After checking the 'Get A Quote' sub-button, we decide to add new source into it, the 'Pink Sheets' website. The Pink Sheets website provides and publishes financial information for OTC (Over The Counter) securities. The Pink Sheets information provider is not a SEC registered as well as not a broker-dealer. If you couldn't find a certain security in the regular quote suppliers you will be able to find it in the 'Pink Sheets' website. You'll find it under the 'Goolge Finance' quote source.
Yesterday and today we hear everywhere in the news commentaries on Madoff's Ponzi Scheme (also: CNBC- Additional charges may occur, Reuters- summary, The Wall Street Journal- closing report, CNNMoney- Madoff's Ruth hidden money enigma, Yahoo! Finance- general news concerning the issue). The facts are: Madoff pleaded guilty and go to jail immediately. Reuters' video to summarize it:
As a summary of our own, we want to deliver our readers the things we believe will be the talk of tomorrow.
(I) The full list of Madoff's casualties. This list demonstrate the magnitude of Madoff's actions and today, after this story comes to an end, it functions as a memorial board for good cause's investors and sophisticated personas or firms, yet naive investors (on the border of stupidity). The list contains firms from around the world and it shows the power they gave for one person's hands.
Madoff’s scandal becomes more and more annoying while the press from one hand updates us with closing to end news and “life in prison” verdicts, and from the other hand the authorities that not succeed with making Madoff plead guilty (admitting on conspiracy charges in exchange for life). This story demonstrate best how lack of capabilities in the authorities hands, prevent from this story to be over. More than that, nowadays, sophisticated people like Madoff with lots of power in their hands and with strong attorneys beside them are able to push over the law and bend it so the result will be best for them.
Here you get to see some updates concerning this issue, which surely won’t be over in short term. For once I hope the law enforcements will be more ingenious than those who played, gambled and finally lost it all and now are trying to get out of it when the party is over. We saw how Madoff tricked the most sophisticated investor and now the ball is in the authorities’ hands. Let’s not forget that the state attorneys general is expecting a wave of new suits on financial frauds, something that needs bigger budget for its department. The bottom line is that maybe until now the government could close their eyes to sophisticated frauds in the financial markets but after the latest events, we understand that being technology speaking and financial development speaking, unprogressive is kind of disability, which in these days, is something we can’t allowed to ourselves.
For those of who want to drill down inside the accusations of Bernard madoff, find the following document.
Today I'll finish, as I said in the last post, the 'ETFs' sub-button. we stopped at the 'Yahoo! Finance ETF Browser by Risk', where we partly described the meaning of the Beta parameter in the financial terms. Take your time check this last post. Back to the reviewing part. As a continue, the next source is 'MSN Money ETF Performance Tracker', which delivers a list of ETFs based on its market price performance. In addition, the list attaches to each ETF the score (grade) of it by MorningStar. If you want, it is possible to reduce the amount of ETFs in the list by preferring a fund family or a category which the ETF aims to. The best pro of this source's list is that it gives you, for each ETF, the performance of it for several periods, (1-Wk, 4-Wks, 13-Wks, YTD, 52-Wks, 3-Yrs and 5-Yrs), something that really shorten the time to check historical performances. 'ETFConnect Find A Fund' gives a kind of special searching ability. It's not like it gives different list of ETFs but more like better (or different) sorting ability. Parameters like Asset Classes (Fixed Income, Equity, Other
s), Taxable/ Municipal or All, Fund Sponsor, Premium/ Discount (in a NAV point of view, meaning, is the ETF reflects a premium or a discount concerning the base assets. Very important in order to understand where the ETF is heading to). It is also possible to review ETFs that are leveraged or not. That is important for those who object anything that related to leveraging in the financial markets. 'ETFConnect Fund Sorter' is a simple ETF sorting tool, delivers only two sorting abilities (working together): Fund Type and a selected criteria for your picking. The reason we chose this source to appear in Sargels Toolbar is that it gives a first look on the ETFs possibilities under general criteria sorting, so you'll be able to cut off a very long list of ETFs before you'll start drill down into a specific ETF, something that is a real time saver. The last source on the 'ETFs' sub-button is the 'ETFConnect Fund Sponsors'. This sorter gives you the ability to first choose your favorites ETFs' Sponsor, if there is any, and from the list given, you'll be able to choose the ETF you want. Many Institution investors prefer a specific ETFs' sponsor to work with, based on their personal or business acquaintanceship, or on a past experiences. If you, as an investor, prefer a specific sponsor, which you think is more reliable than the others, that better fits your needs, you can start the drill down routine by checking this source first.
