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Each week, one of our investing experts answers a reader's question in our InvestingAnswers' Q&A column. Question: Hello. I've decided I want to start investing, and I'm thinking of using an online broker instead of visiting a brokerage firm. Is there anything I need to know before I start? Karen K., Palo Alto, Calif. The Investing Answer: I'm a big fan of online brokers. You...

FURTHER FURTHER READING - Central bank competence is a technology.Continue reading: The Closer...

FA Insights is a daily newsletter from Business Insider that delivers the top news and commentary for financial advisors. Black Swans Are Having Their Necks Broken (The Reformed Broker) Investment advisor Josh Brown looks at the stock market, the housing market, the energy revolution in the U.S., and the emergence of new industries, and...

All four economic data releases missed expectations today. First, the scoreboard: Dow Jones: 15,231.84, -43.85, (-0.29%) S&P 500: 1,650.42, -8.36, (-0.50%) Nasdaq: 3,465.24, -6.38, (-0.18%) And now, the top stories: Three big economic data releases came out at 8:30 AM, and all three fell short of economists' expectations. Initial jobless claims surged to 360,000 (330,000 expected), consumer prices fell 0.4% month-over-month (-0.3% expected), and...

If there is one lesson that resonates from years of watching markets, it's that earnings quality doesn't matter in cult stocks on the rise. Nobody wants to hear it. Look no further than Netflix. Or even Amazon. All of which brings us to Tesla. Flying red flags over its earnings quality would...

The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management just released revised rules governing hydraulic fracturing — fracking — on public lands. They seem to have upset both environmentalists and the industry — we've already received two insta-press releases from both sides criticizing the updated regulations. That's usually a good sign.  The actual news is that...

Abercrombie & Fitch's reputation has taken a hit since Business Insider's story tied CEO Michael Jeffries' comments about beautiful people to the company's refusal to offer XL and XXL clothing.  Two weeks ago, the company's reputation was similar to that of competitors American Eagle Outfitters and H&M, according to a report...

Dick Bove’s focus is on this? The ex-Rochdale banking analyst, now at Rafferty, has found a hook in the Bloomberg terminal-snooping story for his latest note:Continue reading: Bove vs Bloomberg, redux...

Zack Buckley, managing partner at Buckley Capital Partners, gave an interesting bullish presentation for tech company Blucora at this year's Value Investing Congress in Las Vegas. Blucora is a company that operates two internet businesses — TaxACT, a tax prep site, and InfoSpace, an online search and monetization service for small...

We recently reported that Mark Cuban refinanced every last dollar of his debt into Japanese Yen. There are two reasons to do this. One is that interest rates in Japan are very low. The other reason is that it's a yen short. If the value of the yen collapses (as it...

Convicted ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, who is serving a 150 year prison sentence, told CNN Money's Aaron Smith that he blames himself for the death of his oldest son. From CNN Money: "I was responsible for my son Mark's death and that's very, very difficult," he said. "I live with that. I live with the...

More than four years after America's hydraulic fracturing boom kicked off, conflicts of interest between officials charged with regulating the controversial practice and the oil and gas industry remain widespread. Meanwhile, in-depth studies of fracking's effects on human health and the environment remain scant. Conflicts of interest and undue corporate influence among...

Tesla Motors is riding high right now. It smashed earnings and revenue expectations last week, and just earned the best Consumer Reports score ever for its all-electric Model S sedan. At the helm is CEO Elon Musk, the South African self-made billionaire who is also the CEO of private space venture...

Brett Easton Ellis, the author of "American Psycho" (the scariest book written about Wall Street) and several other must-read novels, did a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" the other day.  It was a pretty good AMA and we'd recommend reading the full thing.  Here's an excerpt.  (Note: This has been lightly edited for...

Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP — a anti-immigration, anti-EU political party that has been having serious successes in recent elections — was forced to hide in a pub in Edinburgh today after being hounded by "anti-racism" protesters. This picture, from the Guardian's Scotland correspondent, shows the crowd outside: Police lock Nigel #Farage...

Whenever the WSJ's Jon Hilsenrath speaks, everyone in the market listens. Hilsenrath is out with a new blog post on WSJ.com this afternoon aimed at one of the hottest topics surrounding Federal Reserve policy right now: persistently low inflation, which could keep the Federal Reserve from tapering monetary stimulus anytime soon. New...

There's something about having the British royals around that makes Americans of all ages act like it's 1964 again and the Beatles just landed. Prince Harry's latest tour of the country was no exception. His week-long trip was marked by a seemingly endless barrage of pictures of girls crying/staring adoringly/ squealing...

Marc Ostwald at Monument Securities has spotted that an important theme is developing: a rise in the number of warnings about QE suspension and QE exit. As he noted on Thursday regarding the recent warnings from the BIS and the IMF: To my jaundiced eye, I would have to say that the...

This is one way to respond to the mess Euroland is in over who should make the calls for recapitalising banks… The European Banking Authority is delaying its next banking stress test to 2014, to wait for both new asset-quality reviews and the ECB’s Single Supervisory Mechanism (so is it...

FT Alphaville participated in a “Gold Bulls vs Bears” event hosted by the Association of Mining Analysts (AMA) on Wednesday. The motion being discussed was: Is gold’s role as a safe haven asset in the global financial system outdated and redundant and if the ubiquitous QE programs have been successful and the...