Conference nyoss1::market_investing

I can't really speak for which is the best but I can speak for what I like.
I've had a subscription to Money for several years. I think the basic 
information they provide such as "Fund Watch" for tracking the performance of 
all categories of mutual funds, low interest credit cards, CD interest rates
etc. is useful. They also have good articles on a host of subjects from taxes
and 401K strategies to life insurance and estate planning.

The drawback of this magazine (an most others I suspect) is the info is 
sometimes a little old. Such is the problem with when the research for an article
is done and when the magazine arrives at my door. The WSJ is a good supplement
for this problem. Also, there cover stories (as are other mags I've seen) seem 
to be a bit sensational, such as "Ten best investments for '93" ect. Once you
filter out that garbage most of the reading is pretty good.

If your library has a good selection of magazines that they subscribe to you can 
sample them and get a feel for which you like best. After you pick one 
(to subscribe to) the library is a cheap way to follow the others that you 
don't wish to pay for. That's what I do.

Hope this helps.


Pat

    Like .1, I have a personal favorite and use the library (and others) to
    get at other publications.  Each magazine is targetting a different
    type of information.
    
    I believe that Business Week is the best source of information
    concerning companies that you want to invest in.  Their analysis about
    the strengths and weaknesses of companies is compared to similiar
    companies within their industry.
    
    Money is for general investing and money advice for individuals.  it
    gives more guidance about how to invest then analysis about what to
    invest in.  
    
    Most magazines fall into either general money advice or specific
    company advice.
    
    For what it is worth,
    
    
    Jack Boyle

      I  certainly  agree that all of these publications offer something
      to somebody -- else they wouldn't sell! Like the man said, to make
      YOUR  decision  you must know what kind of informration and advice
      YOU are seeking.

      That  said,  I'll  put  in  a  plug  for  Barrons.   Its more of a
      "newspaper" (weekly) than a magazine, so its article  tend  to  be
      more  current.  It also has a very complete section of market data
      -- stock, bond, mutual fund and futures  prices,  market  averages
      and other indicators.  A 1-2 year stack of Barrons in your library
      can be an excellent source of historical data.

      I think I'll also plug U S News and Word Report.  This is a weekly
      magazine with general  news.   Although  it  is  not  specifically
      oriented  to  financial  news,  it does contain financial news and
      frequently has issues dedicated to financial market topics.

      Now  its  confession  time  --  Part  of  the  reason  I like this
      publications is familiarity.  My father subscribed  to  these,  so
      I've  been  reading  them  more-or-less regularly for 25-30 years.
      I've "grown accusstomed" to them, so they work better for me  than
      they might for you.

      BTW  --  It  is  very  easy  to  spend many hundreds of dollars --
      probably thousands!  -- subscribing to every financial magazine on
      the market.  I strongly advise you to resist this temptation.  Use
      the resources of your nearest library to look at many publications
      and then decide which ones you want to get for yourself.

      Don't  subscribe  to  more publications than you can keep up with.
      You're better off  thoroughly  reading  and  understanding  a  few
      periodicals  than  getting  a  confused hodge-podge of hit-or-miss
      exposure to many.  Initially subscribe for only 6-12 months --  no
      more than a year. At renewal time ask yourself (1) "Do I read this
      regularly?"  and (2) "Do I find it useful?".   A  "no"  answer  to
      either question means don't renew.

    Here is my vote for Forbes.  I have had subscriptions to Money,
    Venture, Forbes, and U.S. News & World Report for years.  I let them
    all expire except Forbes.
    
    Money is a good magazine for beginners.  It usually has articles around
    financial planning, taxes, home budgets, college costs, etc. that focus
    on how one or two families are dealing with these issues.  The families
    are often just like you and me, and really help to personalize how one
    should deal with these things.  Money is NOT a stock investor magazine.
    You won't find company profiles, industry trends, market analysis, etc.
    It is a good magazine to get an overall view of personal financial
    planning.  After a while I was ready to move on to something else.
    The same subjects tend to come up year after year.
    
