Investment and Stock Information on the world wide Web

How can you find out the stock certificate has any value which was issued to your grand father long time ago?

In order to check on the current status of the company, you should call the office of the Secretary of State in the state where the certificate was issued.  Scripophily.com, an antique stock and bond website, provides contact information for each state. There are also companies that conduct stock searches for a fee (usually $75 to $85 a company).  You can access two of these companies via the Web (or by the phone) at www.stocksearchintl.com (800-537-4523) and www.smytheonline.com (800-622-1880).  Even if you cannot redeem your certificate for cash, a document may have value as a collectible.

Yahoo Finance has a collection of hyperlinks to stock quotes, stock charts (ytd, 3-month, 1 year, 2 year, 5 year and in some cases back to 1970), current newswires (some published 5 months ago), a hyperlink to MarketGuide that summarizes stock performance and valuation ratios, a hyperlink to Zacks Investments Service (with buy/hold/sell recommendations and consensus earnings estimates, and a hyperlink to EDGAR Online (with SEC-required documents). Yahoo has added the most current price for corporate bonds with a 52 week high and low. For stocks, one can get historical daily, weekly and monthly prices in table and chart format. An error in the historical chart of one stock was found. It is advisable to double-check a standard source like the Wall Street Journal or Standard & Poor's Daily Stock Price Record (both in print and available in the Library Center) for any historical prices to ensure one has the correct price. Yahoo has added a 3-month calendar of stock splits and a user-friendly set-up for your own portfolio and stock screening.

MoneyCentral by Microsoft has a special feature called the Research Wizard that outlines the
various sources one looks at in researching a stock. One can compare the fundamentals of a
particular stock relative to its industry and its peers within the industry.

Bloomberg.com

CNN The Financial Network provides current news stories on deals, companies, stocks. This site links to Quicken which offers a screening option where one can create a portfolio based on your choice of financial parameters and ratios and industry. Under "Industry Watch", key headlines on 20 major industries are provided with full text coverage. Headlines with full text on most other companies are another feature.

Hoover's Online provides detailed company profiles on over 1,560 public and private companies in the U.S. and the world for a subscription fee. Free access to more than 9,300 companies by industry, sales, or geographical location generates names, addresses, contacts, sales, employee size, ticker symbol, a short description of the line of business and hyperlinks to SEC filings, selected company press releases and other web sites that refer to retrieved companies. Hoover's List of Lists contains high-profile lists, e.g. the Fortune 500, Business Week 1000, and Inc 500. Hyperlinks to other business sources include current daily news stories. The Industry Zone provides summary analyses of major industries including the key corporate players and their profit-making products.
Trends including mergers and international developments round out these surveys.

Microsoft Investor includes business snapshots of public companies (derived from Hoover's Inc.), current newswires on corporate events and 3 years of daily stock prices. (Please be aware we have discovered that on occasion, stock prices for one stock were listed, in fact, for another stock. It might be advisable to double-check a standard primary source like the Wall Street journal for a stock price for a particular stock.) This site also allows for the creation of a portfolio of stocks that can be monitored over time. Stock splits and quarterly dividends with dates paid during the current fiscal year are an added feature. A personal finance section provides simple formulas for calculating mortgage payments and retirement planning.

eSignal (was DBC Online) provides current stock quotes, fundamental data on each stock, a 6 month chart of daily activity, a link to MarketGuide and newswires on the stock, when available.

EDGAR, Corporate filings with the SEC include 1994-current 10-K's and 10-Q's of
publicly-traded companies. Since annual reports (except in the case of investment companies) are not required by law to be filed with the SEC, most are not listed. However, some companies have volunteered their annual reports to the SEC. Foreign companies are not required to file with the EDGAR system, but are able to voluntarily file if they so choose.

Stockmaster site has daily price charts for the year for selected stocks trading on the major
exchanges. Stockmaster has added a wonderful new feature called Ka-ching! (the sound of money) which organizes many aspects of stock analysis: prices, charts, news, fundamentals. Daily historical prices are available back to 1985. It might be wise to double-check the stock price in standard sources like the Wall Street Journal or Standard & Poor's Daily Stock Price Record, both in print and in the Library Center.

Morningstar provides its 1-5 star rating for one's selected mutual funds, charts their performance and compares them with the S&P 500, provides details of a fund's portfolio with specific investments, includes the background of the manager of the fund and all expected fees. This site also gives you a stock and fund screening option of getting a list of stocks or mutual funds that meet certain criteria..

Kiplinger Online announces financial news of the day and offers a glossary of clearly defined 100 investment terms under 'Financial FAQs".

The Investment FAQ offers information on a variety of investments, financial jargon, strategies and warnings.

The SmallCap Investor provides current information on growth stocks which may not be covered by many other stock market research services. A small cap is selected for the month and quotes and charts for other small caps are included.

IPO Central jointly maintained by Hoover's and the SEC's EDGAR Online provides a detailed
financial profile on companies that have registered with the SEC to go public. Some of the
information may soon be only available for a fee.

IPO Data Systems profiles many current Initial Public Offerings including their underwriters, a short business description and abbreviated revenue and income.

WILink offers, free of charge, many annual reports from Europe and North America. Click on "Order Annual Reports."

The Public Register's Annual Report Service (PRARS) offers free annual reports from over
3,200 selected American public companies.

Investing in Bonds summarizes basic tips in investing in corporate and government bonds. A
selected lists of bondealers in included. Yesterdays prices on "municipal bonds which trade four or more times on the prior day are included in each daily report, which will typically include about 1000 issues out of 1.4 million issues which are outstanding."

Standard & Poor's furnishes details on the performance of the S&P indexes as well as brief
descriptions of all the companies within the index. In addition, current market news and a weekly in-depth investment-related article are featured. Free registration gives you further access to analyses of a selected industry, earnings data on S&P indexes and a list of companies currently recommended by Standard &Poor.

The Nasdaq site releases 15-minute time-delayed Nasdaq stock quotes, a 3-60 month chart that tracks a stock's performance, a hyperlink from each stock to its 10Ks, etc., available on the SEC site and a comprehensive glossary of stock market terminology.

The U.S. Dept. of the Treasury provides current and historical interest rates for selected financial instruments including the federal funds rate, CD's, the prime rate, and Treasury bond s, notes and bills. Redemptions on Savings Bonds are featured.

Dow Jones provides daily historical values of the major Dow Jones Indexes including the
Industrials, Transportation and Utilities on any business day between May 26, 1896 to the most current market close. (A list of the component companies for each index on the requested date is an interesting feature.)

Wright Company Analysis covering 18,000 companies worldwide.