I am looking to get into the stock market and would like to do it online. Who is good who is not and why?

IPSC_GUY

interactivebrokers.com is good. Lowest commissions, but very little customer service.

How quickly do most of these companies process your funds? For instance if you buy a stock at say 9:00 am in the morning and then sell it say at 10:00 but then want to buy another stock at say 11:00 do they allow this or is there processing times to be delt with?

IPSC_GUY

www.sharebuilder.com

I use it because you can deduct money from your paycheck and have it automatically invest it for you every two weeks, or have unlimited buys for a low price.  You can also buy shares for around $4/trade or so, and you can buy partial shares.  So if you want to buy $100 of IBM, and a share is $116, you can.  Pretty good deal.

Quoted: How quickly do most of these companies process your funds? For instance if you buy a stock at say 9:00 am in the morning and then sell it say at 10:00 but then want to buy another stock at say 11:00 do they allow this or is there processing times to be delt with? IPSC_GUY

Usually immediately when I used
Q&R (they suck). I just opened an
account with Scottrade, I'll let you
know how that works out. FWIW, I'm
more of a dollar-cost avg kinda guy
rather than a daytrader so I usually
don't have to worry about fund
turnaround times.

Check out www.optionsxpress.com

Yes - but what are the minimum opening balances on all of these?

let me see if I can clarify what my intentions are. I have been following a couple of small oil companies. Both started out as penyny stocks. The first sold initially at .30 cents a share and with in six months went to over $7.00 a share and has since fallen back to around $2.50 a share. The other is still in the $.60 range and goes up and down about $.10 cents a day.

I am about to inheit a few thousand dollars from a grandmother, and my idea is to simply follow the fluxuations of the stock (with automatic minimum sell orders in place) and see if I can make some money.

NOW does anyone see a huge flaw in this plan that I am missing? I have never done something like this before, so any advice would be HIGHLY appreciated

IPSC_GUY

Another quick question, How do most online trading foims work as far as pulling your money out?

IPSC_GUY