Investor Education and Investment Advice

With finance and stock market investing becoming increasingly popular topics as a result of a prolonged bull market and wildly volatile swings in that market's aftermath, online sources dedicated to investors' education have likewise gained in popularity. Resources abound and range from free real-time quotes to in-depth market analysis that takes an investor through a step-by-step process of selecting an investment. For the beginner, an explanation of the basics is in order, and there are a number of sites that will explain P/E ratios, earnings as an indication of performance, the interpretation of balance sheets and financial statements, and other fundamental analysis issues.

Also included in most sites' educational pages are explanations of the various types of investments, basic margin account rules, and other beginner-level knowledge that can help translate the sometimes cryptic language of the equity markets for interested amateurs. For the intermediate and advanced user, explanations are kept brief and information is typically presented in compact formats. As investors become continually more advanced, they may wish to actually make use of those free quotes and perhaps delve into technical analysis through the use of delayed or real-time charts.

Such resources allow these users to perform a variety of technical analyses and to add moving averages, bollinger bands, RSI, stochastics, and other indicators to their fundamental knowledge base, all in an attempt to more firmly grasp the markets and to determine appropriate investments. While investors in the past were typically at the mercy of their full-service brokers for information, the Internet has put professional level educational and informational material at the fingertips of all investors and potential investors, making the stock market merely a mouse click away.