AAII journal 13th Annual Best Of The Net Guide 2009

8/22/2019 AAII journal 13th Annual Best Of The Net Guide 2009

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AAIIs Top Investment Web Sites

Research for this article was contributed by AAII editors Jean Henrich, Cara Scatizzi, Maria Crawford Scott, and Wayne A.Thorp, CFA.

The Web has become one o the topresources or individual investors, withsites that contain timely and useulnancial and investment data, researchand other inormation, oten at little orno charge. From stock and market statis-tics to nancial and retirement planningcalculators, there is something o valueto every individual investor.

Making your way through the maze o

Internet sites can lead to plenty o deadendssites that are purely promotional,with little or no useul inormation, oreven worse, pure junk. In addition, somesites charge a hety ee or access to useulinormation. Finding the value throughthis maze without a guide can result inan enormous investment o your time.AAIIs Best o the Net guide is designed

to allow you to go directly to the mostuseul investment-related Web sites. TheAAII editors have spent many days scan-ning and researching various sites. This13th edition o our guide eatures thesites we have rated as Best o the Netor the most common investment needs.

This year, we present our ndings in anew, easier-to-use ormat. The rst sec-tion presents the Best o the Net sites

that we have determined or each majorsubject area. The second section is analphabetical listing o the individualsites, with more inormation on theindividual sites, why we like them,and how to nd inormation withineach site.

To acilitate use o the guide, AAIIsWeb site at www.aaii.com presentsthe top sites with hyperlinks directly

to each site, along with an illustrativescreen shot.

The Best of the Net Ratings

AAII awards a Best o the Net ratingto sites that provide investment inor-mation or service that, in our view, isboth useul and substantial to individualinvestors and available either or ree oror a reasonable price.

Most sites listed here provide theinormation or service that we arereviewing ree o charge. Some oerbasic inormation or ree and chargevarious rates or more in-depth dataor expanded services, such as real-timequotes. In the alphabetical listings, weshow the lowest and highest rates to

give you a general idea o the range;visit the sites or complete details onpricing. Where ees are charged, wenote which sites oer a ree trial.

Sites that provide advisory servicesor a substantial ee are not covered asthese are geared toward institutionalinvestors and highly sophisticatedinvestors.

Other types o sites not included

here are covered in other AAII venues:broker sites are investigated annually intheAAII Journaland in ComputerizedInvesting; and mutual und amily sitesare listed in AAIIs annual IndividualInvestors Guide to the Top MutualFunds. We also publish a guide toexchange-traded unds each year in theOctoberAAII Journal. You can accessthese special articles year-round in theAAII Guides area o AAII.com.

Keep in mind that the Web isconstantly evolving. Sites can changedrastically in a short period o time. Besure to veriy the source o inormationor provider o a service when usingWeb sites. And read the ne print onpricing beore agreeing to pay or anydata or investment service.

Copyright 2009 American Association of Individual Investors and its licensors. All rights reserved.

13th Annual Editionby AAII Staff

2009


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14 Guide to the Top Investment Web Sites 2009

AAIIs Best of the Net: Our Top Picks

Comprehensive

Comprehensive investment Web sites oer the typicalindividual investor an ample collection o nancial data andanalytical tools. You can expect to nd portolio managementand analysis tools; market, industry and economic news anddata; detailed stock and mutual und data, as well as data onETFs; technical charting; stock and mutual und screeningtools; message boards; and nancial planning tools.

The sites below oer the most in-depth and complete data,as well as the most sophisticated tools. MSN Money SmartMoney.com Yahoo! Finance

STOCKS

IPOsAn initial public oering (IPO) is the rst sale o stock by a

company to the public. Sites devoted to IPOs generally pro-vide registration statements led with the SEC and calendarsdenoting important IPO dates.

The sites listed below oer the most complete IPO inorma-tion, including additional inormation on the actual oering,as well as ollow-up data on the stocks perormance ater therst day o trading, inormation on secondary oerings, andother useul inormation or evaluating IPOs. 123Jump IPO Center EDGAR Online IPO Hoovers Online IPO Central Renaissance Capital IPO Home

Stock DataThose researching company undamentals on-line have a

wealth o sites to choose rom, many oering robust inor-mation at no cost. Fundamental data is typically accessed bytyping in a ticker symbol or company name at a quotes orresearch prompt on the home page.

Superior sites oer detailed nancial statement data, earningsestimates, and company and industry analysis. The depth andrange o data given are what distinguish the sites highlightedhere rom each other. Bonus eatures ound at these sitesmay include market and industry comparative statistics andeducation on stock valuation techniques. AOL Money & Finance

Reuters SmartMoney.com

Analyst Estimates, Ratings, & RecommendationsConsensus earnings estimates and analyst ratings and rec-

ommendations are usually ound in a Web sites quotes area.

You type in a ticker symbol and then select earnings estimatesor analyst reports rom a list or tab. Most sites provide thisinormation or ree; a ew charge a subscription ee or in-depth data.

The top sites in this category provide analysts consensusearnings estimates or the current scal quarter and year, aswell as going orward or the next ew quarters and years. Inaddition, the top sites oer consensus buy/hold/sell ratingsor a given security and track this rating over time. AOL Money & Finance

CNBC.com Reuters

Stock ScreeningFundamental stock screening involves running quantitative

lters through the complete universe o stocks to uncover aew companies that might hold promise and warrant urtheranalysis. The particular characteristics that investors seek varydepending upon individual investment philosophies. Thecompanies passing the lters can then be urther examinedand incorporated into ones portolio.

The core eatures o any screening system are its screeningcapabilities and richness o data. The sites listed here provideaccess to a wide range o undamental variables and allow youto screen against a constant value, another eld, or againstindustry norms. Morningstar.com MSN Money (Deluxe Screener) SmartMoney.com (ee-based)

Stock Charting & Technical AnalysisTechnical analysis attempts to orecast price movements in

a stock, bond, mutual und, or option by examining how themarket price and volume behave over time. Stock chartingand technical analysis sites allow users to create price charts osecurities and indexes, as well as overlay technical indicators.

The top sites in this category allow users to modiy the

parameters o indicators, such as the time period over whichthey are calculated. Some o the more robust sites will oertechnical screening, where users can screen a universe o se-curities based on technical indicators or chart patterns. Thesesites also provide educational material on technical analysis. FreeStockCharts.com Prophet.Net StockCharts.com

Stock Valuation & RatingsWhile it is easy to look up the current price o a stock,

Presented below are our top picksthe Web sites we think provide the best coverage for each major subjectarea. The individual sites are described in more detail in our alphabetical listing, which starts on page 18.


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15Guide to the Top Investment Web Sites 2009


determining its true value is a much more dicult process.Many techniques are in use today to assign value to stocks.Sites oering stock valuations will typically provide a airintrinsic value or a companys stock, which represents anestimate o what a stock should be priced given current esti-mates o growth, risk, and market conditions. Others rate astock on a numerical scale. Keep in mind that the valuationand ratings provided by such sites are based on estimates andassumptions; look or documentation o the model(s) usedand the underlying assumptions.

The top sites listed here allow you to speciy underlyingassumptions, such as growth or discount rates. Moneychimp

MSN Money ValuEngine.com (ee-based)

Market Index StatisticsInvestors ollow market indexes to keep abreast o movements

in various segments o the market and to compare investmentperormance with an appropriate market benchmark.

The top sites listed below provide in-depth data on the mostwell-known indexes, including historical total return values,composition, undamental characteristics, and inormation onthe methodology used to construct, rebalance and calculatethe index. Dow Jones Indexes MSCI Barra Russell Standard & Poors Wilshire Associates

FUNDS

Mutual Fund DataThe top Web sites or mutual und data cover the most

complete universe o unds and provide an abundance orelevant data to assist in the selection and monitoring o yourmutual und portolio. Fund inormation is usually dividedinto three areas: perormance statistics, portolio composi-tion and characteristics, and und operation and services.Perormance statistics usually include annual returns as well asannualized returns or longer holding periods, risk measures,risk-adjusted return gures, and rankings and comparisons

to indexes or other unds. Portolio inormation will includetop holdings, industry percentages, asset allocation, as wellas summary statistics. Morningstar.com MSN Money SmartMoney.com Yahoo! Finance

Mutual Fund ScreeningMutual und screening modules lter a universe o unds

down to a reasonably sized group or easier analysis.

