The "net" as it is called is the most valuable resource for collecting research data. You can find just about anything you want up there. It is the fastest research tool you will ever need. The secret is to find a reliable site with accurate data that is up to date. So cross check your data between several sites.

Many of the sites offer a great wealth of information with fancy graphs and tables. Most of these graphs are for the stock prices in the past. Granted it does tell you a history of performance and the trend somewhat. Just do not make you decision on mainly this factor. Find out why it spiked or had a drastic increase. Check the news out for that time period. This will give you a better understanding of the company and their competition.

Concerning most of the tables and charts on the web. About only 60% listed in the tables are totally accurate and up to date. I will give them the data about the company such as their ticker symbol, address, phone number for being correct. Also the data they file with the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission). The rest you should always cross check for up to date accuracy. Here is why. Quite a few of the statistics are not always calculated every hour, day or for that matter every week. Because of the change in the stock price, this will change the outcome of come of the statistics. Perhaps a current annual report, 10-K or 10-Q will not be entered into the formula either. So cross check all the information you find.

Do be careful with advice from the Internet. Do not react from a "Hot tip" or any other advice. These are normally deviant people trying to manipulate individuals to buy stock that they own their own portfolios. They want to drive up the price and then they will sell off and laugh at you for being such an idiot. You will only loose money in the long run. Do your own research and stay away from hot tips!

I have been to just about every one of the free bee investment sites on the net. I could probably write a series of books on just this subject. Being the Co-listmaster of the ICQ Investments and Trading site has given me much insight to this matter. We required that members had to fill out an application in order to participate on a continual basis. Just about all of the chatrooms will let anyone in.

Now this is just an observation from my site, where we limited it to only members. Approximately 2% would actually give out accurate advice that I would even consider using. Otherwise, around 65% were novice that were without a clue, of those about 70% had never actually made a trade before. There were a few pro’s that mainly wanted the membership list for their own possible clients, would not participate, so we banned them for solicitation reasons. The other 33% were made up of fair to average investors that has some experience and were just looking for hot tips mainly.

What really cracks me up about all the chatrooms on the net is all the hyping and want a bees. A few simple questions will find out the authenticity of the person boasting their stocks and or plays. Just remember this mainly, on the net you will never know if in fact the person is who they say they are, how much money they actually have or if they are actually doing what they are saying. Any intelligent investor with large amounts of money normally will never tell you as a stranger their next move. Also, people with the real money will never tell you how much they are worth anyhow.