It is very good advice to learn before you invest your real money. Buying individual stocks with only $200 is costly because your fee for each purchase or sale ($8 - $10) will be 4% - 5% of such a small amount. You'd have to make 10% just to break even. (5% to buy, another 5% to sell). No-load mutual funds are usually the best bet with a small anmount of money.
A great book for learning how investing really works is "How to Make Money in Stocks" by William J. O'Neil. He doesn't just talk philosophy that you need to "research" a stock before you buy, he teaches you exactly how to research every stock and how to decide when to buy and when to sell. It's great stuff.
Mike
