People make it way more complicated than it has to be. "If you can't make money in the most prominent names of the day you won't make money elsewhere."  Said one of the greatest traders ever. What are they? You know the names. And the BPT basket is a good place to start. Although I use many of my own systems. You can trade and work at the same time. I did it for years. Use stops, stay focused on big and popular stocks and you will do fine.