What's a good stock market trading website for a beginner.?

I'm basically interested in the markets as a small investor. The sort of thing i'm looking for is the best sites that teach the fundamentals about trading the markets and how to ensure i have a well diversified portfolio.

Any sort of tips on other products to look at other that shares & bonds would also be welcome.

I would also appreciate any information about best free sites with good current information about the state of the investment world & global economy.

Standard and Poors publishes valuable information on stocks including on many a quality rating, A+ being the best. Many if not most on line brokers provide the S&P data sheets on stocks as part of their service. TDAmeritrade also provide the weekly news letter from S&P called "Outlook". Periodically, Outlook publishes suggested porfolios that are very helpful such as a small/mid-cap growth portfolio, a platinum portfolio, a ETF portfolio, total return portfolio, and I do not know how many others.

For small investors, mutual funds, either open end or closed end can provide valuable diversity of investments. The trick is as in picking stocks to pick the right ones. Many are not too good, but about 30% are worth considering, especially those that invest in somewhat obcure areas such as India, China, small cap stocks, etc.

Sharebuilder

go to www.poweryourtrade.com, this the best site by cnbc money control. Any beginer can get best investment idea in this site.

Hi friend
To clear all u r doubts on share market just visit
www.karvy.com and also subscribe for karvy finopolies so that u can get an updated information on share market.

All the best.

www.investopedia.com

www.morningstar.com

finance.yahoo.com

www.sharebuilder.com

Look into ETFs they will be your friend.

If you are looking for some examples of portfolios, I recommend http://www.portfolio123.com/
This site has a variety of portfolios with different asset allocations. It does not give trading advise.

For a strategy that is based on fundamentals and technical data, I like Investor's business daily, and their web site http://www.investors.com/. The strategy they advocate is a intermediate to long term hold, but I like how they emphasis risk management and using sectors.

For short term trading or day trading, look at optionXpress or thinkorswim. Both sites have free trading simulators, but do not give trading advise. I have not used either site, so I cannot comment on the quality.
http://www.thinkorswim.com/tos/client/in...
http://www.optionsxpress.com/

i use scottrade as a young an inexperienced investor- they have tutorials and good customer service plus low fees- need only $500 to open an account