advalorem,
How does the CD-ROM work?
VL snail mails the CD-ROM every month (approximately the 15th or so) to its' subscribers. There are two versions. The first is the Basic, which is the 1700 stock universe you see in the Basic print edition. The second CD-ROM is for the Expanded Version (also includes the Basic), which matches the Expanded print edition. The price for each version is identical to the print editions. When you receive your updated CD-ROM, you simply load it and <click> on the update function. It sometimes takes longer to open the mailer than it does to apply the update.
With the CD-ROM, you get all of the features contained in the print versions, only in electronic format (actually it's in Adobe Acrobat; I use Acrobat Version 4.05 for best results, available for free at adobe.com ). But you also get an additional spreadsheet tool, which allows you to see the entire stock universe within your database, and search or filter or sort against most every data item contained in the standard company report, against all stocks on one pass through the database. This is something that cannot be done with the print versions, and is the key to why the CD-ROM is so much more valuable (to me) than the print editions. You also have portfolio and watch list capabilities, as well as creating your own reports and even your own data items to track (for example, I created a GPE data item, growth to P/E which is not a VL supplied ratio).
In the monthly CD-ROM, every data item for every company is updated to a "current" status (some data items and some companies have no changes, so what was current last month is still current this month, but a refreshed copy of all data is available anyway). So that means that a filter that served up say, 53 stocks before the update, might serve up say 42 after the update, because data values changed and some stocks no longer meet your filtered criteria. (The same is true of the weekly updates, which I'll get to shortly.)
Additionally, the medium contains all of the current company reports. You can view them electronically or simply print one or more of them on your printer. They are identical to the print edition reports. Each and every week, VL sends via snail mail the updated hard copy reports to its' print subscribers. CD-ROM subscribers get the same reports, only monthly. However, that doesn't mean that we don't get access to the new reports in as timely a manner as the print subscribers. We can login to the VL website and review and/or download and/or print each and every new report as they become available to the entire VL subscriber base. These are available every Friday after market close. The part I like is no more manually removing the "old" reports, inserting the new reports, and wondering if you've done the whole process correctly. <g>
Do they send it to you (updated weekly)?
VL supplies a weekly (available on Fridays, after market close) data items update available for downloading and installation within your own database. Actually, you download two rather large (2000K+- and 1000K+-) executable files, and one updates the Selection & Opinions; the other updates the individual data items that need updating and includes interim analyst updates. This weekly update corresponds to the weekly mailings that print subscribers receive, with the exception that updated individual company reports are only available at the VL website. Your personal database of individual company reports is updated through the monthly CD-ROM process. But with the ability to download and print from the VL website, I find it's no problem at all. Every Friday night, I go through the VL site and review each and every new report that I'm interested in (usually maybe 10 or so out of 250-300 updated reports available in the Expanded edition). I download those that I want into a separate folder on my computer and I'm as current as I want to be.
When is the net version expected to come out?
Technically, the net version is out now, and available as a supplemental demo "tool" to the CD-ROM. But they haven't as yet "officially" rolled it out, nor have they clearly outlined all of the details yet (for example, will I still get a CD-ROM monthly, or will I still need to download weekly updates, questions like that). The original release date was expected to be in March, 2000. But obviously it has been delayed. I would anticipate sometime later this year, maybe in the last quarter.
And in closing, I find their software support to be adequate for my needs. I have written to them numerous times regarding problems or errors that I've encountered, and they've responded in a timely manner (usually within 1 or 2 business days), and every error that I've encountered was either fixed immediately (they send you instructions on how to do something) or they corrected the error in the next release. Oh, they don't correct stock losses or investment boo-boos that you may commit. You're on your own there. <g>
KJC |
