What are the best Web sites or sources to compare investments?

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Whether you're interested in investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, Treasuries or something else, it pays to seek as many sources of information as possible. Members of the Financial Planning Association of Greater Indiana can provide information to help you make an informed decision. Visit the group's Web site at www.fpagrindiana.org.

Jack R. Perry Jr.

Perry Wealth Management Group of Raymond James & Associates

"If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays interest."

-- Benjamin Franklin

Anyone who invests knows the wisdom of Franklin's words. Comparing investment performance before committing your hard-earned money will "pay interest."

Mutual funds may be the most popular investment security in America. Morningstar is arguably the best-known source of unbiased research on thousands of mutual funds, closed-end funds and ETFs (exchange traded funds). You can access Morningstar information free of charge from many brokerage firms and some libraries.

Stocks are in nearly every investor's portfolio. The Wall Street Journal's annual "Best of the Street" analyst survey and Barron's semiannual "Best Idea" list ranks the best stock analysts for a particular market sector. The drawback of these two sources is they only compare analysts based on the "buy" side of performance.

Forbes produces an annual ranking of analysts based on the performance of their buy, sell and hold recommendations. This comparison may more closely reflect an actual investment portfolio.

Jack Perry is a certified financial planner.

Mike Curtiss

Envisioning Financial

A recent Google search on "investment performance" resulted in over 2 million hits. There is no shortage of Web-based resources on this topic.

The spectrum of investment products and services is continually expanding. No single site is considered the "best" source for any and all investment offerings. Rather, localized Web sites have been developed focusing on narrower slices of the investment universe. Examples include:

• www.morningstar.com -- primarily used to research open-end mutual funds. Morningstar developed the "5 Star" approach for rating funds.

• www.etfconnect.com -- a good resource for researching exchange traded funds and closed-end mutual funds.

• www.quantumonline.com -- focuses on income-oriented investments, including preferred stocks, convertible securities and some corporate debt offerings.

• www.savingsbonds.gov -- a comprehensive source on U.S. government-issued securities.

• www.wsj.com -- an online version of the Wall Street Journal that reports stock market activity throughout the day. The site can be customized to highlight breaking news stories involving selected companies or industries.

Additionally, most investment sponsors provide Web sites containing performance information for their specific offerings.

Ronald Hanson

Hanson & Snyder

The Internet is full of useful financial Web sites at no expense to the user. Since many of the sites offer similar services and are subscription-free, I will offer four suggestions. I will explain some features of just one site.

At www.MarketWatch.com, you may find it easy to navigate with a variety of tools. It offers stock quotes, company research, portfolio tracking, portfolio management tools, charts, graphs and market commentary.

On this site, a user may research particular securities, mutual funds or ETFs. The stock screener offers advanced charting capabilities for the technical trader, as well as company financials for the investor concerned with fundamentals. MarketWatch also offers analysis of buy/hold/sell recommendations from various brokerage houses.

Researching different mutual funds is quite easy with the "Fund Comparison" feature that allows side-by-side listings of up to 25 funds simultaneously. The criteria that can be compared include performance by time frames, MPT (modern portfolio theory) risk characteristics, the fees of each fund, and a breakdown of percentage of fund invested in individual sectors. This makes for a quantitative and standardized approach to evaluating both mutual funds' performance and risk. This site does ask the first-time user to register.

Other sites you may wish to explore: www.finance.yahoo.com, www.smartmoney.com and www.bloomberg.com. When selecting the "best" site, picking one over another is a personal preference.

• Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks and charges and expenses of mutual funds carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about this investment. The prospectus is available from your financial adviser and should be read carefully before investing.
• Mike Curtiss is a certified financial planner. He is an investment adviser representative with Creative Financial Designs and a registered representative with CFD Investments of Kokomo.