Good design, navigation and customer service, online and off, make it a top choice for most investors. National Discount Brokers is our dark-horse darling, ranking near Schwab in overall excellence. Raging Bull fosters a relatively civilized stock-chat environment. The site is only loosely monitored, but the community polices itself fairly well. Silicon Investor is the place to talk tech stocks.
SI attracts a serious clientele, and many members post using their names rather than a handle.
If you're not as familiar with bonds as you are with stocks, Investing in Bonds , brought to you by the Bond Market Association, is a great starting place. The site not only explains how bonds work, it gives advice on identifying investing objectives and finding the the right mix of stocks, bonds and cash. Offerings include munis, corporates, zero coupons and Treasuries, among others. Get the scoop here on postponed offerings, recent pricings and the first-day trading details of new issues. You can search for articles by a company's name or the date of its offering.