The top und screening sites oer the most in-depth screen-ing and ranking capabilities, the largest und universes, andthe most requently updated data. Morningstar.com

MSN Money SmartMoney.com (ee-based)

Exchange-Traded FundsExchange-traded unds (ETFs) have become an increasingly

popular alternative to traditional open-ended mutual unds.The top ETF Web sites provide the same type o coverage

as the mutual und data sites, but or exchange-traded unds. ETF Connect

Morningstar.com SmartMoney.com

OTHER INVESTMENTS

InternationalSince the needs o the investor seeking international invest-

ments are broad, the top sites listed here provide a range oeatures or links to additional resources that may more closelymatch your interests. ADR.com BNY Mellon Depositary Receipts CIA World Factbook Euroland

BondsThe bond market is a dealers market, and there is no single

source that can provide a complete listing o all bond issues

available. The Internet, however, does oer an ideal way orinvestors to shop around, ask questions, compare oers, andget educational inormation. Several sites provide more ex-tensive listings than are available in the daily print nancialpress. In addition, the U.S. governments TreasuryDirectsystem allows individual investors to easily buy newly issuedTreasuries and savings bonds directly rom the U.S. Treasurywithout paying a commission. FINRA Bond Market Data InvestinginBonds.com TreasuryDirect

REITsReal estate investment trusts (REITs) provide small inves-tors a way to add a real estate component to their portolios.Around 130 REITs are publicly traded on the stock exchanges,so in many cases you can nd data and news on REITs at thesites that oer stock quotes and undamentals (see Stock Dataon page 14). FitchRatings, S&P and Moodys provide ratingson the debt held by REITs. MSN Moneys Stock Screenerat moneycentral.msn.com also allows you to lter or REITsin the major segments. However, the two sites listed hereprovide the best educational inormation, along with articles


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on the industry and details and ratings on individual REITs. Forbes.com REIT.com

Options/FuturesThese sites provide the most complete educational inorma-

tion and statistics on stock and index options and utures. Lookor in-depth explanations o the various instruments and howto use basic strategies, as well as ull explanations o the risksinvolved. The trend is to provide education through webcasts,downloadable podcasts and interactive tools. Sites that oeradvisory services or researching and tracking options carryhety ees and are not covered here. Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Commodity Futures Trading Commission

(CFTC) Options Industry Council

FINANCIAL PLANNING

Personal FinancePersonal nance encompasses the broad array o nancial

concerns most individuals must deal with throughout theirlietime, including banking, insurance, savings, taxes, health-care issues and all kinds o nancial planning. Many investorWeb sites cover at least one aspect o personal nance, but thesites we have listed below oer extensive coverage o a rangeo personal nance issues. These sites provide inormation onmortgages, auto loans and other personal loans, credit cards,CDs, money market accounts and insurance, and most also havenumerous calculators, planning tools and educational materials

that can help you with various nancial decisions includingbudgeting, asset allocation, college planning, healthcare deci-sions, tax planning, estate planning and retirement planning. Bankrate.com CNN/Money MSN Money SmartMoney.com Yahoo! Finance

Retirement PlanningRetirement planning ocuses on calculators and other tools

that can help you determine how much you need to save

or retirement and how much you can saely spend duringretirement. Most comprehensive personal nance Web sitesinclude retirement planning tools or individuals who havenot yet reached retirement and need to determine how muchto save; ar ewer Web sites include low-cost calculators orinvestors at or near retirement, who typically are looking ortools to determine how much they can saely spend duringretirement. The list below ocuses on the best retirement cal-culators or those investors who are at or near retirement, andwhere on the Web site those tools can be ound. (Be sure topay attention to the navigation instructions, since some o the

sites have other calculators with similar-sounding unctions.) SmartMoney.com T. Rowe Price Vanguard

Estate PlanningWhile many comprehensive nancial planning Web sites

have a ew generalized estate planning articles, the Web siteslisted below are much more specialized; they can help youdetermine your estate planning needs, as well as who andwhere to turn to or more help. These sites tend to be verydrythey basically provide in-depth articles on estate plan-ning, with little or no graphics, and not much interactivity.In addition, several have not been updated or several years,although the estate planning laws have not changed sub-stantially in the last year or two. However, their content issolidand accessible at no charge. Financial Planning Toolkit Nolo SmartMoney.com

Tax InformationAs taxes get more complex, the on-line tax preparation busi-

ness continues to boom. However, the growth o these serviceshas resulted in a shrinking amount o ree inormation thatactually explains taxes. The Web sites we list below oer thebest chance or you to nd the explanations you are lookingor beore turning to an accountant or other costly source.These sites typically oer explanations o general tax issues,tips on cutting taxes, tax planning tools and estimators, andoverviews o recent tax law changes. Tax preparation sotwareand services are not covered.

Financial Planning Toolkit H&R Block Internal Revenue Service Sister States Tax Directory Yahoo! Finance/Taxes

Portfolio TrackingThese Web sites oer portolio management unctions

via portolio tools called on-line portolio trackers. On-lineportolio tracking tools help you keep tabs on your portolioand can notiy you o current events that might aect yourholdings. Most sites oer automatic data updates and timely

E-mail alerts as well as access to multiple news services. The bestsites let you track a large number o portolios and securities,handle a broad array o types o securities and transactions,and reresh data more requently and automatically. Morningstar.com MSN Money RiskGrades SmartMoney.com


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17Guide to the Top Investment Web Sites 2009


INSURANCE PRODUCTS

Immediate AnnuitiesAn immediate annuity, or income annuity, is an insurance

product that provides guaranteed payments to an investor overa specied period o time, unded through a lum-sum payment.Immediate annuities oer a useul xed-income alternative or

retirees. However, they are complex investments that have taxstructures and ee schedules that must be understood beorea purchasing decision can be made.

The sites listed below provide the most extensive educationalinormation, as well as policy quotes. Bankrate.com BRKdirect.com Fidelity.com ImmediateAnnuities.com

Life InsuranceInsurance sites provide educational inormation or quote

comparisons or lie insurance products. Look or interactivecalculators to help you determine your insurance needs. Thetop sites listed here provide education on the dierent typeso lie insurance and when they are appropriate. Also includedis the NAIC, where you can check out a company or reportsuspected raud. Katt & Company LIFE (Life and Health Insurance Foundation

for Education) LifeInsure.com National Association of Insurance

Commissioners (NAIC)

Long-Term Care InsuranceLong-term care insurance is purchased with an annual pre-

mium; during the benet period, it provides unds that youcan use to pay or care, either in your home or in a acility,with no tax liability on the benet payments.

The sites listed below provide the most complete inormationon long-term care insurance to help you decide what type ocoverage you need and understand general policy choices andbenets. Look or checklists that you can use when comparingpolicies and sites that allow you to check out an insurancecompany or past complaints. LIFE (Life and Health Insurance Foundation

for Education) National Association of Insurance

Commissioners (NAIC) National Clearinghouse for Long-Term

Care Information

MedicareMedicare currently provides health insurance coverage to

those who are 65 or older, as well as certain individuals withdisabilities. The Web oers extensive inormation on Medicare,but the sites listed here oer the best inormation relating to

basic coverage issues, benets oered, how to enroll, how tochoose your options and how to compare plans. American Association of Retired Persons

(AARP) Medicare Rights Center Medicare.gov

MISCELLANEOUS

Financial News & AnalysisThese Web sites oer links to current market, economic

and individual company or mutual und news. News itemsmost oten appear in the orm o linked headlines, breakingnews stories, in-depth reports, and eature articles. Companyand und quotes, charts, reports, and proles are also oundat these sites to help urther your analysis.

The top sites oer the widest array o newswire services, storiesand articles, along with the best availability and timeliness omarket snapshot reports, E-mail alerts, in-depth market dataand statistics, coverage o international/world market indexes,and links to audio/video/webcast programming. Bloomberg.com CNN/Money SmartMoney.com WSJ.com

Economic DataAccess to economic data and analyses can be especially use-

ul to individual investors who want to assess the economicclimate on their own.

The Web sites listed below include government sites as well

as private sites, most o which provide both data and analyses;some even allow users to download economic data series. Bureau of Economic Analysis (U.S. Dept. of

Commerce) Federal Reserve FreeLunch.com

Social Media & NetworkingSocial media and networking sites are based on user par-

ticipation and user-generated content. This diers rom mostother nancial and investing Web sites, where users merelyread content provided by the Web site.

These sites allow users to exchange opinions, insights, ex-periences, and perspectives with each other about individualsecurities, investment practices, etc. Social media can takemany dierent orms, including Internet orums or messageboards, weblogs (blogs), wikis (user-driven inormation cen-ters), and podcasts. The top sites or investor social mediaand networking are listed below. Motley Fool CAPS wikinvest Yahoo! Finance

Turn to the next page for descriptions of what each Web site listed here offers.


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123Jump IPO Centerwww.123jump.com/ipoFREECategory: IPOs

Oers recent IPO news stories andreports the upcoming weeks oerings

with a price range, the size and a hottamale sentiment rating that takes intoaccount investor interest and utureprospects.Gives nancial data and a

business summary or all IPOs. IncludesIPO perormance data and historicalmonthly and annual pricings that dateback to 2000. Postponed or withdrawnIPOs are listed with relevant data. SearchIPOs by industry, ticker symbol or state.Graphs have adjustable timerames alongwith bid/ask and relevant price data orstocks currently traded. However, lock-up and quiet periods are not reported.

ADR.com

www.adr.comFREECategory: International

Where to Find: Select DR Searchto search or companies.

Rich resource or screening and re-searching ADRs. Find ADRs by name,ticker, exchange, country, industry,dividend data, and more. Search resultsare displayed in a table that indicatesthe type o ADR, its country o origin,

and its industry. Research links providea wealth o detailed reports including

charts, nancials, and earnings estimates,when available. DR Library provideseducational tools. Proles are not givenor all ADR securities. You must register

to access some tools.

American Associationof Retired Persons(AARP)www.aarp.orgFREECategory: Medicare

Where to Find: Click onthe Health tab, then chooseInsurance & Medicare.

