Websites | Databases | Reading List

There are many general guides to investing. Once you have reviewed the basics, you’ll need to decide what kinds of investments to make. Here are resources to help you evaluate stocks, mutual funds, and other investments and to track the performance of your investment portfolio.

Websites

• General Information

  Alliance for Investor Education
  A wealth of information and advice on getting started as an investor. Covers stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Links to other sites

• Better Investing
  Most information is available to members only, but non-members can learn about the NAIC method and philosophy of investing in the About section and find a local group under Chapters.
• Bloomberg.com
  Features investment information including market data, news and commentary, and charts and analysis. Free access, with registration, to Market Monitor, a market update service, and Bloomberg University, online tutorials covering a variety of financial topics. Links to Bloomberg Radio and Bloomberg TV.
• Financial Facts Toolkit
  Produced by the Securities and Exchange Commission to better inform consumers about saving and investing. Tips are included on planning for retirement, guides to mutual funds, market risks, corporate and municipal bonds.
• Initial Public Offerings
  Provides fact sheets "about IPOs, particularly why investors have difficulty getting shares in an IPO, the pricing differences between the IPO and secondary market trading, and a brokerage firm's IPO eligibility requirements." From the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Investor Information
  Investors can use this site from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for help with making wise investment decisions, protect investment dollars from securities fraud and abuse, and report concerns and problems. Includes mutual fund calculators, a complaint center, investor alerts, materials for teachers and students, complaint statistics, and related links. Some materials are in Spanish. Searchable and browsable.
• Motley Fool
  A comprehensive investment resource for small investors. They say their "purpose is to inform, educate and amuse the individual investor." Helpful personal finance information is contained in the Fool's School and How to Value Stocks. Be sure to read their disclaimer, under Read This First.
  
• Smart Money
  This site for investors has daily business and economic news, information, and advice. The coverage includes stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and tools for personal financial planning. A special feature is the economic sector and specialty "maps," which are graphic representations of market patterns and performance. The website is a service of the print monthly SmartMoney, a joint publishing venture of Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
  The SEC protects investors and maintains the integrity of the securities markets. Its site offers the SEC's Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) database, which contains reports the SEC, requires companies to file, and a tutorial
• Yahoo Finance
  This site for investing and personal finance provides U.S. and international stock quotes with minimal delay when markets are open, as well as historical stock quotes and other market information. Personal finance subjects include loans, insurance, and taxes. Also includes links to more than 20 international sites.
• Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds

  American Stock Exchange
  A comprehensive resource for investors and issuers seeking the unique market environment offered at the American Stock Exchange.

• Bigcharts
  Stock quotes, interactive charting, and stock screeners for over 50,000 stocks, mutual funds, and market indexes. Historical stock price look-up back to 1970.
• Bonds Online
  Information about treasuries, savings bonds, corporates, and municipals.
• InvestingInBonds.com
  Designed for beginning investors, this site provides basic guides to bonds, treasury securities, municipal bonds, corporate bonds, certificates of deposit, and reading bond prices in the newspaper.
• Lipper Leaders
  Describes how funds are evaluated and provides scores for funds in the United States as well as several countries in Europe and Asia.
• Morningstar.com
  News, ratings, and statistical information of mutual funds and stocks. Also provides an advisory service that helps investors find the right stocks and funds for their needs. The library provides access to the premium product, Morningstar Investment Research Center.
• NASDAQ Stock Market
  Known for its large share of technology related stocks, the NASDAQ site has stock quotes, initial public offerings, plus a broad array of current market data and index tracking.
• New York Stock Exchange
  Home page for the world's oldest and largest equities market .
• US Savings Bonds Online
  U.S. savings bond information, including redemption rates and T-Bill auction results.
• Portfolio Management
  American Association of Individual Investors
  Although many of the resources here are for members only, you can sample them for free or sign up for a trial membership. There are articles on portfolio management, as well as a library of tools to use.
• MSN Money Central
  This free software will track up to 5,000 securities you own in multiple portfolios as well as track stocks you are just watching. You can enter transactions manually, import them from Quicken or Money, and even download accounts directly from your broker.
• Yahoo Finance
  This portfolio manager offers swift, easy access, but no proprietary analytical tools. To access, click on “to track stocks & more, Register” on the grey bar at the top of the screen.
• Personal Finance

