Online Brokers

Investing online which also means self-directed investment is currently high among present day investors and traders. Exploring the option of online trading and ECN (electronic communication networks) orders are entered online. But these online orders are still routed through brokers allowing agents to approve and monitor the trades. This helps in sustaining the interest of both the client and brokerage firm by protecting from illegal trades that might infiltrate the client’s portfolio or the broker’s license.
Information technology also helps the brokers to solve problems of existing system with Online Stock Trading. This is totally an internet based stock trading facility where investors are saved of eth interference of any practical Stock broker.

Online brokers generally charge a lower fee compared to full service brokers. This is a reason why online brokers are often termed discount brokers. They generally do not offer trading advice to the clients. Their action is limited to conducting the trade only. Otherwise, their function is quite similar to regular broker. They act as intermediaries between sellers and buyers of stocks in any online investment transaction.
And online brokerage is suitable for who are into making their own investment decisions. But finding the best online broker pose a problem for today’s busy, do-it-yourself investors. Investors are seen spending months over poking and investigating the right brokerage. Now remember, when it comes to choosing online brokerages a single criterion might not fulfill all conditions of every investors. So it is better to judge by the rankings of the best online brokers. These rankings speak volumes about how efficiently a brokerage can handle clients of different values. Options Trading, Futures Trading and Forex trading have their own seperate brokers - so don't compare them to simple stock brokers.

Today, a comprehensive list of the best performing online stock brokers are readily available eon the internet on any investment site. Hence, the investor can conduct their research and do their homework before getting related to any one of them. Investors with relatively small accounts more readily needs to deal with online brokers as they can offer free research into the respective investment decision. 
The online brokers are generally ranked on the basis of ten criteria among which the most important are those which caters to commission and fees, responsiveness and knowledge, and mutual fund programs. Brokerages with distinguished performance in these areas receive double weighting in the calculations. Margin interest rates and interest earned on idle cash receive half weightings. Online brokers are also judged on how widely they spread orders among competing firms as well as whether they have business relationship with those firms. 

The bearish trends in the market have ceased since a year but there are still a lot of online brokers who are backing off on equity transactions. Equity transactions, on the other hand, means more bonds, mutuals, foreign exchanges and a leading social networking and the education to wean away from full-service brokerages and more smart applications to stay connected with their portfolios 24x7. But more than anything online brokers have started to get a break on prices. Most of the big firms offering free trades to lure customers.

What is the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), more simply referred to as the Dow Jones, or the Dow 30, is the world’s oldest and most followed stock market index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is actually a price-weighted average of 30 some significant stocks traded at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the NASDAQ.  The Dow Jones index shows how these, public owned companies based in the USA have traded during a standard trading season.

History: As mentioned, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is the oldest stock market index in the market. It is one of the several indices created by Charles Dow, the editor of the renowned Wall Street journal and the co-founder of the Dow Jones & Company (Which is now owned by NewsCorp).     Along with the NASDAQ Composite, the S&P500, and the Russell 2000 Index, the DJIA is one of the closely watched benchmark indices tracking targeted stock market activity.

As online stocks trading is catching up the flavor and becoming the most popular way of trading stocks these days, the performance of Dow Jones index is continuing to be influenced by not only corporate and economic reports but a series of domestic and foreign events like war, terrorism, natural disaster that has the potential to hit the national economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average currently includes the following companies:
3M from the Conglomerate industry
ALCOA from the aluminum industry
AMERICAN EXPRESS from Consumer Finance
AT&T from Telecommunication
Bank of America from Banking
Boeing from Aerospace And Defense
CATERPILLAR from Construction And Mining Equipment
Chevron Corporation from Oil & Gas
CISCO SYSTEM from Computer Networking
COCA COLA from Beverages
DuPont from Chemical Industry
EXXONMOBIL from Oil & Gas
General Electric from Conglomerate industry
Hewlett-Packard(HP) from Technology
The Home Depot from Home Improvement Retailer
Intel from Semiconductors
IBM from Computer & Technology
Johnson & Johnson from Pharmaceuticals
JPMorgan Chase from Banking
Kraft Foods from Food Processing
McDonald’s from Fast Food
Merck from Pharmaceuticals
Microsoft from Software
Pfizer from Pharmaceuticals
Procter & Gamble from Consumer Goods
Travelers from Insurance
United Technologies Corporation from Conglomerate industry
Verizon Communication from Telecommunication
Wal-Mart from Retail
Walt Disney from Broadcasting & Entertainment

DJIA and the Performance of the Stock Market:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is comprised of only thirty firms but it must be brought to your notice that these are thirty large firms whose market capitalization (which means number of shares multiplied by the stock price) is relatively large if compared to other firms. Hence, the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) indicates the performance of the broader market. So when someone says, "The Dow is Up", it means the market is doing well.

