Stock market information through stock brokerages

The first place to look for stock resource should be through the company you are trading through. Firms such as Fidelity allow you to open a free account and offer reasonable fees for trading. In the online environment, you can set up "watch lists" of companies to keep track of each time you log in. A wealth of information is available through the trading companies; you can track the current and past stock price, how it compares to competitors and what financial analysts think about the company.

I recommend: Other popular trading companies are E*Trade and TD Ameritrade, both offer free accounts and a lot of information.

Stock market info from the wires

There are a wide range of news services and news wire services which provide a wealth of information about stocks, industry resources and analysis. Most news-oriented websites allow searchable access to the Associated Press newswire or information from Bloomberg News Services. However, there are other companies that offer custom services to provide reference materials for stocks, so you can get an email every time the company sends out a press release or gives out information.

I recommend: Business Wire offers a free investor relations service to send alerts daily or weekly about a company. Bloomberg News Services also offers news searchable by ticker symbol. It's an efficient way to get reference materials for stocks when it's needed.

Find stock market information from the source

Nearly every publicly-traded company offers a wealth of information on its website. Always look for the "investor relations" section, and it's easy to find annual reports and quarterly earnings reports. Some companies even post webcasts of quarterly conference calls hosted by the CEO and other executives.

I recommend: Another place to turn for stock market information resources is the SEC. The SEC service called Edgar offers access to every quarterly earnings statement, annual statement and any information which may change the value of a company. It's good info about the stock market and it's free.