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Morningstar, yahoo finance, and Barchart are all good! Sent from my iPhone
I've been watching this thread for awhile, and I think it expresses the conundrum we've all faced regarding the issue of "ease of use" when it comes to data. Yes. Mstar, VL, S&P etc., are all good sources for data, but it's how the information is deciphered that makes us willing to use it over and over again.
As a newbie, I clung to the SSG. Wouldn't dream of making a decision without a company meeting all the tenents, in that format. As I developed a healthy understanding of what made a good company, I could pull that same information out of other sources without having to go through all the rudimentary steps. I think what happens to NAIC people is the SSG is SO good, that we never wanted to venture out and look at other techniques. It didn't help that NAIC never taught us much beyond that point, either. We were taught to look at the data in ONE way only. Once I broke away from NAIC/BetterInvesting, I found a world of knowledge out there and, and the desire to look at investing in other ways. So my breaking away has actually led to a more enriched experience.
That said, I wanted to toss out another option for the diehard SSG fan. I have an investing e-pal in the Puget Sound Chapter who is quite a proficient investor. He has added technical analysis to his arsenal and he told me that his investments are now his parttime job. This gentleman's methodology is based on his NAIC training. However, rather than doing his own SSGs anymore, he studies and picks his stock ideas from the Longfellow Reports that are regularly updated with notifications posted to the BI Discussion List. You can find them here:
My e-pal informed me that he has done his own conservative SSGs along side these Longfellow reports for years, and they always come out in a similar range. Therefore, he quit doing his own, and now relies on these reports for the SSG information he seeks. The site is a little daunting at first, but if you simply pull out 2-3 reports that suit you, you can forget about the rest. (His suggestion - start with the Relative Value Reports) He said it took years before he trusted this process, but he is convinced that these reports are the answer to the conundrum he faced with regard to the gathering of basic data. This is his starting point. He has developed other sources of information to round out his studies.
Hope that helps and doesn't add to the confusion. Lynn O. Do yahoo finance and Barchart allow for free downloads of 10 years of restated data? That's my gripe about the free Value Line from the library. It's not restated and not available for data download. Sent from my iPad
Wow, Lynn. Thank you for the link to the Longfellow Reports. Mickey Riemondy Satellite Investment Club From: club_cafe@bivio.com [mailto:club_cafe@bivio.com] On Behalf Of Lynn Ostrem I've been watching this thread for awhile, and I think it expresses the conundrum we've all faced regarding the issue of "ease of use" when it comes to data. Yes. Mstar, VL, S&P etc., are all good sources for data, but it's how the information is deciphered that makes us willing to use it over and over again. As a newbie, I clung to the SSG. Wouldn't dream of making a decision without a company meeting all the tenents, in that format. As I developed a healthy understanding of what made a good company, I could pull that same information out of other sources without having to go through all the rudimentary steps. I think what happens to NAIC people is the SSG is SO good, that we never wanted to venture out and look at other techniques. It didn't help that NAIC never taught us much beyond that point, either. We were taught to look at the data in ONE way only. Once I broke away from NAIC/BetterInvesting, I found a world of knowledge out there and, and the desire to look at investing in other ways. So my breaking away has actually led to a more enriched experience. That said, I wanted to toss out another option for the diehard SSG fan. I have an investing e-pal in the Puget Sound Chapter who is quite a proficient investor. He has added technical analysis to his arsenal and he told me that his investments are now his parttime job. This gentleman's methodology is based on his NAIC training. However, rather than doing his own SSGs anymore, he studies and picks his stock ideas from the Longfellow Reports that are regularly updated with notifications posted to the BI Discussion List. You can find them here:
My e-pal informed me that he has done his own conservative SSGs along side these Longfellow reports for years, and they always come out in a similar range. Therefore, he quit doing his own, and now relies on these reports for the SSG information he seeks. The site is a little daunting at first, but if you simply pull out 2-3 reports that suit you, you can forget about the rest. (His suggestion - start with the Relative Value Reports) He said it took years before he trusted this process, but he is convinced that these reports are the answer to the conundrum he faced with regard to the gathering of basic data. This is his starting point. He has developed other sources of information to round out his studies. Hope that helps and doesn't add to the confusion. Lynn O. Thank you for the information and resources. I have not used barchats or the Longfellow Reports before. I should clarify, however, that my interest is getting access to data is programmatic in nature. That is, I want to be able to get data electronically through a programmatic interface (e.g. an API or Application Programming Interface). This is very different than accessing PDF's or webpages with visual information that you can read.
Yahoo provides such an API but I have only used it for stock price information (high/low/close and with dividends). For example, I can get the last N days of stock price information and directly import it into an Excel spreadsheet for analysis. However, I don't think access to other historical information is available such as P/E, earnings, and sales. I may be wrong.
Longfellow appears to provide very valuable information but it does so in the PDF format. Also, it does not appear I can get historical information but only what's "current". I.e. it doesn't appear to tell me what the P/E was last month, last year or last November.
Barcharts appears to provide a very robust API but at a cost. One must contact them for pricing information so I'm not sure how expensive. Ycharts provides a similar capability but their "lite" version is over $600/year.
Stockcentral.com still seems like one of the cheaper methods to get electronic access to data programmatically.
I just checked the Fairfax county library site and the Value Line subscription is for the Value Line Research Center. This is the premier subscription! Barrett, a stockcentral subscription is great if you require the SSG data format. No program analyzes the data, per se. It simply puts it in a format that allows YOU to analyze it. You can go to any number of free financial websites that offer historical data in table format, then copy and paste it into a spreadsheet. It may behoove you to figure out why you require the information you want, then learn to build macros that will provide that information. It's pretty easy. Just pick up a Macros For Dummies book at the book store or online (used) from Amazon.com.
Every month, I enter about 50 ticker symbols into a worksheet with built-in macros that pulls certain data from various websites into my sheet - price, PE/G, earnings release date, ratings from 3 different sites, a few T/A metrics, etc. It's designed to give me only the information I seek. The alternative is to pay a lot of money for a program. At least with macros, you can personalize it. It's worth the effort.
Lynn O. |
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