Appendix A
Resources for Stock Investors
Getting and staying informed are ongoing priorities for stock investors. The lists in this appendix represent some of the best information resources available.
Financial Planning Sources
To find a financial planner to help you with your general financial needs, contact the following organizations.
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board)
1425 K St. NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005
Phone 800-487-1497
Website 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)
1290 Broadway, Suite 1625
Denver, CO 80203
Phone 800-322-4237
Website www.fpanet.org
This is the largest organization of financial planning professionals.
National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA)
8700 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Suite 700N
Chicago, IL 60631
Phone 888-333-6659
Website www.napfa.org
This is the leading organization for fee-based financial planners (in other words, they don’t get paid through commissions based on selling insurance/investment products).
The Language of Investing
Investing for Beginners
Website beginnersinvest.about.com
Investopedia
Website www.investopedia.com
Investor Words
Website www.investorwords.com
Standard & Poor’s Dictionary of Financial Terms
By Virginia B. Morris and Kenneth M. 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.
Textual Investment Resources
Stock investing success isn’t an event; it’s a process. The periodicals and magazines listed here (along with their websites) have offered many years of guidance and information for investors, and they’re still top-notch. The books provide much wisdom that’s either timeless or timely (covering problems and concerns every investor should be aware of now).
Periodicals and magazines
Barron’s
Website online.barrons.com
Forbes magazine
Website www.forbes.com
Investing.com
Website www.investing.com
Investor’s Business Daily
Website www.investors.com
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine
Website www.kiplinger.com
Money magazine
Website www.money.com
Value Line Investment Survey
Website www.valueline.com
The Wall Street Journal
Website www.wsj.com
Books
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings
By Philip A. Fisher
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Elliott Wave Principle: Key to Market Behavior
By A.J. Frost and Robert R. Prechter
Published by New Classics Library
Robert Prechter is one of the leading technicians and has had some very accurate forecasts about the stock market and the general economy.
Forbes Guide to the Markets: Becoming a Savvy Investor
By Marc M. Groz
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Fundamental Analysis For Dummies
By Matt Krantz
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
I had the good fortune to review this book, and it’s very worthwhile for serious investors. The author drills down into the financials of a company, which any serious investor needs to know.
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
When you’re investing, it’s good to see what accomplished investors like Warren Buffett do, and this book explains his approach well.
The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing
By Benjamin Graham
Published by HarperCollins
This is a classic investing book that was great when it was published and is very relevant in today’s tumultuous stock market.
Security Analysis: The Classic 1951 Edition
by Benjamin Graham and David L. 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)
Website www.standardandpoors.com
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 and Nasdaq.
The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money & Investing
By Kenneth M. Morris and Virginia B. Morris
Published by Lightbulb Press, Inc.
Special books of interest to stock investors
The Coming Bond Market Collapse: How to Survive the Demise of the U.S. Debt Market
By Michael G. Pento
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The global bond market is a huge bubble that will send shockwaves through stock markets and economies; Pento tells you why and what to do.
Crash Proof 2.0: How to Profit from the Economic Collapse
By Peter D. Schiff with John Downes
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
A great “crash course” on the problems facing our modern economy and how to strategize with your portfolio.
The ETF Book: All You Need to Know About Exchange-Traded Funds
By Richard A. 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.
High-Level Investing For Dummies
By Paul Mladjenovic
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
My shameless plug for another great book. Seriously, this book will indeed take your stock investing to the next level as I cover more strategies and resources on investing and speculating with not only stocks but also ETFs and options so you can find out what it takes to be with history’s great investors and speculators.
Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World’s Best Market
By Jim Rogers
Published by Random House
The cornerstone of “human need” investing includes commodities, and Rogers provides great insights in this book.
The Money Bubble
By James Turk and John Rubino
Published by DollarCollapse Press
These are epic times as historic currency bubbles and crises unfold with serious consequences for stocks and other aspects of the financial picture. This book gives you great guidance for enhancing your financial safety.
Why the Federal Reserve Sucks: It Causes Inflation, Recessions, Bubbles and Enriches the One Percent
By Murray Sabrin
Published by Gallatin House, LLC
Investing Websites
How can any serious investor ignore the internet? You can’t, and you shouldn’t. The following are among the best information sources available.
