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A Roadmap to the Web's Investing Sites In a Q&A, SuperstarInvestor.com's Terry Silver offers advice for investors looking to find the right info quickly Sorting through the incredible amount of investment information available on the Internet is a daunting task for many investors. Thatís why Terry Silver, editor of SuperstarInvestor.com, created a Web site that gives investors summaries of and links to more than 7,500 investment sites. His site, which launched on Oct. 1, saves investors time by highlighting the specific information they're trying to find and providing road maps into the most comprehensive sites. In a chat hosted by Business Week Online on America Online on Oct. 28.Silver warned investors about relying solely on information posted on bulletin boards, discussed his favorite sites for investment ideas, talked about where you can find SEC documents, and more. Here's an edited version of Silverís answers to questions from the online audience and from Business Week Online moderator Jack Dierdorff. A complete transcript is available from BW Online on AOL, keyword BW Talk. Q: [Thursday, Oct. 28] was a really exciting day on the stock market. What's your overall view of the current market? A: My overall view of the market is quite mixed. One day the interest rate picture looks good. The next day it looks bad. There is a lot of uncertainty. I would be very careful about speculating on stocks that are running up, especially IPOs. At some point everyone knows that the game will be over, but nobody knows when weíll reach that point. Q: Whatís your view of the day-trading phenomenon? Has the Internet really made that much of a difference so that investors can beat the market while sitting at home? A: I find the day-trading phenomenon to be indicative of a speculative bull market. I believe that when we enter a bear market, most of the day-trading firms will no longer be in business. The small investor has an incredible amount of investment information available on the Internet, and I believe it could be put to very good use. Q: How long did it take you to develop the SuperstarInvestor site? A: I spent over 2,600 hours building the site since early May. It is run by a former branch manager of Prudential-Bache Securities in San Francisco. The amount of information offered on the Internet is overwhelming. Finding the particular information you want or knowing what information is actually there can be a difficult and time consuming process even when visiting a single site. SuperstarInvestor makes the information more accessible and user-friendly by providing road maps to the most comprehensive sites. Essentially, Superstar highlights the specific information an investor is trying to find. It saves a lot of search time. Q: Where do I find evening pricing information on IPOs? A: Refer to Superstar's "Initial Public Offerings" category. Suggested sites include Alert-IPO, Hoover's IPO Central, IPO.com [which provides information to businessweek.com], and the Yahoo! Finance IPO section. The specific links for upcoming IPOs are listed under each site. Q: What are the best sites for investment ideas? A: The best sites for investment ideas would probably include stock-pick sites, charting tools, and screening tools. Some suggested sites would include Business Week, Clear Station, CNBC.com, CNET Investor, The Hard Right Edge, The Motley Fool, MSN Investor, Raging Bull, ReeseGroup.com, Silicon Investor, Thomson Investors Network, Wall Street City, and Wall Street Guru. My favorite stock screening tools include Hoover's Stock Screener, IQC.com, Morningstar, MSN Investor, Rapid Research, Stock Tools, Stockpoint, and Wall Street City. The links to all these sites are listed under Superstar's "Picks & Trends" and "Screening Tools" categories. Q: What online brokerage firm do you think has the best resources? A: Schwab and DLJ are hard to beat. If you want information on online broker ratings you can find it at Barron's Online, CyberInvest.com, Gomez.com, The Motley Fool, Online Investment Services, SmartMoney.com, and TheStreet.com. These are listed under Superstar's "Brokerage Firms" category. Q: Do you think that bulletin boards are a good way to find investment ideas? I often troll them, but I'm never sure where the information is coming from. How can you know what agenda the poster has? A: The stock message boards are fantastic entertainment. No one should rely on any of the information posted on these boards. Some of the posters are extremely knowledgeable. Most of them are not. Any investment information that you believe to be worthwhile should be researched. Some investment professionals post on the Yahoo! message boards from time to time. But The Raging Bull boards are usually much more sophisticated than the Yahoo! boards. The Clear Station message boards provide great technical analysis on specific stocks. The Motley Fool and Silicon Investor also provide very good stock boards. SuperstarInvestor provides links to 215 Internet and technology stock boards located on these sites. Q: Do you feel that people are inundated with information and are frequently moved by emotions due to all the Internet hype? A: Of course. I would suggest turning down the volume when watching CNBC. In fact, you are best served to turn off the volume entirely on days when the market moves up or down sharply. The amount of information on the Internet is overwhelming, but it can also be put to very good use. Q: What do you think of TheStreet.com? A: TheStreet.com is listed as a Superstar site in my directory. I believe it has some very worthwhile information, but its picks are not exactly right on. I would look at the site more for information than anything else. TheStreet.com has great stock and international market news and commentary, and has excellent stock and mutual-fund research tools. Q: Do you have plans for SuperstarInvestor.com in the future? A: I anticipate adding my own stock and commodity commentaries. I also plan to fill out the directory so that it will double in size within the next six to eight months. There are currently 7,500 links. Q: Do you think that there are sites out there that compile SEC information in an easier to read format that is superior to reading the actual forms? Also, what is your favorite SEC EDGAR site? A: SEC information is available on many of the more comprehensive sites. Some of my favorites include Quicken.com and Yahoo! Finance. My favorite EDGAR sites include going directly to the SEC Database, EDGAR Online, FreeEDGAR, and EDGARScan. Documents for Canadian Companies can be found on the Sedar web site. Again, I have a full listing of links to these sites in Superstar's "Annual Reports & Filings" category. Q: What do you think of Lycos? It seems to be growing and challenging Yahoo!. A: Lycos has a very good investing site, but Yahoo! Finance is the king. However, the Lycos directory is in better shape than the Yahoo! directory. Also, the site descriptions are much better written, so you have a more accurate feel for what the site is about. Q: One thing I noticed is that your site isn't just a list ñ in your categories you have rankings and comments about what's best about a site. A: I have separated the most comprehensive sites and provided road maps into these sites. Essentially, Superstar highlights the specific information an investor is trying to find. It saves a lot of search time. The Superstar site includes the following categories: "Investor Supersites, Futures & Options, IPOs, Mutual Funds, Publications, Quotes & Charts, and Research & Analysis". The "Exchanges" category includes the futures and options exchanges plus the NASDAQ Stock Market and the New York Stock Exchange. Q: Are there any good sites that deal with managing your capital gains, or with overall tax questions? A: The best place to find this information is on the major search portals such as Excite, Yahoo!, Lycos, and Snap. They all have tax categories and have many sites listed. Some sites provide specific information on tax-related investment issues. EDITED BY LORI BONGIORNO _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
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