BI Internet Tools and Information 2008
San Francisco Bay Area Chapter BetterInvesting™
Ann Dexheimer
Finding quality companies can be discouraging if you don’t know where to look. I have
compiled a list of some of my favorite places that I go to whenever I am looking for a stock
to buy or seeing if it is time to sell.
The rest of this paper lists various sites I like to use for furthering my on-going, neverending investment education.
Please note the date on this sheet; dynamics can change in a short period of time. As of the
date of this paper, these sites existed but I cannot vouch they will be around in one year’s
time.
You can find the most current version of this article here:

http://snipurl.com/annsurls
****Download the article and then you can use CTRL + Click to go to the sites on any of
the hyperlinks below (your Internet connection must be up and running).*****
Have fun and better investing!
Tuning up Your Software
Always make sure that your software is up-to-date before starting a analysis. Check for software updates
(updates are usually free; version upgrades will cost you) by checking the top bar of your software.
Quality Companies

ICLUBcentral’s Top 25: As a delayed monthly feature, ICLUBcentral presents the
top 25 companies resulting from a screen of BI's S & P’s Data Service (SDS). In the
screening process they search for companies that meet certain general
characteristics such as Growth, Quality, Value and Safety. These are defined in
greater detail to narrow down a large database of companies to a manageable list. If
you subscribe to this service the screenings are more
current, of course. Regular Price: $39.99/year
o http://snipurl.com/GrowthCo

Industry Averages: ICLUBcentral also keeps an
(occasionally) updated list of industry averages. A great
place to see if a company you are interested in is a leader in its industry, especially
for 2A and 2B comparisons.
o

http://snipurl.com/IndustryAvg
Manifest Investing: This is a site developed by former BetterInvesting Senior
Editor Mark Robertson. He does regular stock
screens using Value Line data, including its
analysts’ growth estimates, and also allows
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you to input your own stocks to see what kind of Quality Rating it has. A fairly new
addition is the Continuous Classroom feature where a company is analyzed in the MI
Forum area, which allows you to join in and ask questions. A great place for
learning! You can have a trial membership for 30 days but then there is a fee ($9.95
a month or $89 a year) after your trial period has expired.
o
http://www.manifestinvesting.com/
New to this site is the Forbes best 200 Small Companies List. Mark has taken
Forbes’ 2005 list and computed his quality ratings for each one. This is public so you
don’t have to join to view this. Mark updates it as soon as the next year’s list comes
out.

http://www.manifestinvesting.com/dashboard/9676
He also maintains the Manifest Top Forty portfolio here with public access (but it is a
tad dated):
o
o
http://snipurl.com/mitop40
 Explanation of the Top 40.
http://www.manifestinvesting.com/dashboard/1213
 Current Top 40
This is the 11th edition of the MANIFEST 40, covering the last 33 months. It's a list
of the most widely-followed stocks by subscribers. MI believes that the collective
decisions made by a community of long-term investors is worth huddling over ... a
place where ideas are born.
Additionally, folks can post their own dashboards and make them public. For a list of
them (registration not required):
o http://www.manifestinvesting.com/dashboard/list
Free Morningstar from the San Mateo Library Sign up online for a library card and you
will have free access to Morningstar reports from your home!!
o