General investing websites
Bloombergwww.bloomberg.com
CNN Businesswww.cnn.com/business
Financial Sensewww.financialsense.com
Forbeswww.forbes.com
Invest Wisely: Advice From Your Securities Industry Regulatorswww.sec.gov/investor/pubs/inws.htm
Investing.comwww.investing.com
MarketWatchwww.marketwatch.com
Moneyhttps://money.com/
Stock investing websites
AllStocks.comwww.allstocks.com
Benzingawww.benzinga.com
CNBCwww.cnbc.com
Contrarian Investing.comwww.contrarianinvesting.com
DailyStockswww.dailystocks.com
Morningstar (known for mutual funds but has great research on stocks as well)www.morningstar.com
Quote.comwww.quote.com
RagingBullwww.ragingbull.com
Standard and Poor’swww.standardandpoors.com
TheStreetwww.thestreet.com
Yahoo! Financewww.finance.yahoo.com
Stock investing blogs
These blogs offer a wealth of opinions and insights from experts on investing. Peruse them to round out your research (you may even find some articles from me as well).
Best of the Web Blogs: Investinghttps://blogs.botw.org/Business/Investing/
Note: The Best of the Web (BOTW) site has an extensive blog directory, and this specific page lists many excellent investing blogs for your review. Many specialize in stocks and related investing matters. There are many excellent financial and stock market blogs that I can’t fit in this space, so do a search on BOTW (another source to check is www.blogsearchengine.org).
MarketBeatwww.marketbeat.com
Seeking Alphawww.seekingalpha.com
StockTwitswww.stocktwits.com
StreetAuthoritywww.streetauthority.com
Other blogs that are useful for stock investors
Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.comwww.usawatchdog.com
HoweStreetwww.howestreet.com
King World Newswww.kingworldnews.com
Market Sanitywww.marketsanity.com
Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysiswww.mishtalk.com
SafeHavenwww.safehaven.com
Zero Hedgewww.zerohedge.com
Investor Associations and Organizations
American Association of Individual Investors (AAII)
625 N. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611-3110
Phone 800-428-2244
Website www.aaii.com
National Association of Investors Corp. (NAIC)
711 W. 13 Mile Rd., Suite 900
Madison Heights, MI 48071
Phone 877-275-6242
Website www.betterinvesting.org
Stock Exchanges
Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)
Website www.cboe.com
Note: The CBOE is an options exchange, but I include it here because options have been mentioned throughout this book, and the CBOE options learning center has lots of information about how options can enhance your stock investing.
Nasdaq
Website www.nasdaq.com
New York Stock Exchange/Euronext
Website www.nyse.com
OTC Bulletin Board
Website www.otcbb.com
If you decide to research small cap stocks, this is the site to go to for data and research on small, publicly traded companies.
Finding Brokers
The following sections offer sources to help you evaluate brokers and an extensive list of brokers (with telephone numbers and websites) so that you can do your own shopping.
Choosing brokers
Reviews.com
Website www.reviews.com/online-stock-trading
This site provides reviews in many categories, including stock brokerage firms.
Stock Brokers
Website www.stockbrokers.com
Brokers
Ally Financial
Phone 855-880-2559
Website www.ally.com
Charles Schwab & Co.
Phone 800-435-4000
Website www.schwab.com
E*TRADE
Phone 800-387-2331
Website www.etrade.com
Edward Jones
Phone 314-515-3265
Website www.edwardjones.com
Fidelity Brokerage Services
Phone 800-343-3548
Website www.fidelity.com
Merrill Lynch
Phone 800-637-7455
Website www.ml.com
Morgan Stanley
Phone 888-454-3965
Website www.morganstanley.com
Muriel Siebert & Co.
Phone 800-872-0444
Website www.siebertnet.com
TD Ameritrade
Phone 800-454-9272
Website www.tdameritrade.com
thinkorswim
Phone 866-839-1100
Website www.thinkorswim.com
Vanguard Brokerage Services
Phone 877-662-7447
Website https://investor.vanguard.com/home
Wall Street Access
Phone 212-232-5602
Website www.wsaccess.com
Wells Fargo Securities
Phone 866-224-5708
Website www.wellsfargoadvisors.com
Fee-Based Investment Sources
The following are fee-based subscription services. Many of them also offer excellent (and free) email newsletters tracking the stock market and related news.
