Financial Information on the Internet

One of the most amazing features of the Internet is the incredible (and continuing) proliferation of financial information available online. It has become difficult (impossible?) for the busy professor to keep up with the new websites devoted to finance-related topics.

I recently came across an interesting list of sites that you might find find useful, particularly in terms of assignments that could be tied in to several of the chapters in Fundamental of Corporate Finance and Essentials of Corporate Finance.

If you jump to Ibbotson Associates, you'll come to an article by Robert S. Levitt and David Montgomery entitled "Investment Research via the Internet." Among the many potentially useful sites are the following, here are a half-dozen, along with their descriptions (as provided by Messrs. Levitt and Montgomery), as well as some suggestions as to how you might use them in your class:

Dow Jones Telerate This site gives current market statistics on domestic equities, U.S. fixed income yields and prices and major foreign currencies versus the U.S. dollar.

Bloomberg This is a list of current domestic and international market indexes, both major and minor indices as well as exotic markets.

Dr. Ed Yardeni's ECONOMICS NETWORK Web site compiled by Ed Yardini, Chief Economist of Deutsche Morgan Grenfell in New York . Access the online chart rooms, collections of charts, economic indicators, weekly economic analysis and briefing, topical studies and monetary and fiscal policies. Most charts are read through Adobe Acrobat.

riskview.com. Riskview.com allows you to look at investment return, estimate risk, and potentially improve your investment performance. It is a free source of global equity data and risk analytics. It allows you to measure total returns and estimate risks with the same sophisticated tools used by investment banks and institutional fund managers. . . at no charge to you.

Chapters 12 and 13 in Fundamentals of Corporate Finance develop the notion of risk and return on the basis of capital market history; these sites both bring the discussion up to the moment by providing today's market information, and also gives students a peek at how risk is modelled by practitioners. The Yardeni site is particularly lively - students will find it enjoyable, and can subscribe to Dr. Yardeni's (free) e-mail news service.

NYSE Listed Companies Links to listed companies homepages

Amex Listed Companies Links to listed companies quotes

NASDAQ Listed Companies Links to listed companies quotes. Can then link to EDGAR for public filings information...

The days when the instructor would send the students over to the campus library to pore over dusty old annual reports in order to obtain fundamental data are over! By going to the sites above, students can go to the firms' own home pages and obtain both financial information, as well as the latest press releases. Of course, students can also go to the SEC's Edgar system to obtain many filings online. Use these sites to illustrate the use of financial statement data, as well as the availability of information in efficient markets.

I hope you find these sites interesting, and useful in class. I've used several of them successfully. I urge you to do so, and as you develop ways of using the 'Net in class, let me know! I'll pass the ideas along (with the appropriate attribution), and put your name in the hopper to win free gifts from Irwin/McGraw-Hill!

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