Getting and staying informed is an ongoing priority for stock investors. The lists in this Appendix represent some of the best information resources available.
To find a financial planner to help you with your general financial needs, contact the following organizations:
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards
1425 K St. NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005
800-487-1497
www.cfp.net
Get a free copy of the CFP Board's pamphlet 10 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Financial Planner. Be sure to ask for a financial planner who specializes in investing.
Financial Planning Association (FPA)
1600 K St. NW, Suite 201
Washington, DC 20006
800-322-4237
www.fpanet.org
National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
3250 N. Arlington Heights Rd., Suite 109
Arlington Heights, IL 60004
847-483-5400
www.napfa.org
Standard & Poor's Dictionary of Financial Terms
By Virginia Morris and Kenneth Morris
Published by Lightbulb Press, Inc.
A nicely laid out A-to-Z publication for investors mystified by financial terms. It explains the important investing terms you come across every day.
Investing for Beginners
beginnersinvest.about.com
This site offers good basic information for novice investors.
Investopedia
www.investopedia.com
An excellent site with plenty of information on investing for beginning and intermediate investors.
Investor Words
www.investorwords.com
One of the most comprehensive sites on the Internet for beginning and intermediate investors for learning words and phrases unique to the financial world.
Stock investing success isn't an event; it's a process. The periodicals and magazines listed here (along with their Web sites) have offered many years of guidance and information for investors, and they're still top-notch. The books and pamphlets provide much wisdom that's either timeless or timely (covering problems and concerns every investor should be aware of now).
Barron's
www.barrons.com
Forbes magazine
www.forbes.com
Investor's Business Daily
www.investors.com
Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine
www.kiplinger.com
Money magazine
www.money.com
SmartMoney
www.smartmoney.com
The Wall Street Journal
www.wsj.com
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
By Philip A. Fisher
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Elliott Wave Principle: Key to Market Behavior
By Robert Prechter and A. J. Frost
Published by New Classics Library
Forbes Guide to the Markets
By Marc M. Groz
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
How to Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett: Profiting from the Bargain Hunting Strategies of the World's Greatest Value Investor
By Timothy Vick
Published by McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing
The Intelligent Investor: The Classic Text on Value Investing
By Benjamin Graham
Published by HarperCollins
Invest Wisely: Advice From Your Securities Regulators (pamphlet)
www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/inws.htm
This publication provides basic information to help investors select a brokerage firm and sales representative, make an initial investment decision, monitor an investment, and address an investment problem.
Secrets of the Great Investors (audiotape series)
Published by Knowledge Products
800-876-4332
www.knowledgeproducts.net/html/inv_files/invest.cfm
Security Analysis: The Classic 1951 Edition
by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd
Published by the McGraw-Hill Companies
This book is a classic, and most investors in this uncertain age should acquaint themselves with the basics.
Standard & Poor's Stock Reports (available in the library reference section) Ask your reference librarian about this excellent reference source, which gives one-page summaries on the major companies and has detailed financial reports on all major companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange, and Nasdaq.
The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money & Investing
By Kenneth Morris and Virginia Morris
Published by Lightbulb Press, Inc.
These titles provide more in-depth information for Chapters 10, 13, 14, 15, and 25.
The Coming Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It: Make a Fortune by Investing in Gold and Other Hard Assets
By James Turk and John Rubino
Published by Doubleday
Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse
By Peter Schiff
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The ETF Book: All You Need to Know About Exchange-Traded Funds
By Richard Ferri
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Considering the marketplace, ETFs are better choices than stocks for some investors, and this book does a good job of explaining them.
Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market
By Jim Rogers
Published by Random House
Precious Metals Investing For Dummies
By Paul Mladjenovic
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
My shameless plug for another great book. Seriously, the book covers an area that will become an important part of the financial landscape in the coming months and years (can you say "inflation"?). Yes, common stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) involved in precious metals are covered.
Profit from the Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century
By Brian Hicks and Chris Nelder
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy
By Matthew R. Simmons
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
How can any serious investor ignore the Internet? You can't and you shouldn't. The following are among the best information sources available.
Bloomberg
www.bloomberg.com
CNN Money
www.money.cnn.com
Financial Sense
www.financialsense.com
Forbes
www.forbes.com
Free-Market News Network
www.freemarketnews.com
MarketWatch
www.marketwatch.com
Money Central
www.moneycentral.com
SmartMoney
www.smartmoney.com
Allstocks.com
www.allstocks.com
CNBC
www.cnbc.com
Contrarian Investing.com
www.contrarianinvesting.com
DailyStocks
www.dailystocks.com
Investools
www.investools.com
Morningstar GrowthInvestor (known for mutual funds but also has great research available on stocks as well)
www.morningstar.com
Quote.com
www.quote.com
Raging Bull
www.ragingbull.com
Standard and Poor's
www.standardandpoors.com
The Street
www.thestreet.com
www.supermoneylinks.com
Yahoo! Finance
www.finance.yahoo.com
American Association of Individual Investors (AAII)
625 N. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611-3110
800-428-2244, 312-280-0170
www.aaii.com
National Association of Investors Corp. (NAIC)
711 W. 13 Mile Rd.
Madison Heights, MI 48071
877-275-6242, 248-583-6242
www.betterinvesting.org
American Stock Exchange
www.amex.com
Nasdaq
www.nasdaq.com
New York Stock Exchange
www.nyse.com
OTC Bulletin Board
www.otcbb.com
The following sections offer sources to help you evaluate brokers and an extensive list of brokers (with telephone numbers and Web sites) so that you can do your own shopping.
