We believe most investment information sources are strongly biased toward extracting fees for brokerage, useless stock picking and market timing advice, and, yes, more investment information.  With that caveat, proceed at your own risk.

Used Regularly At Wilcox Investment
We offer no guarantees, but believe these to be useful sources of data.

Bloomberg -- Authoritative daily news and price movements.

Jerry Medved's QuoteTracker -- You can download a free stock trading information center, or upgrade it to exclude advertising for a nominal fee. It is possible to use it for trading.  It makes it easy to keep track of various market components by entering the tickers of ETF's.

Fidelity -- Click on the stocks and quotes menu item.  You will find a wealth of comparative information on US stocks that can serve as a first check point when dealing with an unfamiliar stock.  The market map from SmartMoney is also a useful feature because it integrates overall patterns visually.  Those with an investment avocation will find it more useful than will savers and professionals.

Edgar -- If you know how to read accounting reports and shareholder reports, why rely on sell-side analysts?  This superb repository of information provided by the SEC is currently free for users who can look at a single stock at a time.

Barra -- Useful for keeping track of specialized indices on an official, longer-term basis..

MSCI -- Useful for official international indices.

Professional Journals
The place to start if you have some math skills and want to skip the "investing as an avocation" stage.  There are many other more popularized trade magazines and more academic journals, but these two carry most prestige as trade journals of record.

Journal of Portfolio Management -- Carries articles of general interest to professional portfolio managers.

Financial Analysts Journal -- Official publication of the powerful Chartered Financial Analyst organization.

Index Funds and ETF's
In our view, savers should concentrate on index funds and ETF's for low cost and wide diversification, unless they have portfolios large enough to support custom passive management.

Vanguard -- The grandfather of popular low cost mutual funds, with special emphasis on passively-managed index funds offering even lower fees and better diversification.  Includes bond indexing.  Many investment professionals invest their own money at Vanguard.

Nuveen ETF Center -- Good overview of ETF scene.

Only For The Sporting Life, But Of Interest
Once you have gotten the savings challenge in hand, you may want to enter the investment arena as a combatant with a modest portion of your portfolio.  You should do so knowing that the main value added will probably be the thrill of the chase.  We support and cheer your effort if it is realistically specialized, risk-managed, and cost-conscious.

Value Line -- Offers regular coverage of basic stock information and important fundamental events in a form with very little hype which is a good starting point for further investigation.

Hoovers -- Another good source of fundamental company information

Morningstar -- Keeps track of mutual funds success and news.  There doesn't seem to be much evidence that five-star funds do better, but there is still valuable information here.

Yahoo! Finance -- The message boards on individual stocks give a good impression of the amateur trader scene. Once in a while, employees of the companies get into the act and you can learn something of value.  This hugely popular portal is gradually becoming a high-powered concentrator of financial news.

Investment & Finance Research Station -- A small concentrator, or portal, of investing links.  Covers a wide range of real information, including economic data, links to state regulators.

InvestmentSeek.com -- Another small concentrator, or portal, of investing links.  This one links to various professional associations, some with excellent research papers.

General Business and Political Background
If you are determined to take up investing as an avocation, you will want to be well informed as to underlying trends in the real economy and society as a whole.  Here is a starter list if you have been living on a news desert island.

Financial Times -- A broad world view made possible by its London heritage.

Wall Street Journal -- The editorial page is rather one-sidedly conservative, but the WSJ is still the essential US business paper.

New York Times -- Good national and international news, some business stories not covered by the WSJ.

The Economist -- A cross between Time, Business Week, and the New Yorker.

CNN -- Excellent for quick update on leading stories of the day.

Investing Information for Everyone
These are sales-oriented sites that can be used to see what the retail investor is likely to be doing and thinking.

CNNMoney -- A high quality retail news site designed to attract a large audience.

CBS Marketwatch -- Another useful retail news and opinion site.

MSN -- MoneyCentral -- Another useful site.

Smart Money -- The inventors of the Market Map.