive asset allocation, invested in ETFs, REITs, and no-load mutual funds…which is represented to some extent in [2] my simulated portfolio.  However, feel free to experiment with individual securities, options, and short sales to get a feel for playing the market.  Better to blow it bigtime with a hundred grand of digital play-money than your actual retirement nest-egg.

If you don’t even know where to begin, you can start with a review of [3] our Investment posts.  Have fun and good luck!