PO Box 361072
Melbourne, FL 32936-1072

Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

A collection of useful items to improve understanding and advance the capabilities of your computer aided stock studies, contributed by the Directors of the BetterInvesting Space Coast Chapter (K043) and many others.

*** *** *** Updated -> Sunday, June 07, 2009 at 18:31:49 *** *** ***

Contents

How to Use This Site

Chapter Events

• Presidents Luncheon / Education / Annual Meeting - 19 September 2009 Orlando Marriott at Lake Mary
• Details
• Email Registration
• USPS Mail Registration
• Training Sessions
• Chapter Online Training
• Maps of Event & Training Venues

Free Online Learning Events {open to all except where noted}

· August 5: Stock to Study Program live at 9:00 pm Eastern. See announcement at BetterInvesting.org for details and registration.

Newsletter

Editorial

Past Editorials

Chapter Contacts

Regional & National Events

· Stock to Study: Presented monthly by BetterInvesting featuring nationally known BI member/trainers.

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Articles:

FROM INTIMIDATION TO SUCCESS

What is an Investment Club

Doorway to Clubs That Welcome Visitors

Chapter Lectures on CD

General

Software Programs:

Investor’s Toolkit

Stock Selection Guide (SSG)

STOCKcentral Data for Investor's Toolkit

General

Setup and Data

Visual Analysis – Part I

Analyzing Management – Part II

PE History – Part III

Evaluating Risk to Reward – Part IV

5 Year Return – Part V

Portfolio Management Guide (PMG)

General

Data

Graph

Portfolio Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)

PERT Report

Trend Report Summary Report

Stock Comparison Guide (SCG)

Challenger

Output – Printing

General Toolkit Topics

Stock Prospector

Start

Criteria

Reports

Display

Link to Analysis Program

BETTERINVESTING Club Accounting (BICA)

Due Diligence

• S&P Core Earnings - a metric attempt to counteract creative accounting. A means to plot against earnings as reported by the company.
• EPS Trends – Use these analysts estimates with a grain of salt but use them.

Reading (Suggested / Reviews)

Investment Club Specific Help

Useful Links to Online Web Sites

TT&T for Chapter Directors and Instructors

Power Point

Instructor Techniques

Computer Tips

BetterInvesting Chapter Business Cards

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General

Annual Report Analysis – How to acquire and use

Calculating Compound Annual Return – Using the Visual Analysis Graph from your SSG

Change Detection Notification – how to setup email notification when a website is changed or updated.  Use it for www.NAICspace.org

Faster Loading PDF Files – removing seldom used items speeds use

Financial Calculator – There is a quick and easy free one with every Stock Selection Guide (SSG) sheet for those satisfied with “slide rule” accuracy

Let Google Do the Math – a quick and valuable feature of the ubiquitous Google

Salesman Tricks – watch out how data is presented

Screening for Quality with Value Line – do this for free in your public library.

Searching within a PDF file – valuable for softcopy manuals

SpaceCoast-Chat – Chapter Mailing List, Multi-Way Email Communications

Taming Windows – That are too large for your screen

Track & Compound Annual Growth – all from in a single Excel workbook, update anytime

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Software Programs

Investor’s Toolkit

Stock Selection Guide (SSG)

General

Undocumented Features in Investors Toolkit 4 & 5 plus Toolkit 6 – aka Rogue Keys

Undocumented Features by Jim Thomas

STOCKcentral Data for Investor's Toolkit

Stock Study Flow Chart – a suggested procedure

Preferences > Thresholds –Global and Individual

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Setup and Data

Toolkit and BetterInvesting’s Online Premium Service (OPS)

Updating Toolkit 5

Database Utilities

Internet Directory

Toolkit Libraries

Importing Value Line Data into BetterInvesting software

The SSG File – Read this before you download the Excel file.

