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Investing Online for Dummies, 2nd Edition Table of Contents Click Here! Get Your Copy Today! |
Introduction
Who Are You?
About This Book
How to Use This Book
How This Book Is Organized
Part I: Online Investing Fundamentals
Part II: Finding the Right Investments
Part III: Paying the Right Price
Part IV: Making More Money on the Internet
Part V: The Part of Tens
Special features
What's New
Technical Requirements
Icons Used in This Book
Feedback, Please
Back to TopPart I: Online Investing Fundamentals
Chapter 1: Why Look to the Internet for Investment Information?
Can You Earn Big Bucks by
Investing on the Internet?Picking a Winning Investment Online
What Can Investors Find on the Net?
Where Should You Start?
Chapter 2: Internet, Here I Come
Getting Smart Online
Online investor tutorials
Web sites for new investors
FAQs sources
Glossaries
News You Can Use
Large news organizations
Newspapers
Magazines
Scholarly journals
Electronic newsletters
Practicing with your new investment information
Join the club! Become a member of an investment club
No cost investment simulations
Chapter 3: Warnings about Online Frauds, Schemes,
and Deceptions
Don’t Believe Everything You Read
If an Offer Seems Too Good to Be True, It Usually Is
Checking It Out Before You
Put Your Money DownDetermining Whether an Investment
Is a Pyramid SchemeWhat Real Financial Disclosures Include
Tell-Tale Signs of Dishonest Brokers
Where to Complain Online
Your Bank Account Number, Security, and the Internet
Chapter 4: Making Your Money Work Harder
Back to TopUsing the Internet to Simplify Financial Planning
The Joys of compound interest
Investing versus playing the lottery
Moving Some of Your Savings to Investments
Calculating Your Current Assets Using the Internet
Accumulating Something to Invest
Setting and Reaching Your Goals
Setting your financial objectives
Where do you stand?
The perils of paycheck-to-paycheck-accounting
Deciding How Much Risk You Can Take
Establishing Your Investment Plan
Determining How Much You Can Invest
Using the Internet to control your finances
The shortfall problem
Investing in Securities That Meet Your Goals
Checking Out What the Experts Are Doing
Tracking and Measuring Your Success
Bulletproof Investing
Part II: Finding the Right Investments
Chapter 5: What’s So Great about Mutual Funds?
Mutual Fund Mania
Finding Mutual Fund Information on the Internet
Buying Mutual Funds
Understanding the real cost of sales fees
Opening a mutual fund account
Selling Your Mutual Funds
Starting Your Mutual Fund Account with as Little as $25
Chapter 6: The Keys to Successful Internet
Mutual Fund Investing
Mutual Fund Basics
Discovering the differences between open-end
and closed-end mutual fundsMinimizing fees
Loading it on
Taking it off
Understanding Mutual Fund Risks
A Fund for You, a Fund for Me
Finding Facts and Figures Online
Locating and Reading the Prospectus
How to Screen Mutual Funds Online
Chapter 7: The Basics of Stocks and Rates of Return
Taking Stock of You .
Understanding Stocks
Types of Rolling Stock
Common stock
Preferred stocks
Stock rights and warrants
Picking the Right Stock for the Right Goal
How to Read a Stock Chart or Table
Finding Ticker Symbols and Stock Prices Online
What Does the S&P 500 Have to Do with Anything?
Valuing Stocks
Valuation model input results
Double-checking your Internet valuations
Chapter 8: Internet Stock Screening
Finding the Best Stock Electronically
Choosing the criteria for your first stock screen
Fine-tuning your stock screen
Using your stock screen results
Important ratios for screening stocks
Beta
Book value
Cash flow to share price
Current ratio
Debt to equity ratio
Dividends
Dividend yield
Earnings per share (EPS)
Market capitalization
P/E ratio
Price-to-book value
Return on equity (ROE)
Shares outstanding
Investment Risks
Using Online Stock Screens
Using Stock Screening Software
Using Those Terrific Prebuilt Stock Screens
Determining Your Own Investment Criteria for Stock Screens
Screening for growth stocks
Screening for income stocks
Screening for value stocks
Screening for Investment Bargains
Stock selling at below book value
Stocks selling at below liquidation value
Securities with low P/E ratios
Companies reporting deficits
Prospective turnaround candidates
Chapter 9: Going with Bonds: Which Type Is Best for You?
