My advice to you is that if you need a ‘basic book’ on the subject then you might as well stay out of it, or let some pro’s handle your money. It is a very complicated and risky business; trying to outsmart the street.

A good site for investment jargon is http://www.investopedia.com this explains terms that you will hear investors using.

Just keep your money in a high yield savings account or if you feel lucky, get some kind of index tracker etf like SPY.

If you are in the money, and able to convert those share options to cash, I would sellif you aren’t confident about future gains. Lock in those profits and don’t get greedy.

Nobody can say what will happen in the markets or eeconomy for sure, but it sure feels to me like something big and nasty this way comes.