This area o the AARP siteeatures current news on healthcare reorm issues and Medicaredevelopments. A Medicare andMedicaid Guides box includesexpansive inormation: current

rates, a getting started guide, educationon individual insurance, the dierencesbetween Medicare A and B, and whatdoctors can charge under Medicare. The

Choose the Right Medicare Plan orYou article includes our steps to helpyou decide between plans. CompareMedicare Plans eatures a chart o thekey dierences among the plans. Tap-ping Supplemental Insurance oers auseul overview o the Medigap insur-ance plans that supplement Medicare.Compare Medigap Plans is a listingo the 12 Medigap plans (A to L) andtheir specic benets, while CompareMedigap Coverage is the same list

reorganized by benet.

AOL Money & Financemoney.aol.comFREECategory: Stock Data

Where to Find: Type in companyticker at home page. At companypage, click on links along let sideor company-specic data.

Daily stock data goes back to 1990

(when available). Provides ive-yeardividend and stock-split history. Averagemonthly stock returns given or the lastve years. Insider transactions reportedor last one, three, and ve years. Netinsider transactions (dollar amount)reported on monthly basis or trailing12 months, ve-year monthly averages,and trailing ve years. Is one o only aew sites still oering short interest data.Shows top insider, institutional, andmutual und holders. Lists membershipin stock indexes. Forward valuationsand growth rates are provided or com-pany, industry, sector, and S&P 500.

Reports annual and quarterly surprisedata, earnings estimates, and consensusrecommendations. Select valuation mul-tiples and nancial ratios are available.Detailed nancial statement data is givenor last ve scal years and quarters.

Does not provide historical valuationmultiples or ratios or trend analysis, orcomparative industry/sector/market data.

Category: Analyst Estimates,Ratings, & Recommendations

Where to Find: Type in stocks tickerin the search box at top o page. Clickon links under Earnings Analysis onlet side o company page.

Reports earnings surprise data orlast our scal years, which is rare. Alsooers quarterly surprise data or thelast our years. Growth orecasts andorward valuations are presented orthe company, industry, sector, and S&P500. Consensus broker recommendationincludes trend over the last 120 days.

Lists individual recommendations romanalysts tracking a given stock.

Bankrate.comwww.bankrate.comFREECategory: Personal Finance

I you want interest rate data andother inormation to help in the selec-tion o bank CDs, checking and sav-ings accounts, money market accounts,

AAIIs Best of the Net: The Sites

123Jump IPO Center


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Guide to the Top Investment Web Sites 2009

credit cards, mortgages, car loans, homeequity loans and other personal loans,this is the site to visit. There are alsonumerous personal nance calculators(whether mortgage renancing makessense, how much to save or a childseducation, etc.), inormation on debtmanagement, as well as educationalarticles on personal nance. This site ismore ocused on debt and xed-incomeinormation than other personal nancesites listed.

Category: Immediate Annuities Where to Find: Type immediate

annuities in the glossary box at theupper right side o the home page.

Articles and Q&As on immediate an-nuities include: Immediate Annuities:Do-It-Yoursel Pensions, Rating andBuying Annuities, and Classic Ques-tion: Annuities or Bonds?

Bloomberg.comwww.bloomberg.comFREECategory: Financial News & Analysis

Provides news on domestic and in-ternational stocks, currencies, bonds,commodities and unds. Breaking newsshown on home page; however, datesand times o headlines are not listed.

Abundance o data oered or world andinternational indexes. Site is divided bytype o investment and region. Marketindex tables show daily perormance withlinks to urther inormation. TV andradio clips and podcasts are available.Free on-line tutorials cover investingbasics. Oers a wide range o RSS dataeeds and daily podcasts.

BNY Mellon DepositaryReceipts

www.adrbny.comFREECategory: International

Where to Find: Choose DR Di-rectory & Proles or individualADR data.

Oers extensive list o sponsored andunsponsored ADRs and holding com-pany depositary receipts (HOLDRS).Search or ADRs by region, country,industry, DR exchange and deposi-

tory. Summary table lists issue, symbol,CUSIP, exchange, conversion ratio,country o origin, industry, depositary,sponsorship, and date o last update.Links are provided or urther researchon individual listings. Oers educationalinormation on ADRs. Proles o ADRsinclude current price inormation,dividend data, corpoate actions, newsand more.

BRKdirect.comwww.brkdirect.comFREECategory: Immediate Annuities

Where to Find: Click on SinglePremium Immediate Annuity.

The site provides a quote, description,and sample policy o Berkshire Ha-thaways immediate annuity insurance.Educational inormation includes anexplanation o the single-premium im-mediate annuity, with its benets andtax rules; who should consider this typeo policy; issues concerning cash valueand termination; denitions o policyratings; and a glossary o terms.

Bureau of Economic Analysis(U.S. Dept. of Commerce)www.bea.govFREE

Category: Economic DataU.S. government site provides articles

and analyses on the U.S. economy na-tionally and regionally and sorted byindustry and output. Also gives interna-tional data. Includes an overview o theU.S. economy with a summary o themost popular indicators.Features a news releasesection that provides cur-rent economic news romaround the world.

Chicago BoardOptions Exchange(CBOE)www.cboe.comFREECategory: Options/Futures

Where to Find: Edu-cational areas andtools accessed through

blue tabs running across top ohome page.

Well-organized site gives a ull descrip-tion o each product traded. Delayedmarket quotes and data are ree; real-timestreaming quotes cost $19.95 per month.Several useul trading tools are oered;new tools include RSS eeds, a volatil-ity nder, thermal imaging to identiyunusual activity, and advanced charting.Some tools require site registration. TheStrategies section provides comprehen-sive workshops, some with interactiveworksheets, that explain many basicoptions strategies. This section alsooers several strategy and educationalvideos. The Learning Center includesree on-line tutorials (with quizzes).Other educational tools in the LearningCenter include the Options Toolbox, adownloadable interactive program; les-sons on using index options contracts;and an options calculator.

CIA World Factbookhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publica-tions/the-world-actbook/index.htmlFREECategory: International

Where to Find: Select a countryrom drop-down menu.

Newly updated site is easier to navi-

gate. Provides inormation on everygovernment, country, and territory inthe world. Includes description o thecountry, the geography, type o peopleand government; inormation on itscommunications, transportation, andmilitary; any transnational issues; and a

BNY Mellon Depositary Receipts


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review o the economy. The economicreview covers items such as GDP (grossdomestic product), labor orce, un-employment rate, budget, industries,imports and exports, currency, scalyear, and debt.

CNBC.comwww.cnbc.comFREECategory: Analyst Estimates,Ratings, & Recommendations

Where to Find: Type a stocks tickerin quote search box. At companypage, click on Earnings tab underquote.

Provides up to 16 quarters and sixyears o historical earnings surprise data,some o the deepest on the Web. Seeup to eight quarters and two years oconsensus earnings estimates. Forwardvaluation ratios along with one-year andthree-to-ve-year orecasted earningsgrowth rates are given or the company,

industry, sector and S&P 500. Reportscurrent consensus recommendation andtrend in mean recommendation over thelast six months. Tracks the number oupward and downward estimate revi-sions over the last six months.

CNN/Moneymoney.cnn.comFREECategory: Personal Finance

Where to Find: Click on PersonalFinance.

Numerous articles cover all aspectso personal nance, including nancialand retirement planning, educationalsavings, tax planning, banking, loans andinsurance. Good coverage o essentialswithin each personal nance subsection,and also in Money 101, a comprehensiveguide to personal nance basics. Alsoincludes data or product comparisonson home loans, mortgages, and bankCDs, as well as personal nance calcula-tors and other planning tools.

Category: Financial News & AnalysisThe Internet home o

Fortune, Money and CNNoers current and archivedmagazine stories as well asdaily CNN videos. Fea-tures a wealth o marketnews and a standard suiteo research and analysistools, as well as links toother tools on the Web.News and data providedor stocks, U.S. and worldmarkets, bonds, commodi-ties, ADRs and currencies.A world markets snapshotis given. International news

is broken out by country.Oers E-mail alerts, anda wide range o RSS dataeeds and podcasts.

Commodity Futures TradingCommission (CFTC)www.ctc.govFREECategory: Options/Futures

Where to Find: Click on blue boxat lower let side o home page or

Education Center.The basics o utures trading are out-

lined in easy-to-understand language inthe Education Center. Explanations orisks are given prominence. A compre-hensive glossary denes utures termsand a tutorial on how to read uturesprice tables is provided. Inormation onavoiding raud, warning signs o phonyoptions trading sites, and instructions onchecking out a broker are also eatured

in the Education Center. A report onthe utures market is posted monthly inthe Market Reports area. The CustomerProtection area details signs and types oraud and reports on legal and regula-tory actions taken against schemes; youcan also le a complaint against uturesindustry proessionals and report suspi-cious activity here.

Dow Jones Indexeswww.djindexes.comFREECategory: Market Index Statistics

Provides historical overview o DowJones averages and detailed data onmodern domestic and internationalindexes or benchmarking and marketanalysis. Index components, divisor,perormance undamentals, statisticsand more are given or each index.Dow Jones Wilshire monthly reportprovides correlation and perormancestatistics or a range o investment styleand size categories. Selected data can bedownloaded as an Excel le.

