E-trading is all the rage among the moneyed types these days. Here are some of the better-known investment and informational sites.

Annual Report Gallery (online database of company numbers)
www.reportgallery.com/

Ameritrade (cheap commissions, if you start off with a $2000 deposit)
www.ameritrade.com/

BigCharts (chart ten years or more of a particular stock's performance)
www.bigcharts.com/

Bloomberg (online companion to the financial TV feed, offering searchable transcripts of the network's content)
www.bloomberg.com/

Brown & Co. (cheap, if you pony up a $15,000 starting balance)
www.brownco.com/

Charles Schwab (hefty commissions, but probably the biggest player in the online trading field and helpful to the novice; requires a $5000 initial deposit)
www.schwab.com/

CBS MarketWatch (excellent site for daily market news)
cbs.marketwatch.com/news/newsroom.htx

CNNfn (another site for breaking info, with ties to Quicken)
www.cnnfn.com/

CorporateInformation (lots of info about non-US companies)
www.corporateinformation.com/

Datek Online (cheap and very fast, but requires $2000 to start, and not for the inexperienced)
www.datek.com/

Dismal Scientist (large, varied economic information site)
www.dismal.com/

E*Trade (fairly cheap and lots of handholding for the nervous novice, but requires a $1000 minimum)
www.etrade.com/

EconData (portal site for state and local socioeconomic stats)
www.econdata.net/

Fantasy Investment Game (practice your investment skills before venturing out into the real market)
www.fantasyinvestment.com/

Fantasy Stock Market (another fantasy investment site)
www.fantasystockmarket.com/

Fidelity Investments ($5000 to play, and commissions aren't cheap, but it's large and relatively well-designed)
www.fidelity.com/

Firstrade.com (cheap)
www.firstrade.com/

FreeEDGAR (Securities and Exchange filings)
www.freeedgar.com/

FreeRealTime (sign up for real-time stock quotes and a wealth of market analysis data)
www.freerealtime.com/

FundAlarm (go here for info on companies in trouble)
www.fundalarm.com/

Hoover's Online (lots of company data; they want you to sign up for a monthly membership at $30/month, but there's plenty of free info)
www.hoovers.com/

Investing for Kids (sound advice for both kids and adults)
library.thinkquest.org/3096/

IPOs (go here for IPO info)
www.ipo.com/

MetaStock Online (chart a variety of indicators against securities)
www.equis.com/java/

Money Machine Investment Challenge (not a trading site, but a free test of your stock-picking acumen)
www.zdtv.com/moneymachine/

Money.net (free real-time stock quotes and stock news)
www.money.net/

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Online ($2000 deposit, expensive commissions, free access to MSDW research)
www.online.msdw.com/

Motley Fool (famous source of online investment advice)
www.fool.com/

MSN MoneyCentral (incorporates much of the old paysite Investor's content, but for free; plenty of tie-ins to MSMoney)
www.moneycentral.com/

National Association of Securities Dealers (info on investment brokers and advisors)
www.nasdr.com/

North American Securities Administrators Association (links to investment watchdogs across America)
www.nasaa.org/

Quicken.com (similar to the MSN site, but with tie-ins to Quicken; full-fledged financial hub)
www.quicken.com/

Raging Bull (all the usual stock trading info, plus an informative message board)
www.ragingbull.com/

Scottrade (cheap, if you start off with a $2000 minimum equity balance)
www.scottrade.com/

Securities and Exchange Commission (look for the investor education info)
www.sec.gov/

SmartMoney.com (lots of model portfolios, financial calculators, and other accompaniements to reprinted articles from the magazine)
www.smartmoney.com/

The Street.com (subscription-based market info site)
www.thestreet.com/

TD Waterhouse Securities (relatively cheap and plenty of help for the novice; requires a $1000 deposit)
www.tdwaterhouse.com/

TradingDay (huge stock information site)
www.tradingday.com/

World Bank Country-At-a-Glance Tables (PDF profiles of every country's economy)
www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/countrydata.html

Worldly Investor (online investment advice newsletters)
www.worldlyinvestor.com/

ZDII Inter@ctive Investor (source for daily investment news)
www.zdii.com/

ZDNet Company Finder (large informational site on computer and high-tech companies)
www.companyfinder.com/