Just skip to any step: Cramer's latest comments on MadMoneyRecap. Trading Online Yourself vs.

If you're good with computers, and you're comfortable using the internet, trading online using a website can save you money, and provide you with a wealth of statistics and research data for a stock 24 hours a day, versus using a human stock broker. Reading more, beyond the bottom line The major online stock sites are secure, so you can trade confidently: The top online broker websites all use what is called secure HTTP i. We use an online broker and we are confident that our individual personal data won't be compromised as we are trading.

Here are the top online brokerages with websites that offer online trading and great research information: Totally new to stocks? Human Stock Brokers might talk up a stock.

The addition of electronic trading, combined with a faster, more reliable internet experience, has made trading online yourself a much more attractive option. What you may gain from a personal stockbroker over the phone is his or her firm's current position and recommendation on the particular stock that you wish to trade. However, it's been our experience that we can form our own opinions and do it better by doing our own homework on a stock, and avoid what could be biased recommendations from these personal brokers.

SpeedTrader - Low Cost Stocks & Options Broker

There are several benefits to trading online for yourself. These online broker sites have improved dramatically recently to offer you amazing tools to evaluate stocks: Trading stock online is easy and usually less expensive than trading over the phone with a stock broker Additional Benefits of Trading Online: As we already indicated, online trading is typically much less expensive than using a traditional broker over the phone. Given the lower cost, you will be inclined and financially more able to trade more often.

The Beginner's Guide to Online Stock Trading

This may offer you more flexibility to match your investing style and goals. We think it should also be your last check on your stock before buying or selling Use our free Homework Checklists: Stock Research Homework Steps: Anatomy of a Stock - company snapshot. What the company does and how it makes its money. Knowing The Share Price History.

Knowing Number of Shares Outstanding. Don't Buy All At Once. Jim Cramer's 25 Rules for Investing. Warren Buffett's Stock Portfolio. Business News - Websites.

Online Trading vs. Anatomy Of A Stock: Setting up your own free Yahoo! Ongoing Weekly Homework for each of your stocks. Free Stock Homework Workbook - PDF Download.

Ability to trade almost anything. Many traditional brokers are not able or willing to sell certain stocks or other securities such as penny stocks. After doing your homework on a stock, you want the flexibility to buy or sell anything without resistance from a traditional broker.

This is where very powerful technology comes in and is available to you at no additional cost.

Using the online site, you get the use of great tools that show you your portfolio of stocks, and their individual performance over time. Using a traditional broker might show you a printed statement, with nice pie charts, every month or every quarter. You want to be able to see this whenever you wish, and online sites let you do this 24 hours a day, 7days a week. Again, these are at your fingertips on a site. At no additional charge, your online brokerage provides you with specific research and ratings if they are generally available for your stock, and you can find them alongside your stock information - already there - so you don't have to go searching for information.

They've already done it for you.

A traditional broker is going to frown on trading 1 or 2 shares of stock, because he won't get as much commission or help his trading statistics with his company. And, finally, you can't overlook the convenience factor. Trading online is immediate and so convenient for you.

You don't have to pick up the phone, and hope that your broker isn't out to lunch. You can place a limit order on a Sunday so that it goes in for Monday morning.

If you really need to talk to someone live, these online brokers DO let you make phone calls into them, if you need to discuss something about your trade. Now get Jim Cramer's email alerts before he buys or sells for his Charitable Trust