EDGAR Online IPOipoportal.edgar-online.comFREECategory: IPOs

Reports upcoming, expected and

withdrawn IPOs, and links to detailedling and company data and SEC l-ings. Calendar tracks upcoming IPOs bymonth, as well as lock-up and quiet pe-riods. Search or IPOs that meet criteriasuch as oer size, exchange, quiet andlock-up periods, and price. Companyreports oer business description, a listo key competitors and plans or the IPOproceeds. However, little data is given onhow previous IPOs ared. Also, nancialstatements, insider holdings, and more

detailed IPO and secondary oeringdata available only at a proessional rate.

ETF Connectwww.etconnect.comFREECategory: Exchange-Traded FundsWide array o data on ETFs. Search

or specic unds by ticker or CUSIP orsearch more generally by asset class, taxtreatment and region. Hundreds o data

CNBC.com


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points on ETFs include price, dividendhistory, portolio manager, investmentobjective, diversication o assets, per-ormance numbers and expense ratios.Multi-und search tool searches by assetclass, sector, industry, region and undsponsor. The Fund Sorter sorts ETFsby various criteria including premiumor discount, year-to-date return, andcurrent market yield. Interactive tech-nical charting compares a und withother ETFs and indexes over varioustimerames. An education center oersFAQs and glossary. Search and sort toolsare very basic with ew criteria.

Eurolandwww.euroland.comFREECategory: International

Database o nancial events coversmajor developed markets in Europeand includes 28 stock markets. Searchdatabase by symbol, name, country oorigin, or industry. Provides quotes,charts, news, portolio tracker, nancialstatements, and converter. Create stockportolio and watchlists. Sort companydatabase by market cap, gains or losses,year-to-date return and more. Site canbe viewed in a number o Europeanlanguages and currencies.

Federal Reservewww.ederalreserve.govFREECategory: Economic Data

Where to Find: Under EconomicResearch & Data.

Oers extensive economic and -nancial data, articles and analyses. Alsonote that the About the Fed sectionincludes links to the Web sites o the 12Federal Reserve district banks, each o

which provide their own collections odata, articles and analyses. The primaryFederal Reserve economic database ismaintained at the St. Louis district site.

Fidelity.comwww.delity.comFREECategory: Immediate Annuities

Where to Find: Click on InvestmentProducts, then select Annuities rom

the list that pops up underneath.To go to the Immediate Annuitiespage, select the statement, I needguaranteed income in retirementnow or soon.

Inormation and guidance on annui-ties is given, including a short video andsmall pop-up boxes that explain variousaspects o immediate annuities. Site usesan interactive questionnaire to help younarrow down the range o retirement in-come products to the ones that may suityour needs. Details on the providers oimmediate annuities that Fidelity oersaccess to are given in a comparison box.A guaranteed income estimator helps youdecide which type o annuity oers thepayment and eatures you need.

Financial Planning Toolkitwww.nance.cch.comFREECategory: Estate Planning

Provides a very detailed discussion oall aspects o estate planning, includinginormation on setting up trusts andother techniques to reduce estate taxexposure. However, the discussions aretechnical and complex, with ew graphicsor illustrations. Web site sponsor CCHInc. is a major provider o up-to-datebusiness, legal and tax inormation and

sotware or proessionals, includingestate planning attorneys.

Category: Tax Information Where to Find: Under Tax Plan-

ning.Provides extensive inormation on

taxes and tax planning. Sponsor CCHInc. is a major provider o up-to-date taxinormation and sotware or proession-als. Note that the site does not providean extensive table o contents, making

it dicult to nd specic topics. Inaddition, the inormation is presentedas straight text, with very ew graphicsor illustrations.

FINRA Bond Market Datawww.nra.org/marketdataFREECategory: Bonds

FINRA is the regulatory agency cre-ated when the regulatory unctions o

the NASD and NYSE merged. In thebonds section o the Market Data Centero the FINRA Web site, you can getgeneral bond market inormation, aswell as price inormation with real-timetransaction prices or many corporatebonds and municipal bonds, and end-o-day prices or U.S. Treasury bonds.Pricing inormation includes executiondate and time, quantity, price, yield and90 days o trade history with 52 weeks oweekly high/low prices; basic descriptioninormation and credit ratings are alsoindicated. A watchlist allows you to trackup to 100 issues at a time. Summary dataincludes market breadth data and mostactive investment-grade, high-yield andconvertible bonds. Educational materialon bonds, bond investing and bondtrading is also provided.

Forbes.comwww.orbes.comFREECategory: REITs

Where to Find: For articles, typeREITs in the search box. Forratings, type REIT grades in thesearch box, then click on the storyThe REIT Stu rom 2/25/2009,or use the URL: www.orbes.com/reits.

This business magazine site regularlyposts articles that analyze a segmento the REIT industry and highlightindiviudal REITs. Grades are given byForbes (using data rom Green StreetAdvisors) to the largest publicly tradedREITS on an annual basis. The listshows dividend yield, ve-year growthrate and leverage ratio along with Forbesgrades on perormance and value. Thelist includes about 50 REITs, and itcan be sorted by any column. Names

are linked to current quotes and news.

FreeLunch.comwww.economy.com/reelunchFREECategory: Economic Data

This large collection o ree economic,nancial, and industry data is sponsoredby Moodys Economy.com. Users cannd data by searching the databases orby browsing the sites data dictionary.


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Data can be downloaded directlyinto Microsot Excel. Provides noeconomic analysis or news. Note,however, that this Web site isstrictly a provider o data series.Although you must be a registereduser, registration is ree.

FreeStockCharts.comwww.reestockcharts.comFREECategory: Stock Charting &Technical Analysis

Where to Find: Enter tickerto create chart.

Oers ree streaming real-timecharts o indexes, stocks and ETFs,without exchange ees. It does thisby providing real-time data romthe BATS exchange. Any data that isless than 15 minutes old comes romBATS, while data older than 15 minutesis lled in using complete exchangedata. Provides 70 technical indicatorsand drawing tools. Registered users cancreate chart layouts and save them oruture use. Once you save a layout, youcan access your pre-congured chartsrom any computer by logging in to youraccount. The site also oers streaming,real-time news items.

H&R Blockwww.hrblock.comFREECategory: Tax Information

Where to Find: Go to Tax Tips.This is the Web site or H&R Block,

the national tax preparation rm andpublisher o the popular tax preparationsotware, TaxCut. The Tax Tips section isvery well organized and provides detailedexplanations o many tax issues, discus-sions o new tax issues, and numerous

tax calculators, a tax estimator, tax tablesand other tax tools.

Hoovers Online IPO Centralwww.hoovers.com/global/ipocFREECategory: IPOs

Lists upcoming IPOs and latest pric-ings and lings. IPO Scorecard reportstotal number and average dollar value oall IPOs or the most recent two quarters

and the year-ago quarter. Best and worstreturns and biggest rst days are tracked.Pricings by industry show top 10 IPOsduring the trailing 12-month period.Reports IPOs price per share, open andclose price on the rst day o trading, andthe latest closing price. Company sum-maries include nancial data, data onupcoming oering and industry analysis.Free weekly E-newsletter discusses weeksoerings, lings and results o past o-erings. However, no data is given onthe lock-up and quiet periods, and nographs detail IPO statistics.

ImmediateAnnuities.comwww.immediateannuities.comFREECategory: Immediate Annuities

The site provides annuity quotes whenyou enter your state, age, and genderand either the lump sum you have toinvest or the monthly dollar amountyoud like to receive. However, to get theull nine-page report on any o policies,you must submit your name and contact

inormation. Site also provides articleson immediate annuities and a list o the23 insurance companies that participate,along with their asset size and ratingsrom the major agencies.

Internal Revenue Servicewww.irs.govFREECategory: Tax Information

The ocial IRS Web site provides

numerous explanations o almostevery tax issue in the tax code, mosto it written in plain English. Thedownloadable publications, taxorms and instructions are valuable,particularly or less common taxissues and last-minute situations.The ocial publications and rulesor current-year tax lings usuallystart to appear on the Web site inlate October. You can search or ar-ticles or publications by specic taxtopics, and you can search amongvarious IRS resources includingFAQs, orms and publications,and how to E-le. Once you haveled, you can check on the statuso any reund owed you by goingto Wheres My Reund?

InvestinginBonds.comwww.investinginbonds.comFREECategory: Bonds

The Web site by the Securities Indus-try and Financial Markets Association(SIFMA) provides extensive inormationon bonds. It includes pricing, news, in-ormation, education and commentaryon bonds, bond investing and bond strat-egies or corporate bonds, governmentbonds, municipals and mortgage-backed

securities. Site is aimed at individualinvestors. Pricing inormation includesreal-time prices (within 15 minutes othe trade) or municipals and corporatesthat have traded more than our timesthe previous day, as well as a completetrading history or each bond. The tax-ree vs. taxable yield calculator helpsyou decide i municipal bonds makesense based on your current tax bracket.Current market inormation includesbenchmark spread. Site also publishes

a daily chart o the current shape othe yield curve in the municipal bondmarket, as well as a table showing cur-rent aggregate yield levels or municipalbonds across dierent credit ratings.

Katt & Companywww.peterkatt.comFREECategory: Life Insurance

Robust library o in-depth articles

Hoovers Online IPO Central


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written or consumers and planners.Lie Insurance Perspectives newslettercovers specic policies and policy trendsor estate planning proessionals, butcan also be instructive or consumers.Recent case proles illustrate solutionsor real-lie situations.

