MONEY CLIPPED

You feel like you’re ready to sign up with an online broker and start trading. Problem is, you don’t know which one to go with. There’re so many to choose from.

Obviously, the last thing you want to do is base your decision on who has the best TV commercial. So in order to find the broker that will best meet your wants and needs, you’re going to have to do some research.

Below are links to reviews, ratings, and comparisons of online brokers to help get you started. Don’t just check out one link. Visit them all and see how brokers you’re interested in fair from site-to-site. That will help you spot the real winners and the ones that are more icing than cake.

J. D. Power 2007 Online Investor Satisfaction Study
Table comparing 10 of the top online brokers’ ratings in 5 categories

Barron’s: Tools Of The Trade
Details from the 12th annual survey of the Best Online Brokers

Kiplinger’s Best Online Brokers for Fund Investors
Comparison of online mutual fund brokers and what to look for

USA TODAY Broker Services Comparison
Table comparing offerings of 14 different brokers and a look at what they’re charging

BusinessWeek: The Best E-Broker For You
What to look for in an online broker beyond the cost of trades

The Motley Fool Broker Comparison
Table showing how 4 brokers stack up against each other in 5 categories

Epinions: Brokers
Broker reviews straight from the consumers

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Fantasy stock market, virtual stock markets, paper trading, investment simulators- they go by a variety of labels but they all represent one thing, an opportunity to learn about investing in the stock market.

One of my current classes requires me to keep a virtual portfolio and see if I can turn a profit by semester’s end. I’m enjoying the chance to see how some of my short-term investing ideas pan out before actually putting any money at risk.

The different games each have their different virtues and features plus they are all free to use. Some have on site research tools but I usually use Google Finance for that. You’ll just have to do a little exploring to figure out which one(s) is best for you.

If you’re intimidated by the idea of trading stocks or managing your own portfolio, these games can be a good place for you to get your feet wet with no risk. So here they are, in no particular order:

Virtual Stock Exchange
From MarketWatch. I use this one for my school project and I like it alot.

Young Money’s Free Fantasy Stock Market Game
Geared towards teens and college students. Top 5 players each month get a free one year subscription to the magazine.

Investopedia Stock Simulator
Includes all U.S and Canadian exchanges

Mississippi SMS: Stock Market Simulation
If you’re a teacher, check out this one

The Stock Game
Another good one for teachers and classrooms

The Global Stock Game
Includes various contests

The Stock Market Game
Designed for students and teachers

The Great Game
Fantasy stock trading on the UK stock market

Virtual Stock Exchange
From HowTheMarketWorks.com

Wall Street Survivor
Players can win cash prizes

SmartStocks.com Market Simulation Game
Includes a free e-mail account

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Deutsche Bank
UBS
Citibank
Wachovia
Fannie Mae
Countrywide

The list goes on and on. Billions of dollars lost by mortages lenders and from mortgage backed securities. What I don’t get is, where’s the shareholder outrage? Shareholders should be mightily pissed at the CEO’s that led their firms to such losses. Even more accountable are the boards of directors that picked these clowns as CEOs. Even in cases like Citi where the CEO was forceed to resign, what’s to keep the board from replacing him with another over-paid incompetent? Seriously, couldn’t a random homeless person run one of these companies and manage not to lose billions of dollars?

Shareholders ought to be storming Wallstreet with torches and pitchforks looking for these CEOs and their lackey board members. Of course, this is just more of the same old willingness by Americans to tolerate excessive failure by hyper-over-compensated executives. Sooner or later, we’re going to have to find a better way to make sure these execs deliver before they’re given their 7 to 9 digit paychecks.

Here’s what some of the above execs make according to Forbes:

Wachovia CEO G. Kennedy Thompson $10.79 million
Citigroup CEO Charles Prince (resigned) $19.67 million
Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo $141.98 million
Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd $3.94 million

What’s hard for me to believe is that there are some who think that coverage of executive pay is overblown. Call me crazy but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect someone who is being paid tens of millions to not lose billions investors’ of dollars.