    Forbes is heavy duty !  It comes out every two weeks and is generally
    200 - 275 pages of meaty articles on companies, industry trends,
    market analysis, and some general business coverage.  They have monthly
    columnists who cover stocks, bonds, mutual funds, contrarians, timers,
    etc.  For my money it is the best.  It is not, however, light reading.
    You have to really love business, competitive strategies, stock market
    analysis.
    
    Business Week is pretty good too.  They cover many of the same things
    but from a more "newsy" level.  They will cover all the current events
    in a reporting sort of way.  Not the deep analysis of the event that
    I see in Forbes.  But still a good magazine.
    
    Don
    

    Good stuff!  Appreciate your comments.  I agree that what you're after
    should determine which publication is best for you.  I am interested in
    exactly the kind of info that is being exchanged here ie - what does
    each publication specialize in and who/what is it geared towards.
    All other comments welcome - keep em comin'
    
    Cheers,
             Tim

Here's what I read, and what I think of what I
read.  Note that I follow way too much stuff here...I suffer
from permanent information overload:

Publication			Comments

Money				Got me up to speed...good fund
				data...lightweight on stocks

Barrons				My personal favorite...Alan Abelson's
				commentary is worth the price of
				admission.  Proceed carefully, but the
				interviews can be revealing and the
				stock tips are plentiful.

Worth				Worthless unless you think that 
				investing is for the beautiful
				people.  Peter Lynch's column is
				interesting, but I won't renew.

Mutual Fund Forecaster		Good sanity checking for mutual
				fund investors.  Also, they publish
				a seasonality index for mutual
				fund traders.

Investors Business Daily	Like numbers a lot?  They have many
				on a daily basis.  If you're a CANSLIM
				devotee you can't live without this
				paper.  They profile different companies
				everyday, with lots of charts and useful
				data.  They also provide rankings on
				stocks in terms of relative strenght and
				earnings per share.

Someone else mentioned that you can drop big bucks on investment news
and advice....tis true.   It's also provisionally tax deductible if
it exceeds a certain percentage of your adjusted gross income.

./chris

My vote go for Barron's and Financial World.
Enough already said about Barron's. I'll give my 2 cents worth about FW.
    
First of all, I like it because not everyone reads it. Also, it comes biweekly. 
I find that with Money magazine they are much too general since they are 
writing for the masses.
Financial World will pick a few topics in each issue and go through them 
completely. In addition, they have a few pages of charts and one page of 
recommendations by 6 or 8 (I can't remember) professionals. About every 6 weeks 
or so they have pages of tables on stocks or mutual funds.
One issue will have tables on all mutual funds...
the next issue will have all OTC stocks
the next issue will have all NYSE/Amex stocks
six weeks later same cycle ...
The info I find there I can't find as easily anywhere else.
They'll have:

Company name
Company business
Symbol
Recent price
52 wk range (high/low)
P/E
Book value
Cash flow/share
EPS
EPS growth rate 1 year
EPS growth rate 5 years
# of institutions holding the stock
# of shares held by institutions
FW rating (A-E)
etc. ...  on 100's/1000's of stocks/mutual funds.

Using only this info I came up with the following recommendations to a 
customer of mine in FNN's Investment challenge a few years ago. I used FW's
    rating system along with a growth rate larger than the P/E ratio.
P.S.: he still teases me about not REALLY buying this list.