  Bank Rate Monitor
  Provides timely rates for mortgages, home equity loans, savings, credit cards, and checking accounts and tracks ATM fees and online banking fees. The database is updated daily and includes over 4,000 institutions. Other features include a loan calculator, news about the banking and real estate industries, and an extensive and useful how-to section.

• Financial Facts Tool Kit
  A vast array of information to help you begin planning for a secure financial future from the SEC.
• Financial Tools & Planning
  Plug your numbers into interactive calculators to find answers to: what price home you can afford, how much mortgage payments will be, or whether you should refinance your home; what you have to save to become a millionaire; what car you can afford; should you convert your IRA to a ROTH IRA; is a lower interest rate worth the annual credit card fee; and many other questions
• Money Central
  Offers real-time stock quotes, lists of top mutual funds, as well as a wealth of information on topics including retirement planning, saving for college, insurance, and buying or selling a home. Sponsored by Microsoft.

Databases

• Business & Company Resource Center
  Provides periodical articles, detailed information on companies including chronologies and corporate histories, investment reports, industry and company rankings, and financial and industry overviews.
• Business Source Elite
  Full text articles from business journals in areas, such as business, management, economics, banking, finance, and accounting.
• Mergent Online
  Contains U.S. company information including their SEC filings. International company information also is available. Includes industry analysis, financial health analysis, and archives of companies that were acquired, went bankrupt or merged out of existence from 1995 onward.
• Morningstar Investment Research Center
  Search this resource for investment information. Provides analysis on stocks and funds.

Reading List

	The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Your Money by Robert Heady. 2005 (332.024 HEA 2005). Go step-by-step through the process of getting your finances under control. New content on debt and expense management; updated and additional information on financial law; and up-to-date data based on forecasts, trends, and projected economic recovery.
	The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing : a Book for Procrastinators, the Financially Challenged, and Everyone Who worries about Dealing with Ttheir Money by Paul B. Farrell. (332.6 FAR). In this enlightening, entertaining guide, veteran financial commentator Dr. Paul Farrell shows you how to grow a seven-figure nest egg without midnight jitters, time-consuming study, or paying a nickel in commissions to stockbrokers and others.
	The 100 best Mutual Funds You Can Buy 2004 by Gordon K. Williamson. 2004. (332.6327 WIL 2004). This specific, easy-to-follow, and fully revised guide is an invaluable resource for researching the key aspects of these top mutual funds
	Online Investing Hacks by Bonnie Biafore. 2004. (332.632 BIA). Provides a pertinent and pithy introduction to the concepts and calculations, data sources, and vital resources of online investing.
	The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias. 2005. (332.024 TOB). For more than twenty-five years, The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need has been a favorite finance guide, winning the allegiance of more than a million readers across America. Now this indispensable book has been fully updated and reorganized with an even more user-friendly design.
	Standard & Poor's Stock Reports. Provides regularly updated information on all the public companies traded on the New York and American exchanges and the most active companies on the NASDAQ.
	Mergent’s Bond Record. Provides detailed price information and ratings for corporate bonds, convertible bonds, commercial paper, preferred stocks, and municipal bonds.
	Value Line Investment Surveys. An investment advisory service that continuously analyzes and reports on 1,700 public companies. The Investment Survey now has an expanded edition that covers an additional 1,800 companies. The Selection and Opinion volume lists stocks by their timeliness, return on equity, growth and income, and industry performance
	Morningstar Mutual Funds. Morningstar provides an overview of 1,600 mutual funds. Each page describes a different fund; similar to how Value Line treats stocks. The library also provides access to the premium database Morningstar Investment Research Center.