What Financial (Investment) Websites Do You Use?

[Patler]

What sites do you use for research?
What sites do you use for stock trades, mutual fund trades, etc.?

I am heavily reliant on Fidelity for research, and I do all of my trades through a Fidelity account. I follow Zacks for articles and recommendations from which I do my own research.

I like Fidelity, maybe just because I am familiar with it. I'm not sure there is anything "special" about it, but I can move quickly between detailed charts, broker recommendations, earnings and dividend histories, etc. They include pdfs of a lot of individual broker recommendations, which I tend to skim through when evaluating a trade. Their screens are simple and easy to glean information from, yet their "detailed quote" screen summarizes information clearly and logically to me. Their trade screen is very simple and easy to use.

I like Zacks for articles and recommendations, not because their recommendations are so good (I'm not convinced they are any better than anyone else) but because they offer clear distinctions between articles about and recommendations for different categories of stock investments such as small cap, momentum, value, chart patterns, etc. I take what they say, and make my own decisions. They also have a pretty powerful stock screener for research, but I have to admit it is not the easiest to use. As I have figured it out, I like what it does and how it lays out the information.

I would like to evaluate others for investment research and/or recommendations.

What sites do you use?
What do you like and dislike about them?

[Bretsky]

I'm kind of all over; I use scotttrade for my trades so I sometimes do research through them. Enjoy reading articles on MSN, SmarMoney, and the Fools side....(Cramer entertains me). I often do general searches for videos which I make part of my process in researching as well.

Curious Patler, for Zach's, are you a subscriber ? Perhaps I did a poor job naviagating around the site but for the most part I didn't like the site because it seemed every article I wanted to look at required me to pay for the annual fee and I found the whole site confusing for me to find things I was looking for.

I am going to check out Fidelity

[Patler]

I'm kind of all over; I use scotttrade for my trades so I sometimes do research through them. Enjoy reading articles on MSN, SmarMoney, and the Fools side....(Cramer entertains me). I often do general searches for videos which I make part of my process in researching as well.

Curious Patler, for Zach's, are you a subscriber ? Perhaps I did a poor job naviagating around the site but for the most part I didn't like the site because it seemed every article I wanted to look at required me to pay for the annual fee and I found the whole site confusing for me to find things I was looking for.

I am going to check out Fidelity

I am a Zacks Premium subscriber ($199/year, I think). I agree Zacks can be a bit of a jumble and, as I said earlier, the screener is confusing, but actually pretty good once you figure it out. Supposedly, their "Research Wizard" is fantastic, but I can't stomach the cost for it.

[Patler]

I am going to check out Fidelity

For some of their better information you have to be a subscriber as well. I have my trading account with them, so I have access to it all.

[Bretsky]

Patler, I am assuming you trade with Fidelity as well, right ? I don't see much I like in their research w/o being an active member. I can also get all of that from Scottrade. I get S and P reports, and normally one other on any stock I choose. That seems to be the norm with these online sites. To be honest I'm frustrated that I can't get tied into one good spot for research. of course part of that is I don't pay the monthly fees so I shouldn't get the convenience of those who do.

Curious.....are you into charts a lot ? For a long position I'm curious how you try to determine entry points. I'm a believer of this cloud technology being around very strong for the next few years. I've probably went from about 25 stocks and narrowed them down to ten or so. Now I need to do some cut throat comparisons and figure out what final criteria I am going to fly with.

[Partial]

I use Tradeking because it's cheap and that's what my friend told me to sign up for. That's my extent of knowledge on this.

I've gotten into stock trading a bit in the past year and have bought about 50k in AAPL. The PEG ratio is really, really favorable and I see them completely dominating the tablet market and they will eventually choke out Android once they get on all carriers.

I don't know a single non-nerd who is happy with their android phone. My sister has one and hates it. I know 5-6 other people who don't feel as strongly but would have gotten an iPhone if it was available on their carrier.

Once they get on the big 4 carriers, they'll shift the tide back to the iPhone.

The only thing I wish the iPhone had is a bigger screen. 3.5" is pretty small compared to the nice 4" screens on the Galaxy S phones.

[Freak Out]

I love my Nexus One....does it have issues..? Yep.....screen blows in sunlight. I'm waiting for a new unlocked Android phone with a killer screen....the Galaxy 2 fits the bill but I need a car dock for navigation to go with it. The navigation is so good on my Nexus that I threw away my Garmin.

[Patler]

I am going to check out Fidelity

For some of their better information you have to be a subscriber as well. I have my trading account with them, so I have access to it all.

