Terry Silver is editor of Superstar Investor, a guide to investment information on the Web -- with links to 7,500 sites and descriptions of what's there. Among other things, he answered questions about what sites are best for various purposes.
JackBW: Welcome to BusinessWeek Online and another of our regular Thursday evening chats on investing. Tonight's guest is Terry Silver (TSilverSI), editor of Superstar Investor, an online guide to 7,500 investment sites all over the Web.
Also online is Sam Jaffe (JaffeBW), markets writer for BW Online. And I'm Jack Dierdorff of BW Online, your host and moderator.
Good evening, everyone, and thanks for being here -- special thanks to Terry Silver for joining us tonight.
TSilverSI: I am very happy to be here.
JackBW: Terry, we want to hear all about your site and what it tells us, but first, it was a really exciting day on the stock market. What's your overall view of the current market?
TSilverSI: There is a lot of uncertainty. I would be very careful about speculating on stocks that are running up, especially the IPO market. At some point, there will be a sharp correction or a bear market, but when that will happen is anyone's guess.
JackBW: Now we'll give Sam Jaffe a crack at a question.
JaffeBW: I'd like to start off by asking your opinion of the daytrading phenomenon. Can the little guy beat the market while sitting in his boxers at home?
TSilverSI: There is an incredible amount of investment information available on the Internet, and I believe it could be put to very good use. Short-term fluctuations in the market are very difficult to predict. Level II quotes may help, but very few of the day traders actually make money. I believe that when a real bear market arrives, much of the interest in day trading will subside.
JackBW: Switching over to talk about your site, here's an audience question to start that off ...
JMBilansky: What is the purpose behind Superstar Investor, and how long did it take to create the site?
TSilverSI: Superstar Investor makes online investing more accessible and user-friendly by providing road maps into the most comprehensive sites. Essentially, Superstar highlights the specific information an investor is trying to find.
I spent 3,000 hours building the site. I have done all the work except for some of the design, which was done by Internet University in Walnut Creek,
Calif. It is run by a former branch manager of Prudential-Bache Securities in San Francisco.
Smhassell: Terry, where do I find pricing information on IPOs?
TSilverSI: That's an easy one. Refer to Superstar's "Initial Public Offerings" category. Suggested sites include Alert-IPO!, Hoover's IPO Central, IPO.com, and the IPO section of Yahoo! Finance. The specific links for pricing information are listed under each site.
Khokonda: What are the best sites for investment ideas?
TSilverSI: Some suggested sites would include Business Week, ClearStation, CNBC.com, CNET Investor, The Hard Right Edge, The Motley Fool, MSN Investor, Raging Bull, Reesegroup.com, Silicon Investor, Thomson Investors Network, Wall Street City, and Wall Street Guru.
My favorite stock and fund screening tools include those offered by Hoover's Stock Screener, IQC.com, Morningstar, MSN Investor, Rapid Research, Stock Tools, Stockpoint, and Wall Street City. The links to all these sites are listed under Superstar's "Picks & Trends" and "Screening Tools" categories.
Smhassell: Terry, what online brokerage firm do you think has the best resources?
TSilverSI: Schwab, E*Trade, and DLJ are hard to beat. If you want information on online broker ratings, you can find it at Barron's Online, CyberInvest.com, Gomez.com, Online Investment Services, SmartMoney.com, and TheStreet.com. These are listed under Superstar's "Brokerage Firms" category.
JaffeBW: Do you think that stock bulletin boards are a good way to find investment ideas? I often troll them, but I'm never sure where the information is coming from. How can you know what agenda the poster has?
TSilverSI: The stock message boards are fantastic entertainment. No one should rely on any of the information posted on these boards. Some of the posters are extremely knowledgeable. Most of them are not. Any investment information that you believe to be worthwhile should be researched.
Raging Bull message boards are much more sophisticated than those at Yahoo! Finance. ClearStation message boards provide great technical analysis on specific stocks. The Motley Fool and Silicon Investor also provide very good stock boards. Superstar Investor provides links to 400 Internet and technology stock boards located on these sites.
Unclebozzo: What do you think of Jim Cramer's site, TheStreet.com?
