Dr Washingtom has caught on quickly to the investments you have explained and is ready for the next step of gathering and analyzing investment information

In the old days, Dr Washington would have gone to the local library or the office of his stockbroker to read the Wall Street Journal, but now Yahoo Finance! has most everything a person could want to know. I'm always amazed at the wealth of information available on the site, including the learning tools available.

In addition to terrific websites loaded with information, there are also some great sources which teach their particular brand of investment philosophy, i.e. the Motley Fool or The Street.com plus there are numerous sites which define, explain and work out financial issues in great detail. Wikipedia.com is very understandable and comprehensive at a basic level.

Newspapers are still a valuable source of insider gossip and speculation (Wall St Journal, New York Times, for example), but there are also investment publications like the Investors Daily and The Value Line. All of these are available in print or electronically.

There is so much information available so easily that is hard to pick and chose. Sarbanes Oxley is about transparency, and maybe Enron and Worldcom wouldn't have been such huge disasters if the law had been in place sooner.

The Sarbanes Oxley Act (also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002) is touted to be one of the most significant changes to securities laws since the 1930s. The extent and effect of the changes since passage in 2002 is still not fully known. Just today in the news, there is talk about changing Section 404 as it applies to smaller companies and their internal controls.

Dr Washington, now armed with more data than he could possibly assimilate, needs to have a registered investment advisor. That means a person who has passed the national security licensing procedures (and is therefore regulated). There is recourse to Security dealers through the SEC, the NASD and other similar organizations.

Lastly, Dr W needs to understand that he is ultimately responsible for his money, and he needs to make decisions based on the most and best information he has.