http://www.smcl.org/flash.html
Get a
o
o
o
o
library card
Click on Services
Click on Library Card Services
Click on Get a library card – a new window will open up
Choose whichever library is closest to you, then fill out the rest of the form
and click on Sign Me Up!
o Return to the main page
Access Morningstar from home
o Click on Research
o Click on Online Resources
o Click on Business, Associations, & Finance
o Click on Morningstar (from home)
Free Dow 30 Value Line Reports
o
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http://www.valueline.com/dow30/index.cfm
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Ann.Dexheimer@gmail.com
Bob Adams’s website: The purpose of this site is to provide investment class attendees
access to files referred to or used in his classes. Feel free to download any of the files. If
used for teaching purposes, appropriate credit is expected. The files are updated as new
ideas and enhancements are added, so check back later to see if there is a later version
available.
o http://snipurl.com/bobsite
URLs for Toolkit, Stock Analyst and Classic: Two files from his web site (Useful
websites for Toolkit and Useful websites for Stock Analyst and Classic) have been printed
out for today’s workshop so that you can follow along. However, the URLs on these
handouts are very long and it is easy to make a typo. Instead, go to his web site, download
the file you want (the one for Toolkit or the one for Stock Analyst and Classic) and use Copy
and Paste to put the URLs in your software program. Click on Miscellaneous Tools-Files
in the left-hand column to find these files.
Stock Evaluation
Once you have selected a stock to evaluate, how do you organize all the information? How
do you know when you have enough information? Often times at club presentations,
members feel that more is better. When trying to get a clear picture of a company,
members, and individuals, don’t know how to sift through all the available information to
pluck out what will give them what they need. We have all heard the term “information
overload” and it certainly applies to stock research.
Over the years my club and I have tried to winnow down the pages. A good friend of mine,
Ev Lueke of St. Louis, proposed a format to use for investigating stocks. A couple of us
modified it for use in our club – everyone on our club agrees that it is much easier to give a
report using the format. Here is the link to the form on my club’s bivio website:
o
http://snipurl.com/stockreporttemplate
Education

The place I have gotten the most learning of BI methods over the years is a free email list called the
IClubList, or ICL. BI investors from all over the country (and world) ask questions and give support to
beginners through advanced investors. I have made several friends via this list, too. You can choose
to have the emails messages automatically downloaded into your mail box individually or as a onceper-day digest. Since you can get from 25 to 100 emails a day from this list, the digest is the way to
go when starting out. Another option is to choose to read the postings on the web site, which how I
do it now. On the Web interface, all the messages are threaded for easy reading by topic.


The BetterInvesting Forum on CompuServe is now better than the ICL. Beginners or
advanced investors, it is a great site to go to read about BI investing and the perfect
place to ask questions. There are many archived workshops that you can read through
(To Sell or Hold, A Study of JNJ, A Quick Setup for PM, etc.) as well as many upcoming
workshops. You must join CompuServe (free) but you can always read as a guest (no
posting).


http://snipurl.com/ICList
http://snipurl.com/BICompuServeForum
A site that has recently been set up is the BIwiki. What is a wiki? A wiki is a
collaborative web site that allows anyone to edit its pages. This particular wiki is for
people who are interested in the style of investing identified with BetterInvesting and
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the National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC). A great place to find answers
to your questions, all in one place. Please note that anyone can make changes to the
information so while I feel most of the information is correct, like any wiki, verification of
information is a good idea.


http://biwiki.editme.com/
BI Web site: Be sure to set your personal settings so that you automatically get
information from your local BI Chapter.

http://betterinvesting.org/

http://snipurl.com/sfba_bi
SSG Software for Macs and PCs

stockfundas: stockfundas is a site that is temporarily free. You can register and use
SDS to do SSGs and create portfolios. Mac users, this might be the solution to your
software problems (also see Churr & Intuitec software web sites below).
o

Churr Software: Churr™ Software offers the Stock Investment Guide (SIG)™, an
alternative for performing stock investment club securities analysis. SIG provides online
integration with BI's Stock Data Service (SDS) stock database to simplify your stock
analysis. It is available for both Windows and Macintosh.
o

http://tinyurl.com/adrug
http://churr.com/
Intuitec Software Inc.: I don’t know anyone who has used this site/software, but this
site originally developed software primarily for the Mac but now include almost all
operating platforms. Apparently the use of the site is free for one version but for all the
bells and whistles there is a fee. It uses data files from either BI or from a Canadian
data source (you pay a fee to use either of these data sources) and says that a DSL or
cable connection is preferred over using a dial-up connection.
o
http://www.intuitecsoftware.com/index.html
Tools
Spreadsheets from Jim Thomas. (Generally require Excel 2000 or later and Toolkit v4 or
v5.) Copied from the BIWiki.

Portfolio Management (TKPortfolio_mi.xls).
TKPortfolio_mi.xls uses data from your ToolKit 4 or 5 database to aid you in your portfolio
management using defensive and offensive techniques. It provides diversification
information as well as a basic SSG visual analysis and a PERT Worksheet A. Other optional
portfolio management aids are available, such as Quality and PAR evaluations imported
from ManifestInvesting.com. Click here for a discussion of this spreadsheet (discussion of
the most recent versions is at the end).

