If you like to trade stocks, chances are you do your research on sites like Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, or even StockTwits to find ideas, and then you go log into your brokerage account to execute a trade. Or maybe you get distracted by a dancing bear on YouTube and never buy or sell that stock.

Online discount brokerage Zecco wants to make sure you can trade anywhere on the Web, whenever the feeling hits you. Today, it is releasing Zap Trade with StockTwits, and as a Firefox add-on. On StockTwits, there will now be a Z button which will launch a Zecco trading widget. The widget allows customers to place stock trades without going back to Zecco. Trade, Tweet, Repeat.

Zecco also has a Firefox add-on which overlays a Zecco trading widget onto any site. The add-on works particularly well with financial sites such as Bloomberg, CNNMoney, MarketWatch, Google Finance, and even parts of competing broker sites like E*Trade and TD Ameritrade. If it identifies a stock ticker on one of those sites, it will pre-populate the trading widget with that stock’s symbol.

Crunchbase

• ZECCO
• STOCKTWITS

Company: Zecco

Website: zecco.com

Launch Date: July 4, 2006

Funding: $35M

Zecco offers no compromise in online investing with lost cost stock and options trading through its wholly owned subsidiary Zecco Trading, Inc. and currency trading through its wholly owned subsidiary Zecco Forex, Inc. With great pricing combined with cutting edge research tools, great customer service and a lively online community of active investors, Zecco offers the best value in online investing. Zecco provides a refreshing alternative to traditional brokers like E*Trade, Charles Schwab, and TD Ameritrade.

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Company: StockTwits

Website: stocktwits.com

Launch Date: 2008

Funding: $8.6M

StockTwits is a social, stock micro-blogging service. StockTwits is an open, community-powered idea and information service for investments. Users can eavesdrop on traders and investors, or contribute to the conversation and build their reputation as savvy market wizards. The service takes financial related data and structures it by stock, user, reputation, etc. Log into the site with your Twitter details or download the StockTwits Desktop and you will be joining a community where market participants share their very best ideas in...

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