|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In addition to a brokerage site, having one or more additional sites devoted to world, state, and local news as well as market-related news is useful. For example, the Associated Press wire and CNN are good for this, as is the Yahoo! finance section. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Yahoo! site allows you to customize a page to receive a few top stories in whatever sectors or areas of interest you wish. Because they are getting the news hot off the press from Reuters, and the style of the page is easy on the eyes, I find Yahoo! to be a good place to begin in the morning for general, business, and market news, including foreign markets. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Most of the quote packages you may subscribe to that offer Level I or Level II quotes have some kind of news component. The question is how fast will the news come to you if your intention is to get a jump on the market? And here is where we run into a problem. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is an area in which it appears the individual investor is still not going to get the breaking news quite as fast as institutions are. The irony is that with dozens of web sites devoted to nothing but business and market news, you are still going to experience some lag between the event, the initial release of the news, and when you first read about it on these sites. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As mentioned earlier, institutions pay $1500 per month for a direct news feed. If I get the news even three minutes after they do, they will capitalize on it and I will be left in the dust. By the time CNBC tells me and everyone else about the story, it's too latethose who got it three minutes earlier have already made their move. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sometimes, with a big event, everyone is getting the news at exactly the same time as it is breaking, like when the Federal Reserve releases their decision on what to do with interest rates. These releases are purposely planned so that no one is able to get the jump on anyone else. It is company-related news that affects a stock that some get faster than others. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For most investors, learning of a news event three minutes later than the next person is inconsequential. But for traders, it's like having quotes delayed three minutesit matters. I have tried getting alerts on my stocks from sites that offer them, but so far, I can't say that anything has adequately done the job. The alerts are nowhere near fast enough to be able to take advantage of the market. In fact, by the time I usually receive an alert, the news has already been flashed on CNBC. As usual, in the speedy electronic world, the person with the most sophisticated and costly toys wins. |
|
|
|
|
|