Creating a tool belt of online resources is an important step for starting new research on stocks. The belt I use and am most comfortable with is posted in my “Favorite Sites”. I am always open to adding new tools to my belt. If you know of any great research sites, submit a comment with a description of the tool and I’ll be glad to publish it.

http://finance.yahoo.com
When it comes to financial research websites I’m a huge fan of yahoo’s version. I keep their site up and running during most of the trading hours. Some key features include:

1. A convenient company name to symbol lookup tool. If you are unsure about the symbol for a company, typing their name in the “Get Quotes” input box will automatically generate a list of symbols corresponding to your input as you type. This is a new feature that is a lot quicker than the old submit the company, select the symbol, then go to its quote.
2.The option for real time quotes for free. Yahoo started a new feature allowing for real time quotes at no cost. I would still feel more secure basing real time quotes with my brokerage, however if a brokerage has not been setup, this is a very neat feature for beginners.
3.Easy to find headlines. News is an important research tool. Reading various articles written by professionals influence my decisions heavily. Yahoo displays its headlines so they are easy to find, open and read.

Yahoo offers even more great tools for stock research. Look around and get comfortable with the website.

http://ClearStation.com
Clearstation.com is a free service provided by eTrade. I primarily use the site for its charts. I will be given more details on charts in later posts. I also enjoy the community feel Clearstation provides. The reviews, analysis and forums are all community based. Take a look at their A-List for ideas on stocks to research.

http://www.fool.com
I use The Motley Fool to read their interesting articles. They are fun and easy to read for beginners and provide a lot of insight. I also like their CAPS rating given to all the stocks. The rating is a poll given to all the investors that use their site. Click on the CAPS/Quotes tab towards the top and enter in a stock of your interest. A very nice streamline page comes up with the CAPS rating, recent quote, articles and a community forum.

There are a lot of nice tools available for online trading. The growth of the internet has made stock research information up to date and very easy to find. Search around and play with the different options each site has to offer.

E.M.