              11/28/90  2/15/91	3/15/91

ADAPTEC  	10 3/8	 12	12 1/8
ADV. LOGIC	7 3/4	 13	16	
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALIAS RESEARCH	14 1/2	 19	22 1/2
APPLE		41 1/2
ARCHIVE		5 5/8	  7	7 3/8
ASK		8
BORLAND		27 1/4 	 53	46 3/8
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CENTEL		30 1/2	 35 1/8 32 5/8
CONNER PERIPH.	26 3/8	 26 5/8	25 3/4
CYBERTEK	9 3/8 	 14 3/4	14 1/4
ENRON		57 3/8	 55 7/8	55 1/8
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ENVIROSAFE	8 1/2	11	9 3/4
EXABYTE		12 7/8	20 1/2  19 1/2
GEN HOUSEWARES	10 3/4	13 3/8	14 1/8
INTELL. ELECT. 	14 3/4	30 3/4	30 1/2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KN ENERGY	25 7/8	23 3/8	22 3/4
MARION MERRILL 	32 3/4	37 1/2	38 1/2
METHOD 'A'	6 1/2	8 7/8	8
MICRO HEALTH	17 3/4	30	35 1/4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORACLE		8 1/2
PEPSI		29
PYRAMID		14 1/4	21 1/2	22 3/8
QUAKER STATE	9 5/8	11 7/8	12
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAFEWAY		12 3/8	16 3/4	18 1/2
SANIFILL	22 1/2	29 5/8	31 1/2
SCHULMAN	29 1/4	39 5/8	41
SCI-MED LIFE	25 1/4	39 1/4	45 3/8
SILICON GRAPHICS  25	39 7/8	40 7/8
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUN MICRO	19 5/8	29 1/2	32 5/8

...
Keep in mind that I knew almost nothing on most of these companies. 
(which is why I didn't buy them for real.)
I only used the info available in FW. Check the prices now !

I'd second Financial World.  They run a variety of interesting articles every
issue.  For example, last month they looked at Mutual funds that would
best/worst survive a market setback.  Another issue reviewed fund NAV gain
potential based on the holdings and predicted EPS of those companies.  They
ranked a ton of funds (and one that I have got an A, and has gained nicely
since then).  They also have a regular column devoted to companies, contrarians,
and sometimes short-selling.  Interesting stuff.  Oh, and the average 
compensation of the readers of FW is something like $98K.  Someday... :-)

John Piekos

Is the subscription price of "Financial World" consistent
with a $98K salary readership?

On the serious side, somebody have a phone # for them?

./chris
who thinks average salary per reader is a measure of snob appeal.

P.S.  For the smiley impaired:  :-)  :-)  :-)

    24 biweekly issues ( I know that's only 48 weeks but I'm looking at a
    subscription card for FW which says late dec-early Jan issue and a 
    combined late Aug-early Sept issue  = 1 year) - $36.00.
    
    No 800 number I can see, but full of postage paid cards - go to Barnes
    & Noble,etc pick up magazine and cards will fall out onto the floor -
    pick one up. Or you can try 1-800-555-1212.
    

If you belong to AAII (see a few notes back) you can get a year subscription
to FW for around $23.  They also offer similar specials for Money, Fortune,
Forbes, etc...

John Piekos

By I like 5-Star Investor published my Morningstar the best.  My reason for this
is I only invest in Mutual Funds.  Morningstar is one of the leaders in Mutual
Fund tracking, and publish a quality monthly.  You don't need to subscribe to
Moringstar itself, but some famillarity with it is helpful (check it out at the
library).  They monitor the Moringstar 500 (and the hall of fame closed fund
list) each month.  The articles are all based on how to build a portfolio for
a wide range of personal situations.  They have a feautre called portfolio 
makeover each month.  They take a letter describing a current portfolio, and
redesign it for the individual.  They give you the thought process behind the
makeover (I find that these are great to save because a lot of the situations I
will also face, ie. retirement age investing, planning for college education, 
etc.).  They also will sell you a subset of the Moriningstar reports of just the
Morningstar 500.  This months issue contained an interview with Peter Lynch, and
a portfolio analysis of the Meridian fund (the analysis is a regular feature).
It is 32 pages in length (which is about the amount of time I have in addition
to reading my local newspaper daily, and my daughter's Sesame Street magazine).
Sixteen pages are devoted to the 500 list.  I find the wrap up article by Don
Phillips one of the most interesting pieces of the magazine.  For example the
March issue intitled "The Knowledge Least Worth Having?; Top-down Trivia" 
highlighted the focus in the media and by portfolio managers on macro economic
predictions.  The article stated that the famous Elaine Garzarelli made some 
macro economic predictions 1 year ago and was completely correct on all of them,
yet her portfolio trailed the S&P 500 by 6 points (things that make you go hmmm).
The article wrapped up with a quote from Peter Lynch.  "An Investor who spends
12 minutes a year on macroeconomics wastes 10 minutes".

my 2 cents.

