An online system for trading securities is disclosed. The system may include an investor computer, a brokerage computer, and a third party computer, all coupled together by a network. The third party computer responds to investment information requests from the investor computer by providing HTML documents having the desired investment information and a link. The link is a URL address of order software on the brokerage computer, and it includes an indicator of a specific security associated with the investment information. Examples of such securities include stocks, a mutual funds, and options. The link is preferably implemented as a button icon labeled "Trade Now". When the third party computer is an investment research service, the existence of the Trade Now icon greatly expedites the investor's ordering process by directly retrieving an order form with appropriate fields pre-populated. The investor may be required to enter a password.