* News: Read the company's press
releases and keep current with breaking news. Try to connect isolated news articles to
spot trends. Check out Advanced Trading located at
http://www.advancedtrading.com.
* Company profiles: To find short
summaries of the key issues with publicly traded companies, try Hoover's Online http://www.hoovers.com.
* Industry: Read news articles and
industry trade journals to spot patterns that may indicate technological breakthroughs or
new products. Find the answers to questions like "Does the industry have problems
with over-capacity?" How does this problem affect the profits of the company you're
researching? Try STAT-USA http://www.stat-usa.gov
and Technometrica Market Research http://www.technometrica.com.
* Economics: Note how changes in the
national, regional, and local economies affect your investment candidates. Will a rising
dollar lower corporate returns? What are the Wall
Street economists saying? Check out the Internet Federal Reserve Board
of Governors for insights
http://www.federalreserve.gov
and the GSA Government Information Locator Service http://www.gsa.gov
.
* Market: What's happening in the stock
market? Are prices and trading volume increasing? See
the stock and economy news at MSNBC located at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032222
and Quote.com located at http://www.quote.com.
* Analyst's evaluations: Study what the
Wall Street analysts are saying about the company. What they say may provide you with
leads for additional research. Try Yahoo! Finance
located at http://biz.yahoo.com/r/.
* Earning estimates: Keep current with the
earning estimates of professionals. Are they going up or down? Try First Call
http://www.thomsonreuters.com/products_services/financial/first_call.
* Historical prices: Sometimes you
can tell where a company is going by seeing where it has been.
Evaluating the company's past stock prices may provide you with new
insights. A good source for historical quotes is
MarketWatch at
http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/historical.asp
.