LIFE (Life and HealthInsurance Foundation forEducation)www.liehappens.orgFREECategory: Life Insurance

Provides straightorward basics on lieinsurance. Oers lie insurance needscalculator and human lie value calcu-lator. Also, simple interactive decisiontree helps guide choice between termand permanent insurance. Insuranceagent locator is available, along withhelpul tips or choosing a companyand purchasing a policy. Comprehensiveglossary included. A blog discussingcurrent insurance issues allows postedcomments. Videos o insurance advisorsexplaining the basics o various types oinsurance are ound under Lie Onlineon the lower let side o the home page.

Category: Long-Term Care InsuranceBasic inormation given on long-term

care insurance. Cost o care map showsaverage daily nursing home costs oreach U.S. state. A video introduction tolong-term care insurance is ound underLie Online at the bottom let (chooseInsurance 101 Videos). A printable PDFGuide to Long-Term Care Insuranceby Americas Health Insurance Plans isoered; the 20-page brochure includes achecklist o questions to ask when shop-ping or a policy. Site blog includes issuesdealing with long-term care insurance.

LifeInsure.comwww.lieinsure.comFREECategory: Life Insurance

Quote search engine doesnt requirepersonal contact inormation. The listshows A.M. Best rating and premiumamount or each resulting company;click on company name or more ratingsand a company summary. Well-written

materials explain the basic types o in-surance, plus how rates are calculated.Articles include inormation on recentdevelopments. Video alternative is avail-able or articles. Site also shows how tocalculate how much lie insurance youneed. Blog discusses lie insurance issuesin the news.

Medicare Rights Centerwww.medicarerights.orgFREECategory: Medicare

The Medical Interactive Tool promptsyou to select your state in the top right-hand corner. You can then search bytopic or read a 10-section Medicareintroduction. Several newsletters includea weekly E-mail with health tips, Medi-care coverage advice, and health planreminders: Medicare Watch, a biweeklyone-page newsletter on policy news andchanges in Medicare benets and rules;and Asclepios, an electronic newsletterthat alerts readers to the latest Medicarepolicy and advocacy developments. Thesite also oers a glossary.

Medicare.govwww.medicare.govFREECategory: Medicare

This government site oers an exten-sive collection o resources. The homepage includes commonly accessed re-sources and an especially useul sectiono search tools that allow you to com-pare Medicare prescrip-tion drug plans, Medigap(Medicare supplementinsurance) and health planpolicies, hospitals, nursinghomes, home health agen-cies, and dialysis acilities.

You can link to the Medi-care Options Comparetool (enter your Medicarenumber or a personalizedsearch, or enter your zipcode, age range and healthstatus or a general search),Medigap tool (search poli-cies or your area), andthe Medicare PrescriptionDrug Plan Finder. Medi-

care and You 2009 is a 128-page PDFthat includes a summary o Medicarebenets, rights and protections. Youcan also study plans by state and readuser-submitted reviews and stories. MyMedicare (www.mymedicare.gov) is theocial government secure on-line serviceor accessing your personal Medicareinormation. In order to use the service,you must be a registered user (requiresa Medicare number).

Moneychimpwww.moneychimp.comFREECategory: Stock Valuation & Ratings

Where to Find: Click on HowMuch Are Stocks Worth. Fromvaluation page, choose the modelyou wish to use rom the Articlebox at top right.

Web site oers stock vaulation calcula-tors based on a variety o models, suchas discounted cash fows, price-earningsratio, price-to-sales ratio, PEG ratio,Benjamin Graham, dividend discountmodel (DDM), Warren Buett, andcapital asset pricing model (CAPM). Foreach model, users enter in their own datainto the various calculators to arrive atthe air value.

Morningstar.comwww.morningstar.comFREE$174/yr. (ree 14-day trial)Category: Stock Screening

Where to Find: Click on Tools link

Morningstar.com


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on gray bar at top. Under ScreeningTools, select stocks link under eitherPremium screener (subscriptionrequired) or Basic Screener.

Free screening allows or up to 18criteria rom over 600 variables, but onlyscreens against preset constant values.You cannot save ree screens.

Premium screening module supportsan unlimited number o criteria romover 800 data points. Premium screen-ing criteria can be compared againstconstants, over elds, or to sector orindex benchmarks. Premium screens canbe saved or use at a later time. Premiumscreener indicates how many companiespass each individual lter. However,Premium service price has increasedalmost 10% rom last year.

Category: Mutual Fund Data Where to Find: Type und ticker in

the quote search box.Morningstar ratings or each und

along with over 150 und statistics,including index and category compari-sons, are ree. Premium subscribers haveaccess to analyst und reports on 2,000mutual unds. Fund Compare allows orquick comparisons o multiple unds.Free daily and weekly E-newsletters giveweekly und data and market summa-

ries. Access to und amily reports orPremium subscribers, but a snapshot obasic und amily data is ree.

Category: Mutual Fund Screening Where to Find: Choose Tools, then

Premium Fund Screener or BasicScreener.

Both screeners have a database o over24,000 mutual unds. Premium screenerhas over 300 criteria or screening andscreens can be saved; results are shown

below criteria or easy adjustment.Create screens based on calendar-yearreturns, relative perormance, portoliocomposition, Morningstar ratings, riskmeasures and more. Premium screenergives denitions o each criterion; reescreener oers analyst insight to helppick appropriate criteria. Free screenerhas only 18 criteria or screening andresults cannot be exported. Screeners canonly screen or the most recent quarterly

or monthly returns. Predened screensare available.

Category: Exchange-Traded Funds Where to Find: Choose ETFs rom

menu bar.Articles, commentaries, and educa-

tional tools. New ETF screener has over800 ETFs and more than 50 screen-ing criteria. Screen based on category,perormance, holdings, risk and more.Some criteria is availableto Premium members only.Results are displayed in atable and can be ranked.ETF data includes peror-mance statistics, categoryand index comparisons,risk measures, ees andexpenses, and portoliocomposition. Premiummembers get added com-mentaries and articles.Cost analyzer comparesETF expenses to those oa stock or und portolio.ETF Quickrank placesa air value estimate onETFs and ranks them bycategory.

Category: Portfolio Tracking

Where to Find: Choose Portolio.Allows or 50 portolios o up to 100

stocks and unds, 20 bonds and 20 cashpositions in each. E-mail alerts include:price movements, news, portolio per-ormance and relevant changes in aninvestment such as a stock split, divi-dend, change in earnings estimates, orchange in a mutual unds managementstyle or expense ratio. Import portoliosrom Money, Quicken, Excel and Websites including MSN Money and Yahoo!

Finance. Over 75 data elds are avail-able or custom views and reports. StockIntersection analyzer shows overlappingstocks in mutual unds. Premium serviceprovides X-Ray or in-depth analysis.Portolio breakdown shows sector, style,security type and region. Premiummembers get detailed asset allocation,perormance, and diversication inor-mation with X-Ray interpreter. Riskanalyzer evaluates how the securities in

your portolio interact and the overallrisk o your portolio.

Motley Fool CAPScaps.ool.comFREECategory: Social Media & Networking

Registered users can post predictionso stock perormance relative to the S&P500 over a specied time period. As stockprices change, the site evaluates player

predictions. Over time, players receive

an accuracy percentage based on howoten they make correct predictions. Inaddition, based on the perormance otheir picks, players receive a percentilerating indicating the percentage o play-ers they are outperorming. Stocks alsoreceive ratings, which are aggregationso every player prediction or that stock,indicating whether or not players thinkthe stock will outperorm the S&P500. Players with higher ratings havemore infuence on stock ratings. CAPS

screener allows users to screen or stockswith varying CAPS ratings as well asnancial data elements.

MSCI Barrawww.mscibarra.comFREECategory: Market Index Statistics

Where to Find: Choose Products,then MSCI Products.

Home o equity, REIT and hedge und

Motley Fool CAPS


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indexes. Provides global and domesticequity perormance tables and charts.Countries and regions are separated intodomestic versus oreign markets and ur-ther split into developed and emergingmarkets. Reports daily, monthly, quar-terly, year-to-date, one-year, three-year,ve-year and 10-year perormance. Sec-tor and industry indexes also available.You can track indexes in local countrycurrency or translate to a single currency.Data can be downloaded as an Excel le.Only basic domestic perormance datais reported. Sections o site are restrictedto institutional subscribers.

MSN Moneymoneycentral.msn.comFREECategory: Comprehensive

Collects news stories rom a varietyo sources on various investing topics.Sophisticated and customizable portoliotracker includes bonds, stocks, unds,ETFs, options and utures. Deluxe stockand mutual und screeners are highlyfexible and easy to navigate. Site alsooers interactive technical charts, dataon individual stocks and unds, E-mailalerts and help or beginning investors.Unique to site are Motley Fools CAPSratings, which are based on other in-

vestors perormance predictions or asecurity (see Motley Fool site descriptionabove). Advanced screening and porto-lio tracking only available on Windows/Internet Explorer.

Category: Stock Screening Where to Find: Must use Internet

Explorer Web browser to use DeluxeScreener. Click on Investing, thenStock Screener at let under Stocks.For Deluxe Stock Screener, click

on link at bottom right. You mustdownload MSN Money InvestmentToolbox, which includes DeluxeScreener.

