Online trading is taking the financial markets by storm as private investors are now able to quickly, easily and cheaply trade Forex, Commodities, Stocks and many other instruments. But what's brought about this enormous increase in online trading?

Basically, the tools and information which were previously only available to the ?big boys? ? like stockbrokers, banks and institutional investors - are now available to you. These days, we don't have to rely on our broker for recommendations. With only a computer and internet connection, we can now find our own trades independently and without fear of bias.

People just like you and I can now trade with a level of sophistication that was unheard of, even in the 90's! This has effectively ?levelled the playing field? and allowed home based traders to make highly informed investment decisions on their own.

Data feeds, software based trading systems, real-time quotes and interactive charts are all now available online at reasonable cost and yet, not so long ago, many of these resources cost thousands and thousands of Dollars. The point I'm making however, is that with a little investigation it's now possible to find many of these invaluable tools absolutely free.

Andrew Fleming, author of ?Free Online Trading Tools? has made it a personal quest to discover what's available out there ?just for the taking? (legally, of course). He was amazed. Some sites he discovered will come of no surprise to you ?Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg and Reuters etc. are the obvious ones and are all very comprehensive sources. But he also uncovered a wealth of sites that are a little more ?off the beaten track?, but also incredibly useful to online traders.

As an example, Andrew found over 20 separate stock screening/charting programs that will crunch their way through years of data for you - then spit out identifiable trends and patterns that can be used to place profitable trades.

Many offer levels of functionality that you would normally only expect on $300-$400 software, like Fibonacci, Moving Averages, trend lines, Volume, etc. etc. You also tend to find with these ?licence free? programs that a community of users emerge who create their own profitable formulas and then make them accessible to others through forums and chat rooms.

Of course, without the knowledge to interpret the results from these programs, they're practically worthless. But expensive trading seminars and courses are another area where many of us are often spending money that could be used for placing trades. Too often, newbies to the world of online trading are taken in by slick sales copy promising the ?Holy Grail? of trading systems - whereas in reality it simply doesn't exist.

Any experienced trader will say that much of trading success is in finding or developing a simple set of rules and having the mental mettle to stick to them. But again, this is where the Internet comes to our rescue. Through his research, Andrew also uncovered a virtual ?online university? of trading information, offering many tried and tested methods from which to hone and adapt a personal system.

And even if the idea of finding your own trades is a little daunting, he also uncovered several free ?stock pick? sites and forums ? at least a couple of which reported surprisingly good track records.

Whether you're new to the world of online trading or not, before buying the next ?must-have? trading guru's system or software program, see what you can get for free first ? then use the money to place a trade instead!

Copyright 2006 Hywel Merrett