*** ANSWERMAN INTERNET EXTRA *** For the week of November 11, 1996 This is the weekly newsletter for the community of Internet users on America Online. Come see what's new at keyword ANSWERMAN. *This week, AnswerMan's Focus is Investment Planning with the Net* =*=*= IN THIS ISSUE =*=*= AnswerMan's Update -- Stocks and Trades and Bonds, oh my! Eagle's Exploits -- Investment Planning on the Net Upcoming Weekly Focus & Chats -- What's coming down the pipeline? The End -- How to contact us or unsubscribe =*=*= WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK WITH ANSWERMAN =*=*= Go to keyword: For: ANSWERMAN Internet message board, daily tips, other good stuff AM FOCUS Links to useful sites organized by topic AM CHAT Read transcripts of Internet chats that you missed AM GLOSSARY RTFM to decrypt that Internet jargon NET HELP Get quick help for your Internet questions Here's a direct link for AOL 3.0 users: Go to keyword AnswerMan. =*=*= ANSWERMAN'S UPDATE -- Stocks and Trades and Bonds, oh my! =*=*= by Kevin Savetz (AnswerMan) Your money, your investments, your choice. Maybe you don't trust the judgment of that smooth-talking, commission-craving investment manager, or perhaps you'd simply rather be at the driver's seat when it comes to investing your hard-earned income. For innumerable reasons, investors are increasingly making their own solid decisions and researching companies themselves. This week, AnswerMan focuses on sites that will help you use the Internet for investment research. With any luck, these sites can help you scour the landscape for the next Disney, check how the winds of change are blowing on your current investments, or watch the horizon for hints of the next trend to sweep the nation -- and watch for the firms that might come out on top. A great place to start our tour is with Yahoo! Quotes at http://quote.yahoo.com/. You can enter one or more stock symbols into its simple interface, and you'll immediately see those stocks' last trade cost, change, and volume as well as recent news about the company. (Once you do this, you can set the page as a Favorite Place for easy access, or even as your Web browser's home page, to get the info every time you start using the Web.) Yahoo! Quotes also offers the latest stock news, info about new stock offerings and more. I am anything but a stock genius. I own a few shares, but I probably buy them for all the wrong reasons. (I mean, I bought stock in Atari because I wanted an Atari computer in 1982. I bought shares of a publisher just because I like reading one of their magazines.) That's why I'm pretty fond of StockMaster at http://www.stockmaster.com/. StockMaster will tell you the current trading price and all the typical details about a stock, but it also provides instant graphs of the stock's activity: you can track the stock's rise and fall over the past year at a glance, and compare its price to the average of the S&P 500. There's also an "investor sentiment survey" where you can answer the question "How positive/negative are you for the prospects for this stock in the next three months?" and see a graph of other's views, too. InvestorsEdge, at http://www.investorsedge.com/, offers mutual fund information, stock and company news, and a personal portfolio you can use to track your investments. What's a mutual fund? Geez, I don't know. That is, I didn't--until I visited the Mutual Fund Investor's Center at http://www.mfea.com/. Its "education" section spells out the basics of mutual fund investing, how to read a prospectus, and more. It's a bit commercial and pitchy, but offers good info. Money Talks (http://www.talks.com) is an especially useful site for investors. Money Talks is a collection of investment columns geared toward individual investors interested in mutual funds, personal finance, the equities marketplace, the utilities and power industry, and the retail industry. Money Talks features five columns, one of which is updated each weekday. Live chat sessions featuring investment pundits are also planned here. CNN Financial Network (http://cnnfn.com/) offers hot stories, market news, your money (covering all facets of personal finance and individual investing), digital jam (highlights stories on high-tech companies, and tech stocks,) and much more. It's loaded with information, although you'll have to explore to find where all the good stuff is buried. Finally, PR Newswire (at http://www.prnewswire.com/) is a clearinghouse for press releases. The main staple of the PR Newswire site is Company News On Call (http://www.prnewswire.com/cnoc.html) which houses the full text of press releases from almost 700 public and private companies. If you can get past the sometimes saccharine flavor that is all too common to company self-promotion ("our company just lost $1 billion and our president just died of cholera, but things are looking rosy!") you can learn a myriad of details about a company from their press releases. It can take some careful reading between the lines to get the true gist of a press release, but since most companies are eager to publish one any time anything vaguely interesting happens, press releases can be a good indicator of how a company is faring -- or at least, an indicator of the company's opinion of itself. Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan Focus-More investment sites AnswerMan Yahoo! Quotes StockMaster InvestorsEdge Mutual Fund Investor's Center Money Talks CNN Financial Network PR Newswire =*=*= Eagle's Exploits -- Investment Planning on the Net =*=*= by Aminie D. Elsberry (CJ Eagle) "Have I got a deal for you...." Have you heard these words before? Well, I found an interesting site to get you armed and ready to jump in or get out of the way. It's Parent Soup's guide to saving, investing & giving, at: http://www.parentsoup.com/library/mon004.html. There is so much information here that you'll want to bookmark it (AOL-ese...add it to your favorite places list) for future reference. This site is produced by the folks at Parent Soup (a fantastic site covering all aspects of being a parent). The topics covered range from how to decipher analyst and annual reports, to helping you determine whether or not full service brokers are for you. You can also get information on charities, what are discount brokers, introduction to investment, advice on determining whether or not to invest in a particular company -- there is even advice on how to plan for your child's college education (imagine that, at Parent Soup ). And a whole LOT more. The site is very well organized, very easy to navigate, and the content at is well worth your time in your quest to gain financial/investment knowledge. Once you get to Parent Soup, you'll notice a link to the American Express Financial Advisors page. At that site you'll be able to use their Interactive Financial Tools. (To get there directly point your browser to: http://www.americanexpress.com/advisors/). The Interactive Financial Tools are a free service of American Express. These tools will help you understand why financial planning is critical to your financial success. They will also help you answer the three simple questions: Where am I now? Where am I going? How will I get there? The seven steps you need to complete are: determining your net worth, calculate your cash flow, calculate your "real" take home pay, project retirement, save for college, determine financial needs of a survivor, and explore investment models. This site makes it very easy to complete these steps and you always know just where you are in the process. As a note, American Express does not save any of the financial information that you supply in order to obtain your personal financial profile...so be sure to have paper in your printer! :-) OK, so we had a site for the novice investor, and a site for financial profiles, how about a site for you financial wizards? You might like what I found at the Wall Street Directory, Inc.: http://www.wsdinc.com/index.html -- here you will find tools for the computerized trader and investor with over 6500 pages of information -- searchable via 100 categories, listing thousands of company, product, and service descriptions. And, boy howdy, they aren't kidding. From information on advisory services, to agricultural services, asset allocation and currencies-exchange rates....all the way to retirement planning. This site seems to have it all. Here you can also get the WSD quick notes that contain information on stock/mutual fund quotes and news/company reports. There is also a newsletter for special offers and announcements that you can subscribe to along with an e-mail forum showing the two-way correspondence from members. You may need a search party sent after you, this site requires some time to see. But hey, that's what unlimited access on December 1 is for, right? Successful investing. See you next week. Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Parent Soup's guide American Express Financial Advisors Wall Street Directory =*=*= THE WEEKLY FOCUS & CHAT =*=*= Every week, AnswerMan focuses on a particular facet of using the Internet. Here's what's going on this week. Live chat on Sunday, November 17, 6PM ET -- Investment Planning. Can't decide what mutual funds to pick, or do you need expert advice on how to stash enough money away to send your kids to college? Looking for historical stock data, or just clues on how to plan for retirement? This hour, AnswerMan will share with you the Internet's top investment planning sites, so you can make informed decisions about where your money goes. And, here are the Weekly Focus topics we'll be covering in the near future: Nov 18 - Nov 24: Introduction to files and FTP Nov 25 - Dec 1: Internet for Travelers Dec 2 - Dec 8: Celebrating the Holidays on the Net Dec 9 - Dec 15: Use the Net to Find a Job Dec 16 - Dec 22: Facts about FAQs Dec 23 - Dec 29: Mailing Lists Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Go to the AnswerMan Chat. AnswerMan Focus. =*=*= THE END =*=*= That's all for this week. Got comments about this newsletter? We want to hear them! Send 'em to AnswerMan. The e-mail address is "AnswerMan@aol.com". There are two easy ways to unsubscribe yourself from the AnswerMan mailing list. You can use either. #1: send an e-mail message -- To: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: UNSUBSCRIBE Body: UNSUBSCRIBE ANSWERMAN #2: For AOL 3.0 users only: Double-click here then press "Unsubscribe". Copyright 1996 by America Online. All rights reserved. Made from 100% recycled electrons.