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EPS Est (leading 12 month) & SSG Value (EPSEstLTM.xls).
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Ann.Dexheimer@gmail.com
EPSEstLTM.xls uses data from your ToolKit 4 or 5 database and looks to the internet based
Zacks web site to produce EPS estimates for 12 months into the future for inclusion on the
PERT Report.

Toolkit Challenger stock list (TKChallengerList.xls).
TKChallengerList.xls retrieves data from your Toolkit 4 or 5 database to show the same
information that the ToolKit "Challenger" feature shows in its list of stocks.

Has your club's performance "beat the market" (Club_vs_Index.xls)
Club_vs_Index.xls allows you to determine if your club would have had better results if all
the member investents had been made in the Vanguard Index 500 Fund (a no-load S&P 500
index fund).

Take $tock and SSG analysis in one spreadsheet (TSSW.xls, Yahoo! group
membership required).
TSSW.xls performs both a "Take $tock" and an "SSG/PERT-A" analysis on a stock. Data can
be imported from .SSG files, directly from Toolkit (not with Mac Excel) and can be
copied/pasted from other sources (S&P or VL reports in PDF format, web sites). Also
exports data in .SSG format. Imports current and historical (fiscal year) prices from
Yahoo!.

ManifestInvesting.com data (miParse.xls, miJudgment.xls, miAnalysis.xls) extended analysis (what if, personal judgment, etc.).
miParse.xls downloads "Dashboard" and "Fundamental Forecast" web pages from
ManifestInvesting.com (a subscription web site). It facilitates experimenting with how
changes in the number of shares would affect overall dashboard (i.e., portfolio) quality and
future return potential. miJudgment.xls works with miParse to allow see how judgment
changes on the Fundamental Forecast pages would affect dashboard quality and return
potential. miAnalysis.xls is a demonstration of how to combine ManifestInvesting stock
information (from miParse) with stock information from other sources (such as Toolkit and
web sites).

ManifestInvesting.com (miDashboard.xls) - evaluate dashboard diversification by
stock, sector and growth rate.
miDashboard.xls downloads a "Dashboard" web page from ManifestInvesting.com and
produces various pie charts to help evaluate diversification. The sector diversification is
based on Value Line sectors (but can be changed to use other industry groupings).

Toolkit 4 & 5 Undocumented Features:
o

http://snipurl.com/tkhotkeys
Paul Schneider and Dan Hess’s Making Short Work of the Annual Report
Spreadsheet: You can make short work of an annual report by heading straight for the tables of
financial contents. At this stage, you should have completed a satisfactory SSG and are either
contemplating buying the stock or already own it. This tool will help with analyzing the annual report
so that it makes sense.
o
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http://www.bivio.com/bullrun/files/AnnualReports
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Ann.Dexheimer@gmail.com

Doug Gerlach’s Stock Selling Guide: A handy tool to help you become a more
disciplined investor when it comes to selling stocks in your portfolio.


Excel 97/2000 Viewer (for those who do not have the software) is a small, freely
distributable program that lets users view and print Excel 97, Excel 2000, and earlier
version spreadsheet files:
o

http://investorwords.com/
Free .pdf software: Instead of spending $299.00 for the full version of Adobe Acrobat
(software that makes .pdf files), there are several free software programs that allow you
to make these files. Some may put a company mark on the files you convert but it is
really very minor. Try these out:
o
o
o

http://www.openoffice.org/
Investment Terms: Investors Words is a handy site that lets you type in investment
terms (words or phrases) and quickly gives you the definition.
o

http://tinyurl.com/c2cj3
Free “MS Office”: Open Office is another free program that allows you to do almost
anything the full version of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) does. Remember
the word “almost” as some features do not work with this software. However, the price
is right! It also now has a Mac OS version.
o

http://douglasgerlach.com/selling/guide.pdf
CutePDF http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/Writer.asp
Pdf995 http://www.pdf995.com/
Pdf4u
http://www.pdf4u.com/
Compounded Annual Return Calculator: Need to figure out what the compounded
growth rate of a company’s sales? Plug in the beginning number, the ending number
and the period of time and, voila! You’ve got it!
o
http://snipurl.com/EasyCAGR
Enjoy!!
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Ann.Dexheimer@gmail.com