In this article you can see a collection of internet tools for international investors I have found very useful.
I have grouped the tools into:
- General tools – useful for international investors
- United Kingdom – useful for investments in the UK
- Germany – useful for investments in Germany
Thanks to Andrea, Andreas, Francesco, Jan, Joe and Philip for their suggestions.
General Internet Tools for International Investors
Google Alerts
http://www.google.com/alerts/
(Free registration to open a Google account required)
With this Google tool you can automate any search in Google and receive the results in a daily email. I use it to monitor news articles on small capitalisation companies I am watching or have in my portfolio.
I would not advise using this tool to keep up to date on news articles for large companies, as the number of results may be too many and irrelevant to be of any value. For example I also use it to keep track of extreme highs and lows with this search:
plunged OR “all time low” OR “all-time low” OR “10 year low” OR “10-year low” OR “record high” OR “record low” OR “on record
To ensure that you get the best results, write the search term in Google, perform the search, refine the search until you get the required result and than copy and paste the search into your Google Alert.
Here is a good article on how you can improve your search results with Google
Master the Google Operands – Search Like a God & Save Time
For more information on exactly how to set up Google Alerts take a look at: How to automate internet searching in five minutes
Google Calendar
www.google.com/calendar/
(Free registration to open a Google account required)
Google Calendar is a web based calender available everywhere you are if you have internet access. It is also sync-able with mobile devices.
An especially good feature for investors is that you can have Google Finance (www.google.com/finance) automatically insert all upcoming events for the companies in your portfolio or on your watch list in Google Calendar.
Google Calendar will then send you an email in advance of the events.
Financial Times
The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news sources. Its articles are well researched and really worth reading.
They have a good search function should you be looking for news articles on a specific company.
I have a yearly paid subscription (cost about EUR 400) allowing me access to all contend but the free access is also very good.
For paid subscribers they have a great portfolio function that automatically considers dividends in the calculation of returns.
Five year financial information for almost any company worldwide is also available.
Also see: The most underrated investor resource on the internet
Linked In
www.linkedin.com
(Free registration required)
Linked In is a web based a contact management system with over 41 million members in over 200 countries around the world. About half of their members are outside the USA.
Once you have registered as a member search for “Value Investing” or “Investing” groups. Register for groups you find interesting and join the discussion where you can also get good investment ideas.
Morningstar
www.morningstar.com
(Free registration required)
I use the Morningstar website in the USA to monitor the top 25 holdings of all the best US based international investment value funds.
To see exactly how to it is done go to: Get investment ideas from the best fund managers delivered
This is a great source of investment ideas.
Internet Tools For Investments in the UK
The Motley Fool UK
www.fool.co.uk
(Free registration required)
The UK Fool website is a good information source on UK companies and investment advice in general. The site also hosts a discussion board.
The site is however not as comprehensive as the Fool website in the USA (www.fool.com)
Google Finance UK
Google Finance website is good for keeping an overall view on the market and individual companies including graphs, news and company specific information.
Investegate
www.investegate.co.uk/
(Free registration to set up a portfolio)
Investgate is a database of UK company regulatory filings. All company regulatory filings can be called up by entering the company name.
Free registration is required to set up a portfolio. You are notified of all company filings in your portfolio with an email when the filing is made.
Northcote
Northcote is very good site to access UK companies’ annual reports and other investor relations information.
They offer a wide range of services to help listed companies improve the flow of information to private and institutional investors and is thus a good place to start your search for annual reports on London Stock Exchange listed companies.
Yahoo Finance UK & Ireland
Yahoo has a good website for looking up prices including graphs and insider transactions.
Compared to the Yahoo Finance site in the USA this site is rather limited. It is however a good kick off point for your research.
Internet Tools for Investments in Germany
Comdirect (German only)
A very good German online bank and online broker that provides good information on German as well as worldwide markets.
You can register on the website for free without opening an account and put together portfolios with price alerts. When a stock price exceeds the upper or lower alert limit you receive an email the following day.
Due to next day notification the service is not suitable for intra-day traders but I find it really worthwhile for keeping an eye on shares I want to buy below a certain price.
GENIOS (German only)
GENIOS is a very extensive German media database. I use it as source of news on German companies.
Articles are only available against payment but searching the full name of the article in Google usually leads you to a source where you can read it without paying.
Insiderdaten.de (German only)
A really comprehensive database of all director dealing regulatory filings of companies in Germany.
Its a really worthwhile service with pre-defines searches for example: What purchases of shares by directors had a value of more than EUR 1 million in the last month.
Free registration enables you to save a portfolio and be informed of directors dealings by email.
Onvista (German only)
Very comprehensive financial portal for the German financial markets. Comparable with Yahoo finance in the USA.
The website provides information on all financial instruments including interest bearing accounts and structured certificates.
Free real time quotes on German securities are also available.
If you have any other internet tools you think deserves a mention please let me know and I will include them here. Click here to make a suggestion
