how can i invest online?

Question

any company in the USA

Answer 1

If you don't know how to invest, then that's a completely different question. Start there first if you are new to trading. (VERY IMPORTANT)

So, we'll assume you know how to trade and that you're looking to figure how to trade online.

Because, if you know what you want to invest in, then it's really easy. Just open a brokerage account, deposit some money, and trade!

There are a lot of good brokererages depending on what you like and how you trade.

Barron's Online has a great article on brokerages that they publish each year. (I'll try to find you the link for the March 6,2006 article)

For basic stuff, E*Trade, Ameritrade, and Scottrade are sufficient. For more complex trades, I'd recommend Optionsxpress, ThinkorSwim, or interactivebrokers.

Based on what you put in your question, I'd recommend one of the first three, but all are very good. Cheapest probably is scottrade (of the larger online firms). Yes there are cheaper like interactivebrokers, but you'll have to get used to their software based platform (which is doable). They're only about $1/contract on options!

Brokerages like Fidelity are horrible for anyone with any decent experience.

So, decide what's important to you as a trader and compare the brokers! You can use the article, or go to each website as they all seem to have comparison charts!

And if there are particular things that you want to mention as being most important to you (such as executions, cust svc, cheapest trade - which you mentioned, flexibility on allowing you to do certain types of trades, stop and stop limit orders, contingent orders, great graphing, what if scenarios, training, etc), I'll be glad to help discuss this with you too!

If you have any questions, let me know.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

If you're based in the UK, the online broker iDealing lets you set up a share-dealing account and buy/sell most American shares, though often you have to issue buy/sell instructions by phone, rather than on the website. Due to the time-difference, you need to deal late afternoons when the US markets are open.

You can invest inside/outside an ISA and transfer existing ISAs into an iDealing one.

ETrade is another one, but I haven't used them myself.

If you're based in the US, just do a google seach for 'share dealing'.

Answer 3

You may benefit from this link on investing for beginners:
http://www.best-stock-trading-systems.com/internet_stock_investing.html

Here is a link to a good company to trade through:
http://www.best-stock-trading-systems.com/sharebuilder_review.html