Finally we finish the 'ETF' sub-button, covering all the sources inside it. If you have any question concerning this issue, or for that matter, any other issue concerning Sargels or anything else, put it as a comment and we'll response to it, or alternatively send us a query and we'll get back to you ASAP. That's it for this post. We invite any of you who want to help us spreading the word of Sargels Financial Toolbar, to use any of the distribution tools on this blog (see at the end of the post). Don't forget to subscribe to our RSS in order to be updated with any new post we publish. If you want, join us on Twitter. As of Twitter, We advise you to join us because it is very dynamic over there. Every time we have any input on the markets, we publish it on our Twitter and we are very active with new, up-to-date financial information. After all, We originally an active traders (check this post to know more about us, or here on Sargels Team's website).
Sargels Team
In the last Sargels reviewing post, we covered the beginning of the 'ETF' sub-button. In this post we will continue with this sub-button. We also want to advise you to check all the previous reviewing posts in order to be updated with the earlier sub-buttons. It is the place to mention that non of the former sub-buttons have changed since their reviews.Also, if one of the sub-button, or one of its sources, will be changed, we will publish a post concerning the changes made. Back to the current review. The next source on the 'ETF' sub-button is the 'CNNMoney ETF News & Info', a source that delivers up-to-date news concerning the ETF market, including a table with the mo
st Gainers, Loser and Actives ETFs for the current period. The next source is 'ETF Connect Interactive Charting'. It gives a nice interactive chart ability, to use on ETFs, with comparison, time frames, technical analysis and more features. The idea is that this source is ETF- dedicated but it can chart stocks as well. The 'Bloomberg ETFs' gives you a full-list ETF's table. This table contains all the ETFs that traded in a given region. Although it is a full list, which actually gives all the info there is, it is not enhanced list, meaning, it is neither sortable nor moderate. So you can use it as a preliminary list but not as a drill down function. The 'Yahoo! Finance ETF Browser by Return (mkt)' is an enhanced source, giving a list of ETFs sorted by a given criteria. In this specific source, we chose the criteria we believe is the primary one- Intraday Return. Meaning here, the list sorted by an ETF price descending, from the highest ETF's increasing price to the ETF with the highest price decreasing. The reason we chose this criteria in particular is to enable a quick and easy view on the ETFs market, from the ETF's price point of view. Another important criteria for the 'Yahoo! Finance ETF Browser' we believe needs to appear inside the 'ETF' sub-button is Risk. This criteria sorts the ETF's list on a Risk basis, or in financial terms- Beta. A bigger beta means a more volatile ETF- risky ETF and vice versa. The reference ETF (the ETF that considers as the natural market risk, meaning beta=1) is the SPY (SPDRs), which tracks the S&P500 index. It also considers as one the most traded (in terms of volume) ETFs as well as securities in the US (and internationally) market. The beta calculation for rest of the ETFs in the market are in a proportion to the SPY. This criteria is very important, as it illustrates the power level of general risk that the consider ETF holds. Always keep in mind that beta is a volatility measurement, meaning, the possibility of a given ETF (or for that matter, any other security on the market, any market- shares, options, currencies, ETFs, commodities, etc.) to oppositely change its rate. ETFs (and again, any other security) has many other measurements that need to be taken into investment considering so don't totally lean on this feature.
We will close this post here, as we think lot of general financial information poured in this post, so take your time to drill down inside this sub-button, and inside the former posts as well. In the next post we'll finish the 'ETF' sub-button and by that, closing the ETF field of investment reviewing and move over to a new field of investment- Options. Until the next post, share your comments with every reader of the blog, share Sargels Financial Toolbar with your friends and associates- let everyone else enjoy the beenfits of this financial information solution. If you like, follow us on twitter.
Sargels Team
It is a great pleasure to present here the Annual Letter of Waren Buffett to the Berkshire Hathaway's investors. Waren Buffett is the famous Value-Investor in the world. Every year his annual letter is a reason for a celebration of rumors, news, and mostly interpretations of "What Does Waren Mean By That?" I guess this year, with the latest reports from BRKA's holding companies, together with the not-so-good year (financial and economic speaking), the "Oracle of Omaha" has some instructive news and commentaries to share. I think we will talk about it for a long time. For a change, he needs to deliver some explenations and not just talking and waiting for applause. Enjoy the reading and start to comment on the letter at the end of the post. We all have something to say this year concerning the latest events. Share this post with friends and invite everyone to comment on the letter here in the post.
