So my course on How to Value Companies and Pick the Right stocks taught by Ellen Roseman, came to an end last month. I was going through my lecture notes/things discussed in the investing course and thought I would share some stuff that I found interesting.
I’m sure many of you will agree with me that as you get older and are out of school, it can be harder to make new friends. Your interests may change, so you may want to seek people with similar interests as yours. Aside from taking courses, you can always join clubs or even create your own. Ellen has an investment club that meets every Tuesday from 7:30 pm-9:30 pm. Like the class, they cover various investment topics and also have guest speakers. As I am writing this, I am thinking to myself, I do have Tuesday evenings free….maybe I will make the trek to Toronto and attend a meeting or two in the near future.
It’s interesting that what some people will put so much effort into, others won’t bother. Take me, for example. I can be pretty lazy when it comes to cooking, making plans with friends (mind you, I will try my best to make it out to these things, but most of the time I lack initiative to plan something) and wedding planning. Yet I will try to make time to do a bit of research on the companies of stocks I am thinking of buying and research on companies of stocks I currently own.
Image courtesy of suphakit73/freedigitalphotos.net
A stock research tool I learned about was StockChase. This website is used to track what investment experts featured on business television programs say about stocks. The site says it gives you a feel of how companies are thought of by investment experts. I agree. While they have way more expertise than I do, I still take their opinion with a grain of salt. I created a portfolio like the one I have in GoogleFinance in StockChase. In doing so, you can see what the experts are saying about the stocks in your portfolio. I found this much easier than going in and typing the ticker symbol of each stock one at a time to get the comments. However if you would like to see the various opinions about one stock over a certain time period, entering them in one at a time would work.
On Ellen’s investment club website there is a downloadable stock review form where you can fill in info about stocks you are thinking of buying or stocks you already own. It can be used as a reminder as to why you purchased the stock or why you are thinking of purchasing the stock. Although I am not familiar with all the metrics listed in the spreadsheet, I have filled out stock reviews for the majority of the stocks I own thus far.
I know I’m only scratching the surface with the amount of research I do. I do find it somewhat time consuming, but I don’t mind it. I can see why people would steer clear of it though and prefer investments where the homework has already. I used to have that mindset, but after having taken a couple investing courses, I’m curious to know more about the companies I invested in and their financial history.
Lots of Questions Here!
What online tools/sites do you use to help you analyze your stocks? How often do you analyze them and how much time do you spend researching? Do you find it to be a lot of work?
Also, do you have an investment club? Would you join an investment club?
Great to hear your experience with the Investing course Karen! Sounds like you definitely got some value out of it. That tool to track what the ‘experts’ are saying sounds very interesting, but I’m with you in that I don’t take them all that seriously, especially broker reports from the big banks. Independent research companies can be really useful though for finding ideas.
I tend to just have my own spreadsheets and checklists for my stocks. I definitely do less research that I did when I started, but that’s probably because I’ve got a better handle on the stocks I like, and the prices I’m willing to pay for them. Most of my time is spent focused on the investment plan itself and keeping my own behaviours in check, which is probably the most challenging part of all!
Cheers,
Jason
I also have a couple of spreadsheets, which reminds me, I need to update them to include the ETFs I purchased recently. I agree with you on trying to keep your behaviour in check. I can’t help but look at the stock market several times a day though. 😛