Websites -- Bearing Bad News
barrons.com 7/29/02
MarketEdge:
"...............MarketEdge (www.marketedge.com), which at its inception in 1990 was a technical program for professionals only, is quite capable on the news, analysis (from Standard & Poor's) and data fronts. And it has some unusual screening and analysis tools that might help you as you continue to hone your investment decisions.
Zacks:
A more familiar name -- Zack's -- is still alive and kickin', and has improved since our last visit. It has split itself into two sites: Zacks.com is primarily a free site designed as a portal with most of the features you'd expect to find there. It sports fairly standard market news and data and personal portfolio tracking and, of course, earnings estimates, a longtime Zack's speciality.
CNN Newswatch (streaming option):
Yes, it's the old push-technology trick, but it performs better than some of this convention's earlier incarnations. CNN Newswatch (www.infogate.com) is a downloadable program you install that runs as a horizontal pane across the top of your screen. You can customize the ticker to display buttons that bring up screens displaying things like general and business news, portfolios, weather, sports, and alerts (based on keywords you select; if alerts go unread on your computer, you can have them forwarded to your e-mail and cell phone). Cost: $6.95 per month or $59.95 a year.
money.net:
If you don't want just the bottom line but the whole story, Money.net (www.money.net) is still one of the best, most economical places to get streaming quotes. Its Screamer is a real-time streaming portfolio that's customizable out to 31 columns for up to 500 securities. This isn't necessarily the tool you'd want to use as your home portfolio, as it doesn't have all of the bells and whistles for analysis, or various views of other portfolio trackers. Still, you get a constant update on gains and losses, and can see time and sales, and simple charts. But it's a great way to watch the numbers change dynamically when you need that. The tab runs $14.95 a month with two months free when you sign up for a year. A Level II Viewer for Nasdaq Market Maker information costs $29.95 a month plus a $10 exchange fee.
REIT:
If you're someone who's been fleeing equities for other venues, real-estate investment trusts have been among the best alternatives in the past few years. The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, or Nareit, hosts a site (www.nareit.com) for its member companies, but it's a good place to get information. There's a whole section on investing in REITs that lists REITs with dividend reinvestment plans and REIT mutual funds. Current data is available here, too, including a real-estate chart book, real-time market index, property performance, and index sector historical returns. Other research and statistics are also posted, like the Nareit Real Estate 50 (investment performance of all publicly traded REITs).
Metals:
Not as deep is the Kitco site (www.kitco.com), devoted to coverage of the precious-metals investment marketplace. Understandably so, though, since its content is less complex. Kitco tracks prices during market hours for gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and rhodium. New York and world spot prices are posted. Live and historical charts are available for all metals covered, and a smattering of news and commentary supplement the raw data supplied. Quotes can be transmitted to wireless devices and via e-mail. Message boards are surprisingly active for a niche site......................" |