Michael

    
    
    Re: -1
    
    How much is it?
    
    Kaizad

$65 a year...1-800-876-5005

/mtb

    Call and ask for a free copy - sample. No charge.

Interesting. No one said anything about Kiplinger's...

For awhile, I subscribed to Money and Kiplinger's. Got bored with Money and I
found Kiplinger's better reading.

Kilpinger's seemed more to my taste in reading and has less adverstisements
than Money..

FWIW..Jim

    just a caveat about Kiplingers.....
    
    Every now and then they make a recommendation that piques my interest
    but, after I have done some research, I find that either they had some
    facts wrong, the article was misleading, and or the article was
    in-complete.
    
    In the last issue, they touted L. Roy Papp fund as a small, but good
    performing, conservative, low cost fund well suited for their typical
    readers.  After reading the prospectus, I found that the expenses were
    not sufficiently low to attract attention and you need $10K to invest
    (Kiplingers articles are usually aimed at lower initial investing). 
    Reading their Annual Report shows that their major holding are
    relatively neutral in terms of security (based upon Value Line
    ratings).
    
    In the same issue they rate COPLEY FUND as a high flyer. After reading
    the prospectus you find that, in order to increase their yield, they
    take advantage of semi-obscure tax codes and incorporate the fund. 
    However, public corporations who invest their assets (as opposed to
    Mutual Funds) are not regulated (beyond corporation regulations) and
    not insured.  If you find comfort/security in knowing that your
    investment has SOME fiscal regulation, this fund would cause you to
    lose sleep.
    
    So, I would caution notes that all of these publication are simply a
    place to start looking.
    
    As always, For What It's Worth.
    
    Dave

I've tried Business Week, Forbes, Money, Financial World, Fortune, and
Kiplinger; and I have found them wanting in one way or another. 

However, let me suggest a new one: Smart Money.  This is published by the Wall 
Street Journal, so it has the conciseness of that newspaper, plus a jaundiced 
viewpoint which I favor.

The metric of value I use is the extent to which I cut out articles.  By that 
measure, the first four issues this year were gold mines.

In the latest issue (labelled "June", even though it arrived at my house in 
Aprli), the cover article was about the search for the perfect set of 
(open-end) mutual funds.  They imposed only two criteria: (1) fund had to be 
in existence at least 5 years, and (2) fund had to at least double the 
performance of the S&P 500 over the last five years.  Only two funds measured 
up, so they had to lower the bar.

Version 2 of their screen had these criteria:
(1) Longevity -- in existence at least 5 years
(2) Profitability -- beat the S&P 500 by at least 40% over past 5 years
(3) Consistency -- no fluke year where >45% of 5-yr. gain occurred in 1 year
(4) Volatility -- no 3-month period where fund dropped >25%
(5) Star Search -- same lead manager over past 5 years
(6) Manageability -- no sudden spurt in size
(7) Availability -- fund still open to new accounts or not about to close

Only seven funds made it past these hurdles.

Full Disclosure Notice: maybe I like this magazine because three of my funds
made the list [but were eliminated by criterion (7)]. 

    RE: .18
    
>>>Only seven funds made it past these hurdles.
    
    Can you give us the names of these 7 funds?
    
    Steve

Fidelity Advisor Equity: Growth Institutional
     total 5-yr return: 224.7%
     mgr: Bob Stansky, 37
     mgrs's money in fund: none; until late 1992, closed to retail investors

Fidelity Contrafund
     total 5-yr return: 223.3%
     mgr: Will Danoff, 32
     mgrs's money in fund: "all of my retirement savings"

Pasadena Growth
     total 5-yr return: 206.4%
     mgr: Roger Engemann, 52
     mgrs's money in fund: largest shareholder, with $3M invested

Brandywine
     total 5-yr return: 171.5%
     mgr: Foster Friess, 53
     mgrs's money in fund: with co-mgrs & employee profit-sharing plan, $20M

Meridian
     total 5-yr return: 167.6%
     mgr: Rick Aster, 53
     mgrs's money in fund: family is largest shareholder, with $2M invested

IDEX II Growth
     total 5-yr return: 178.0%
     mgr: Tom  Marsico, 38
     mgrs's money in fund: none

Strong Discovery
     total 5-yr return: 158.0%
     mgr: Dick Strong, 51
     mgrs's money in fund: "significant portion" of family's assets

    
    I believe Brandywine has a $20,000 initial investment (?).
    
