Online Investment Tools

Time was investors would sit down with pen and paper, pour over historical and projected data, and arrive at a conclusion about the credentials of a particular company or other financial instrument. No more.

Data is now everywhere. The World Wide Web has put very detailed information at the fingertips of all investors, both amateur and institutional. The pros may get a head start in the timing of the data release, but nonetheless, it is eventually available to all. Financial websites and portals abound. These include Yahoo, FT, Reuters, Wikinvest, The Motely Fool, Morningstar, and Quote.com. Most provide portfolio management facilities, stock screens, and discussion boards. All will provide timely company information.

There are pros and cons to such prevalence. Getting 'one up on wall street' is now more difficult than ever because most information is known. To obtain a competitive advantage one must either:
- Have some specialised insight into the operations of a particular company or sector.
- Focus on companies that fly under the market radar (micro-cap and small-cap).
- Know how to analyse the relevant information is a way that funnels investment decisions, in a similar way to the money managers.

Of the strategies above, the third is a prerequisite. It is the starting point. If proper due diligence is not performed prior to investing, then you are simply rolling the dice; gambling. Thankfully, you do not need a mathematics degree or stock trading qualification to get you started. There are several superb tools online, free, that can be put to use.

Barchart.com
Simply plug in the ticker symbol to the end of the URL, e.g. http://quote.barchart.com/texpert.asp?sym=MSFT. Barchart will assemble the most up to date information available and will present you with a technical trend analysis using various methods, broken down into short, medium, and long term trends. For those out these who are numerical averse, this is a boon. Another website based on technical analysis is Stock2Own.com.

Nasdaq Guru Screener
Down through the years there have been several investment 'greats'. The biggest of the current era obviously being Warren Buffet. However there are others such as Buffets mentor Benjamin Graham, contrarian David Dreman, or money manager / Forbes columnist Kenneth Fisher. Each has published (either directly or indirectly) the methods and formulae by which they begin making investment decisions. Some are more complicated than others; however these methods and formulae are at our fingertips online. As above, simply plug in the ticker symbol to the end of the URL, e.g. http://www.nasdaq.com/asp/guruanalysis.asp?selected=MSFT. The guru stock screener will push the company data through each of the gurus tests and will nicely present you with it's conclusions.

Happy trading!