the easiest way is to find a CFD provider. It is like trading options with large leverage except that it is a contract with another party. CFD's are also a lot

the easiest way is to find a CFD provider. It is like trading options with large leverage except that it is a contract with another party. CFD's are also a lot more expensive than the usual derivatives, but are a lot easier to trade and are a lot more accessible (you have two buttons to press and a chart) When you open an account, they will start you on a 2:1 or 10:1 margin, and over time you can have this increased. You will need to link a source of funds to the account, and they will ask you a lot of questions in setting up the account. You will likely blow the entire $200, but it will be a fun learning experience. The large trading firms out there have algorithms that look for trades just like the type that you will be making, and they intentionally shift the price around with large orders (that usually are not completed) in order to wip out your position. Google up about it and read as much as you can. It is a dirty industry - many affiliate marketers who make good money sending new users to one of the large trading sites, which can afford to make large affiliate payments because they make a ton of money on these trades. I have accounts with three different providers, and I get decent rates - but I opened the accounts ~10 years ago in one of the only jurisdictions where it was legal at the time, and had to lose a bit of money and establish a good relationship with them before they would give me a decent spread, interest rate, price, margin and access to some stocks etc. Chances are if you open an account now they won't give you access to LNKD or Zynga and only the top ~30 NYSE and NASDAQ stocks until you have some trading history. post-IPO isn't the best time because you have a lot of latent demand to enter the stock from indexed funds and others - so you might want to wait for it to settle I became disillusioned with it all since it is an insurmountable task. better to find stocks and companies you believe in and go long by buying them up on margin Edit: forgot to mention that minimum deposits are usually $10k, but that might be different now. there is currently no traditional options market for LNKD, but there will be soon tl;dr: google for CFD providers, game is rigged, watch out