Individual Stock Research

[Craig]

My wife prefers individual stocks, and I prefer funds. One thing that has always frustrated me about individual stock research is that I've never found a reasonably priced software to aid research ... targeting X PE, X growth rate, etc. Heard a pitch for one in Phoenix once, but the cost was very high.

For those who prefer individual stock investing, how do you research, and have you found a helpful software tool? Thanks.

[grumpy]

Charles,

Try the stock screener at: http://www.morningstar.com/ You have to register but it is free.

Grumpy

[Berkshire_Bull]

Stockpicking is MUCH more than simply buying a piece of software. You will need to read a bunch of books, and you will need two websites: Yahoo Finance, and SEC.gov. If you can't find what you need to be convinced to buy or not to buy at those two places, just buy the funds!

[Craig]

Thanks, to you both ... didn't know the Morningstar site was free, with registration.

[ESRBob]

Charles,
This may or may not apply to you, but whenever I think about owning individual stocks I think about all the times some clown in some division cuts a deal to get the quarter to work out right, and then a year or five years later some regulator finds out and the stock is down 25% in a few weeks. Think AIG -- heck even the invincible Warren Buffett saw his stock drop over 5% just for being in the news about selling the policy to AIG.

Give me a nice fund of value, small, or international stocks, heck, maybe all three at once. Been fried way too many times by individual stocks.

And there is always the risk you start spending all your time watching the screens to make sure you don't get blown up by one of these episodes. Then what kind of life do you have? You ER to take a stress-filled, low-paying job managing your portfolio full-time.

No thanks!