Want to chat about stocks or piggyback on the trades of ace investors? These sites offer ways to tap into the social-finance craze. Running the gamut from Main Street amateurs to seasoned pros, the sites feature a wide array of investors posting their trades, strategies and stock ideas. Making money is another matter, of course, and the sites make no guarantees that investors using their services will beat the market.

Pros and amateurs alike post their portfolios on this site, and investors can set up a brokerage account to automatically copy the trades of select managers. Returns for some top stock jockeys look impressive Covestor calculates that New York business owner Douglas Estadt is up 247 percent since April 2009, for example. But fees and trading costs can be steep, and strategies producing top returns may not translate well to auto-trading because of limits on small or thinly traded stocks.

The investment managers on kaChing are mostly registered advisers, along with a sprinkling of individuals with good records. One top stock picker, Dennes Lupastean, is a college kid from California who recently posted a one-year return of 114 percent; other investors have a total of $3.4 million following his trades. Fees can top 2 percent, but kaChing says the higher priced managers use more complex strategies.

Anyone can run a virtual portfolio on this site, and a mutual fund called the Marketocracy Masters 100 holds the picks of investors with the top long-term records. Over time the best analysts rise to the top, says Ken Kam, who oversees the fund. The fund trails the market over the past five years, though it edged out the S&P 500 in 2009. Fees average about 2 percent. Kam acknowledges they re on the high side but says the fund s long-term record is more important.

Online Brokers

Some discount brokers host online communities where account holders can post holdings, discuss strategy and follow one another s trades. The sites have thriving discussion forums, but auto-trading isn t available, and the sites could be used by unscrupulous traders to pump up stocks. There s no policeman, but the community is moderated for inappropriate conversations, says Zecco CEO Michael Raneri.