I have found Morningstar.com to be very helpful. They have a free side and a premium side. A beginner can use the free side to build a foundation and, if you find it useful later on you can subscribe to the premium side which gives you access to their analyst research on specific stocks and mutual funds. Just to tuck away for down the road, the premium service costs about $150 bucks a year but T. Rowe Price investors can access it free once they have 100,000 dollars with the firm. I tend to prefer Price and Vanguard as they are no-load (no commission to brokerage)and were not involved in the after-hours trading controversy a few years back. Good luck!