Links to Finance Sites
Links to Finance Sites |
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| (B) Sites identified by a "B" in bold red type qualified for listing among Barron's "Best Websites for Investors." |
Educational Finance Sites
Interested in getting your CFA? Want to see Warren Buffet's latest letter to his shareholders? Or maybe you just want to learn more about investing? The sites below offer an impressive variety, but all are educational in nature.
| American Association of Individual Investors | A highly regarded association devoted to investor education. |
| Berkshire Hathaway | Warren Buffet's legendary company. His letters to the shareholders alone are worth a visit to the site. Also check out his owner's manual for a guide as to how a company should be run. |
| Briefing.com | Provides commentary on the market throughout the day. |
| CFA Institute | The CFA Institute features information on the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) professional designation and contains a wide array of investment information |
| Financials.com | A compilation of articles from a variety of sites. |
| Investment FAQs | Frequently-asked-questions-about-investments and their answers. Good links to other investment sites as well. |
| Investopedia | A series of short tutorials on various investment topics. |
| Ohio State University's Virtual Finance Library | A "must-see" site for all business majors. |
| The Motley Fool (B) | Discussions of stocks and investment strategies. Sometimes irreverent and off the wall but always interesting. |
| Series 7 and 63 | Sample questions for the securities licensing exams. |
| Value Line | Publisher of Value Line Investment Survey, the best-selling investment advisory service in the world. However, the site does not provide free information on individual companies. |
Economic Information
| National Economic Trends | 
Published by the St. Louis FRB, this is an excellent presentation of
economic information in graph form. Click on the link for the
"Published Issue" for the most recent month shown. (Pdf
format) |
| Reuters Economy |
A very good overview of current economic events. |
| Federal Reserve of St. Louis (FRED 2) | Check out FRED 2, one of the best economic databases on the internet |
| The Dismal Scientist | Recently changed to a pay site, but still one of the best economic sites on the web. Some free links on the front page. |
| FedStats | Loads of statistics on the U.S. (some economic, some not) |
| FreeLunch.com | Data, data, and more data. Free registration is required. |
Industry Information
| Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys |
Available only at a high cost over the internet, so it is not linked
here. On-campus MSU students can find Industry Surveys in the
Reference Room of the Waterfield Library. |
| LexisNexis and Mergents |
Available through the Murray State University library for students
and faculty. Excellent search engines for both. The link is for
the MSU library's Blackboard site. |
| Yahoo Finance |
An excellent source of recent news for the industry of your choice. |
Common Stocks (Research-Oriented Sites)
Stock Screening Programs
The sites below allow you to screen (or filter) through thousands of companies to find those few that have the characteristics that you are looking for. (E.g., some investors prefer a high dividend yield, conservatively financed companies, and low risk, combined with rapid earnings growth.) All of the sites below perform the same function; they just do it differently.
| MS Investor (B) |
Microsoft's screening program is tops. Drop-down menus, a lot
of variables, fast, excellent output ... this one is hard to beat. You
have to register (free) for the Microsoft software prior to downloading a
small file that runs the screening program. |
| Yahoo Finance |
Almost as good as Microsoft's. The format is almost identical, but the
choices are slightly more limited. |
| CNBC |
The Custom Screener is limited but still useful. |
Fundamental Analysis / Company Information
To find information on individual companies or stocks, try these links. Most require that you simply type in the name or ticker symbol of the company.
| MS Investor (B) |
Operated by Microsoft, this is one of the premier investment sites on the internet. The Research Wizard (on the left-hand side
of the company's page) is especially handy for a quick look in layman's
language. |
| Reuters (B) | One of my favorites! Complete ratio analyses
with industry averages, sector averages, and the S&P 500 averages.
Tons of free information. |
| Yahoo! Finance (B) | Draws on some of the best in the business for its content.