Apart from being a measure of the stock market performance, the DJIA is useful when you are up to benchmark the performance of a portfolio. People, nowadays, are more prone to investing in stocks and bonds which comprise an index. Those interested in investing in the the broader market may want to consider looking into the ETF SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA), which tracks the dow. ETF trading has become enormously popular over the last few years, as there are ETFs for every major stock index world-wide now. Most online brokers allow customers to trade these ETFs.

Barclays options - Good Buy

I haven't updated this page in a while so I'll post some of my recent trades.

I bought shares in Barclays at $16.50-$17.50 range on Jan 3-6. Bought some June $15 in the money call options as well. Barclays is easily the most undervalued bank in Europe at the moment. They're highly profitable and beaten down because of the EU worries. I like it more than Santandar / NBG, but both of those are good buys too IMHO.

I use OptionsHouse to trade because of their low commissions. No one can beat their $0.15 per contract prices.

Discount Brokers and Online Trading

Online stock trading is the call of the day and historically the best way for common folk to build wealth. In this age of avid online trading, the emphasis is more on time and technology and less on phone calls with brokers. The use of computers has definitely eased out the difficulties involved in the traditional way of stock handling. While trading stocks online we no longer need to deal with regular brokers and pay high commissions while buying or selling stocks. Our investments are totally under our control with a few clicks. And as many online brokerages or discount brokerages are vying for your business attention and hence the commission levels are at fairly reasonable and are easily affordable.

Investing has a long-term perspective and involves purchasing securities wherein the stability of value and the level of return are somewhat predictable. Online investing is extremely popular today among young investors to such an extent that most brokerage firms are offering online trading to their clients. The online brokers, unlike regular stock brokers, charge lesser fees since their role has diminished and is now limited to mediating. Hence online brokers are better termed as discount brokers. However, most online brokerage firms are nowadays considering research and advice service to the clients, just like full service brokerages.
Today, the rapidly growing volume of business done by online broker or discount brokers is witnessing their growth and success story. Even many banks and savings institutions are making discounts and online brokerage service available to the depositors who are willing to buy stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other investment vehicles. Some of the major discount and online brokerage firms are the Charles Schwab, Seibert, Vanguard Brokerage Services, York Securities, Accu Trade, TDAmeritrade, E*Trade, Fidelity Brokerage, Scottrade, and Trade Monster.

Discount brokers or online brokers: the range of service
Discount or online brokers offer little more than execution of trades which is very much unlike full service brokers. However, selecting a good brokerage firm has a good and important role to play in our whole investment decision. Always try to select a broker whose firm provides the type of services that you are looking forward to. Today, discount brokerage eservices include up-to-the-minute stock price quotation. With increasing demand, some online brokerage firms also offer its clients research staff that periodically analyses market, industry and company behavior. Some clients even receive monthly bulletins about the market activities, and recommended investment list, an account statement of the transactions of the period. Those looking to diversity their portfolios should look into brokers that allow them to trade foreign stocks.
   
Discount brokerage fees:
Much like full service brokerage firms, the discount brokers receive commissions for executing buy and sell order for their clients. Most of the brokerage commissions are not fixed and hence negotiable. Just because there are so many discount or online brokers today, there is a greater variation in the fees charged and services offered. The method of calculating the commissions are also not the same in every discount brokerage firms. Some firms base their commission rate on the dollar value of the transaction. Some firms base the rates of commissions on the number of shares traded. And again there are some discount brokerage firms who use both the above mentioned techniques. For options trading, there is almost always a "per contract" fee, but nowadays stocks are all done on a flat-rate basis. There is a great deal of overlap in the services offered by most of the discount and online brokerage firms. The firms with higher commissions offer more services and sometimes research related services are charged extra of the client.

Hot Stock Picks Of the week.

Short CTDC at $9.40 on December 31st.
Or
Purchase some March $7.50 put options for CTDC

Long FMT at $3.50. This is going to go up in the coming months. I recommend purchasing some dirt cheap $5.00 Call options for March.