By Alissa Arford-Leyl
Shop Site of the Month
Valley Pacific Frame & Suspension, Inc. - Canoga Park, Calif.
www.valleypacific.com
This site has great graphics, a nice clean design and is easily navigated.
Web Wise
Investing Online
People are talking about it everywhere. At office parties, sports events, bars and even family gatherings, the Dow Jones, NASDAQ and S&P 500 are hot topics of conversation. According to a Newsweek article published last November, there are about 150 online brokers with 11 million online accounts handling more than half a million trades a day.
In the mid-1990s, established brokers and new online brokers began offering investors the ability to buy and sell stocks, mutual funds and bonds over the Internet. Diversification seems to be the "buzz" word in investing and most financial advisors won't discourage you from opening up a small account so you can try your luck with online trading. When you use a reputable online investment company the only real risk you're taking is the investments that you choose to make.
Normally, you need at least $1000 to $2000 to open up an account with an online broker. Money that is not invested earns interest while it is in your account. You can make transactions over the phone or online. An average transaction fee is $15. In most cases, if you buy 1,000 shares of a stock or 10 shares you pay only one transaction fee.
When choosing an online broker, look closely at transaction fees, on-site resources, speed and customer support. Even though it is easy to trade online, do some research, make a strategy and stick with it. Experts say the more you trade, the worse you do.
It's easy to track your stocks using your Web broker's site or any number of Internet portals, like Yahoo, CNN, Excite or Lycos. You can personalize the pages so your stock quotes come up automatically or you can easily type in your stock's symbol and get a quote at almost any news or financial Web site.
Net Numbers
There are approximately 5,000 full-time day traders.
Source: YAHOO! Internet Life
ASA Web Ways
Register Online for the Annual Convention
Online registration for the 2000 ASA Annual Convention is available at the ASA Web site (http://www.asashop.org). The convention will be held April 12-15 at Marriott's Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Ala.
Online registrants have three registration options: submit the form electronically with credit card information on a secure page; complete the form online, print it and write in credit card information to fax to ASA; or fill out the form online and print it to mail in with a check. Register by March 3 to take advantage of early bird discounts.
Visit the Events section of the ASA Web site for complete details. You may also call the membership department at (800) 272-7467, ext. 235.
Note: Web sites listed in Net Worth do not serve as endorsements of the sites themselves or of any companies or products associated with these sites. In addition, ASA does not verify the factual accuracy and does not necessarily share the opinions expressed by those within these other sites.
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