Help for Investors

Investor Education

Better Investing (National Association of Investors Corporation) – Greater Piedmont Chapter http://www.betterinvesting.org/chapter/piedmont

This organization is dedicated to educating investors in sound investment principles. Seminars on “Better Investing for Individuals” and “How to Start an Investment Club” as well as other educational classes are offered to investment clubs, groups, and individuals in the chapter area. Hickory Subchapter representative Judy McCaughan may be contacted at send_email('judymccaughan','charter.net') judymccaughan@charter.net

Investment Basics

Motley Fool – http://www.fool.com/school/basics/investingbasics.htm

Motley Fool’s investing basics page explains the basic concepts of investing in stocks, bonds and mutual funds. The page also covers different methods for analyzing stocks and discusses how to pick a stockbroker.

TheStreet.com Investing Basics – http://www.thestreet.com/basics

This site provides information for beginning investors covering various aspects of investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures, financial planning, investment professionals, and the economy. These signed articles are written to be easy for the beginning investor to understand.

Stocks

Big Charts – http://www.bigcharts.com

Big Charts is one of the best sites for charts and historical information. Interactive charting options include averages, comparisons, and indicators. Charts are available in a number of formats. Information on industries and markets is also available.

Yahoo! Finance – http://finance.yahoo.com

Stock lookup retrieves quotes, charts, news, company profiles with statistics, SEC filings, competitors, industry, analyst coverage, ownership, including insider trading, and financials.

CBS Marketwatch – http://www.marketwatch.com

Provides company profiles, news, charts, analysis, insider trading, financials, SEC filings, options, historical data, and industry data.

Securities and Exchange Commission – http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

This government site provides current SEC filings for public companies and mutual funds.

Value Line Investment Survey – Ready Reference desk REF 332.6305 VAL

Value Line is one of the top investment advisory services. Each stock it lists is analyzed four times a year. The one-page analyses of each stock include timeliness, safety, technical and beta ratings, P/E ratio, dividend yields, key statistics, growth projections, insider trading activity, risk scores, and Value Line’s commentary. Value Line also includes industry analyses, which includes current developments that may affect the industry, statistics, and a rating of investment opportunities.

Value Line Online Tutorial

Learn to use Value Line by using our online tutorial.

 

Bonds

Bureau of the Public Debt - http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/

The Bureau of Public debt website contains information on U.S. Savings Bonds, T-Bills and Treasury Notes including rates, payback dates, and cancellations.

Investing in Bonds - http://www.investinginbonds.com

Created by the Bond Market Association to help educate investors, this site contains information on municipal, government, corporate and MBS/ABS bond markets. It also includes an excellent “Learn More” section for those who are just starting out.

Mutual Funds

Mutual Fund Investor’s Center - http://www.mfea.com/

The Mutual Fund Investor’s Center is an educational site provided by the not-for-profit mutual fund trade association the Mutual Fund Alliance. The site includes reports from Morningstar, website links, fund listings and exclusive planning, tracking and monitoring tools.

Yahoo! Finance Mutual Funds Center - http://biz.yahoo.com/funds/

Yahoo!’s Mutual Funds Center provides a variety of tools to allow the investor to select mutual funds. Educational tools and the latest industry news are also included.

Morningstar Mutual Funds – Ready Reference desk REF 332 MOR

Morningstar is the industry standard for rating mutual funds. Mutual funds are given a rating of between one and five stars based on performance and risk data. Information given for each fund includes a short profile of fund managers, a management grade, investment strategy, performance data, portfolio analysis, risk rating, current style and Morningstar’s current recommendation.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What was the price of a stock on a particular date?

A. If the date is after 1970 try http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/.

Q. I’m looking for a company’s SEC reports. Where can I find them?

A. Reports after 1993 are available at EDGAR, http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

Q. Where can I find a company’s annual report?

A. Many companies make their annual reports available on their website. Try looking under links such as “About us,” or “Company information”. If it is not available on the website, try AnnualReportService, http://www.annualreportservice.com. This free site contains thousands of annual reports. Free registration is required to access reports.

Q. Where can I find a good overview of a company’s stock?

A. Yahoo! Finance Quotes and Info, http://finance.yahoo.com, lookup contains quotes, charts, news, company profiles with statistics, SEC filings, competitors, industry information, analyst coverage, ownership information, including insider trading, and financials. MarketWatch, http://www.marketwatch.com, is also a good overall source.

Q. Where can I find news and performance figures for an industry?

A. Yahoo! Finance Industry Center, http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/, offers charts on industry-wide performance as well as the latest news, top performers in each industry, and market capitalization figures.

Q. Where can I find out what my savings bonds are worth?

A. Use the Online Savings Bond Calculator, http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/sav/savprice.htm, at the Bureau of Public Debt websites.