These stock pagers notify you of prices, company news, buy and sell levels, and other programmable bytes of information. In the most advanced cases, you can make stock transactions using the same device, but usually they are designed to deliver information, not brokerage service. Beyond software and hardware requirements, it helps to have a sense of initiative, adventure, and a willingness to learn, as well as some time. In online investing, as with anything else, you get out what you put in. In most cases, research precedes actual trading.
Many people sensibly trade with virtual money before opening an online account.
Resources on the Web Besides practicing your market acuity with virtual portfolios, you might want to find your way around the information resources of the Web. In most cases, quotes for individual stocks are delayed by 15 or 20 minutes. These display the history of a stock in graph format. Many of these charting tools have evolved to a level of sophistication unheard of just a few years ago. News is free for the most part, as well as extremely deep and professional.