Waren Buffett's 2008 Berkshire Hathaway Letter
It has been a while since the last review post, basically because of some unsolved issues concerning the markets, like deals to close and new thoughts about further investments. This post will deal with the next sub-button: 'ETFs'. This one concentrates all the most important sources on the web concerning the ETFs investments channel. I can say already that it will be a little bit longer post so I'll split it into two or three separated posts. Let's begin.
The first source in this sub-button is 'Yahoo! Finance ETF Center', which centralizes in one place all the important information about ETFs with a quick view on the top performers among the ETFs. Basically you can access to every part of Yahoo! Finance ETFs' area but as a begining, it gives an overview. The next source is 'MorningStar ETF'. This source is the cover page of MorningStar's ETF section and it mainly summarizes the biggest and most important ETFs in the market, delivers news concerning the ETF field. More important and interesting is the Domestic Equity Stylebox. This unique tool helps you to find ETF under specific investment style. It shorten the time to sort and discover ETFs under major criteria (i.e., Large, Medium or Small Cap). 'MarketWatch ETF Advanced Screener' is a full-featured screener, dedicated to ETFs, giving you criteria's basis sorting tool. It enables you to sort ETFs so it will answer exactly to your investment's method and by that, minimize the time you'll spend on searching and finding. The method of 'CNNMoney ETF Screener' is different. Here you act in the click&react approach, meaning, you click on a specific category (Asset Class, Style, Market Cap, Region and so on) that suite your determination and the platform opens for you a list that answer ex
actly to the criteria you've determined. The 'MorningStar ETF Screener' source is a pretty simple screener, delivers a short list of criteria choosing in an easy to use method. Although you can cover in this screener all the ETFs in the market, it is a simple one, that, as we see it, only enables you to review the major criterias you defined and not actually drill down and find a specific ETF. It misses the ability to sort ETFs based on a full-featured list of criterias. But, as we said, it is a good screener to find ETFs under major criterias. After finishing with the ETF ceneters and screeners, we think it is enough for this post. In the next one, we'll continue with covering the 'ETF' sub-button. The next sources are mostly news and updates sources and among them some really important and interesting ones. Stay updated with Sargels Blog Review by adding the RSS or by following us on Twitter. You are also invite to join our Sargels group on LinkedIn and to get associated on Facebook. As always, do share Sargels Financial Toolbar to your acquaintance.
Sargels Team.
As part of our constantly maintining Sargels Financial Toolbar, we check the normality of the sources inside it and their relevancy to the sub category it was first classified. As it usually on the web, we know from our experience that sometimes websites change URLs or categories, updating the content insinde pages, starting charge money for their service and more so it needs to be updated in Sargels Toolbar. From time to time, as we discover these kind of changes, we will notify you concerning that issue and will refer you to the changes we made according to that.
As a first update from these kind of changes, we found that 'RealTime from NYSE ArcaBook' source (under 'Markets' major button, 'Get A Quote' sub-button) started to charge money for its service (since January 12th), so before using it, the user need to finish a payment issue. This service, as a free one, was great for the users, both pros and non-professionals, as it gave a great real time view of the stocks and other seciruties (E
TFs, etc.) market. As you know, our service, and particularly Sargels Financial Toolbar, praise in free financial services and sources, the kind that useful enough to give the user a very good tool but with no charge, as part of the specific website service. Because of that, we decide to move the source of 'RealTime from NYSE ArcaBook' to the end of the sub-button 'Get A Quote', so it will still be possible to user to reach this service, but not as a common one, like it used to be. Check the screenshot attached to see where we put it.
We always make sure that the sources on Sargels Toolbar are relevant and current, but it still possible for us to miss a specific one. If you, as a user, find a link, service or a source on Sargels that is broken, not relevant, under changes or any other kind of change that needs us to know about it, tell us, and we'll do the changes needed in order to keep Sargels Financial Toolbar most updated and relevat to us, the users.
Don't forget to share Sargels (in any legitimate way you want) with other potential users, who you think can use it and benefit from it, just like you and me.
