Useful Financial Info Sites

Yahoo! Finance: Usually the first place I go for quick scan of company basics such as financial ratios, analyst estimates, insider transactions, shares short, etc. Often missing data but usually the first place I go to look at a new company.
ETFConnect.com: Detailed info on ETFs and closed-end funds. Allows you to search on sector such as “Japan” (use the search box at the top of the page.
IPOHome.com: Info on upcoming and past IPOs.
kitco.com: Together with kitcosilver.com and kitcometals.com, good sites for metal prices and news.
EDGAR: SEC’s archive of filings by public companies.
Valueforum.com: Excellent investor discussion community from which I’ve gotten many profitable ideas. Paid site.
Baltic Dry Index: Rates for dry bulk tankers
600 years of silver prices: An interesting chart
10-Q and 10K Filing Deadlines

Brokerage Firms

I only use online discount brokers and what I want in a firm are: low commissions, good trading tools, asset management services (checks, debit card), a decent rate on my cash sweep account and tax lot accounting. I need asset management services because I like to have all my finances (except for retirement accounts) consolidated in one place and don’t want the drudgery of having to move money between accounts. Tax lot accounting is a big time saving for someone like me who does about 200 trades a year. I emphatically do not need a financial advisor — unless they are very good of course but that’s hard to find.
Bill payment is a nice to have, but this can be done separately. I used to like to keep it separate because that way if you switch your asset-holding account, you just need to change this wth your bill payment service, whereas if its the same account, you have to add all your payees to the new account. However right now I’m doing both in the same account.

Research is another thing I don’t find too useful as its easy to get research on the web.

My current broker is Fidelity, which I just switched to in December 2006. Their $8 commission for active traders is among the best though they charge extra for certan types of trades like over 2000 shares. The only other annoying fee I’ve encountered that they have is the additional $1 on ATM transactions, though this probably will cost me less than $15/year — I’m a plastic man — and they offer me more encouragement to be one with their rewards Visa card. Their taxable cash sweep fund isn’t great in non-retirement accounts, but as I live in California, their tax-free muni sweep option is a good one for me.
Fidelity’s WealthLab trading system software is another perk I like though I haven’t had a chance to use it too much yet. It allows you to backtest trading strategies. The software is free for active traders, but you do have to sign up with a data provider which will run you several hundred dollars a year.

Before Fidelity, I had an account with TD Ameritrade. I didn’t really have any complaints with their service except that they didn’t do tax lot accounting. They say they will soon. Being a former TD Waterhouse customer, I didn’t have any familiarity with their trading systems, though I was told belatedly that these were offered on the Ameritrade side.

Ameritrade offers flat $9.95 commission, checking, a no fee ATM card, a reasonably easy-to-use website. I think they are a good choice for a moderate trader (and cheaper than Fidelity if you don’t qualify for the latter’s active trader rates). As I said, I wasn’t really dissatisfied, though I recognize now that Fidelity is a much better choice for me.

I don’t have familiarity with other brokerages, though I’ve heard some knocks on E-Trade’s service.