The SSG File Defined – an Excel workbook

Missing Data at Year End – a quick fix

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Visual Analysis – SSG Part I

Starting Points for Projections – Last Annual Data, Last Quarterly Data, End of Trend Line

Preferred Procedure – Estimate future Earnings based on Sales history

Rates of Change

Earnings Stability – R Squared

Sustainable Growth Rate

Visual Analysis Chart

Read about Desired Growth Calculator – Expected growth as a function of annual sales

Desired Growth Calculator – This is an executable file – DG.exe; read instructions above

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Analyzing Management – SSG Part II

Toolkit Graphs

Return on Equity – Treatment by Ellis Traub for AAII Journal, July 2001

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PE History – SSG Part III

Relative Value

Forecasting PEs

Analyzing Historical PEs

Average Dividend Yield

Toolkit’s Funny Numbers - (the typed in ones)

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Evaluating Risk to Reward – SSG Part IV

Zoning

Upside/Downside Ratio – Risk/Reward Ratio

Potential Buy Price

PEG Ratio

Forecasting Low Price

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5 Year Potential – SSG Part V

Compound & Average Annual Return

Projected Average Return

Total Return - {Toolkit Version 4’s Unique Situation}

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Portfolio Management Guide (PMG)

General

Portfolio Management Guide

How to Email a Toolkit PERT Report

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Data

Place holder – for a future set of TT&Ts

Graph

PERT - A Graph

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Portfolio Maintenance Items

Annual Report Analysis

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Portfolio Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)

PERT Report

Accessing PERT

Using PERT

Portfolio Manager

Trend Report

Trend Report

Summary Report

Portfolio Summary Report

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Stock Comparison Guide (SCG)

Stock Comparison Guide – Compare up to 5 companies in the same industry

Selection of Alternative Data

Criteria Weighting

Challenger

Toolkit Challenger

EPS Stability [R2]

Output - Printing

ASCII Report

General Toolkit Topics

Management of Toolkit Libraries

Judgment Feature

Financial Calculator

Stock Splits – two nickels for a dime; to be rewritten

Toolkit "Notes" Function

Sending SSGs by email

Toolkit Expansion Toolbars

Toolkit Help Function

Zoom Feature of Toolkit

Selling Considerations

Selling Checklist

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Prospector

Start

So you want to learn Prospector

If all else fails, Read the Manual

Criteria

Modifying Previously Defined Criteria

Small-Caps or Small-Sized Companies

Reports

Prospector User Defined Functions

Display

A Quick Stock Comparison Guide within Prospector

Links to Analysis Programs

To open a company selected in Prospector with Toolkit

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BETTERINVESTING Club Accounting (BICA)

Club Accounting Topics

Treasurer’s Duties – Brief overview of accounting duties

Things You Should Know – Club Accounting terminology, frequently misunderstood items

Dividends – Where to post and ex-dividend date

Expense Concepts – Taxable and non-taxable items

Payments and Fees – When to use each and which will buy units

Paid In Plus Earnings (PIPE)

Taxes – “A piece of cake” thanks to the software

Valuations and Unit Values – very important concepts

Withdrawals – procedure from start to finish

Club Accounting Withdrawals – Gene Rooks piece in BITS, May 2006

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Reading (Suggested / Reviews)

Take Stock – by Ellis Traub - ***** A must read for all!

The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism – by Jack Bogle - ** Must know content but a difficult read (poorly written).

The Future for Investors - by Jeremy J. Siegel - ****

The World is Flat - by Thomas L. Friedman - *****

Stocks for the Long Run - by Jeremy J. Siegel - ****

How To Be A Growth Investor - by Malter & Kaye - *

China, Inc. – by Ted C. Fishman - ****

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Club Specific Help

Start & Run A Successful Investment Club from Doug Gerlach – This is the very best collection of information for Investment Clubs that I have seen.

