BROKERAGE ACCOUNT » Online Trading

Treasury bond rates are increasing as the Fed attempts to stimulate the economy with multi-billion dollar bond buys. Unfortunately, ever since its decision to take part in the stimulative quantitative easing program, which involves buying $600 billion worth of Treasury bonds, investors have been pushed toward stocks.

Why the Fed is Buying Bonds

Finance.Yahoo.com

If you’ve ever wanted to learn about the stock market but didn’t know where to begin, one of the best tools to use is Yahoo! Finance. It may be a bit overwhelming at first, given that the plethora of financial information available can make your brain hurt. Yet, after a few visits, you should be able to work your way around the site to look up stock information and financial news with relative ease.

What is it about Harry Potter that makes preteen girls and grown men alike squeal with delight when a new book or movie is released? Maybe it’s the adventurous plots or just a really aggressive marketing plan, but I think it has a lot to do with the powerful insight Rowling’s characters share through their dialogue, both in print and onscreen.

Take Dumbledore–he’s meant to be a source of wisdom and guidance for the Hogwarts kids, yet his words often transcend the realm of wizardry and magic to be just as applicable to our reality as well. Apparently, this character has some pretty good investment advice, too.

Thomas J. Feeney has been in the investment industry for over four decades. As the chief investment officer of both Marathon Asset Management Co. and Mission Management & Trust Co., there isn’t much of the financial world he hasn’t seen. As much as his schedule allows, he also breaks down his thoughts and strategies on his blog, Measure of Value.

Every other week, we’ll tap the insights of Tom to get a deeper perspective of what’s going on in the market and see through his eyes what the smart money is thinking about investments.

Thomas J. Feeney has been in the investment industry for over four decades. As the chief investment officer of both Marathon Asset Management Co. and Mission Management & Trust Co., there isn’t much of the financial world he hasn’t seen. As much as his schedule allows, he also breaks down his thoughts and strategies on his blog, Measure of Value.

Every other week, we’ll tap Tom’s insights to get a deeper perspective of what’s going on in the market and see through his eyes what the smart money is thinking.

A trailing return is a presentation of information that shows the investment return for a particular period of time. Trailing returns are normally evaluated every year. For example, if you have an investment with a trailing return of one year, you would expect to see returns over the previous twelve-month period.

What is a financial professional? The term loosely covers anyone that works in an industry dealing with, well, finance. This could be someone as prominent as a stock broker on Wall Street or someone as common as your local insurance agent or tax accountant. Knowing the area of expertise each one deals with will help you pinpoint the right hire to help you meet your financial goals. After all, you wouldn’t have your insurance representative do your taxes or your CPA accountant picking your stocks.

The following is a simple break down of five of the most common industry professionals working in finance. While some responsibilities do blend together and some professionals do double dip in expertise, this guide should help clarify where each professional fits in the world of finance.

As a star of the 1970s hit show “CHiPs,” Larry Wilcox should have known that you can never outrun the long arm of the law. Yet the former actor turned alleged penny-stock pushing CEO has been nabbed by the Securities and Exchange Commission for attempting to bribe a pension fund manager to help manipulate its stock.

When you start investing, choosing a brokerage account that’s right for you is one of the most crucial decisions you’ll have to make. If you are considering to opening an account with one brokerage house or another, you should do your research and compare the options available to you.

You should also ask yourself what sort of benefits and services you are going to use, and how you are planning to invest. Do you require a full service broker, or are you more of a do-it-yourself investor? Depending on which way you want to go, there are various options available to you when opening an investment account.

For the savvy investor who knows how to do his or her own trades, it’s no wonder that

online brokerages, also known as “discount brokerages,” are becoming a popular option. An online brokerage account is easy and quick to open, has low fees per trade, and responds to your buy and sell orders almost instantaneously. No longer do you need to wait for your broker to pick up the phone: you can do everything yourself, online, for a fraction of the cost of a traditional brokerage.