Here's a useful list of resources that will help you research companies for investment purposes. It's short so that you don't get overwhelmed and have a place to start. If you would like to add to this list (or make other changes), please email your ideas to
for review.
Please click on a catagory to view the recommended resources.
Learn to Earn: A Beginner's Guide to the Basics of Investing and Business
by Peter Lynch
This is the best book you can read to get started in the club or in investing. Peter Lynch sums up in one book what professors are not able to get across in entire quarters. This is a must read and is a great starting point for all investors. The author presents the fundamentals in an easy to read manner accessible to everyone.
A Random Walk Down Wall Street
by Burton G. Malkiel
This is an excellent place to start, regardless of your level of financial knowledge. It goes over investing fundamentals in an easy to read but intelligent manner. You will have a solid foundation to build upon after reading this book.
The Intelligent Investor
by Benjamin Graham
This book will teach you all about value investing. It's a fairly difficult read, but well worth your time. Benjamin Graham's basic theory of looking for undervalued stocks works, as can be seen by the success of Warren Buffett, the 2nd richest man in the world. Learning the difference between investing and speculating, and the concept of margin of safety are very useful messages given in this book. The appendix by Warren Buffett is quite useful as well.
Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist
by Roger Lowenstein
This is probably the best biography on Warren Buffett, the most successful investor in history. You will get an idea of how Buffett thinks after reading this book, which is more important than what he's done. It's fun to read, and makes for a great supplement to The Intelligent Investor.
Liar's Poker
by Michael Lewis
This book gives you an inside look at trading and investment banking. It's a fascinating read and really funny, but is of less use to an investment club than the first three listed books. However, p.173-178 provide useful information on what could be considered intelligent speculating, as performed by the character Alexander. Take note of this if you decide to read the book. I should have added that Liar's Poker does not necessarily show what investment banking is like at most firms right now. It's just at one investment bank during the 1980's.
All of these magazines give you useful in-depth articles on companies and industries. However, there's also a lot of fluff in these, so you'll have to be careful when picking out information that could be considered valuable for investing purposes. You can read these for free at the RIT library--just ask at the front desk.
Any of these three sources will give you a great idea of what's going on in the world, especially related to business and economics. The Financial Times and The Economist are British, and tend to give a more international view on events than The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal is probably the best to read if you can only read one, and the www.wsj.com website is excellent.
MSN has probably the greatest portfolio tracking software there is for managing your own portfolio whether it be real or just a watch account. They also has good charting abilities but most of the benefits for charting and portfolios come if you use Internet Explorer.
This website should allow you to watch Bloomberg TV on your computer for free (it may not work on all computers). This station tends to give a more objective view on the markets than CNBC, but might also be considered more boring. Try it out at least once.
This site has over 200,000 charts and datafiles that allow you to customize the output. For instance, you can get customizable charts on interest rates, market returns, currency movements, inflation, and hundreds of thousands more. Take a look - even if it is just for a couple minutes. It could come in very handy some day!
wally.rit.edu-->Databases-->Factiva-->Companies/Markets-->Company Screening
wally.rit.edu-->Databases-->Standard & Poors NetAdvantage
As an RIT student, you have free access to tons of databases through the library. Above are just two that you should find quite useful when researching companies. Explore these databases.