Stand Alone Club Training on Demand

Club Contact - {Most Important for Club}

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Useful Links - These are links to other interesting and helpful online web sites. {Suggestion: Right Click on the Link and select “Open in New Window” or, if your browser supports tabs select “Open in New Tab.”}

BetterInvesting Home Page – Our parent organization’s homepage

Puget Sound Chapter’s Auxiliary website

BetterInvesting wiki

Churr http://www.churr.com (SSG software for our MAC computer friends)

Crow River Investment Club – Lots of great information and a collection of experience based wisdom – snoop around their Education section

Florida Space Coast Chapter (K043)

Investopedia – Definitions and much more

ManifestInvesting – the very first place to look

Doug Gerlach on NAIC’s Preferred Procedure

Doug Gerlach on Stock Selection Guide Tutorial

STOCKcentral – Stock data, Screener, Take Stock, Forum, Education

Stock Data from Hemscott America may be used directly with Investor's Toolkit with Insider Ownership and Institutional Holdings.

Welcome to Bobsite – Many great spreadsheet add-ins for stock analysis and portfolio management

NAIC Article Topic Index (from BIVIO site)

http://www.foliofn.com/ FOLIOfn

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Chapter Lectures on CD

Available CDs

The Stock Selection Guide Process with Investor’s Toolkit

Investor’s Toolkit5 from the Beginning

Value Line Online at Your Library

Potpourri I – Helpful Training Items for all levels

Sample #1 Comparing Companies with StockCentral Morningstar Data {from Potpourri II presently under construction}

Sample #2 Searching for Stocks {from Potpourri II presently under construction}

Ordering Details

Available Soon

Planned Works

For BI Chapter Directors

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TT&T for Chapter Directors and Instructors

Power Point - These are Tips, Tricks, and techniques hopefully useful to those engaged in the creation of Power Point and other instructional presentations. While most of the below links take you to a PDF file of the Power Point, chapter directors may request the full power point presentation.

Power Point 00 – How to make a picture background transparent

Power Point 01 – How to make a self running show

Power Point 02 – Tips & suggestions for a presentation

Dual Screen Presentation – the professional way

Introduction to the SSG, by Gene Rooks

IntroSSGnoSC.ppt – full Power Point

IntroSSGnoSC.pdf – Notes Pages

Chapter Administration

Online Event Registration with Eventbrite and PayPal

Instructor Techniques

Presentation TT&T – A Camtasia feature

Stock to Study Presenter Guidelines

Toolkit 00 – Align Price Bars with Earning

Toolkit 01 – Cursor pointing during instruction

SSG 00 – Compare your Sales Estimates with Value Line

Special Font Colors in Word – BetterInvesting Blue & Green

Red Cursor – A superior pointing device for instruction

VoIP – Voice over Internet Protocol

File Naming Convention - Suggestions & Comments

Computer Tips

Computer Tips from the CGAB – a collection of monthly tips

BetterInvesting Chapter Business Cards - The use of this procedure for creating a set of business cards for you chapter requires beyond the basic experience with MS Word, Excel, and Mail Merge procedures. If you experience problems, consult with your Chapter Computer Contact. After reading the Instructions, save the Merge and Data Documents to your desktop or other known location.

Instructions

Merge Document – This is a MS Word document

Data Document – This is a MS Excel document

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How to Use This Site
Operation - When you click on a colored link below, you’ll be taken elsewhere on the web or CD.  To return, click the green BACK arrow that is high up on the left of this window. Press the F11 key on your keyboard to enlarge the view of this page.  Press F11 again to return to normal view. After you have opened a PowerPoint file, use the PAGE DOWN key or your left mouse button to view it. A better (easier) way to access the links (PDF file or online) is to right click on the link and then select “Open Link in New tab” for Mozilla Firefox or “Open in New Window” for MS Internet Explorer. With the Mozilla Firefox browser you are able to control the size of the text using the <Ctrl> key along with the roller on your mouse pointing device.
Adobe Acrobat® Reader - Much of the material on this site or CD is in Adobe Acrobat® format.  If the free Adobe Acrobat reader isn’t already installed on your computer, you can go online to the Adobe web site to install it from there.  Click on the Adobe logo. Navigation – There are frequent links to the top of this document.  Unless otherwise stated, internal links are to Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Use the Find feature of the browser – CTRL + F opens the find box.
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BETTERINVESTING Space Coast Chapter