Patler, I am assuming you trade with Fidelity as well, right ? I don't see much I like in their research w/o being an active member. I can also get all of that from Scottrade. I get S and P reports, and normally one other on any stock I choose. That seems to be the norm with these online sites. To be honest I'm frustrated that I can't get tied into one good spot for research. of course part of that is I don't pay the monthly fees so I shouldn't get the convenience of those who do.

Yup, all of my trades are done through Fidelity. Their stock screener seems very extensive. Once you get down to looking at the specifics of an individual stock, they have an "Analysts Opinion" page that I think is quite good. It includes a chart of the analysts recommendations and gives links to many of their reports. For example, for AAPL it lists the recommendations of 22 different firms, when each last changed its recommendation and the direction of the last change. It gives the StarMine Accuracy rating of each firm for that sector. Of the 22 firms that it lists for AAPL, Fidelity provides links to 11 of their research reports on AAPL (Market Edge, Ned Davis, Columbine, Thomson Reuters, Ford Equity Research, Channel Trends, Zacks, Standard & Poors, Thomas White, Eva Dimensions and Altivo). I'm not sure what determines whether or not they link the actual report. It varies from one stock to another. Sometimes it lists the recommendation of a particular firm without linking its actual report, other times it does link their report.

Curious.....are you into charts a lot ? For a long position I'm curious how you try to determine entry points. I'm a believer of this cloud technology being around very strong for the next few years. I've probably went from about 25 stocks and narrowed them down to ten or so. Now I need to do some cut throat comparisons and figure out what final criteria I am going to fly with.

No, I'm not into chart patterns at all. I don't try to time the market, other than staying away from stocks not having a "buy" recommendation from a substantial number of the firms on the Analysts Opinions page on Fidellity. When the market is down like it is now, I tend to do a bit more research, looking for a good stock that maybe has been hit harder than it should have been for no apparent reason. For example, right now I am considering buying more CAT stock, which has gone from $115 in May to $95 right now.

My biggest weakness is knowing when to sell a stock that I own. As a result, I think I am evolving into a bit more of a longer-term investor.

[MJZiggy]

I use Tradeking because it's cheap and that's what my friend told me to sign up for. That's my extent of knowledge on this.

I've gotten into stock trading a bit in the past year and have bought about 50k in AAPL. The PEG ratio is really, really favorable and I see them completely dominating the tablet market and they will eventually choke out Android once they get on all carriers.

I don't know a single non-nerd who is happy with their android phone. My sister has one and hates it. I know 5-6 other people who don't feel as strongly but would have gotten an iPhone if it was available on their carrier.

Once they get on the big 4 carriers, they'll shift the tide back to the iPhone.

The only thing I wish the iPhone had is a bigger screen. 3.5" is pretty small compared to the nice 4" screens on the Galaxy S phones.

I love my droid. Freak, take a look at the Droid Pro. Screen works in sunshine. Everyone I know with and iPhone says it doesn't have good reception. That's the one thing I really do want from my phone.

[Scott Campbell]

I don't know a single non-nerd who is happy with their android phone.

I can see people saying that. But I don't see the tide shifting back to the iPhone unless they price the service more competitively.

[Scott Campbell]

I'm on Fidelity too, but I don't use it that much. I'm not a very active trader.

I do much of my reading at Yahoo's financial site.

[Partial]

I can see people saying that. But I don't see the tide shifting back to the iPhone unless they price the service more competitively.

Android phone data plans are typically the same price as far as I know. I could be misinterpreting what you're saying. The latest fad in mobile is prepaid, and Apple has mentioned in the past they'd like to get into this but have not yet and I don't foresee them doing it this year either. Android does have a presence in this space.

[Scott Campbell]

Android phone data plans are typically the same price as far as I know.

I have five lines with unlimited data, pics, text and 1500 peak none calling circle minutes. (we use 3-500)

$150per month for all 5 lines. That includes all the taxes and fees.

I also have each phone set up to work as a wifi hotspot at no additional cost. So no aircards are needed for any of our laptops.

You just can't come close to touching that with an iPhone.

[Partial]

Yeah that's a pretty awesome deal. How'd you score that? If the carrier did offer the iPhone, why wouldn't it be eligible for the same plan?

[Freak Out]

The fucking Euro is still valued 40 cents above the dollar! WTF? Member States are teetering on the brink of default and it still sits that much higher than the dollar...amazing. Well...not really considering how fucked we are here....get ready for the shit to hit it.