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With every week bringing new horror stories of dangerous toys made in China, parents are going to start looking elsewhere for gift ideas and I think video games are going to be a big winner. Sure the average gamer is 33 years old but there are still tens of millions of kids that love video games too. Games are a no-brainer for parents because they provide hours of entertainment and can be traded in when the gamer grows tired of it. That’s a claim radioactive Barbie can’t make.

The video game industry is ready. There are still dozens of new video game titles scheduled to be released between now and the end of the year and some of those titles are highly anticipated. That includes new games for the PC, XBOX 360, Nintendo DS, PSP, PS2, PS3, and Wii.

It also helps that Nintendo is ramping up Wii production in an attempt to head-off any shortages. On top of that, Sony just dropped the price on the PS3 and introduced a slim new PS2.

If you’re interested in investing in video games I suggest you check out The simExchange. It’s a fantasy video game stock market that can help give you an idea of what’s happening in the video game market.

If you’re not sure what companies to investigate, here’s a list to get you started:

VIDEO GAME CONSOLE MAKERS:
Wii and DS- Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY.PK)
XBOX 360- Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT)
PS2, PS3, PSP- Sony (NYSE: SNE)

VIDEO GAME DEVELOPERS AND PUBLISHERS:
Activision (NasdaqGS: ATVI)
Electronic Arts (NasdaqGS: ERTS)
THQ (NasdaqGS: THQI)
Take Two (NasdaqGS: TTWO)
Atari (NasdaqGM: ATAR)
Majesco (NasdaqCM: COOL)

VIDEO GAME RETAILERS:
GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME)

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Stock fraud is not something I’ve ever given much thought to but since a good chunk of my planned retirement is stock-oriented, I suppose I should. This WIRED article on ShareSleuth.com and it’s connection with Mark Cuban is what got me to thinking about it.

ShareSleuth.com is the work of a single journalist who investigates shady companies. The case that started ShareSleuth has to do with a company that was making wild claims about what it could do and the media either failed to investigate the claims or actually helped promote the claims, which of course sent the stock soaring. It’s scary how easily they seemed to have manipulated the media. There are also questions about whether sites like ShareSleuth are just tools for manipulating stock values. Anyway, if you want the details, check out the article.

If you think you might have been a victim of stock fraud or just want to learn more about it, a good place to begin might be Stock Fraud Newswire.

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I’m in love with the idea of alternate energy sources not because of eco-guilt but because I hate the idea of America being dependent on other nations for oil. On a personal level I like the idea of not being dependent on the utility companies. I once had to go without power for 5 days due to an icestorm and it really sucked. Power outages happen to just about everyone occasionally- be it because of mother nature or an overloaded grid. By all accounts, our electricity infrastructure is in pretty sorry shape. It also seems the natural gas prices are on a continual climb. The average gas bill this coming winter is expected to increase 10%! Going off-grid seems like a no brainer when energy prices keep rising and supply looks sketchy.

How Practical Is a Solar Home?
It’s no secret converting a house to solar is an expensive proposition. Every year I hear about new solar technologies that will make solar electricty a practical alternative but the cost never seems to come down. I’ve moved 7 times in the past 17 years, it’s highly unlikely I’ll stay in any house long enough to recoup the $20-30k solar conversion cost. At this time in my life, at this stage of the technology, a solar home just isn’t practical for me.

The Other Solar Route
After reading this article on corporate adoption of solar technology, the soundest solar investment seems to be in the stocks of companies that supply corporate solar initiatives. The advances made by manufacturers and installers of corporate solar technologies will eventually benefit us all and their stocks appear to be appreciating at a very rapid pace. I’ll do a little more research but it sounds like a win/win situation to me.

So for now, solar energy in my day-to-day life will be limited to a few solar powered lights and maybe even a solar powered water heater. That and I’ll take the time to praise the corporations that are adopting solar technologies and encourage others to start.

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