Investing Online for Dummies ^{2nd Ed.}

Don't get lost in investment cyberspace! Whether you're a novice or an experienced investor, Investing Online for Dummies, 2nd Edition, is your ideal guide to a vast array of Internet investment tools, links, and resources. Financial management expert Kathleen Sindell tells you how to buy, sell, and monitor investments online, avoid costly mistakes, and build wealth — all by using the Internet.

Inside, find helpful advice on how to:

• Save time and money by managing your portfolio online
• Find the best online brokers and pay the lowest commissions
• Get stock quotes and company news 24 hours a day
• Locate investment software
• Use Internet resources to analyze stocks and mutual funds
• Identify online banking services and find the best one for your needs
• Figure out the online signals that tell you when to nuy and when to sell
• Avoid online frauds and deceptions

• Introduction
• Who Are You?
• About This Book
• How to Use This Book
• How This Book Is Organized
• Part I: Online Investing Fundamentals
• Part II: Finding the Right Investments
• Part III: Paying the Right Price
• Part IV: Making More Money on the Internet
• Part V: The Part of Tens
• What's New
• Technical Requirements
• Icons Used in This Book
• Feedback, Please
• Part I: Online Investing Fundamentals
1. Why Look to the Internet for Investment Information?
• Can You Earn Big Bucks by Investing on the Internet?
• Picking a Winning Investment Online
• What Can Investors Fond on the Net
• Where Should You Start?
2. Internet, Here I Come
• Getting Smart Online
• Online investor tutorials
• Web sites for new investors
• Glossaries
• FAQs Sources
• Maximizing Your Internet Browser with Bookmarks
• News You Can Use
• Large news organizations
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Scholarly journals
• Electronic newsletters
• Practicing with Your New Investment Information
• Join the club! Become a member of an investment club
• No cost investment simulations
3. Warnings about Online Frauds, Schemes, and Deceptions
• Don't Believe Everything You Read
• If an Offer Seems Too Good to Be True, It Usually Is
• Checking It Out Before You Put Your Money Down
• Determining Whether an Investment Is a Pyramid Scheme
• What Real Financial Disclosures Include
• Tell-Tale Signs of Dishonest Brokers
• Where to Complain Online
• Your Bank Account Number, Security, and the Internet
• Part II: Finding the Right Investments
4. Making Your Money Work Harder
• Using the Internet to Make Financial Planning Easier
  • The joys of compound interest
  • Investing versus playing the lottery
• Moving Some of Your Savings to Investments
• Calculating Your Current Assets Using the Internet
• Accumulating Something to Invest
• Setting — and Reaching — Your Goals
• Setting your financial objectives
• Where do you stand?
• The pitfalls of paycheck-to-paycheck accounting
• Deciding How Much Risk You Can Take
• Establishing Your Investment Plan
• Determining How Much You Can Invest
• Using the Internet to control your finances
• The shortfall problem
• Investing in Securities That Meet Your Goals
• Checking Out What the Experts Are Doing
• Tracking and Measuring Your Success
• Bulletproof Investing
5. What's So Great about Mutual Funds?
• Mutual Fund Mania
• Finding Mutual Fund Information on the Internet
• Buying Mutual Funds
• Understanding the real cost of sales fees
• Opening a mutual fund account
• Selling Your Mutual Funds
• Starting Your Mutual Fund Account with as Little as $25
6. The Keys to Successful Internet Mutual Fund Investing
• Mutual Fund Basics
• Discovering the differences between open-end and closed-end mutual funds
• Minimizing fees
• Loading it on
• Taking it off
• Understanding Mutual Fund Risks
• A Fund for You, a Fund for Me
• Finding Facts and Figures Online
• Locating and Reading the Prospectus
• How to Screen Mutual Funds Online
7. The Basics of Stocks and Rates of Return
• Taking Stock of You
• Understanding Stocks
• Types of Stocks
• Common stocks
• Preferred stocks
• Stock rights and warrants
• Picking the Right Stock for the Right Goal
• How to Read a Stock Chart or Table
• Finder Ticker Symbols and Stock Prices Online
• What Does the S & P 500 Have to Do with Anything?
• Valuing Stocks
• Valuation model input and results
• Double-checking your Internet valuations
8. Internet Stock Screening
• Finding the Best Stock Using the Net
• Choosing the criteria for your first stock screen
• Fine-tuning your stock screen
• Using your stock screen results
• Important ratios for screening stocks
• Beta
• Book Value
• Cash flow to share ratio
• Current ratio
• Debt to equity ratio
• Dividends
• Dividend yield
• Earnings per share (EPS)
• Market capitalization
• P/E ratio
• Price-to-book value
• Return on equity (ROE)
• Shares outstanding
• Watching Out for Investment Risks
• Using Online Stock Screens
• Using Stock Screening Software
• Using Those Terrific Prebuilt Stock Screens
• Determining Your Own Investment Criteria for Stock Screens
• Screening for growth stocks
• Screening for income stocks
• Screening for value stocks
• Screening for Investment Bargains
• Stocks selling at below book value
• Securities selling below liquidation value
• Stocks with low P/E ratios
• Companies reporting deficits
• Prospective turnaround candidates
9. Going with Bonds: Which Type of Is Best for You?
• Generic Features of Bonds
• Special benefits and exposures
• Using the Internet to find new bond offerings
• Finding bond indexes and historical data online
• Risks and stability
• How Small Investors Can Make Money with Fixed-Income Investments and Bonds
• The Four Basic Types of Bonds
• Uncle Sam's bonds: Treasury securities
• Internet information on Treasury securities
• Savings bonds: The easiest way to save
• Federal government agency bonds
• The beauty of tax-free municipal bonds
• Floating with corporate bonds