TSilverSI: TheStreet.com is listed as a Superstar site in my directory. I believe it has some very worthwhile information. I would look at the site more for information than anything else. TheStreet.com has great stock market news and commentary and has excellent stock and mutual-fund research tools.
AlJSchutz: Which Web site has the best research with the best info and opinions?
TSilverSI: Hoover's Online is a comprehensive guide to company information. Investor supersites full of research information include Briefing.com, CBS MarketWatch, CNNfn, The Motley Fool, MSN Investor, SmartMoney.com, Wall Street City, and Yahoo! Finance.
JackBW: You've given us a lot of info from your site. What inspired you to create it in the first place?
TSilverSI: I feel that there is a real need for an investing directory that highlights the most comprehensive sites. I also believe that such a guide should emphasize quality over quantity. It's not the number of sites that is important, but rather, the quality of information that an investment guide provides.
JackBW: As JMBilansky asked earlier, do you have plans for Superstar Investor in the future?
TSilverSI: I anticipate adding my own stock and commodity commentaries. I also plan to fill out the directory so that it will double in size within the next six months. There are currently 7,500 links.
JaffeBW: In my reporting, I almost always use primary documents -- i.e., financial statements that have been filed by companies with the SEC. Do you think that there are sites out there that compile this information in an easy-to-read format that is superior to reading the actual forms? Also, what is your favorite SEC EDGAR site?
TSilverSI: SEC information is available on many of the more comprehensive sites such as MSN Investor, Quicken.com, and Yahoo! Finance. My favorite EDGAR sites include EDGAR Access, EDGAR Online, FreeEDGAR, EdgarScan, and Mr. EDGAR. Documents for Canadian companies can be found on the SEDAR Web site. Again, I have a full listing of links to these sites in Superstar's "Annual Reports & Filings" category.
Atus: Any thoughts about Lycos? It seems to be growing and challenging Yahoo!
TSilverSI: Lycos has a very good investing site. I noticed that Kathy Yakal recommends Lycos Investing in her recent survey in Barron's. However, Yahoo! Finance is still the king.
JackBW: One thing I noticed, Terry, is that your site isn't just a list -- in your categories you have rankings and comments about what's best about a site -- a lot of work.
TSilverSI: I have separated the most comprehensive sites and provided road maps into these sites. Superstar site categories include "Investor Supersites," "Futures & Options," "IPOs," "Mutual Funds," "Publications," "Quotes & Charts," and "Research & Analysis." The "Exchanges" category includes the futures and options exchanges, plus the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange.
No one has created anything like Superstar Investor. It requires a lot of hard work. When one of the Superstar sites is redesigned, I have to reconstruct the road map and update the links on my site. The descriptive summaries for MSN Investor, Silicon Investor, Morningstar, the New York Stock Exchange, and Hoover's Online reflect recent changes in site design.
JaffeBW: One thing you haven't commented on yet is tax sites. I can't wait for a site that will allow me to file my tax returns. Until that happens, are there any good sites that deal with managing your capital gains, or with overall tax questions?
TSilverSI: One site that comes to mind is TradersAccounting.com. Tax information is also available through portals such as Excite, Yahoo!, Lycos, and Snap. Many tax sites provide information on investment-related tax issues.
JackBW: Any measures yet of the popularity of this new site of yours?
TSilverSI: The best measure is the credibility that I am gaining in the investment community. The site was launched October 1. I have already received very positive feedback from a number of newspapers and investment magazines. Superstar was recommended in Barron's "Best of the Web" survey. I have also gotten favorable feedback from Money Magazine.
My most difficult task is to make people aware that the site exists. My advertising budget is zero. I am currently listed in only 2 of 11 major search engines, even though I submitted my link four to five weeks ago.
JackBW: That's it for tonight. Thanks from all of us to Terry Silver for telling us about Superstar Investor. And thanks to the audience -- and to Sam Jaffe as well.
TSilverSI: Thank you very much. I hope I provided some helpful information to online investors.
JackBW: Goodnight, Terry. A transcript of this discussion will be available soon -- go to keyword BW Talk to find it fast, or click on Conferences anywhere in BW Online.
Thanks again to all. Maybe Terry's site will add some skill to help your investing luck.
Copyright 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., licensed to America Online, Inc. All rights reserved.
|