Click on "Stock Research". For an industry profile, click
on "Industries". |
| Edgar-Online (SEC search) |
Want to find all documents which a company has filed with
the SEC? Use EdgarScan to search the SEC's files. |
| CBS Market Watch | Search for the latest news on a company or on a particular
topic. |
| Silicon Investor |
A site that improves every year. |
| CNBC | A well-rounded site. |
| StockSelector | A good
all-around site. |
| SmartMoney | Excellent
commentary. |
| Bloomberg |
News and all-around information. |
| Kiplinger |
A somewhat unique site. |
Market Commentary
| TheStreet.com (B) | Informed, expert analysis before, during, and after the trading day. |
| Briefing.com | Updated during the day. |
| CBS Market Watch | Daily specialty columns. |
| ZD Interactive Investor | Excellent editorial comment and data. |
Reports
| Multex Investor | Reports on a large number of companies - some free, some for pay. |
| Zacks | Reports and earnings forecasts. |
| Hoovers | An excellent all-around site. |
Technical Analysis
| Stock Charts |
Stock charts of all types for a wide variety of companies, with great
control for the user. |
| ClearStation |
A very educational site ... and all free. |
| Prophet.net (B) |
One of the better charting services on the internet. |
| Dorsey Wright | An excellent site for point-and-figure charts. |
Conference Calls (requires a sound card and speakers for your computer)
| Best Calls | Listen in on conference calls along with the securities analysts. |
| Thompson Street Events | Listen to webcasts of company information. |
Charts
| Stock Charts |
Simply put, an outstanding charting service. |
| Big Charts | Charts of the current day's biggest movers (up, down, momentum, etc.). |
| Sharp Charts | Excellent charts of various types. |
| Prophet Finance | Hi-tech charts. |
| PerfCharts | Compare your stocks to one another. |
Bond Information
| Yahoo Bond Center (B) | A bond screener, current rates, and informative articles - this site has it all. |
| Investing In Bonds | One of the best bond sites on the web. |
| TreasuryDirect | Buy U.S. Treasury securities directly from the Treasury. |
| Fidelity | Screen for bonds and buy them directly from Fidelity |
| Briefing.com | Excellent commentary and opinion on the bond market. |
| Bonds Online | Treasuries, municipals, savings bonds, and more ... they are all here. |
| BondMarkets | Good all-around site for bonds. |
| Bond Talk | Live coverage and analysis of the bond markets. |
| Moody's | Check out the Watchlist for ratings changes. |
| Prudential Securities | Excellent commentaries three times daily on equity, bond, and Treasury markets. |
Investment Banking
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Investment Banking by BusinessWeek |
Business Week's Business Exchange site. An excellent source of current events in the investment banking industry. |
| ActuaryJobs.com | Links to almost all the major investment banking firms homepages. |
Capital Structure
| Duke University article | A pdf file with an excellent survey of practitioners regarding capital structure and capital budgeting decision |
Factoring of Accounts Receivable
| CCassociates | A very educational site regarding factoring. |
| 1st Commercial Credit | A good overview of the factoring process. |
| Rexford Funding | FAQs regarding factoring. |
| The Receivables Exchange | An eBay-like exchange for buying and selling accounts receivable. |
Government Financing
| Small Business Administration | The SBA was created to help individuals form successful, rapidly growing enterprises. The SBA site provides information on financing but also on other topics of sound business management. |
Venture Capital (for startup companies)
| Idea Cafe | Questions and answers on the basics of venture capital plus a variety of other topics. |
Daily Financial News
| Wall Street Journal (B) | The world's premier business newspaper. Some parts are free; others are only for subscribers. |
| Financial Times (B) | A great newspaper for news about Europe (with a British flavor). |
| Business News | An excellent collection of domestic and international news reports, periodicals, and other websites. Provided by the LSU libraries. |
| CNN Money | CNN and Money magazine combine their talents in an excellent site. |
| Investors.com | Conducted by Investor's Business Daily newspaper. |
Mutual Funds
| Morningstar (B) | The leading firm for ratings on mutual funds. |
| Brill's Mutual Funds | Second only to Morningstar for mutual fund information. |
| Vanguard | An educational site on mutual funds, constructed by one of the largest mutual fund managers in the world. |
Financial Markets and Exchanges
Equity Markets
| New York Stock Exchange | The world's largest stock exchange. |
| American Stock Exchange | When you are number two in size, you try harder. |
| NASDAQ | The Over The Counter market |
| Global Investor | Links to the world's major markets for equities, bonds, and currencies. |
Options/Futures Exchanges
| Chicago Board of Options Exchange | The world's largest options exchange. |
| Chicago Board of Trade | One of the leading derivatives exchanges. |
| Chicago Mercantile Exchange | One of the largest futures exchanges in the world. |
| Futures Industry Association | The only association that represents all of the organizations in the futures market. |
| Investment Research Institute | Option basics and strategies plus a nice glossary of options terminology. |
| Orange County Value At Risk Case | An interesting case study of Orange County, California, and its use of derivatives. A good introduction to the concept of Value At Risk. |
Investment Calculators
| Financial Calculators | Analyze your personal financial needs using these calculators. |
Brokerage Firms/Associations
| Financial Industry Regulatory Authority | The leading self-regulatory body for the brokerage industry. |
Business/Investment Periodicals
| Asia, Inc. Online | Asian markets; interesting feature articles. |
| Barron's | A weekly newspaper on investing by Dow-Jones, Inc. (publishers of the Wall Street Journal) |
| Business Week | Just what it sounds like. |
| Economist | Free articles if you watch the advertisements. |
| Investment News | A weekly newspaper for financial advisors. |
| Forbes | A magazine with an investment focus. |
| Fortune | One of the best. |
| Money Magazine | The popular newstand magazine for personal finance. |
Academic Journals
| ECONbase | Links to several important finance journals and to many economics journals. |
| Financial Analyst Journal | A top-level journal which has investment practitioners as its primary audience. |
| Journal of Business | High quality articles but, as one can tell by the title, devoted to general business topics rather than specifically investments. |
| Journal of Finance | The top journal in the finance field. General finance rather than specifically investments-related. |
| Journal of Financial Economics | As with the above two journals, the JFE has a general finance orientation with frequent investment-related articles. |
| Review of Financial Studies | The on-line site provides abstracts from recent issues. |
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