Best Online Investment Tools Options

[Timbo]

I'm partially curious what is actually available out there, be it installable programs, websites, resources, indexes, etc. What are some of your favorites that you've found particularly useful? I'd appreciate hearing what people use.

[Mommy]

Bank of America has awesome online tools including access to S&P reports

[dauss]

What is it that you are looking for? Research into stocks? Tools to manage your portfolio?

All the discount brokers have tools for limited research and reports for stocks and funds. E*TRADE, Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Scottrade.
There's full service brokers which provide research, advice, financial management, but with commissions and larger fees. Raymond James, Oppenheimer, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs.

Personally, I use the resources available at Charles Schwab and my dad.
I use Google Finance(finance.google.com/finance) to look at prices, historical charts, etc, because I love the layout of the charts. Another interesting thing about the Google one is there's a discussion forum where people can post and talk about a certain stock. Most of the discussions are crap, but sometimes you find interesting ones.
I use Yahoo! Finance(finance.yahoo.com) to read the market news, check overseas markets, futures, and they generally have interesting articles.
I use Bloomberg(bloomberg.com) to read other financial news and check stocks for related news and press releases.
I listen to Marketplace(marketplace.org) everyday, for interesting stories and other news that I may have missed.

[Seeker]

i use etrade and several pirated statistical tracking and trend analysis programs

using numerology, gematria, and sacred geometry i found a pattern in the stock market... i only use my knowledge to earn enough for the basic necessities and to finance several black-op research projects

[Timbo]

What is it that you are looking for? Research into stocks? Tools to manage your portfolio?

Pretty much all of the above. But thanks because you mentioned a lot of names in your post I'll be checking out. I think what I'm specifically looking for is just something that I can use on my home computer to check stuff, buy stocks/bonds/whatever, and is user-friendly enough to not be a bitch to use. I think I might find something like that in your list, so thanks

[Hartmann]

Not sure about research tools but I use Mint to link together all of my bank accounts, 401k, IRAs, etc. Gives a good all-around picture.

[Oasis]

Bank of America has awesome online tools including access to S&P reports

bank of america sucks multiple nuts

[Mommy]

bank of america sucks multiple nuts

That's your opinion because you have extremely poor money management skills. We all get it, Will. You hate Bank of America. You don't need to mention is every fucking time.

[impala454]

That software looks pretty neat, but I'm a little weary of trying something like that... It's browser based??? Reading through their about page I see a couple of things that would bother me:

Why does Mint need my bank login information (username and password)?

Mint needs this information to establish a secure connection with your bank, credit union or credit card company. This enables Mint to download and categorize your transaction information securely and automatically.

Can Mint employees view my online banking username and passwords? Do you store my bank login information on your servers?

No, Mint employees can’t view your banking username and passwords. We do not store this information at Mint. Your banking login credentials are securely stored by our online financial service providers. Your Mint login credentials are not shared with these providers.

So I enter all of my financial accounts user/pass to Mint, then they get passed on to a second company for storage. Then that company passes my user/pass on to my bank? So does this middle security company download my bank statements and send them to mint to be parsed?

I'm also reading quite a bit of other concerns like who the middleman security company is, how unsecure the "Forgot Password" function is, etc. On their forum an Admin posted this:

As described in the Terms of Use and with your consent, Mint will from time to time connect electronically to your online bank, credit card and other online financial accounts and obtain account information from those third parties (“Account Information”) in order to provide the Service to you. Mint does not at any time store or retain your online credentials, whether in the form of Login IDs, account numbers, passwords or pins for this Account Information.

Mint uses your Account Information as follows:

* to offer the Service to you;
* to deliver information relevant to your financial interests, such as savings offers from third party product and service providers (“Mint Offers”)
* to deliver administrative notices such as alerts and communications relevant to your use of the Service;
* for market research, project planning, troubleshooting problems, detecting and protecting against error, fraud or other criminal activity

That last bullet point really bothers me. I guess I'll just pass on it.

Haha sorry this post was slowly added to over the period of an hour or so

[Hartmann]

The financial service providers they talk about are third party encryption companies.

The way they make money is by selling advertising for different credit cards, banks, etc. that are targeted to save the user money. It keeps recommending a new credit card for me that would lower my yearly costs by $600.

A friend of mine works for them and I trust his judgment, though I do have similar concerns and have only been testing the service.

There is a similar website out there that does the same thing, but I cannot remember the name.

[Oasis]

That's your opinion because you have extremely poor money management skills. We all get it, Will. You hate Bank of America. You don't need to mention is every fucking time.

so says the cunt who ran up $77 grand in debt and had to give the leasing agent her truck back cause she couldn't afford it

[Spectatrix]

I think I'm now abandoning all pretenses of being a good mod. Or is it that, on Techsans, fanning the flames is what the community wants?

This post has been edited by Spectatrix: Sep 4 2008, 08:41 AM

[impala454]

The financial service providers they talk about are third party encryption companies.

The way they make money is by selling advertising for different credit cards, banks, etc. that are targeted to save the user money. It keeps recommending a new credit card for me that would lower my yearly costs by $600.

A friend of mine works for them and I trust his judgment, though I do have similar concerns and have only been testing the service.

There is a similar website out there that does the same thing, but I cannot remember the name.

Yeah, it does look nice, just prob not worth it to me for the possible security problems. Guess I'll get back to work on a bank statement parser. The only thing that sucks is how banks concatenate all this BS into the transactions. I.e. some gas station might be listed like: CHKD35798375***EXXON3472 D051508 and then it's not consistent across other gas stations.

Or is it that, on Techsans, fanning the flames is what the community wants?

[cmac]

i second Mint. the budgeting tool is amazing.
met a guy at An Event Apart in San Francisco a few weeks ago that works for them.
He assured me that everything is secure. But then again, of course he would...he works for them.

[Mommy]

so says the cunt who ran up $77 grand in debt and had to give the leasing agent her truck back cause she couldn't afford it

So says the spoiled brat who pays for nothing.