Free realtime or 'delayed' price quotes are an invaluable tool when trying to establish what you wish to do with your shares.

It's not enough to buy and sell based on gut instinct alone. No matter how good your ideas and hunches are or if it is just specualtion, you'll ultimately lose a lot of value if you don't take advantage of free live data.

If you're a beginner, don't even think about buying of selling without using some form of live price data. You don't really have a option if you want to be successful. You will need the right to use to live price data or free stock quotes to clarify the direction of the local markets.

It is often the case that individuals use free live prices to hone their skills without in fact using any real money. Once you've established that you're prepared, you can participate through a stock broker either on the phone or online and then use the free live data to keep an eye on your investments.

Using free stock quotes, you can be well aware of what your investment advisor is advising you on. For beginners, it is not adequate to just rely on free stock assessments though. You need to at minimum have a basic understanding of investing before you can utilize free stock quotes to thier fullest.

There are many books and on articles that can help you with this. Investing for Dummies is one such book. Once you have established a reasonable understanding should you actually rely on the benefits you can secure from your free live prices.

That is not to say that free live data services are not for the novice. But they require some understanding regardless of your current level of skill. Even if you are an experienced investor and do not use the advice of a stockbroker, you still need to look at free currency quotes to cost out when to trade your portfolio.

There really are no guarantees in the markets but having access to free currency quotes can help you minimise the risks you take and prevent the losses that you could experience if you were to trade the markets with less information.

There are many free live prices available on the internet. While you may be confused as to which free live data providers are reputable. You can only visit specalist sites and forums, where other investors trade opinions and offer advice which will help you establish which service you should use for your free stock quotes.

One of the on the sites for free live data is Yahoo Finance. They are very reputable; their free stock and currency quotes are simple to use and clearly laid out.

MSN, Reuters & Bloomberg offer services which you could consider as a place for you to access your free stock quotes.