Investing in Stocks

Stocks can play an important role in your overall portfolio. Most financial advisers will tell you to 'diversify' and one one to do this is to have your assets in a mixture of

• Bonds & Treasuries
• Liquid, Low Risk Savings
• Stocks

and perhaps (for larger portfolios) commodities and speculative investments.

For stocks, there are typically three ways to invest:

• Pay a professional to decide what's best and invest for you.
• Pay a professional to give you advice, and you buy and sell stocks yourself.
• You decide, and you buy and sell.

If you currently, or would like to fall into one of the latter two groups, the following information is for you!

Setting up a Brokerage Account

To buy and sell stocks yourself, you'll need to open a brokerage account. Some of these accounts don't even require you give them money to open one up. Here's a brief listing & links to some major low-cost brokerage houses so you can check out their fees & minimums, if any:

For a great review of the top 10 brokers according to Kiplinger.com, check out this link:

Measuring the Online Brokers

For more information on choosing a brokerage house, these two Kiplinger.com links can be a great help:

• Which Online Broker is Best for You?
• The Best Online Broker (July '06)

Some brokerage houses (like OptionsXpress) have the ability to let you "paper trade". This means you enter buy and sell orders and use the market to track your profits and losses just like it was real money. However, you're really just using pretend money. This is a great way to practice entering orders and building your confidence on deciding what stock to buy, and when to buy and sell.

"My Stock Minder" (MSM)

Once your account is opened and you are ready to start selecting your stocks, My Stock Minder, or 'MSM' for short can be a great help.

This tool helps you to select stocks, evaluate company performance, and will tell you the most opportune times to buy, and then sell a stock. It also allows to you track your trades and resulting performance.

For More Information

The web has many, many sites devoted to learning about investing in stocks. A selected list of these sites along with recommended readings are provided on our Learn More page.

You've made the jump!

Investing in the stock market is not for everyone. However, by taking reviewing the information in the "Getting Started" page, you've determined that you may have an interest in making stocks part of your overall investment portfolio.

Please remember...

The information contained on this web site is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice or a solicitation to buy or purchase an investment vehicle. Please review the "Terms of Use" page for a full disclaimer associated with the use of this site.