The Best Websites for Investors
MAY 1, 2000
Where to Find Investment Information on the Internet
By Howard R. Gold
Outline
1. Investing Today Vs. "The Good Old Days"
2. Today, Everyone Can Invest Like a Pro
3. What You Can Now Get Online
4. Barron's Top Ten Web Sites for Investors
5. Niche Sites That Do One Thing Well
6. The Best Online Brokers
7. Predictions
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The "Good Old Days"
Broker calls pushing stocks the firm wants to move
Brother-in-law gives you "hot tip"
Read about stock and call for annual report
Call up broker and buy shares
Investing Today
Hear about stock in chat room or on CNBC
Go to Yahoo! Finance or MoneyCentral to get data
Download annual report and news stories on the company
Draw stock charts instantly based on any indicator
Get earnings estimates and research reports from top Wall Street analysts
Go to online broker and buy shares for $20 or less
Today Everyone Can Invest Like the Pros
Prices come down for data and tools
Individuals have more resources than brokers had ten years ago
Online brokers make trading easy and cheap
Internet Usage (millions of WWW users)
1998 2000E 2003E
U.S. 62.8 103.1 177.0
Japan 8.0 12.9 32.0
Asia Pacific 10.2 18.6 47.7
World 142.2 256.4 502.4
Source: IDC, Merrill Lynch
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How Do We Pick "The Best"?
Ease of Use
Depth & Usefulness of Data
Editorial Content
Tools and Interactivity
Timeliness
Barron's Top Ten Websites for Investors
Microsoft MoneyCentral moneycentral.com
Quicken.com quicken.com
AOL Personal Finance Channel
Yahoo!Finance quote.yahoo.com
CBSMarketWatch cbs.marketwatch.com
Morningstar.com morningstar.com
TheStreet.com thestreet.com
CNNfn cnnfn.com
Silicon Investor siliconinvestor.com
The Motley Fool fool.com
Source: "Untangled Web," Barron's, October 23, 2000
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Sites That Do One Thing Well
Real-time quotes: quotes.freerealtime.com;
SEC documents: freeedgar.com
Analysts' reports: multex.com
"Whisper" numbers: www.earningswhispers.com
Asset Allocation: financialengines.com
Source: Website of the Week, Barron's Online
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Online Trading: How Big Will It Get?
Assets Managed
Online Total U.S.
Online Accounts
1999 5.4 million $374 billion
2000 7.0 million $564 billion
2001 9.2 million $906 billion
2002 13.7 million $1.6 trillion
2003 20.4 million $3.1 trillion
Source: Forrester Research estimates
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Barron's Top Online Brokers
National Discount Brokers (http://www.ndb.com/)
DLJ Direct (http://www.csfbdirect.com/)
Merrill Lynch (http://www.mldirect.ml.com/)
Source: "Better, Not Just Bigger," Barron's, March 13, 2000
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Good Sources for News & Analysis
Technology news & commentary: CNET (http://www.news.com/)
ZDNet (http://www.zdnet.com/)
RedHerring Online (http://www.herring.com/)
Business news: (http://public.wsj.com/home.html)
Barron's Online: The best analysis throughout the week
(http://www.barrons.com/)
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Predictions
By 2005, most people will get financial information online
By 2005, the pipeline problem will be solved
Investors will research and trade seamlessly
The "wireless Web" will keep everyone connected all the time
Tools and data will be commoditized
Information will become a technology business: smarter, better, faster
Investors have great resources, but will they use them wisely?
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