Financial blog(s)

I am a big fan of Personal Stock Monitor. I am also a big fan of Yahoo! Finance. This video details my project of replicating Yahoo! Finance in Personal Stock Monitor. I have data files for PSM in this post. Click Download Video below to open it in a different player for (hopefully) better...
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A great article from Investopedia.com “The headlines blaze from magazine titles, book covers, newspapers and websites: “Beat the market!”, “Here’s the strategy you need!”, “Get rich trading!” and “A five-star fund!” The talking heads on television fuel the fire even further, with some of them dancing around like crazed animals, frothing at the mouth...
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Great article from Investopedia.com “Exchange-traded fund (ETF) products exploded onto the scene in 1993 and continued to gain momentum. These products have a number of benefits, including tax efficiency, cost structure and trading flexibility, to name a few. But, how did these products come to market? What prompted their arrival? Will they stick around? And however did we...
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2008 will have to be added to the history books. The pathetic thing is NO ONE learns from history. Here is the PDF file from Investopedia Table of Contents from the Investopedia file: Crashes: Introduction Crashes: What are Crashes and Bubbles? Crashes: The Tulip-Bulb Craze Crashes: The South Sea Bubble Crashes: The Florida Real...
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There are likely as many stock picking “strategies”, or ways to look for potential buys, as there are ticker symbols. Strategies can be strictly “Technical Analysis”, “Fundamental Analysis”, or a mixture of the two. Investopedia University has a good article about Stock Picking Strategies. I read this, and many other articles they have on...
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To buy or sell shares of stocks, bonds ETFs, etc., an account with a stock broker is required. The internet has opened up the stock market sand box to us regular peeps, with the creation of online brokers. A person can even control their own retirement account(s) by using online brokers! My first buying...
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While learning about the stock market sandbox, I became curious about what types of licenses are required for various types of financial positions. It is pathetic to know what it takes to get any type license or certification, and how these “Professionals” have been so successful in ruining the financial system. It is illegal...
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More details about many of these terms in links. I think some need better clarification, while keeping them brief,  so I will be tweaking them. STOCK – Used to be a piece of paper giving you a slice of ownership of a company. The stock market has gone “paperless”. For purposes of this blog...
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Lots of financial “experts” talk about “Dollar Cost Averaging” into a stock. Instead of buying 20 shares all at once, maybe buy 5 shares a week, or month. This is “Dollar Cost Averaging”. It is best utilized for longer term holding of shares. What I have never heard anyone mention is the commissions /...
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I DID NOT spend mega $$$ to learn about the stock market! Fortunately I spent less than $100 on books before I discovered Investopedia. All the books went to Goodwill. Investopedia University has all the info anyone needs to learn about the stock market, FOR FREE! I assembled a group of what I believe...
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For more research options beyond Yahoo! Finance, here are a couple of areas from WSJ. WSJ Public Market Data Center There are times when Yahoo! will not display any data for a company. I will look up the company in WSJ Market Data to see what info they have. Most of the time the...
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There are many ways to search for stocks to buy. The most popular way is to use a “Stock Screener“. While this is the most popular way, it is not the only way to search for potential buys. For example: On 02/03/09 I read an article in the Financial Times about cargo ships being...
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