Over 700 elds are available or screen-ing using the Deluxe Screener module.There are over 30 predened basic anddeluxe searches. Basic searches simplylist those stocks or unds matching a ewcommon measures. Deluxe screening isinteractive, with passing companies dis-

played as criteria are added.Criteria can be comparedto constants, industry/index benchmarks, otherelds or even another com-pany. Criteria can be savedor later use. Users can alsocreate and screen uponcustom variables withinthe screening module.

However, this is nota viable option or Macusers, as Deluxe Screenermodule requires use oInternet Explorer Webbrowser. Also the tool doesnot report how many total companiespass the screen and it can only displaythe top 200 results o a screen.

Category: Stock Valuation & Ratings Where to Find: Type a stock ticker

in the quote search box. Click onStockScouter link under Researchheading at let on company page.

The StockScouter model ranks stocksrom one (poorest) through 10 (best),based on our actors: undamentals,ownership (insider and institutional),valuation, and technicals. Each actoris assigned a letter grade rom A to Fand is also broken down into subac-

tors, which are rated as positive, nega-tive, or neutral. System considers therisk/reward relationship so stocks withhigh expected return and high volatilityreceive a lower rating than those withhigh expected return and low volatility.It also considers market preerences thattend to aect stock prices in the neartermsector, market cap, and style(value or growth). The sites DeluxeScreener allows screening on overallStockScouter rating and can screen or

top stocks based on individual grades.Provides in-depth description o StockScouter system. Includes Motley FoolCAPS program, which allows players topredict stock perormance and receiveratings based on the accuracy o theirpredictions (see page 24).

Category: Mutual Fund Data Where to Find: Type a unds ticker

in the quotes search box.

Over 200 data elds on individualunds include price history, price peror-mance, risk, und allocation and interac-tive charts. Research Wizard oers undanalysis based on category, managementtype, risk and price history. However, sitelacks articles and commentary related tound investing.

Category: Mutual Fund Screening Where to Find: Choose Investing,

then Funds, and select DeluxeScreener rom the list at let.

Deluxe Fund Screener covers over12,500 unds and oers 75 screencriteria. Flexible criteria and descrip-tions and average values help you pickmeaningul comparisons. Predenedscreens are also available. Screen resultsare displayed below criteria, allowing oreasy adjustments and additions. How-ever, a maximum o 200 matches aredisplayed. Passing unds can be ranked,sorted, saved and exported. Over 200data elds are available on individualunds. You must have Windows and useInternet Explorer.

Category: Personal Finance

Where to Find: Click on PersonalFinance.

Covers all aspects o personal nance,including planning, banking, insurance,retirement, savings and taxes. Numerouspersonal nance calculators and otherplanning tools are oered, as well asarticles and links. However, articles tendto be more newsy, with less coverage othe basics, and some eatures includeheavy advertising o related products.

MSN Money


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Category: Portfolio Tracking Where to Find: Click on Investing,

then Portolio; must install ActiveXand run on Internet Explorer.

Newly improved portolio manage-ment module has ull customization

and printing capabilities. It is now easierto enter transactions and track peror-mance. Price and volume data is updatedautomatically as oten as every minute.Customizeable views oer over 70 dier-ent criteria, including price, return, riskratios and valuation ratios. Total returnor the day is shown at top o page.News and price target alerts can be sentvia E-mail or MSN Messenger. Portoliovalues can be viewed at various points intime, and data can be exported to Excel.

Reports ocus on investment style, assetclass and individual securities; you canalso produce a combined perormancereport or multiple portolios. DynamicActiveX interace missing on Mac andnon-Internet Explorer browsers.

National Association ofInsurance Commissioners(NAIC)www.naic.orgFREECategory: Life Insurance

The States and Jurisdiction Map linksto each states insurance regulator Website, allowing individuals to nd inor-mation on lie insurance, annuities andlong-term care insurance specic to theirstate. Consumer Inormation Source isa tool or checking out a lie insurancecompany and ling a complaint. Thesite also provides an area where you canreport suspected insurance raud. Homepage contains consumer alets; inorma-tion on AIG is given prominence.

Educational inormation is ound inthe Insure U area. Choose a lie situa-tion or insurance tips specic to yourcircumstances. Under the Library tab,click on Lie Insurance or more articles.The Lie Insurance Buyers Guide canbe downloaded as a PDF le. A glossaryo insurance terms is available.

Category: Long-Term Care InsuranceFind inormation on long-term care

insurance specic to your state throughthe States and Jurisdiction Map. Checkout an insurance company or le a com-plaint using the Consumer InormationSource tool. The site also provides an areawhere you can report suspected insur-ance raud. Educational inormation isound in the Insure U area. Under theLibrary tab, click on Health Insuranceor an article on long-term care insur-ance. A Shoppers Guide to Long-TermCare Insurance can be ordered in printorm.

National Clearinghouse forLong-Term Care Informationwww.longtermcare.govFREECategory: Long-Term Care Insurance

Where to Find: Click on Paying orLTC, then Private Financing, thenLong-Term Care Insurance.

Oers good explanation o benetchoices, what long-term care policiescover, plan costs, designing coverage tomeet your needs, and where to buy. In-cludes useul Links and Resources areas.

Nolowww.nolo.comFREECategory: Estate Planning

Nolo is a publishing company thatspecializes in explaining legal matters tolaymen. The site includesarticles on a wide varietyo topics that are availableto the general public. In itsWills & Estates section,Nolo includes articles andQ&As on estate planningbasics, wills, probate, liv-ing trusts, estate and gittaxes, and more. How-

ever, the Web site is notsophisticated in terms ographics and interactivity,and it does promote thecompanys estate planningbooks and sotware.

Options IndustryCouncilwww.888options.comFREE

Category: Options/Futures Where to Find: Use tabs running

across top o page to access majorareas. At the ar right, the OIC Edu-cation tab takes you to the directedlearning center.

Provides delayed quotes and marketdata. Educational material is geared toboth the beginner and advanced trader.Oers ree on-line interactive classes,webcasts, and audio and video podcaststo registered users. You can also signup or live seminars conducted aroundthe country. The OIC Education areahas an assessment tool that helps directyou to the level o learning you needand keeps track o the courses you havecompleted. A unique Strategy Screenercompares options strategies in a graphi-cal ormat and provides in-depth details

on each strategy. The site also providesoptions calculators, position simulator,a directory o listed options and reeE-mail alerts.

Prophet.Netwww.prophet.netFREE$649.50/yr. (ree seven-day trial)Category: Stock Charting &Technical Analysis

Where to Find: Enter ticker tocreate chart.

Provides up to 50 years o historicalchart data (when available) or ree. Cov-

ers indexes, stocks, mutual unds andutures and options (with subscription).SnapCharts is a ree end-o-day charting

MSN Money (continued)

Prophet.net


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service with data back to 1968 (whenavailable) that allows the overlay o upto ve customizable indicators rom alibrary o 60 indicators and line studies.JavaCharts provides additional interac-tion, including the ability to select apoint on a chart and receive the open,high, low, and closing prices and volumeor that particular point in time. Thesecharts also allow users to draw customtrendlines and choose technical indica-tors and line studies (28 or ree users,close to 170 depending on premiumservice), all o which can be custom-ized. ChartStream delivers live stream-ing equity, options, and utures charts,depending on subscription. Exploresection allows users to search or poten-tial investment opportunities based onprice and volume activity. ProphetScanoers real-time market scanning o a14,000-stock universe. Subscribers cancreate custom screens using almost 30technical criteria.

Oers limited educational contentdespite breadth o capabilities. Also, ad-justments or mutual und distributionsappear to be inconsistent depending onthe time period being charted.

REIT.comwww.reit.com

FREECategory: REITs

Where to Find: For educationaleatures, click on Individual Inves-tors at top o home page. To requestannual reports, select Research andResources at the Individual Inves-tors page.

Site combines unctions or industryproessionals with educational servicesor investors. Home page highlights newsplus video analysis and interviews with

industry proessionals. Data is limited toindustry and index statistics and reports.Educational eatures include introduc-tory articles and brochures that explainthe basics, including requently askedquestions and a glossary o technicalterms. The literature is thorough, buttends to read like a marketing brochurewith no explicit warnings about risks.Lists o individual REITs are hyperlinkedto the REITs home page; however,

only REITs that are NAREIT membersare included. Unique interactive mapallows users to see which REITs haveproperties in a certain state, or all stateswhere properties exist or one REIT.Newly added is a world map that liststhe REITs with investments in oreigncountries. A ree annual report serviceallows you to request nancial statementson individual NAREIT-member REITs.

Renaissance Capital IPO Homewww.ipohome.comFREECategory: IPOs

Where to Find:Click on IPO Home.Home page includes IPO calendars,

eatured IPO, breaking IPO news, com-mentary and analysis. Users can chatabout IPOs and vote or an oering ashot or cold. Calendars show upcom-ing oerings, latest lings, secondaryoerings and lock-up and quiet periods.Data on oreign, withdrawn and post-oned IPOs is provided. Lists top- andbottom-perorming IPOs over the lastyear and the top and bottom atermar-ket perormers. Company reports withcompany overview, internal and externalrisk actors, nancial data and valuationscost $30 each to download but are notavailable or all companies.

