Getting Started in Online Investing

by David L. Brown, Kassandra Bentley

Overview

In order to take full advantage of the myriad investmentopportunities afforded by the Web, you need a solid, well-informedup-to-date primer. This book is it. Co-written by the CEO ofTelescan, the leader in Internet investing technology, and thePresident of CyberInvest.com, one of the leading online investmentguides, it shows you how to seamlessly find and effectively use thevast array of online resources so you can make smart, soundfinancial decisions.

Providing practical guidance to help you find your cyber-bearings,Getting Started in Online Investing walks you through the variousstages of the investing process while highlighting the full rangeof tools for each. Covering everything from finding investmentideas to managing your portfolio to keeping up with the market, itgives you the lowdown on brokers, online trading, bonds, mutualfunds, and futures, as well as the best sites for news, portfoliomanagement, education, research, and much more. Packed with helpfulscreen captures from actual sites, this is the guide to have fornavigating the complex and crowded information superhighway.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780471317036
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	04/01/1999
Series:	Getting Started In... , #23
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

DAVID L. BROWN is Chairman and CEO of Telescan, Inc., a leadinginformation and technology provider for investors. The editor ofthe Cyber-Investing newsletter, he is the coauthor ofCyber-Investing: Cracking Wall Street with Your Personal Computerand the highly popular Wall Street City: Your Guide to Investing onthe Web.

KASSANDRA BENTLEY is President of CyberInvest.com, an Internetcompany offering guidance to online investors. She is coauthor ofCyber-Investing: Cracking Wall Street with Your Personal Computerand Wall Street City: Your Guide to Investing on the Web.

Table of Contents

Online Investing: Where the Stree Meets the Web.

Easing In: A Quick Tour of Yahoo! Finance.

Finding Investment Ideas: Lists and Picks and Searches andScreens.

Doing Your Homework: Checking Facts, Pondering Patterns.

The Bottom Line: Managing Your Portfolio Online.

Bulls versus Bears: Keeping Up with the Market.

The Online Brokers: Trading on the Web.

Mutual Fund Madness: Where the Funds Are.

The FYI Chapter: Bonds, Options, Futures, and the GlobalMarket.

Nurtured by the Net: IPOs, DPOs, DRIPs, DSPs, CHATs, andBanks.

Epilogue: Continuing Education.

Glossary.

Index.

Preface

Since we first wrote about online investing five years ago, the Internet has exploded in a frenzy of growth. Our first book, CyberInvesting: Cracking Wall Street with Your Personal Computer, listed a dozen investing Web sites in a hurriedly written two-page chapter just as the book was going to press (and we had to search hard to find those). In the second edition two years later, we expanded the Internet chapter to a dozen pages and spun it off, so to speak, into its own 350-page book about investing on the Web (Wall Street City: Your Guide to Investing on the Web).
As we were writing that book, the commercial Internet was undergoingkaleidoscopic changes and, in the process, transforming virtuallyevery area of our lives- none more so than the way we invest. The averageinvestor now has access to information that once was the province ofprofessional investors. Investing Web sites now number more than 8000.Brokerage commissions for Web-based trades have dropped from hundredsof dollars a trade to as low as $5 per trade. In response, individualinvestors are logging on to the Internet in unprecedented numbers. Morethan 14 million are expected to become online investors by 2002.
Sorting through the mind-boggling array of investing informationand tools, however, is not an easy task. That's why we wrote this book.
As part of the "Getting Started In" series, this book is aimed at beginninginvestors. It will help you find and use the vast array of investing re-sourceson the Internet so you can make your own decisions as aninvestor. We do not, however, tell y ou how to make money in the stockmarket or advise you about investing strategies.
So, is this book for you? It is if:

• You have an independent, do-it-yourself attitude.
• You like the idea of bypassing all the middlemen and digging outthe facts for yourself.
• You have confidence in your own judgment and decision-makingability.
• You have a basic knowledge of stocks and the stock market.
• You are familiar with the Internet- or if not, you're learningabout it on the side.
• You want to become an online investor.

  We think you will be surprised, pleased, and perhaps overwhelmedby the quantity and quality of investing information on the Internet.Much of it is free, and even more is likely to become free in the future.One of the trends of investing Web sites is to reduce premiums on informationand to move more resources into the free areas of their sites. So,not only is the information out there, much of it is yours for the taking.
  Information does not translate directly into talent, wisdom, or skills,but to the extent that information and related tools make for success, theInternet can help you become a successful investor. In this book, we'll introduceyou to some of the best investing tools on the World Wide Web.

  DAVID L. BROWN
  Houston, Texas

  KASSANDRA BENTLEY
  
  San Diego, California
  February 1999