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Florida's Anna Maria Island is a far cry from Wall Street. Hardly a building rises above the tops of the isle's palmetto trees, and the loudest sound comes from the waves lapping at white-sand beaches.

Yet here, just a block from the water, Jim DePorre is as busy as any trader in Manhattan. For the last five years, this onetime certified public accountant and attorney has turned his attention to the financial markets and made himself millions of dollars buying and selling stocks. DePorre places dozens of trades each day from his second-floor office on the island--all using his computer.

You can, too. Sound heavenly? Even if your personal fortune is much more modest than DePorre's, the tools to make it grow are within your reach. Anyone with a PC and an Internet connection can plug into a trove of resources. You can get your hands on the same data the experts use to play the market, save a bundle on fees by buying and selling stocks directly online, and wield a host of Web-based tools to manage your burgeoning wealth. The best part: It's almost all free.

Whether you've never bought stock in your life or you know what it means to sell short, lots of helpful sites can guide you down the road to financial security. To help you, we've broken online investing into six steps, from getting your feet wet to choosing an online broker to avoiding cyberswindlers.

Of course, no one can guarantee you'll make money investing online. But with all the tools awaiting you on the Internet, you have a fighting chance of retiring in the tropics.