1. Investing
on the
Web
Evaluating Investments
on the Internet
Mike Buhmann
Reference Librarian
Skokie Public Library
2. The Good vs. the
The Good
Bad
Hundreds of sites to learn about
investing & to research stocks &
securities
Easy to stay informed and to get
advice
Trading via online brokers is
convenient and inexpensive
Can keep track of most of your
accounts on one site
3. The Good vs. the
The Bad
Bad
Information overload (just what do
you pay attention to)
Cheap trading can lead to a gambling
mentality
Investment sites are constantly
changing, adding and removing key
features, charging for information,
etc.
Security issues when trading or
accessing accounts
6. Maintaining a
Portfolio
Track selected securities to
review price changes, news,
and more.
Set up an account with login and
password
Enter purchase price for securities to
easily check the value of your
portfolio during the day
Each site offers a variety of features.
Try each one out to see which you
like
8. Learning
Guides for beginning
& advanced investors
Investopedia investopedia.com/university
Contains tutorials on basic and advanced
investment topics along with a glossary of
investment terms
WinningInvesting.com
winninginvesting.com/basic_training.htm
Offers advanced stock trading help along with an
excellent collection of investment links
9. Calculators &
Worksheets
Interactive tools for
sound decisions
Foolish Calculators
fool.com/calcs/calculators.htm
A series of calculators to help in your decision making process
covering topics such as: college, retirement, bonds, autos and more
SmartMoney.com
smartmoney.com/tools/worksheets/
Interactive worksheets to help you analyze different aspects of your
investments
10. Fun & Games
Investing isn't a game, but there's no better
way to learn how to use online investing
tools.
Test some strategies before putting them into
play
Can practice tactics like buying & selling
options, selling short, etc.
Smart Stocks smartstocks.com
A realistic stock market simulation game that teaches trading without the risk.
Virtual Stock Exchange vse.marketwatch.com
Free online trading games from MarketWatch with public or private games with a cash
balance you set.
Investopedia simulator.investopedia.com
Simulator that uses real data from the stock markets in order to reproduce the
experience of using a real online brokerage account.
Hollywood Stock Exchange hsx.com
Buy shares of your favorite actors and their new movies. Watch their values rise or fall
based on their success. Prices soar with a blockbuster and plummet with a bomb
11. Credit / Debt
Management
Credit/Debt Management
(from About.com)
credit.about.com
Website with detailed information
on credit and debt
Consolidated Credit
Counseling Services
consolidatedcredit.org
A credit consolidation company that provides
informative articles on debt
12. CDs & Money
Markets mortgages,
Find out the best rates for CDs,
credit cards & other investment related
products at:
BankRate.com
bankrate.com
Money-Rates.com
money-rates.com
Annual CreditReports.com
annualcreditreports.com
Provides free credit reports from each of the three credit
reporting agencies every twelve months
14. Security
Quotes
Historical Quotes
BigCharts.com bigcharts.com
Yahoo!finance finance.yahoo.com
Commodity Prices
Kitco kitco.com
Provides current and historical quotes and charts for precious metals
BarChart.com barchart.com
Provides quotes for commodities in the futures section
CMEGroup cmegroup.com
CME stands for Chicago Mercantile Exchange and this site has detailed
information on all types of commodities and futures.
15. Stock
Research
Stock Scouter
moneycentral.msn.com/investor/StockRating/srsmain.asp
Type in a ticker symbol to get ratings on more than 5,000 publicly
traded companies on a 10-point scale.
StockConsultant.com stockconsultant.com
Type in a ticker symbol and receive every bit of technical information
you might want or need on that stock. Free for limited access to this
information.
GuruFocus.com gurufocus.com
Check how the leading stock market gurus (like George Soros or
Warren Buffet) are trading and learn about their trading style. Need
to sign up and pay a fee to receive latest trades
16. Stock
Screeners
Useful for finding
potential securities to
invest in.
Get lists of securities that
meet specific criteria
Google Finance Stock Screener
google.com/finance/stockscreener
Bing Finance Screener
bing.com/finance/stockscreener
StockCharts' Predefined Scans
stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.scan
An at-a-glance page filled with technical, candlestick, and P&F
Patterns.
17. Charting
BigCharts bigcharts.com
Draws complex and detailed charts
ClearStation clearstation.etrade.com
Contains detailed charting capabilities and a guide on how
to use charts.
StockCharts.com stockcharts.com
Offers four free charts to help you filter out insignificant
price moves or to create candlestick, bar, or line charts for
any stock, index or mutual fund in their database.
