Hi Riten, sounds like you've already done some of the homework on your own, so you're already one step ahead of the game. as far as what to look for when picking a stock to invest...actually before that i should say there isn't anything you can look at to give you a 100% correct answer. mostly there are two types of investors; 1. that just look at the numbers / fundamentals (balance sheet) 2. that are only speculative (most casual investors fall under this category...they see a company and they fall in love with the business they are in and end up buying their stocks. i.e. a person found a company that had plans for space mining and exploration so the person invested in it thinking 5 - 10 years from now the company's vision will become reality and will make him an instant millionaire. well that was about 5 years ago and needless to say nothing has changed both for the company and this individual investor (btw this is a true story). in my personal opinion you can't only be looking at the numbers as they can be deceiving at times (remember ENRON??) nor can you be totally speculative because sometimes visions don't get materialized. so, the best way to go about would be to get the best of both world, becuase you definitely need to speculate if you are looking for growth but at the same time you need to pay some attentions to the numers as well to make sure they have the finance to support their plan. **do your own research on these companies but here are some of the stocks i will be keeping a close eye as we head into 07** ACH ADCT BIOM CHL CHU HANS LNX NFI SCSS SIX WFC MPEL good luck to you! p.s. oh yeah any of the online brokers works just fine and are pretty much the same. one jim cramer aka booyaa LOL gotta love him if he jumps on the stocks you own and are ready to sell becuase he will hike up the short term stock price but if you are in for a long term investment he will only make his recommended stock volatile.