By: John Michael Pierobon
Internet stocks are soaring. Amazon.com was up 966% in 1998. Yahoo! was up 584%. Dell was up 248%. Cisco and Netscape were both up 149%. Even IBM was up 76% in 1998. So, I thought this would be a good time to write about how to use the Internet to track stocks and how to obtain research information.
Because there are many web sites offering this information, the information comes in many formats. Some of which may or may not be to your liking. Let me briefly describe four web sites. You can later visit each them and decide which, if any, to bookmark on your browser.
The NASDAQ (http://www.nasdaq.com) stock market web site features mutual funds and stock quotes from the NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX stock markets. It gives you nice graphical charts of the day's activities. It also lets you choose up to ten stocks for instant quotes, and it even has a Java applet to help you track your own portfolio.
The Quote Server (http://www.secapl.com/cgi-bin/qs) is one of the earliest web sites on the Internet featuring stock quotes. It also has a ticker symbol look up function, but you can only choose up to five stocks at a time for instant quotes.
StockMaster (http://www.stockmaster.com) has quotes and historical charts for stocks and mutual funds. Charts feature comparisons to the S & P 500. They have a message board where you can read and post messages related to stocks, and have access to research information.
Yahoo! (http://finance.yahoo.com) probably has the most comprehensive site of the four. Here you can obtain quotes and charts in many formats including: basic, day, detailed, fundamentals, and research. You can customize your charts. Here you will also obtain news, analysis and access to the Motley Fool.
Of course, you can go to several web sites that use push technology to have information you specify sent to you. These places let you customize the news you want to receive. Instead of tracking all of the individual stocks or mutual funds, you receive information only on the ones you are interested in. Stock news and information is sent to your browser at periodic intervals. These are places like "My Excite", "My Yahoo!", and the PointCast Network.