SmartMoney magazine
www.smartmoney.com
SmartMoney does a comprehensive annual review and comparison of stockbrokers.
Stock Brokers
www.stockbrokers.com
Charles Schwab & Co.
800-435-4000
www.schwab.com
Citi Smith Barney
800-221-3636
www.smithbarney.com
E*TRADE
800-387-2331
www.etrade.com
Fidelity Brokerage
800-343-3548
www.fidelity.com
Merrill Lynch
800-637-7455
www.ml.com
Muriel Siebert & Co.
800-872-0444
www.siebertnet.com
Options Xpress
888-280-8020
www.optionsxpress.com
R.F. Lafferty & Co., Inc.
800-221-8601
www.laffertyny.com
800-619-7283
www.scottrade.com
TD Ameritrade
800-669-3900
www.tdameritrade.com
thinkorswim
866-839-1100
www.thinkorswim.com
TradeKing
877-495-5464
www.tradeking.com
Vanguard Brokerage Services
877-662-7447
www.vanguard.com
Wachovia Securities
866-927-0812
www.wachoviasecurities.com
Wall Street Access
800-709-5929
www.wsaccess.com
The following are fee-based subscription services. Many of them also offer excellent (and free) e-mail newsletters tracking the stock market and related news.
The Bull & Bear
www.thebullandbear.com
The Daily Reckoning (Agora Publishing)
www.dailyreckoning.com
The Elliott Wave Theorist
770-536-0309
www.elliottwave.com
www.hulbertdigest.com
Part of MarketWatch.com
InvestorPlace
www.investorplace.com
Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street
www.rukeyser.com
Mark Skousen
www.mskousen.com
Money and Markets
www.moneyandmarkets.com
The Motley Fool
www.fool.com
Richard Russell's Dow Theory Letters
www.dowtheoryletters.com
The Value Line Investment Survey
800-654-0508
www.valueline.com
BUYandHOLD, Inc.
www.buyandhold.com
DRIP Central
www.dripcentral.com
First Share
www.firstshare.com
ShareBuilder (ING Direct)
www.sharebuilder.com
The following sources give you the chance to look a little deeper at some critical aspects regarding stock analysis. Whether it's earnings estimates and insider selling or a more insightful look at a particular industry, these sources are among my favorites.
Earnings Whispers
www.earningswhispers.com
Thomson Reuters
www.thomsonreuters.com
Zacks Summary of Brokerage Research
www.zacks.com
Hoover's
www.hoovers.com
MarketWatch
www.marketwatch.com
Standard & Poor's
www.standardandpoors.com
Understanding basic economics is so vital to making your investment decisions that I had to include this section. These great sources have helped me understand the big picture and what ultimately affects the stock market (see Chapters 10 and 15 for more details).
American Institute for Economic Research (AIER)
P.O. Box 100
Great Barrington, MA 01230
www.aier.org
Note: AIER also has great little booklets for consumers on budgeting, social security, avoiding financial problems, and other topics.
Center for Freedom and Prosperity
www.freedomandprosperity.org
Federal Reserve Board
www.federalreserve.gov
Financial Sense
P.O. Box 1269
Poway, CA 92074
858-486-3939
www.financialsense.com
Foundation for Economic Education
30 S. Broadway
Irvington, NY 10533
800-960-4333
www.fee.org
Le Metropole Café
www.lemetropolecafe.com
Ludwig von Mises Institute
518 W. Magnolia Ave.
Auburn, AL 36832
334-321-2100
www.mises.org
Moody's Economy.com
121 N. Walnut St., Suite 500
West Chester, PA 19380-3166
866-275-3266
www.economy.com
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
www.sec.gov
The SEC has tremendous resources for investors. In addition to providing information on investing, the SEC also monitors the financial markets for fraud and other abusive activities. For stock investors, it also has EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system), which is a comprehensive, searchable database of public documents that are filed by public companies.
Go to any of these sites to find out about new and proposed laws. The on-site search engines will help you find laws either by their assigned number or a keyword search.
Library of Congress
Thomas legislative search engine
http://thomas.loc.gov
U.S. House of Representatives
www.house.gov
U.S. Senate
www.senate.gov
Big Charts (Provided by www.marketwatch.com)
www.bigcharts.com
The Elliott Wave Theorist
www.elliottwave.com
LiveCharts
www.livecharts.com
StockCharts.com, Inc.
www.stockcharts.com
Americans for Tax Reform
www.atr.org
Fairmark
www.fairmark.com
Fidelity Investments
www.401k.com
J.K. Lasser's series of books on taxes
By J.K. Lasser
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
www.wiley.com
National Taxpayers Union
www.ntu.org
Roth IRA
www.rothira.com
Taxes 2008 For Dummies
By Eric Tyson, Margaret A. Munro, and David J. Silverman
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
www.dummies.com, www.wiley.com
Federal Citizen Information Center
www.pueblo.gsa.gov
Investing publications for consumers from the Federal Citizen Information Center catalog are available for free downloading at this Web site.
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
1735 K St. NW
Washington, DC 20006
800-289-9999
202-728-8000
www.finra.org
This Web site gives you information and assistance on reporting fraud or other abuse by brokers.
National Consumers League's Fraud Center
www.fraud.org
North American Securities Administrators Association
888-846-2722
www.nasaa.org
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
www.sec.gov
The government agency that regulates the securities industry.
Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association
1101 New York Ave. NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
202-962-7300
www.sifma.org
Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC)
www.sipc.org
SIPC has the role of restoring funds to investors with assets in the hands of bankrupt and otherwise financially troubled brokerage firms (make sure that your brokerage firm is a member of SIPC).