• Using the Internet to screen bonds
• Two Alternate Types of Bonds
• Part III: Paying the Right price
10. Online Analysis, Buying, and Selling of Mutual Funds
• Going Online with Mutual Funds
• Finding the Right Mix of Investments
• Matching Mutual Funds to Your Financial Objectives
• Using the Internet to Help You Choose the Best Funds in Each Class
• Following a mutual fund checklist
• How to read an online mutual fund listing
• Assessing mutual fund performance
• The Ratings War
• The Morningstar rating system
• The Value Line dual rating system
• Using Scoreboards and Ratings
• Forecasting Your Mutual Fund's Future
• Buying Mutual Funds Online: No Broker Needed
• Buying Mutual Funds Online: Using an Electronic Broker
• The Right Time to Sell Your Mutual Funds
11. Researching Individual Stocks Stocks
• Finding Financial Statements Online
• Accessing Web Sites That Specialize in Annual Reports
• Using a search engine to find annual reports
• Using Web sites that link to company home pages
• Finding online annual reports: Investor supersites
• Researching a company's SEC filing
• Downloading SEC filings in just three clicks
• Analyzing a Financial Statement
• Dissecting the Annual Report
• Reading the letter to the shareholder
• Viewing the company overview
• Figuring out the ten-year summary of financial figures
• Analyzing the management discussion and analysis of operations
• Scrutinizing the independent auditor's report
• Examining financial statements
• Finding out about subsidiaries, brands, and addresses
• Perusing the list of directors and officers
• Investing the stock price history
• Utilizing Prepared Online Ratio Analysis
12. Digging Deeper: Researching Investment Candidates
• Turning Your Hunches into Investment Strategies
• Conquering Uncertainty with Online Research
• Gaining new investor insights with breaking news
• Locating company profiles and related data
• Finding Industry and statistical Information
• Gathering economic and related data
• Collecting market information
• Checking out analyst evaluations
• Tracking down earnings estimates
• Researching historical prices
• Forecasting earnings and the stock market level
• Paying the Right Price
• Getting down to fundamentals
• Proceeding with caution
• Analysis for value shopping
• Getting Technical: Technical analysis
• Market timing
13. Valuing, Buying, and Selling Bonds Online
• Nice and Simple: Savings Bonds
• Where to buy bonds
• The good and bad about savings bonds
• Just Uncle Sam, Treasury Securities, and You
• Buying Treasury Securities via the Internet
• Opening Your account
• How to buy 'em
• Tendering your offer
• Cashing in or rolling over your Treasury securities
• Selling your Treasury securities
• Online sources for more information
• More Online Bond News, Rates of Return, and Advice
14. Looking for the Next Big Thing: IPOs, DPOs, and DRIPs
• Looking for Investment Opportunities: IPOs
• Getting the scoop on IPOs
• Understanding the limitations of IPOs
• Finding IPO news and research on the Internet
• Finding online brokers that specializes in IPOs
• Including IPOs in mutual funds
• Be Your Own Broker with Direct Public Offerings (DPOs)
• Recognizing the limitations of DPOs
• Buying DPOs
• Trading direct public offerings online
• Buying Stock in a Direct Purchase Plan (DPP)
• Buying That First DPP Share
• Profiting with Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIPs)
• Additional features of DRIPs
• Not all DRIPs are alike
• How to get your first DRIP share
• Selecting the right DRIP
• Part IV: Making More Money on the Internet
15. Brokers and Online Trading
• Finding a Brokerage Firm
• Checking Out Prospective Brokers
• Getting Online Trading Servicess for Less
• Trading online for $15 or less
• Finding online brokers with no or low initial account minimums
• Checking Out Online Brokers Special Features
• Rating Online Brokers
• How to Open Your Online Brokerage Account
• Increasing Profits with Simple Order Specification Techniques
• The Dangers of Day Trading
• What is day trading?
• Spotting the Signals for Day Trading
• Having What It Takes to Be a Day Trader
• Gearing Up for Day Trading
• Getting ready (to day trade)
• Getting set (to make the investment decision)
• Going! (Placing the order)
16. Online Portfolio Tracking
• Why Manage Your Investments?
• Tracking the Right Information
• Your Portfolio Management Options
• Using Web-based Portfolio Management Programs
• MSN Investor
• Stockpoint
• Telescan Wall Street City
• Thomson Investors Network
• Reuters Money Network
• The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition
• Zack's Investment Research
• Following Online News with Portfolio Tracking
• Business news
• Portal portfolio management
• Yahoo! portfolio management
• Excite
• Using PC-Based Portfolio Management Software
• Personal software programs
• MS Money 99 Financial Suite
• Quicken Deluxe 99
• Portfolio management software programs
• Using Online Brokerage-Based Portfolio Tracking
• Keeping the Winners and Selling the Losers: Measuring Performance
• Part V: The Part of Tens
17. Ten Signals to Sell
• Know When to Fold
• Set Profit-Taking Goals
• You Can't Be Right All the Time
• If the Stock Is Going Nowhere, Get Going
• Don't Be Fooled by P/E Spurts
• Watch Interest Rates
• Keep an Eye on Economic Indicators
• Watch what the Insiders Are Doing
• If the Company or Fund Changes
18. Ten Green Flags for Buying
• Buy If the Stock Is at Its Lowest Price
• Check Out the Earnings Forecast
• Watch for Stocks That Are Trading under Book Value
• Beware of Firms with High Long-Term Debt
• Invest in Entrepreneurial Companies
• Invest in Industry Leaders
• Buy Good Performers
• Select Your P/E Ratio Strategy
• Low P/E and high dividend approach
• High P/E ratios are worth the price
• Look for String Dividend Pay-Out Records

Too american to be of any use. Disregard.