Before you begin investing, one of the first things you need to do is establish reputable reading sources that you can consistently depend on for reliable news. There are four major publications to read. 

NEW YORK TIMES – Printed Edition, free online resources

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Printed Edition, some free online sources, premium content subscriptions

BARRON’S - Printed Edition, some free online sources, premium content subscriptions

INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY – Printed Edition, minimal free online resources, mostly premium content.

For this week’s column we’ll focus first on the New York Times.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
The NY Times, especially the Sunday Business Section, may be the best “business school” on the planet. If you’re new to business and stocks, this is the place to start. A subscription is absolutely free, so there’s no reason not to take advantage of this valuable resource. Click HERE for the NY Times home page.

In the upper right hand corner is the click to register link. Once you’ve registered, you can also setup your own MyTimes page which lets you customized which news features you see first. You can also set it to be your browser’s home page.

Once registered, you have access to the entire paper plus all its archives.

Another great resource is the NY Times CyberTimesNavigator with hundreds of research links at your disposal.

Back to the home page. Go to the navbar on the left and look for Business. When you find it, click once.

You’re now at the NY Times Business Home Page! The screen shot below displays the many resources at your fingertips.

Scroll down the page and you’ll see the wealth of information available to you. For those in music, these pages are invaluable for covering the financial issues affecting music, royalty rates, film and stage productions.

Under More in Business, click on Markets. This takes you to the World Markets Overview Page. Here, you can review summaries of news events across the globe, then in specific marketplaces including the USA.

To the immediate right you see a space to key in a stock symbol to get a current quotation. Type in AAPL for Apple.

Now hit ENTER on your keyboard.

Here you have an entire page dedicated to Apple’s stock! As you scroll down the page you’ll find small editorial inset boxes labeled Price Chart, Stock Snapshot, Key Fundamentals, Quarterly Earnings, Analyst Ratings, Executive Officers, Latest Insider Trades, Filings, Headlines Around the Web, and the Apple Inc. Navigator.

Two links are noteworthy. Under Key Fundamentals, look for the Financials link. Once clicked, the NY Times gives you a complete financial portrait of Apple.

Under Filings, this is where you’ll find the paper Apple files quarterly with the SEC. The 10Q filing means quarterly filing. Because Apple and all the other companies on the Sonic Control Music Tech 21 are publicly traded, this is where you get key statistics to tell you about each company and it’s total financial performance. Learning to read these documents is an art in itself. Nonetheless, they’re right here, just a click away. If you’re going to invest in a company you need to have the data to make an informed decision.

Scroll back up to Price Chart. Look for the link View Historical Chart.

This is an amazing resource because here you can see Apple’s stock performance for a single day, five days (business week), 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, max.

At Comparisons, you can create your own industry sector view to see what’s going on with Apple and other computer makers. Add HPQ (Hewlett-Packard) and then DELL (Dell Computers) for a picture. Then go one step further and add BBY (Best Buy) to see how one of their main retail distributor channels is doing compared to the computer companies.

Once all four stocks have been added, now click on 1 Day. Next, go through each historical time setting on the chart and the current picture will be put into a perspective for you.

DEAL BOOK
Scroll back to the top until you see More in Business. When you do, look for Deal Book. Deal Book explains how specific mergers and acquisitions were put together. The NY Times explains these deals in such a way that they’re easy for the average reader to understand. This column is well your time.

CONCLUSION
The NY Times is the THE resource because just about everything you need to help you make good decisions is here including news stories and commentary not available elsewhere, along with ability to access company filings with the SEC.

Next time, we’ll look at the Wall Street Journal.