    

Here is the list of winners (see .18 for criteria):

     					    5-yr Perf	Worst
     		Fund			    Rel to S&P	3-mo.
-------------------------------------	    ----------	------
Fidelity Advisor Equity: Growth Inst.		1.99x	-22.2%	
Fidelity Contrafund				1.93	-13.3
Pasadena Growth					1.71	-25.0
Brandywine					1.55	-18.6
Meridian					1.52	-17.9
IDEX II Growth					1.47	-17.6
Strong Discovery				1.43	-12.3


And the runners-up (failed one criterion):

Vista Growth & Income				2.58	-13.8
Alger Small Capitalization			2.07	-22.4
Twentieth Century Ultra				1.99	-16.3
Janus Twenty					1.92	-17.7
Vista Capital Growth				1.88	-18.5
Skyline Special Equities			1.87	-24.4
Thomson Opportunity B				1.79	-19.6
Berger 100					1.74	-20.8
Hartwell Emerging Growth			1.67	-23.3
FAM Value					1.67	-17.8
Founders Frontier				1.64	-18.1
Robertson-Stephens Emerging Growth		1.62	-21.7
ABT Emerging Growth				1.61	-19.9
Transamerica Special Emerging Growth		1.57	-23.1
Gabelli Growth					1.52	-11.5
Fidelity Growth Company				1.49	-20.9
Janus Venture					1.47	-14.8
Monetta						1.45	-20.4
Janus						1.43	-13.9
Oppenheimer Discovery				1.43	-17.1
Equitable Growth Back-Load			1.41	-23.9
Legg-Mason Special Investment			1.41	-16.5
AIM Value (c)					1.40	-20.1


S&P 500						1.00x	-13.8%

Gee mine only failed in two categories...


                                 5yr vs sp       worst 3-mon
CGM Captial Development             3.40x           -23.19


it's closed, and 1991 at 99.08% return it blew the "fluke" test....of course
having been in the fund for over ten years Mr. Heebner is not considered a fluke 
by my standards.

/mtb

    re .18
    
    I had forgotten about SMART MONEY. I second it's nomination.
    
    No charts etc for the technicians out there,but good,relevant reading
    nonetheless.

The latest issue of Financial World has a nice spread of mutual fund rankings
(similar to their stock ranking tables).  I find this type of info much more
valuable than that of Money...  

John Piekos

    Can someone please post the phone # for Smart Money and tell us how
    much it costs?
    
    Thanks,
    
    Mike

    .26
    
    It costs about $2.50 (atleast in the NY metro area) and should be
    available in most newspaper/book stores

Re .26:
    
The (800) number for "Smart Money" is 444-4204.

Or you can mail your subscription to P.O. Box 7538, Red Oak IA 51592.

Introductory rates are 6 issues for $14.97, 12 issues for $29.94.

    re: .27 & .28
    
    Thanks for the info.!

Well, I'll throw in my $.02 and support The Economist and Business Week.  I 
find that most of my investment direction is set by larger trends and these 
help me follow them.  The Economist is great for seeing things in a more 
internatinal flavor, is available every week at many newstands and replaces 
my need for the fluff newsweeklies like Time, US News and World Report and 
Newsweek.  

Business Week makes it a lot easier to keep up with the short term business 
trends for reviewing potentials.  It augments some of the world news I 
can't seem to find in the other weeklies.  I found that I can't keep up 
with more than 2 weekly mags and these cover most of what I need when added 
to a daily paper.  As a sales rep this is also a mag that is widely read by 
my customers and helps me keep up on what normal people read.

I obviously don't trade futures or any other more advanced securities and 
don't need the more detailed information available in Barron's and some of 
the others that are more suitable for others.

Matt