Customer need to select the site that is best for them. Traders have requirements in a site, while investors have other requirements.

Although most sites are geared to general securities and commodities, however customers may have special needs for the types of products they trade, and the markets in which they trade.

It seems that the most popular firms for on-line investing all of which provide excellent platforms and services are; Scottrade; Chas.Schwab; TDAmeritrade; Fidelity; E-Trade and Thinkorswim.

Hope these helps.

http://online-trading1.blogspot.com/

Myself, I prefer using the program called "Marl"…it’s a stock trading robot (yes, really..don’t laugh), and using $1000 I make about $350.00 a week with it..usually while i’m sleeping which is rather nice too.

Anyways, if you do want to check it out,
There is an article here:
http://www.squidoo.com/Stock-Trading-For-Dummies

I hope this helps

Jeff

The second thing you have wrong is that you think that the Fed controls interest rates. The fed is a player in the market — but the market controls interest rates. If you look at the data, you will see that the Fed usually lags behind the market — not the other way around.

The third problem with your analysis is that if the cost of living is in fact rising, then a rise in interest rates will actually increase the cost of living even more — plunging us into deeper problems.

Should the fed raise rates? Yes they should, and in due time they will. Perhaps they want to keep a bunch of people in their houses, so if they lower interest rates they can create artificial demand for housing. So, the fed may be making things worse, but only time will tell.

The fed should jail investors? Really, I don’t think investors did anything illegal. Part of investing is assuming a risk for a potential reward. People that invested in sub-prime mortgages are seeing some of this risk now. But a smart investment play right now, is probably to be buying these cmo’s. Further, the federal reserve is a bank, it cannot jail anyone.

They do not need investor’s money to keep going, so they are using that leverage to make money in the markets off of options and dissuading smaller investors from playing against the house. Is this fair? Yes it is fair, and smaller investors can win. I agree that short term, a company may “dissuade” investors, but take a long term stance with a quality company, and you (the small individual investor) will win. Try to figure out what will happen this week, this month, or this year. YOU WILL LOOSE YOUR MONEY. Invest in companies that will be here in 10 years and beyond, and you will do very well. Companies need money for expansion, repairs to ppe, so there will always be a demand for capital.

And should they be allowed to play our tax dollars like this too? The lions share of US taxes are paid by corporations. So if they make a dollar, the government makes more than if a citizen makes a dollar. The government will always get their money, and if not, maybe they will just print more.!

Raising interest rates now would really make me sweat! I live in an area that there are a lot of foreclosures right now. If the fed raised interest rates, even more people would foreclose on their house driving the value of mine down. This situation is a lose-lose for the fed.

But secretly I’m hoping they won’t make the expected .5 cut and the market will drop – as a small investor I’m looking to buy more already depressed stocks. Use this opportunity to buy – these periods only come around every 10 years or so. Last one was 01, but before that it was 1990.

The inflation you speak off is mostly commodity inflation caused by increase demand and long investment cycles in the related industries. Resricting money supply wont lower oil prices directly. It may lower them by driving economies into recession.

Increacing interest rates in a time like this is what caused the great depression and the Japanese lost decade.