A. Here is an excellent starting point! This website will give you the "Top Rated" stocks by Industry Sectors. Look for the "Stock Sectors" toward the left side (about middle ways down the page), then click on your choice of business sector to see what's available. This is where I go to get some of my top buys and do my research analysis activities!

http://money.cnn.com, click on "Markets", then click on "Stocks"! Click Here!

You will have to decide for yourself what types of companies (or industry sector) you want to invest your money. No one can really make that decision for you -- it's just part of the learning curve when you are looking for companies to invest in, but take some time at this site, check out a few of the "Top Ranked" stocks and see if they interest you.

Make you a list of about 5 of them -- then find out the details about what they do or have to offer. You can use "www.yahoo.com" (http://finance.yahoo.com) to look at the "Historical Price", "Volume", "Earnings Timeframe" and whatever else you think you need to know about them in order to make a decision on whether or not to buy that particular company. That's the best place to start.

Note: Get your online brokerage account open as quickly as you can! Use "OptionsXpress.com", that's what I use, and in my opinion is they have the best functions and features!! They have a great "Virtual Trading" feature that lets you simulate all of your buying ideas just as you would if you were buying with real money! I use it every week also,,,it's a great way to practice, setup some buying strategies, and a overall good learning tool for beginners! Get your account open and start using it this week!!

Another place to screen stocks is "www.stock1.com" -- enter the stock symbol in the "quotes" entry field and you will be able to see the last 5 days pricing movement on the stock along with charts, opinions, and profile information.
Click Here! Scroll down to the bottom of the page to enter another stock symbol in the "Enter Symbol" entry box.

You can also follow my Weekly Quarterly Earnings Newsletter (see the link on the homepage) for for great investment ideas and opportunities that I invest in regularly. My opinion for 2011 is that "Technology", "Energy" and "Agriculture" (and a few financials) will still be the leading investment sectors. Companies like (AAPL, AMZN, AZO, BIDU, CMG, FFIV, GOOG, GS, IBM, ISRG, MA, MCD, PCLN, WYNN), and a few ETFs and Indices like (CME, NDX or $NDX.X, RUT or $RUT.X, SPX or $SPX.X) should all perform well as the economy recovers.
Here's my own "Best Top Buys List" Click Here!

Jimmie V Smith Jr.

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