The Bull & Bear
Website www.thebullandbear.com
The Daily Reckoning (Agora Publishing)
Website www.dailyreckoning.com
Elliott Wave International
Phone 800-336-1618
Website www.elliottwave.com
Hulbert Financial Digest
Website http://hulbertratings.com/
Investing Daily
Website www.investingdaily.com
Mark Skousen
Website www.mskousen.com
The Morgan Report
Website www.themorganreport.com
Profitable Investing
Website https://profitableinvesting.investorplace.com/
Profits Unlimited
Website www.paulmampillyguru.com
The Motley Fool
Website www.fool.com
The Value Line Investment Survey
Phone 800-654-0508
Website www.valueline.com
Wealth Wave
Website www.wealth-wave.com
Weiss Research’s Money and Markets
Website www.moneyandmarkets.com
Exchange-Traded Funds
ETF Databasewww.etfdb.com
ETF Trendswww.etftrends.com
ETFguidehttp://etfguide.com/
Dividend Reinvestment Plans
DRIP Central
Website www.dripcentral.com
DRIP Investor
Website www.dripinvestor.com
First Share
Website www.firstshare.com
Moneypaper’s directinvesting.com
Website www.directinvesting.com
Sources for Analysis
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 and earnings estimates
Earnings Whispers
Website www.earningswhispers.com
Thomson Reuters
Website www.thomsonreuters.com
Yahoo’s Stock Research Center
Website https://finance.yahoo.com/
Zacks Investment Research
Website www.zacks.com
Sector and industry analysis
D&B Hoovers
Website www.hoovers.com
MarketWatch
Website www.marketwatch.com
Standard & Poor’s
Website www.standardandpoors.com
Stock indexes
S&P Dow Jones Indices
Website www.spindices.com/
Investopedia’s tutorial on indexes
Website www.investopedia.com/university/indexes
Reuters Markets & Finance News
Website www.reuters.com/finance/markets
Note: If these direct links don’t work, do a search for indexes from the site’s home page. Also, keep in mind that many of the resources in this appendix offer extensive information on indexes (such as MarketWatch and Yahoo! Finance).
Factors that affect market value
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 Chapter 15 for more details).
Economics and politics
American Institute for Economic Research (AIER)
Website 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
Website www.freedomandprosperity.org
Credit Bubble Bulletinwww.creditbubblebulletin.blogspot.com
Federal Reserve Board
Website www.federalreserve.gov
Financial Sense
Website www.financialsense.com
Foundation for Economic Education
Website www.fee.org
Grandfather Economic Report
Website http://grandfather-economic-report.com/
Ludwig von Mises Institute
518 W. Magnolia Ave.
Auburn, AL 36832
Phone 334-321-2100
Website www.mises.org
Moody’s Analytics
Website www.economy.com
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Phone 800-732-0330
Websites www.sec.gov and www.investor.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 (the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system), which is a comprehensive, searchable database of public documents that are filed by public companies.
Federal laws
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)
Website https://congress.gov/
U.S. House of Representatives
Website www.house.gov
U.S. Senate
Website www.senate.gov
Technical analysis
Big Charts (provided by MarketWatch)
Website http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/
Elliott Wave International
Website www.elliottwave.com
Stock Technical Analysis
Website www.stockta.com
StockCharts.com
Website www.stockcharts.com
Technical Traders
Website www.thetechnicaltraders.com
Insider trading
ProCon
Website www.procon.org
SEC Info
Website www.secinfo.com
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Website www.sec.gov
StreetInsider
Website www.streetinsider.com
10-K Wizard
Website www.10kwizard.com
Note: This site takes you to Morningstar’s Document Research site, which can help you find the filed documents.
Tax Benefits and Obligations
Americans for Tax Reform
Website www.atr.org
Fairmark
Website www.fairmark.com
Fidelity Investments
Website www.401k.com
J.K. Lasser’s series of books on taxes
By J.K. Lasser
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Website www.jklasser.com
National Taxpayers Union
Website www.ntu.org
TaxMama
Website www.taxmama.com
Fraud
Federal Citizen Information Center
Website www.pueblo.gsa.gov
Investing publications for consumers from the Federal Citizen Information Center catalog are available for free downloading at this website.
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
1735 K St. NW
Washington, DC 20006
Phone 844-574-3577 or 301-590-6500
Website www.finra.org
This website gives you information and assistance on reporting fraud or other abuse by brokers.
National Consumers League’s Fraud Center
Website www.fraud.org
North American Securities Administrators Association
Phone 202-737-0900
Website www.nasaa.org
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Website www.sec.gov
The government agency that regulates the securities industry.
Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA)
1099 New York Ave. NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
Phone 202-962-7300
Website www.sifma.org
Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC)
Website 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).