Now the Internet brings you the ultimate computer game - win and become rich enough to say 'drop dead' to anyone, lose and you get to blow your life savings. Mark Millmore reports

So you want to make money playing the stock market? Well information is the essence - plenty of it and of a high quality. There are a number of methods of getting it; the newspapers, Teletext, by phone, proprietary information networks and the Internet.

Of course web sites have a number of unique advantages: you can check prices, read news stories, examine data, monitor portfolios and trade from the site. But it doesn't stop there though, you can also join a discussion group and buy books. What's more, because of the nature of the Internet, information is hyperlinked, has greater depth and systems can be improved without affecting your ability to receive the information. Therefore, you can forget about phoning your broker because now you can do it all on the web and with secure e-mail it's completely safe too.

Commission charges are around 0.5% and 1% of the share value on-line which compares favourably with the traditional method where brokers charge between 1% and 1.7% plus administration fees.

Because the rules governing the display of share prices on the Internet have recently been changed there is now a profusion of financial Web sites. But since the financial industry has a long history of utilising the power of computers, all the competing services are highly professional, and - unlike other areas of the business community - cowboys don't stand a chance.

For our review this month we've invited two experienced players with no previous knowledge of Web sites, but are familiar with the conventional means of playing the money game.

Peter is a retired Doctor who has been an investor for over 50 years, He uses newspapers and satellite Teletext to gather information and the phone to instruct his broker.

John is a retired managing director of a multinational company who has used newspapers and a dial-up proprietary system, called Ionic, for three years.

ESI - http://www.esi.co.uk

ESI's free services gives the top 400 stock mid-prices updated eight times a day. There are also prices on gilts, bonds, international stocks, AIM companies and unit trusts. However, the menu of free services is rather misleading. For example you are offered free news, but the link only takes you to a page of headers, and says ' Become a ESIQuote Bronze or Silver user to read these stories'

ESIQuote Bronze costs £150 per annum. You get a range of services including on-line buying and selling, 10 real-time updates per month, portfolio valuation by e-mail and charts. Other services cost extra. The ESIQuote Silver is another £60 and has real-time data - though there are still extra charges.

A major problem with the site is the design and navigation. It's hard to assimilate the columns of figures and you repeatedly have to use the back button on your browser.

Peter commented, 'The layout of the figures is confusing and the updates are slow. There are no figures for Divided Yield and the service as a whole is unsatisfying.'

John's comment was, 'The main purpose of this site is to interest you in the subscription services.'
Designed by Perihelion

Financial Times - http://www.ft.com

The Financial Times Web site is big enough to be daunting but you soon find yourself picking up all sorts of interesting snippets

There are two technical elements to the site. The first is a normal web site consisting of updated news and comment. You get the latest moves in the London share prices in real-time, trading volumes and an equities portfolio tracker. There are also briefings from the past three years on 11,000 listed companies worldwide

The second element is the Financial Times Briefing Channel, which comes with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. This 'push' channel delivers international business news stories, which are updated regularly throughout the business day.

Peter said, 'Excellent! Well set out for the investor with great depth of information. I Particularly liked the 52 week high and low prices but would like to see some offer and bid prices.'

John loved this site, 'Because of the vast amount of information it takes a little longer to find your way around but one session is sufficient to become proficient. I particularly like the profit and loss, balance sheet items, company reports and access to a company's web page. This will be my main source of information.'
Designed in house

Market-eye - http://www.market-eye.co.uk

Market-Eye's Investor Service is free of charge and is designed for the UK stock market investor. You get some very high quality data such as the London Stock Exchange prices (delayed by 20 minutes), charts, a forum, a Bookshop, News stories, closing mid prices of all UK equities.

With the £20 per month Premium Service you get real-time data, five year's historical data, market reports, portfolio management with daily e-mail evaluation and broking services providing dealing over the Internet. As well as a whole host of other benefits.

Peter was impressed, 'This is the best in terms of layout, The comprehensive set of figures together with the price and volume graphs enables me to see at a glance the movement of shares. The links to the company web sites are a nice touch but there was a problem with the news links. I'm thinking of getting a computer.'

John also like this site, ' Good navigation and the search engine gets you quickly to a named share. The range of information includes a price graph and effective use of colour makes it easy to read.'
Deigned by UXL

In terms of design and function our experts put the FT and Market-eye neck and neck at the finish with ESI a distant third. However, the general standards throughout this sector are high and there is a lesson here for the business community as a whole. Business on the web is the future. It is coming like an unstoppable tidal wave. All British businesses take note - Go with the flow or sink.