Who isn’t looking for some free advice or some free stock market tips? The whole idea of investing or trading stocks on Wall Street is to make money and the more the better. The one way to increase your portfolio is to lower your cost basis. If you’re paying someone to give you advice or a tip on the next “hot” stock, you are cutting into your profits. Typically new investors will seek out stock tips that will not cost them, but the truth of the matter is that in the long run, it will cost them more.

There’s an old saying… “you get what you pay for”. The same is true about any advice or tip you get on the stock market. I’ve done my own research into some of these “free” alerts from websites and have found them to be off in a good portion of their projections. Unless you can sit around the computer all day watching the streamer, you will most likely lose money more than you would gain. These chosen stocks will go up in value for a brief moment, but they never seem to hold their ground. In my opinion, these websites are the new version of the “pump and dump” scams.

If you are serious about investing in the stock market, you should not be using these sites. Instead you should look into legitimate and proven sites like The Street.com. Jim Cramer has been one of my great sources of information on stocks I want to invest in. Just because Jim recommends a particular stock, doesn’t mean that I’m going to buy it. I still do my own research into the company before I buy and sell stocks. Even after I have a position in the company, I continue to watch the company for any changes that could effect the stock.

There are quite a few other websites that offer some good advice as well as articles to keep you informed of the condition of the markets. Just be careful when you use any advice that is free.