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Strategies & Market Trends : Due Diligence - How to Investigate a Stock -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ubrx who wrote (216)	4/23/1999 5:56:00 AM
From: EL KABONG!!!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 752

James, Start with a straight internet engine search, using as many engines as you have access to. If your subject's name is say John Q. Public, then you'd search not only on that but also on John Public, Johnny Public, J. Public, Jack Public, John Publik, etc... Remember to also reverse the first and last names and search on Public John etc. as well because many "lists" are ordered by <lastname>, <firstname> <mi>. Some search engines won't like punctuation marks, so omit commas and periods. A good one-stop site is here: 37.com . If you're working with a topic that is Canadian, remember to use Canadian spellings for common words (such as "colour" instead of "color"). Next stop is the SEC at sec.gov . Be sure to check both search engine links there. The one on the left goes to the enforcement proceedings area, and the other links to the raw filings area (such as 10Ks or 10Qs). The NASD site also is good for researching people in the securities industry. You'll find them here: nasdr.com . I have a bunch of other sites I use if the broker etc. is Canadian. Next up is the Internic (whether or not the company has a website; you want to look at past histories as well) here: networksolutions.com . Look for company names, individual's names (often in last name, first name order) and website (such as thisisatest.com). If you suspect your subject has a shady past, two good sites for information are the Nevada SoS here: sos.state.nv.us or the Florida site here: ccfcorp.dos.state.fl.us . Not all states have this information online and free. However, most shady characters cannot avoid the temptation to register their PoS public company in either Nevada or Florida. Local newspapers have online archives that are accessible for free, sometimes not. Even if the article is not free, most of the time the search is, and you'll get enough of a teaser to decide if the article is worth purchasing or not. Newspapers are often the single best source of information. And don't forget to search for your subject right here on SI, using the SI search capabilities. You may find him/her referenced on another thread. If your subject is a professional, there are specialized sites you can go to that have biographical type information on folks like lawyers or doctors or whatever. If the company is claiming patents, you can look up their claims using the patent office search engine. Online telephone directories are another good source of information. KnowX is great for looking up court records and filings, but it will cost you to get the information. Lexus/Nexus is an excellent source of public records, but is also expensive to access. High schools and colleges often have free access to things like graduation lists or alumni lists and even school newspaper articles. When you do find information, remember to search on the critical new information you've found. Let's say your guy was involved with a different company in the past, say Hypothetical Scam Corp, but that's all you know. So you search on Hypothetical Scam Corp and that gives you some press releases that have the names of former associates, and you start the whole process over again with the new data or keywords. It's a time consuming process, yes, but when dealing in the world of BB stocks, absolutely necessary (in my opinion). Hope this helps instead of intimidating you. KJC