Question

Let’s Discuss: Finding Financial Information

You should be able to explain and support your reactions to the following questions:

• What kinds of financial information exist in various places?
• What is the difference between information found on the internet and other sources of information?
• What source of information that you found in your research do you find most helpful?
• How does a website like Yahoo finance help you perform ratio analysis?

Answer 1

Solution:-

When it comes to financial information about various stocks, bonds, or any other financial assets, the kinds of information available is listing information, prospectuses, financial statements and reports, management guidance, financial metrics, market prices, price history, derivatives, tender offers, Mergers & acquisitions, new contracts won, litigation updates, management changes, splits, buybacks, dividend announcements, capital changes, issue and redemption information, etc.

The primary sources of these information are as follows:

• Third-party information providers like yahoo, google, bloomberg, reuters, etc. These providers provide information only online through their websites
• Financial brokers of investors and traders.
• The stock exchanges like NYSE, NASDAQ, from where information can be sourced through their websites
• Regulatory bodies such as SEC are the best source for regulatory filings, including but not limited to financial reports, prospectuses, etc. The information is provided both through their websites and offline
• Companies provide the information on the 'Investor Relations' page on their websites. Everything from stock prices, financial reports, regulatory filings, press releases, news and events, management guidance, etc can be found on the website as well as can be requested by shareholders for physical delivery
• Industry bodies also provide various financial information related to industry and industry participants and can be sourced through their websites or physical ordering

The difference between information generally available through internet and other sources is that internet information is provided by third party providers and is not guaranteed to be authentic. On the contrary, the information sourced through other sources (online or offline through physical delivery requests) like the companies, stock exchanges, regulatory bodies, is guaranteed to be authentic and can be worked upon investors without any doubts

The source of information I found most helpful is the third party information providers as mentioned above. This is because the financial information and analytics is provided in ready-to-use user friendly manner at one place. It is very easily accessible and can be used with speed and accuracy. It is helpful because it provides most of the information under one roof instead of going for different sources for different types of information.

Websites like Yahoo are very helpful for investors. It provides not just the raw financial information but also provide analytics through ratio analysis, technical indicators, fundamental analysis, etc. Ratio analysis is one of the most commonly-used methods used by investors. Websites like Yahoo finance makes it supremely simple for investors to do ratio analysis by providing them ready-to-use ratios. This means that investors are not required to manually calculate ratios and can straight-away use the provided ratios for analysis and valuation purposes. The website also helps peer comparison by providing comparable ratios of various competitors.

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