Reuterswww.reuters.com/nanceFREECategory: Stock Data

Where to Find: Type a stocks tickerin the quote search box. Click onView Full Quote to right ocompany name. Then click on linksalong let side o page or company-specic data.

Oers comprehensive collection o

company nancial data. Provides anextensive collection o nancial ratios,multiples, and growth rates as well as in-dustry, sector, and S&P 500 comparisondata. In-depth insider and institutionalownership and activity data are avail-able. Oers some o the most completecompany descriptions on the Internet.Five quarters and ve years o detailedincome statement, balance sheet, andcash fow statement data are given, along

with normalized income statement data.Select income statement growth rates arepresented or last one, three, and veyears. Stock perormance data is shownrelative to S&P 500 or year-to-date aswell as last our, 13, 26, and 52 weeks.Provides access to an array o ree andor-purchase analyst reports. Consensusanalyst recommendations and earningsand revenue estimates are given or cur-rent and next scal year and quarter;earnings and revenue surprises or thelast ve quarters are also provided.

Category: Analyst Estimates,Ratings, & Recommendations

Where to Find: Type a stocks tickerin the quote search box. Click onView Full Quote to the right ocompany name. Then click on eitherEstimates or Recommendationsunder Stocks on let side o page.

Reports consensus earnings and rev-enue estimates or the current and nextscal quarter and scal year, includingnumber o estimates, mean estimate,high/low estimates, and standard devia-tion. Also provides long-term estimatedgrowth rate or earnings along withearnings and revenue surprise data orthe last ve scal quarters. Tracks trendin consensus revenue and earnings

estimates over the last week, each othe last two months, and the last year.Tracks upward and downward revenueand earnings revisions over the last weekand last month or the current and nextscal quarter and scal year. Currentconsensus and trends are shown overeach o the last two months and year.

RiskGradeswww.riskgrades.comFREE

Category: Portfolio TrackingSpecializes in evaluating the risk

characteristics o specic investmentsand entire portolios. My Portoliounction shows how well diversied aportolio is based on a variety o actorsincluding sector, style and size. See howrisk has changed over time and howit compares to benchmarks and otherstrategies. What I unction shows therisk impact on the portolio as a whole


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o buying or selling dierent securities.Provides a good explanation o how theresults are determined. A Risk Map othe Market maps the capitalization andrisk o stocks in the S&P 500 and theNASDAQ 100. However, this is not acomprehensive portolio tracking site.

Russellwww.russell.comFREECategory: Market Index Statistics

Where to Find: Choose IndividualInvestors then Global Index Lead-ership.

Indexes cover U.S., Japanese, and Ca-nadian markets. Indexes are broken downby U.S. versus global. Index returns,values, construction and composition,news and commentary are presented.Fundamental data characteristics arealso provided. Daily, monthly, quarterlyand annual returns are downloadable.

A U.S. Returns Calculator allows youto view or download select indexes andtime periods.

Sister States Tax Directorywww.sisterstates.comFREECategory: Tax Information

Provides a useul one-stop link to taxinormation or all states. However, itonly provides links; there are no tax

explanations and the site has not beenupdated since 2007.

SmartMoney.comwww.smartmoney.comFREE$108/yr. (ree 14-day trial)Category: ComprehensiveA ree portolio tracker can track up

to 50 securities in 50 dierent porto-lios; pricing and perormance data areupdated automatically (as oten as onceevery minute). The site has a large stockand mutual und database. Premiumsubscribers get intuitive and highlysophisticated stock and und screening

tools. Portolio and indi-vidual security E-mail newsalerts are oered.

Category: Stock Data Where to Find: Type

a stocks ticker in thequotes search box.

The Competitive Analy-sis section (click on Com-pare) allows users to com-pare a company to ve oits industry peers basedon selected nancial state-ment items, nancial mul-tiples and ratios, growthrates, share statistics, and

consensus analyst recom-mendations. The DynamicCompare module (oundin box at right) allows us-

ers to select up to ve companies orcomparison and oers 16 data tablesor viewing. Select nancial statementdata covers the last 15 scal quarters andthe last 10 scal years and is available inprinter-riendly ormat. Oers a pricechart with insider buy and sell transac-tions, as well as insider gain/loss data

and an insider timing grade. Consensusearnings estimates or current and nextscal year and quarter are given, as wellas trends over the last 90 days. Providescurrent short interest data. Oers abil-ity to create custom stock reports orprinting.

Subscribers to SmartMoney Select haveaccess to a tool that allows companycomparisons based on multiples, ratios,growth rates, and analyst recommenda-

tions. This unctionality is also inte-grated into Stock Snapshots to allow youto compare a stock to its competitors.SmartMoney Select also oers mapsthat allow you to view a group o stocksor ETFs, even your own portolio, allat once. Maps are color-coded to showvarious price-related and undamentaldata and how they compare to the othersecurities on the map.

However, nancial statement data isnot as detailed as that ound at othersites; there are no historical trend valuesor ratios or multiples, and you will notnd comparative industry or index data.

Category: Stock Screening (fee-based) Where to Find:Click on Tools, then

click on Stock Screener (subscrip-tion required).

This site oers no ree stock screening.The SmartMoney Select Stock Screenerhas a database o over 8,500 NYSE,NASDAQ, and Amex stocks. Interactivescreening tool provides access to over 140screening variables. Screening criteriacan be compared against xed variables,other elds, and sector/industry/indexbenchmarks. Users can also create theirown screening variables. Custom screenscan be saved or uture use and screen-ing results can be saved as a spreadsheet.

Although company reports are not asdetailed as at other sites, this screenerocuses on actors its operators eel arekey elements and then provides tools tocompare companies against competitorsand plot gures. Twenty-our built-inscreens are oered. Provides regulararticles on screening ideas.

Category: Mutual Fund Data Where to Find: Choose Investing,

then Mutual Funds.

Smart Money magazine articles ar-chived on-line include mutual undscreening articles detailing new screeningideas with descriptions and tables. Riskmeasures, perormance graphs and keyund ratios are given or over 21,000unds. Lipper Ratings are also presentedor each und. Charts show a undssector weightings, asset allocation, andrisk/reward trade-o. Lists 25 best- andworst-perorming unds over the past

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day, week, month, quarter and year.Most o the advanced analysis tools areor premium subscribers only.

Category: Mutual Fund Screening(fee-based)

Where to Find: Choose Tools, thenView all Tools and Fund Screener(you must be a subscriber).

Premium subscribers get a databaseo over 21,000 unds and 50 criteriaor screening, including Lipper Leaderrankings. Criteria denitions can helpyou pick meaningul user-dened values,and screening is highly fexible. Chooseto include or exclude na values inscreening. Passing unds are listed belowscreener in table, histogram or thumbnailormat. Screens can be saved and chartscustomized. Fund Compare tool presentsdata on multiple unds in a comparisonchart. However, you cannot screen orcalendar-year returns. Fund Map 1000sits through 1,000 mutual unds using18 criteria to spot trends and anomalies.

Category: Exchange-Traded Funds Where to Find: Choose Investing,

then ETFs or articles; ChooseTools, then View All Tools orscreening, tracking and comparingETFs.

ETF section oers current news andcommentary. All ETF tools are ree,Java-based and highly interactive. ETFTracker shows all ETFs tracked by thesite in one table with price and volumedata. Data includes historical peror-mance, volume, price, risk measures,top holdings, charts and news. Real-timequotes are available or paying subscrib-ers. ETF Screener has over 50 criteriaor screening 800 ETFs. Results can besorted. ETF Compare allows or side-

by-side analysis. Track price movementsover a broad set o indexes with ETFMap. ETF Focus oers articles and newsstories about ETFs. Premium membersget real-time and ETF options quotes.

Category: Personal Finance Where to Find: Click on Personal

Finance.Covers all o the personal nance basics

including banking, loans, insurance, tax

and estate planning, along with coverageo related issues such as health care, smallbusiness and elder care. Good selectiono in-depth articles within each personalnance section, and well-thought-outnavigation tools. The site also eaturesproduct comparisons, worksheets,calculators and other planning tools.Emphasis tends toward newsy topicsrather than the basics.

Category: Retirement Planning Where to Find: Go to Tools, clickWorksheets, then select rom thelist under Retirement.

The ree Retirement Planning Work-sheets allow you to enter personalnancial inormation, including yoursalary and benets, current and plannedsavings, expenses during retirement,and retirement goals; the worksheetsdetermine how much you will needto accumulate by retirement, whetheryour current savings plan will reachthat amount, and how much more youmay need to save to meet your goal.However, the worksheets do not provideany graphical depictions, charts or otherdetails on post-retirement account valuesand cash fows, and they do not providean explanation o the assumptions used.I you want to save the worksheets you

must subscribe to SmartMoney Select.

Category: Estate Planning Where to Find: Click on Personal

Finance.Estate planning area eatures several

practical articles on planning your estate,as well as various worksheets. Howeverthe articles are not very comprehensiveand oer minimal guidanceprimarilyor those who do not have complicatedestate planning issues.

