Everyone always seems to have great interest in investing in penny stocks. It is probably because people think it is easier for a penny stock to rapidly rise in value and for the investor to make a boatload of profits.

However, in every market there are the scam artists and the investing market is no different. Have you ever received emails that told you a certain penny stock was about to explode? I get at least one everyday.

Well, the whole purpose of these emails is to try and get a bunch of uninformed investors (or suckers) to go out and buy the penny stock that these emails are promoting. It does not take many buy orders on a penny stock with little volume to drive up the price quickly.

Here’s the problem. The scam artists that send these emails buy the penny stock before the emails are sent. Then all of the investors that believe these emails drive up the price and the scam artists sell their shares. Unfortunately, those that bought the penny stock after reading the emails end up buying at the high and then watch as the stock comes falling down back to it’s normal level.

Here is an example…

Last Friday I started getting emails about EXCHANGE MOBILE TELE (EXMT.PK) . On Thursday the stock was trading at around $0.08. By Friday when I first received the email it was already up to $0.14. By Monday it had hit a high of $0.17.

These scam artists were able to make the price of the stock double and I am sure they made out with a huge return on their investment. With no other news release about the company during the period, or for all of August for that matter, it is hard to believe the jump was from anything else.

So stay away from these penny stock emails because you will always be the last one on board and end up buying at the high and then watching the stock go back to it’s normal level.

Everyone wants to find an online broker with low trading fees to use for investing. However, many investors are fooled when looking at online brokerage firms that state they have low fees but in the end you are paying more than you thought you would.

To combat this we have reviewed all of the top brokerages on the basis of their trading fees but also their account minimum and account inactivity fees. Low trading fees are no good if you end up getting hit with account inactivity fees.

Through our research we came to the conclusion that the #1 choice for an online brokerage account with low trading fees is TradeKing.

TradeKing offers $4.95 trades and is the #1 rated discount broker by SmartMoney Magazine.

How can they offer such low stock trading fees? Most brokers have large advertising budgets and those budgets end up in their customers having to pay higher fees. TradeKing does very little advertising and therefore can offer trades at a ridiculously low $4.95.

TradeKing also has NO account minimum and you can start your account with whatever dollar amount you want and there is NO account inactivity fees. You really can’t beat TradeKing when it comes to value.

So if you are looking for an online brokerage with low trading fees our suggestion is to head on over to TradeKing and open an account now.

For a full review of online brokers see our How To Start Investing Online guide and see the full results

The first thing you need to do when starting to invest online is to find a quality and reliable online investment brokerage firm. This is a very important step because you want to make sure you pick a broker that has a competitive price for stock trades and also have low fees.

Below you will find my online investing review. I judged each online broker on account minimum, IRA fees, and cost of a market trade.

#1 Top Choice - TradeKing - TradeKing is a discount broker that allows you to place stock trades for $4.95.

TradeKing also has NO account minimum which makes it the perfect place for any investor to get started. You can get started with $25 if you would like and there are no account inactivity fees so there is no need to worry about placing a certain amount of trades per month.

TradeKing also has no account minimum for IRA’s. You can open it with any amount that you would like. TradeKing gets our highest recommendation and it the perfect place to start your online investing.

Open A TradeKing Account Now

#2 E-Trade - Requires a $1,000 account minimum and has no IRA account min. They offer real time trades for $12.99. Another great option for an online investment broker.

#3 TD Ameritrade - Requires a $2,000 account minimum and no account minimum for IRA accounts. They offer real time trades for $9.99

#4 Fidelity - Requires a $2,500 account minimum for personal and IRA accounts. Offers real time trades for $19.95.

As you can see, TradeKing offers the best online investing accounts due to their low fees, no account minimums and $4.95 stock trades. In our online investment brokerage firm comparison review they get the top ranking.