Talking Stock Keep tabs on your investment strategy with free info from the Web.

America's new hobby may be investing-and today billions ofdollars are being poured into publicly traded equities and mutualfunds. The good news is, the Web is an ideal tool for trackingwhat's happening on Main Street and Wall Street. With afew key strokes you can check out what's up with any stock ormutual fund. Click some more and you'll find in-depth analysesof listed companies. Whether you're crafting a sales pitch orjust wanting to find out how solvent a potential customer is, allthe info you need can be found, free of charge, for any companythat trades on the major exchanges.

Case in point: Log on to Quicken (www.quicken.com), enter a publiccompany's name, and you're greeted with a menu ofinformation-the current stock price, performance charts, analystreports, a corporate profile, message boards, SEC filings andanything else you desire. For more details, check out the analystreports issued by the major brokerages-most cost between $5 and$30. But with so much quality information available for free fromoutfits like Multex Investors (http://quicken.multexinvestor.com/home.asp),why even use the credit card?