Let me say up front that I have no
association with the service I am writing about this week. I will
also get no income should you choose to subscribe or buy something
from them.
I have been paid subscriber to
Financial Times (“FT”) website for over five years. I use it
mainly for reading news and the searching the vast archive.
The Lex
column and Alphaville blog is also really worthwhile reading.
The site has continuously improved
always adding new features most of which I never really had a look
at.
I recently spent a bit of time
researching a company and stumbled onto some additional features that
were really good. So much so that it alone would be worth the
subscription.
As a friend of mine in Italy said after
subscribing and using the FT site for a while:
“The subscription service is so good
that I nearly called them and offered them more money.
The web site functions are especially
useful to investors outside the USA as the FT thoroughly covers
Europe and the UK.
The stock screening function is really
excellent (see below)
To see what the FT offers its various
subscribers click the link below
So what is so worthwhile you may ask?
Here is what you will find under the
various sub-headings:
Here you can search for information on
companies, exchange traded and managed funds. It may however be
easier to find a company by using the Quotes search box at the top
right as it shows results as you type.
You can also look up the biggest
percentage daily movements of companies from Australia to the USA.
Under this heading you can see the
movements of all the main equity indices worldwide.
By clicking on the Markets Macromap
heading you can see an interactive map of the world where you can
see indices performance and volume over one day or up to one year.
It also allows you to compare
currencies, using different base currencies, with each other also
from one day up to one year.
Here you can graph
the various currencies against each other for periods from one week
up to one year.
There is also a
handy currency converter
Here you can find all commodities from
oil to lumber.
You can also graphically compare
commodity price development with each other but also with equity
indices.
Here you can get information on all
government interest rates. Yield curves of the main world economies,
benchmark interest rated from one month to 30 years.
It also gives you the spreads of
government bonds all over the world compared to US and German
government bony yields. This can be seen as a measurement of the
country risk against to lowest government risk countries, the USA and
Germany.
Overnight, official and market rates
around the world are also given. Here you can quickly get an idea of
where carry-trade
transactions my be increasing the value of an emerging market
currency.
This heading gives you access to the
FT's print archive of markets data tables in PDF format The
information covers equities, currencies, commodities, capital markets
and personal finance.
The focus is mainly on the UK but
worldwide information is also available.
Market alerts allows you to receive
email messages of emerging trends, price gains or losses and much
more on companies you follow. All you need to do is fill in your
email address, pick a company or portfolio and the indicator you
would like to track.
It allows you to set up really
intricate alerts as can be seen in the following screen-shot.
The portfolio function allows you to
set up a portfolio with different currencies as the base currency.
It also tracks cash and dividend
payments very well, a feature I have not seen at other online
portfolio offers.
It allows long and short positions and
incorporates transaction fees.
Once you have set up a portfolio you
can track:
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Charting – Portfolio against a
benchmark
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My View – You can change the way
and how much information on the portfolio is displayed
The charting function is really good
with data going back up to 10 years.
It would take too long to describe all
the options so take a look at the screen-shot by clicking on the link
below.
This is probably the most worthwhile
function and is great for finding investment ideas to research
further.
You can search by country or region and
industry sector.
There are 40 screening criteria you can
use. From market capitalisation to interest coverage.
I put a screen together with the
following criteria:
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Price to earnings ratio 0 to 10.1
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Five year return on average assets
> 28%
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The screen came up with 55 companies
ranging from a small capitalisation South African IT company to a US
timber royalty trust.
With a few minor hitches I was able to
cut and paste the results into OpenOffice's Calc spreadsheet program
for further sorting.
Screens can be saved for for future
use.
The FT has the following pre-defined
screens:
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A Ben Graham value investing
screen
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A 'growth at a reasonable price'
screen
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Looks like the site manager may be a
value investor.
Please keep in mind that the output of
a screen should only be a starting point for your analysis and that
further research is definitely necessary.
IR is an abbreviation for Company
Investor Relations Content.
Here you can find annual reports and
other investor relations content such as videos and strategy
documents for hundreds of companies.
Should you be interested in using all
of the above all you have to do is register.
The free registration process is quick
and painless and can be done by clicking
here
I am really sorry to see summer going
but the dark cold days also have their advantages. I have already
arranged with a friend for Lord of the Rings and Aliens weekends.
Watching both series over a weekend should be fun.
Nikki hates both movie series so we
will have to see how we organise things.
I am looking forward to it.