Back to TopGeneric Features of Bonds
Special benefits and exposures
Using the Internet to find new bond offerings Finding bond indexes and historical data online
Rating bond risk
How Small Investors Can Make Money With Fixed Investments & Bonds
The Four Basic Types of Bonds
Uncle Sam’s bonds: Treasury securities
Internet information on Treasury securities
Savings bonds: The easiest way to save
Federal government agency bonds
The beauty of tax-free municipal bonds
Floating with corporate bonds
Using the Internet to select bonds
Two Alternate Types of Bonds
Part III: Paying the Right Price
Chapter 10: Online Analysis, Buying, and Selling
of Mutual Funds
Going Online with Mutual Funds
Finding the Right Mix of Investments
Matching Mutual Funds to Your Financial Objectives
Using the Internet to Help You Choose the Best Funds in Each Class
Following a mutual fund checklist
Assessing mutual fund performance
How to read an online mutual fund listing
Assessing mutual fund performance
The Ratings War
The Morningstar rating system
The Value Line dual rating systemUsing Scoreboards and Ratings
Forecasting Your Mutual Fund’s Future
Buying Mutual Funds Online — No Broker Needed
Buying Mutual Funds Online: Using an Electronic Broker
The Right Time to Sell Your Mutual Funds
Chapter 11: Researching Individual Stocks
Finding Financial Statements Online
Assessing Web sites that specialize in annual reports
Using a search engine to find an annual report
Using Web sites that link to company home pages
Finding online annual reports: Investor supersites
Researching a company’s SEC filing
Downloading SEC filings in just three clicks
Analyzing a Financial Statement
Dissecting the Annual Report
Reading the letter to the shareholders
Viewing the company overview
Figuring out the ten-year summary of financial figures
Analyzing the management discussion and analysis of operations
Scrutinizing the independent auditors report
Examining financial statements
Finding out about subsidiaries, brands and addresses
Perusing the stock price history Utilizing Prepared Online Ratio Analysis
Chapter 12: Digging Deeper: Researching Investment Candidates
Turning Your Hunches into Investment Strategies
Conquering Uncertainty
with Online ResearchGaining new investor insights with breaking news
Locating company profiles and related data
Finding industry and statistical information
Gathering economic and related data
Collecting market information
Checking out analyst evaluations
Tracking down earnings estimates
Researching historical prices
Forecasting earnings and the stock market levelPaying the Right Price
Getting down to fundamentals
Proceeding with caution
Analysis for value shopping
Getting Technical with Technical Analysis
Market timing
Chapter 13: Valuing, Buying, and Selling Bonds Online
Nice and Simple: Savings Bonds
No broker needed with savings bonds The good and the bad about savings bonds
Just Uncle Sam, Treasury Securities, and You
Buying Treasury securities via the Internet
Opening your account
How to buy'em
Tendering your offer
Cashing in or rolling over your Treasury securities
Selling your Treasury securities
Online sources for more information
The Math of Bonds
Calculating bond values
Creating yield curves
The easy way to value you bond returns
More Online Bond News, Rates of Return, and Advice
Chapter 14: Looking for the Next Big Thing
Back to TopLooking for Investment Opportunities: IPOs
Getting the scoop on IPOs
Understanding the limitations of IPOs
Finding IPO news and research on the Internet
Finding online brokers that specialize in IPOs
Including IPOs in mutual funds
Be Your Own Broker with Direct Public Offerings (DPOs)
Recognizing the limitations of DPOs
Buying DPOs
Buying Stocks Direct
Buying that First DPP Share
Profiting with Dividend Reinvestment Plans
Additional features of DRIPs
Not all DRIPs are alike
How to get your first DRIP share
Selecting the right DRIP
Part IV: Making More Money on the Internet
Chapter 15: Deep-Discount Brokers and Online Trading
Finding a Brokerage Firm
Checking Out Prospective Brokers
Getting the Best Online Trading Services for Less
Trading online for $15 or less
Finding online brokers with no or low
initial account minimumsChecking Out Online Broker Special Features
Rating Online Brokers
How to Open Your Online Brokerage Account
Increasing Profits with Simple Order Specification Techniques
Making Millions with Day Trading
What is day trading?
