Customers are selling stocks, checking mutual funds and overseeing markets all on the Internet

(CNN) -- If you invest in the U.S. financial markets, you may find yourself at times glued to a television ticker crawl of the latest stock quotes.

Or maybe you call and bug your stockbroker 50 times a day.

Whatever the case, there's a better way to get up-to-date information about what's happening to your financial portfolio.

Follow the example set by Rick Starke -- just one of probably thousands of people monitoring investments via the Internet.

Starke, a health-care products executive, has been stung heavily in recent weeks, as the Dow Jones industrial average began its descent from above the 9,000 mark.

He logs on every morning, then again throughout the day, to track shares and look for potential bargain buys.

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"Because it's right there in front of you; call it up (and) it doesn't take five seconds to have it ... and you can make a decision," Starke said. ( 75 K/7 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

There is a plethora of financial information available online, along with numerous places to log on for stock quotes.

Some sites provide information and stock quotes only to paid subscribers. Many others provide identical, or similar, information for free.

In addition, more and more brokerage firms have homepages that allow you to electronically place orders for buying or selling shares.

And some Web sites allow you to buy shares directly, without going through a broker and paying that added fee.

"There is a lot of free news on the Internet, and you can place your trades through it, by yourself," said Muriel Siebert of Muriel Siebert & Co.  ( 112 K/ 7 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

Online trading is also changing the way the brokerage industry works, Siebert said, because it virtually puts you on the floor of a stock exchange. ( 170 K/15 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

E*trade is one of many stock trading sites

Whether the bulk of your shares are traded over the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq or some other market, you may want to check out www.nasdaq.com, Nasdaq's official homepage.

From the moment the U.S. markets open at 9:30 a.m. EDT, Nasdaq.com tracks market activity for both the Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq 100.

The site also provides a place for you to enter stock symbols and pull up the latest quotes. The quotes are delayed by a few minutes.

If delayed quotes won't satisfy your financial appetite, check out www.freerealtime.com. It provides business news and real-time stock quotes for free.

The convenience of tracking financial information online has offered Starke a lot of comfort in recent weeks. He's lost $15,000 since the market took a nosedive.

That amount is "significant," Starke said, but he'll keep watching his finances over the Internet, and he'll maintain a positive outlook.

"That's significant ... but I also think I'll have it all back within six months, because I'm an eternal optimist," he told CNN. ( 140 K/ 9 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)

Correspondent Rick Lockridge contributed to this report.