Category: Portfolio Tracking Where to Find: Choose My Port-

olio rom Tools menu.The portolio tool is easy to use and

data is automatically updated every min-ute. Real-time data costs $108 per year.You can import portolio transactionsrom Quicken and Money, and exportsecurities to the sites Premium Stock andFund Compare tools. Create a maximum

o 50 portolios with up to 50 securitiesin each. Views are ully customizable.Graphically analyze portolios holdings,perormance and diversication withone o the sites many Premium Java-enhanced tools. Portolio Mixer allowsyou to view perormance over variousperiods, change the portolio weightingsand view price charts. E-mail alerts areoered or price targets only.

Category: Financial News & AnalysisSmartMoney.com oers a wealth o

news and data on U.S. markets and asolid roster o research and analysis tools,as well as interactive charting unctions.Breaking news, market commentary andopinion pieces are shown on the homepage. Expanded news coverage andcommentary articles are ound withinthe separate stock and und sections.Other sections cover the economy, dailymarket updates, short-term investingand more. Real-time data is availableor premium subscribers. Provides RSSdata eeds. However, be aware that manysections o the site push the sites ee-based research tools.

Standard & Poorswww.standardandpoors.comFREE

Category: Market Index Statistics Where to Find: Choose United

States, then Indices.Reports domestic and oreign S&P

index data. Indexes are categorized bytype and country. Factsheets, indexmethodology and FAQs are providedor each index. See current index values,historical perormance, and companiesadded and removed. Downloadablespreadsheets show historical earnings anddividend values. Fee-based index alerts

report index modications. However,this site is geared toward proessionalsand the navigation can be conusing.

StockCharts.comwww.stockcharts.comFREE$369.35/yr.Category: Stock Charting &Technical Analysis

Where to Find: Enter ticker in boxand click Go!.


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Provides ve dierent chart styles,including point & gure charts, and alibrary o over 40 technical indicatorsand line studies. Oers ully custom-izable point & gure charts that alsoprovide indications o recently ormedchart patterns. Gallery View gives youshort-, medium-, and long-term viewso any stock, index, or mutual und.All users can modiy the parameters oindicators. However, only three yearso daily charting data is available or

ree users. Intraday charts are availableto subscribers, but real-time chartingis not streaming. Subscribers can alsocreate and save custom chart templates.Collection o over 60 scans can be ac-cessed by all users. Non-subscribers canrun predened scans on an end-o-daybasis. Subscribers have the ability to cre-ate and save custom scans. Chart Schoolprovides extensive discussion o variouschart types and technical indicators.

T. Rowe Pricewww.troweprice.comFREECategory: Retirement Planning

Where to Find: Go to Planning andResearch, select Tools & Resourcesand go to the Estimating Retire-ment Income article.

Retirement Income Calculator helpsyou determine whether your tax-de-erred retirement assets can support a

given income level over thelength o your retirement.The calculator simulatesa variety o market sce-narios, and determinesyour retirement portoliosability to sustain an incomestream over your plannedretirement period underthose scenarios. Providesa ull explanation o allassumptions used in thecalculations, and includesexplanatory articles andsupporting worksheets.However, the calculatordoes not allow you to entervery many variables. Otherparts o site include retire-ment planning articlesand other worksheets and

calculators.

TreasuryDirectwww.treasurydirect.govFREECategory: BondsAllows individuals to buy Treasury

securities on-line rom the governmentcommission-ree, including: U.S. Trea-sury bills, notes and bonds; infation-indexed TIPS (Treasury Inlation-

Protected Securities); as well as U.S.government Series EE and infation-linked I savings bonds. Also providescertain on-line services to holders o H/HH bonds (which are no longer issued).

Individuals can use one TreasuryDirectaccount or all Treasury products. Theaccount allows you to reinvest interestpayments and maturing securities andto sell Treasuries beore maturity.

Provides comprehensive inormationon all Treasury securities and U.S. sav-

ings bonds. A downloadable programallows you to manage your savings bondinventory and determine its currentredemption value.

ValuEngine.comwww.valuengine.com$199.95/yr. (14-day trial)Category: Stock Valuation & Ratings

Where to Find: Type a stocks tickerin the quotes search box ater logging

in (subscription required).Provides air value or individual stocks

that is derived rom a proprietary modelbased primarily on three undamentalvariables: trailing 12-month earningsper share, consensus orecasted earningsper share or the next 12 months, andthe current 30-year Treasury yield (all owhich are updated throughout the day).Model also makes use o rm-specicparameters such as long-term earningsgrowth, the nature o a companys busi-ness cycle, sensitivity to macroeconomicrisk actors, and interest rate parameters.However, the model is a black-boxvaluation, so little inormation is avail-able regarding the process.

ValuEngine Rating is an overall assess-ment o a stocks attractiveness based onve actors: valuation, risk/return trade-o, momentum, market capitalizationand orecasted uture returns. Users cancompare a stock with up to our otherstocks. A screener shows you how to cre-ate a market-neutral portolio o shortsand longs. Users have access to detailedstock valuation analysis. Research onthe perormance o the sites models isavailable.

Vanguardwww.vanguard.com

FREECategory: Retirement Planning

Where to Find: Go to the Retire-ment Planning section o Planning& Education, then to RetirementPlanning Tools and scroll down tothe Vanguard Lietime SpendingAnalyzer.

Uses a variety o simulated marketscenarios (based on historical return re-lationships among various asset groups)to determine your tax-deerred porto-

lios ability to sustain an income streamover your retirement period under thosescenarios based on your portolios size,your asset allocation, your withdrawalamount and the length o your retire-ment. Provides a ull explanation o allassumptions used in the calculations.However, the calculator does not allowyou to enter very many variables. Otherretirement calculators and articles on thissite are also helpul.

StockCharts.com


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wikinvestwww.wikinvest.comFREECategory: Social Media & Networking

Investment research site allows users tocontribute articles and edit content. Cov-ers a variety o investing topics, includ-

ing individual company reports, whichrival much o what can be ound rommore traditional investing Web sites.Reports typically oer a background othe company as well as trends that canhurt and benet the companys nancialperormance; however, they are not in a

standardized ormat. Articles cover in-vesting concepts, commodities, mutualunds, and global markets.

Contributors must register with thesite and as you post or make changes tothe wiki, you earn contributor points.This allows users to gauge the useul-ness and validity o your posts. Posts

are monitored.

Wilshire Associateswww.wilshire.comFREECategory: Market Index Statistics

Where to Find: Click on Indexes.Wilshire indexes track various seg-

ments o the market: broad market,various investment styles based on size,growth versus value, and sectors. Index

return calculator allows you to obtainreturn data or any combination oWilshire indexes; however, it is com-plex and can be conusing or a novice.Reports index values over various timeperiods, index composition, adjustmentsand cumulative or periodic returns.

WSJ.comwww.wsj.comFREE$103/yr. or on-line only (ree14-day trial)Category: Financial News & Analysis

Current and archived content o theWall Street Journal printpublications is augmentedwith additional on-linecontent. On-line contentis updated throughout theday. Markets Data Centeroers a wealth o marketdata and statistics ordomestic and oreign mar-kets. Provides a searchablearchive. Personal Journalincludes avorites, prolednews and links, and port-olio tools. The home pagecan be customized. E-mailupdates, RSS data eeds,and podcasts are available.Added cost to search or

older news stories.

Yahoo! Financenance.yahoo.com

FREE$131.40/yr. (ree 30-day trial)Category: ComprehensiveAccumulates news stories rom numer-

ous Internet sources including subscrip-tion-based sites. Unlimited number osecurities available in portolio tracker,with ree real-time quotes. Stock screeneroers over 150 screening criteria. Results

can be saved, E-mailed and exported.Interactive Java-based technical chartsprovided. Financial statement data,message boards and sections or ETFsand IPOs are also oered. Mutual undscreener and portolio tracker are verybasic. Real-time data outside the port-olio tracker costs extra.

Category: Mutual Fund Data Where to Find: Type a unds ticker

in the quotes search box.Provides current und news, historical

prices, manager inormation, peror-mance tables and graphs, risk measuresand portolio holdings. However, sitelacks a good snapshot page or unds withessential und data in one place. Simplebut intuitive und screener includes onlybasic screening criteria. Top-perormingunds are listed by style and sector. Inter-active charting oers ull customization.Graphically compare perormance withanother und or an index. E-mail pricealerts are available.

Category: Personal Finance Where to Find: Click on Personal

Finance.Numerous links to tools, calculators,

articles and product comparisons orall aspects o personal nance, includ-ing banking, loans, insurance and taxplanning. Also provides useul how-toarticles that cover the basics o each area.Content is well organized, althoughthere is little original content, and thereis heavy promotional material romsponsoring sites.

Category: Tax Information

Where to Find: Click on PersonalFinance, then go to Taxes.

Provides articles on tax-related topics,as well as tax calculators and how-toguides covering tax issues such as thealternative minimum tax, common taxcredits and tax strategies or retirees.However, the emphasis is more onpopular news topics, with less inorma-tion on tax basics.

Category: Social Media & Networking Where to Find:Enter a stocks ticker

in the quote search box. At company

quote page, click on Message Boardunder News & Ino.

Investment message boards on over9,000 stocks are broken down into in-vestment type or sector. Users can rateindividual posts and lter boards to onlyshow those posts with a minimum rat-ing. Oers ability to c

AAII journal 13th Annual Best Of The Net Guide 2009

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