Spotting the Signal for Day Trading
Having What It Takes to be a Day Trader
Gearing Up for Day Trading
Getting ready (to day trade)
Getting set (to make your investment decision)
Going! (placing your order)
Chapter 16: Online Portfolio Tracking
Back to TopWhy Manage Your Investments?
Tracking the Right Information
Your Portfolio Management Options
Using Web-Based Portfolio Management Programs
MSN Investor
Stockpoint
Telescan Wall Street City
Thomson Investors Network
Reuters Money Network
The Wall Street Journal
Zack's Investment Research
Following Online News with Portfolio Tracking
Business news
Portal portfolio management
Yahoo! Portfolio management
Excite
Using PC-Based Portfolio Management Software
Personal software programs
MS Money 99 Financial Suite
Quicken Deluxe 999
Portfolio management software programs
Using Online Brokerage-Based Portfolio Management Tools
Keeping the Winners and Selling the Losers: Measuring Performance
Part V: The Part of Tens
Chapter 17: Ten Signals to Sell
Know When to Fold
Set Profit-Taking Goals
You Can't Be Right All the Time
If the Stock is Going Nowhere, Get Going
Don't be Fooled by P/E Spurts
Watch Interest Rates
Keep an Eye on Economic Indicators
Watch What the Insiders are Doing
The Company or Fund Changes
Tracking the Right Information
Chapter 18: Ten Green Flags For Buying
Buy If the Stock is At Its Lowest Price
Check Out Earnings Forecasts
Watch for Stocks that are Trading Under Book Value
Beware of Firms with High-Long-Term Debt
Invest in Entrepreneurial Companies
Invest in Industry Leaders
Buy Good Performers
Select Your P/E Ratio Strategy
Low P/E and high dividend approach
High P/E ratios are worth the price
Look for strong dividend payout records
Investing Online for Dummies Internet Directory
Appendix: About the CD
System Requirements
How to Use the CD Using Microsoft Windows
How to Use the CD Using the Mac OS
What You’ll Find
An Electronic Version of the Directory
What Investor Software You'll Find
Free investor software programs
Shareware and freeware financial management programs
Shareware and freeware portfolio management programs
Investor demonstration programs
Four additional online investing chapters
If You’ve Got Problems (Of the CD Kind)
Index
License Agreement
Installation Instructions
Book Registration Information
The Companion CD-ROM Disk
Chapter 1A: Finding Investor Stuff on the Net
Building Your Own Online Information System
Identifying new investments
Analyzing investment prospects
Purchasing investments
Monitoring investments
Selling investments
Your Basic Investment Search Strategy
Selecting the best search engine
Getting great search results
A Boolean what?
A few of my favorite things: Search engines
Finding Those Elusive Company Profiles
How Newsgroups Can Help You
What's in a name?
Finding the perfect newsgroup
Finally, some newsreading
Posting the matchless question
Getting Investor Information from Mailing Lists
How mailing lists work
Free and Fee-Based Online Investor Databases
Totally free databases
When all else fails — fee-based databases
Chapter 2A: Taking the Option
Trading Options
Online brokerages and options
Option exchanges and markets
Online sources for option quotes
Types of Options Contracts
Call options
Put options
Exercising your stock option
Online sources of options information
Software Tools for Options Trading
Chapter 3A: Only for the Brave: Commodities and Financial Futures
Betting on Tomorrow with Futures
Who can afford to speculate?
How to make money in commodity futures
Where to Trade Which Commodities
Finding online price quotations
Using the Internet to find futures brokers
Commodities futures news and research
Make Better Decisions with Better Software
Examples of Trading Strategies
Managing Risk with Managed Future Funds
Types of Managed Funds
Option exchanges and markets
Online sources for option quotes
Types of Options Contracts
Chapter 4A: Getting the Most Out of Online Banking
What You Can Expect with Online Banking
Advantages of online banking
Limitations of online banking
Is online banking right for you?
Smart questions to ask your online banker
Online banking extras you may desire
What gear do you need for online banking?
You and online banking: Trouble at the beginning
Checking Out the Best Online Banking Deals on the Internet
How Much Can Your Savings Earn?
When to Choose a Money Market Deposit Account (MMDA)
Finding the Best Rates with the Internet’s CD Scanner
Opening a High-Yielding Deposit Account