Investment Stock Market Help
Before the Internet, most investors began investing by opening an account with a full-service brokerage, which assigned the new investor to a broker. The broker would offer suggestions for investment. Outside opinion came primarily from financial newspapers and often expensive, investment newsletters. These days, a beginning investor has a wealth of information and guidance available on the Internet. The larger online brokerages provide third-party recommendations and comprehensive investment information.
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Before the Internet
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Before the Internet, investors had two primary sources of investment advice. A full-service broker offered the investor tips and opinions. Often, the brokerage house would assign the newest investor, who most needed guidance, to a beginning broker. The advice given sometimes consisted of recommendations to buy equities the brokerage had an interest in--a potential conflict. Sometimes brokers, paid on commission for each trade, "churned" investor accounts--racking up excessive buy-and-sell orders based on the broker's self-interested advice. Otherwise, a preponderance of outside opinion came from the generally reliable Wall Street Journal and Barron's. But print media cannot cover real-time market events.
Print Investment Advice
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Today, for general coverage of trends, company news and stock market opinion in print, The Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily and Barron's remain effective sources. The New York Times has expanded its financial coverage. You can still get investment advice from newsletters, most of which have migrated to online formats. The cost of these newsletters varies markedly, as does the quality of advice provided. A reliable ranking of investment newsletters--from the good to the bad and the ugly--comes from Mark Hulbert's Hulbert Interactive. You can get a free trial subscription at the site. Some of these newsletters provide "alerts"--email messages regarding current, recommended trades.
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Advice from Brokers
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Online discount brokerages represent a considerable change for retail investors, and offer excellent and extensive free advice. While you do have to open a brokerage account to get access to their research and opinion resources, you have no obligation to trade. You might prefer the research coverage at one on-line brokerage, and the pricing and service at another. A link to a Barron's guide to the 10 top online brokerages (in Barron's opinion) appears in the References. While Barron's is not the only source of brokerage rankings, Barron's has no interest in any of the brokerages it ranks. Be somewhat cautious of top 10 brokerage lists provided by brokerages themselves. Some of these disguise the connection between the brokerage and the guide--which invariably ranks the source as the #1 brokerage.
Online Market News
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The major online brokerages all offer extensive financial news coverage. A daily markets section will give you real-time graphs of the major markets, updated every few seconds throughout the day. Most brokerages will also provide news summaries from a variety of different global sources, like Reuters and the Associated Press. You will also find current corporate news, and more news summaries within the various market sectors, such as finance, retail, manufacturing, health care and pharmaceuticals.
Investment Advice
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Online brokerages also provide very extensive specific investment advice and equity rankings in six different areas: stocks, options, ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds), mutual funds, bonds and CD/money markets. Each brokerage provides its own recommendations, as well as other outside opinion like Standard and Poor's. One or more senior analysts provides daily commentaries and market recommendations. Some brokerages make a particular point of offering advice to beginning investors. Charles Schwab, for example, has an eight-part series explaining how to use its rankings to do your own equity picking. Most of the other brokerages have similar help available for beginning investors. The investment help for retail investors today far exceeds the help available prior to the Internet, in timeliness, extent of coverage, objectivity and cost.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Stock Market image by Paul Heasman from Fotolia.com