18. Message Boards
Message boards can often provide
more information than the pros or the
news media. Whether this information
is accurate or not is determined by
your willingness to follow up or
participate. Good luck!
Yahoo!Finance finance.yahoo.com
Excellent message boards for individual stocks & mutual funds
The Lion www.thelion.com
Claims to be the world's largest stock forum community site that
offers access to all financial message and blogs, and news.
Board Central boardcentral.com
Enter company's ticker, click the GO button, and then read
messages about that stock from all leading boards.
19. Mutual Funds
Mutual Fund Education
Alliance mfea.com
Tutorials, guides, links and ratings of funds
Morningstar.com
www.morningstar.com
The hallmark mutual fund rating guide. Provides basic
ratings of stocks & mutual funds for free. With Skokie Library
card you get complete access
20. Bonds
InvestinginBonds.com
investinginbonds.com
Find information on individual corporate,
municipal and treasury bonds along with
general information on the bond market
Treasury Direct treasurydirect.gov
Get information on US Treasury securities
including savings bonds and T-Bills
21. Investing Blogs
A Blog is a website with regular
entries and commentary
Blogs can be saved to a reader such
as Bloglines.com to read later
StockBlogs.com stockblogs.com
This directory allows you to cruise through
dozens of investing blogs
22. Investment
Podcasts that
A podcast is a sound or video broadcast
can be played on your computer or an MP3
player
Two sources that compile podcasts:
iTunes apple.com/itunes
Podcast Alley podcastalley.com
Investment related podcasts:
The Disciplined Investor – Andrew Horowitz
www.thedisciplinedinvestor.com/blog/category/podcasts
Options Strategies for Investors
www.optionseducation.org/seminars/podcasts.jsp
Mad Money Machine – Paul Douglas Boyer
madmoneymachine.com
23. Money Management
Tools
Sign up and manage multiple financial
accounts, develop a budget, pay bills and
plan your finances
Check about.com for a review of these sites
financialsoft.about.com/od/morefinancialsoftware/tp/Online_Software_List.htm
25. Online Brokers
Ratings:
SmartMoney smartmoney.com/brokers
Contains annual broker survey listing the top full service and
discount brokers
Online Broker Review onlinebrokerrev.com
An ex-broker reviews a number of online brokers rating them by a
number of categories
Consumer Search consumersearch.com
Provides an overview of the rating sources for online brokers
Consumer Information:
Investing Online Resource Center
investingonline.org
Information on selecting a broker from the North American
Securities Administrators Association
26. Library Databases
Value added Investment resources
subscribed to by the library
Available in the library building or via
the Internet with a library card
28. Annual Reports
Edgar (SEC Filings)
www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
Get financial filings such as 10K and
10Q reports for public companies
Annual Report Service
annualreportservice.com
View annual reports online for many major companies.
Public Registers Annual Report
Requires a login.
Service (PRARS)
www.prars.com
Order selected annual reports to be delivered to your
home
29. IPOs
Gamble on getting in on the ground floor of newer stock issues
do your research at one of the sites listed below. You can find
information about IPOs at many of the larger stock research
sites such as MarketWatch, and Yahoo!Finance
Yahoo!Finance IPOs
biz.yahoo.com/ipo
This site shows latest IPO events along with a
history of best and worst performing IPOs.
IPO Home ipohome.com
Access basic information on this site for free.
You'll find consolidated calendars, news,
commentary and more.
30. wikinvest
A Wiki is a collaborative website
that allows anyone to edit, delete
or modify content. It assumes a
broad collective intelligence.
wikinvest wikinvest.com
An encyclopedia of investing topics that
covers companies, and other investing
ideas.
31. Learn & Develop a
Plan
First Things First
How much money do you need for
life goals (retirement, children’s
college, etc.)
How much risk are you willing to
take
Where should you put your money
(stocks, mutual funds, bonds, CDs,
money markets)
32. Miscellaneous
Closed End Fund Center
www.closed-endfunds.com
Investment information on closed end funds
Quantum Online
www.quantumonline.com
Investment guide on preferred stocks
Forbes Best Investing Sites
www.forbes.com/bow/b2c/section.jhtml?id=7
A guide to the best investing web sites broken down
by category
33. All Purpose Investing
Sites
Sites that offer a multitude of
tools for investors such as
tutorials stock screeners
articles investing news
stock quotes charting
personalized and much more
portfolios
