Stock market related websites

Ive been reading various websites to understand and learn about stock markets, trading strategies, fundamentals etc. Here is a list of stock market related websites that i frequent on a regular basis

1) Moneycontrol
2) NSE
3) Rediff
4) Seeking Alpha
5) Bloomberg
6) The Indian Economy blog
7) S P Tulsian (Site was free earlier, not its a paid one)
(I've found some of the articles written by Ruma Dubey to be very insightful)

Opening Demat/Trading account

Image via WikipediaIf you are new to investing in stocks/shares, one of the first things you need to do is to open a demat account. Its ideal if you are willing to spend some more time and get a trading account as well. This will help you make trades on the stock market without a phone call. There are a lot of brokerages that offer to open both a demat and trading account. When i opened an account about 3 years back, i'd placed enquiries on the websites of Kotak, Sharekhan, ICICI. Kotak and Sharekhan responded the next day but kotak was very impressive. They sent a smart chap who explained stuff to me and had got all the forms. He helped me fill them up and explained the concepts behind the brokerage charges etc. The guy from Sharekhan had no clue about stock markets and seemed to me a person who had just come to deliver and later collect the forms. I ended up opening an account with Kotak Securities which i use till the present day. Im in fact pretty much satisfied with their services and have recommended it to a lot of friends. They did have a scheme where i could recommend friends and get a gift. 4 of my friends actually opened accounts but i dint get anything. i even called the customer care and also talked to the manager who had opened my account, but guess they have been thankless here.