Sargels Team
We hope you all had a great weekend like we had. Through the weekend we checked some stats concerning Sargels community. First, we want to advice you to jump on our Ning's Sargels community, the purpose is to make an enhanced place for all the users to ask questions, share thoughts and comment about anything concerning Sargels Solution.You're more than welcome. Second, we find that Sargels group is much bigger now, more and more users find Sargels useful and we really appreciate your mails, we consider each feedback as a real comment on our work and how to improve it.
Now, back to our reviewing session. The next sub-button (under the major button 'Markets') is 'Financial Videos' which delivers many video sources related to the financial
markets. For example, Yahoo Finance Video, all the financial news on vids from multiple financial-oriented providers, sorted by time (you can sort it by provider). The video news on Yahoo! Finance are updating very often and you get to see in one place the best covering financial news from the best source in the world. Bloomberg TV US is the TV channel of Bloomberg financial news agency, delivers the most updated news and data from the markets, with lots of interviews of the key role holders in the markets. This source is what the pros usually check so keep your eye on it to stay tunes with all the information you need. CNN Money, WSJ and Forbes Video are basically the video channel of these financial portals, giving you news, financial shows, editor's corners and more in a very updated method. Find your best source that suit you and stay tuned on it but don't forget to check the others, as they could give you new aspects about today's news. What I do want is to delay on the Financial Times Video. This source is one very enhanced, as it sorts for you the financial news into categories, something that helps to get a better control on the news you want and need. The category we chose as the most relevant is the 'Markets' tab, because this one delivers the streaming updates from the markets while the other sources (Credit Crunch, View from the Top, Companies, World, business Life and Special Reports) are more special issues' focused. Do take into your attention that Special Report is a very useful source for videos concerning unusual issues, something that could make you better updated. The BusinessWeek Video is also an important video source because it delivers more economical news and updates, more general and wider covering, not just for the current issues in the markets but more macro-economic updates and special news concering mega changes and big movements in the wide range of the financial markets.
It is very useful to get updated from financial video news, as it more convenient to sit back and let other gives you inputs and briefings, in few minutes only you can receive all the info you need from the most trusted sources on the web- for free.It surely not replace the digging in routines but surely make the updating work much easier.
That is it for this post, concerning finance & videos relations. In the next one we'll drill into ETFs, much deeper than general information. Until then, share Sargels Financial Toolbar, tell your friends and associates about it, comment posts and, as always, contact us and share your thoughts about Sargels Solution. We put on the blog all the distribution ways to spread the word of the Sargels Financial Toolbar, so do help us. If you want to stay tuned, join us on twitter.
Sargels Team
This post review the sub-button 'U.S. Additional Stat', which gathers underneath it, few more relevant information sources, to make the whole picture complete. These sources delivers more of general point of views, concerning movements in the major indices, something that gives the user a fundamental clue about the market and about unusual activities. The first source is Yahoo! Finance U.S. Volume Leaders, a source that shows on one page the mos
t traded securities in terms of volume. It is also possible to sort Volume Leaders by Stock Exchange. The next source is Yahoo! Finance U.S. Price Gainers (%). This source gives a one page of the most increasing shares, in terms of stock price, giving you a picture of what abnormal movements are happening as it's happening. This source is very useful to know and maybe be a part of increasing shares or to get known with not regular activities in the market. Here also you can sort the Price Gainers by Stock Exchange. Yahoo! Finance U.S. Price Losers (%) is just the same as Yahoo! Finance U.S. Price Gainers (%) but on the opposite movement, giving you the same benefits, although be part of this list of shares meaning shorts or putting kind of options or maybe cut loses if you're already in. Most important is the fact that from this source you will be able to know about this unussual activities and to react according to them so you'll be ahead of other investors that are not familiar with all the information on the web. The next source, Yahoo! Finance Rising On Unusual Vol. is important too, as it gives you a present situation of certain stocks that rising up in an unusual trading volume. These kind of stocks are mostly unknown ones, that because of certain issue (possitive report, possitive rating, new broker or analyst covering and moer reasons), got uprise with high volume (as everyone want to be part of the celebration...). The last source is Yahoo! Finance Falling On Unusual Vol., which gives the same info as Yahoo! Finance Rising On Unusual Vol. but on the opposite position. Both of them together, gives a great view on abnormal activities, that helps you diversifies your portfolio with one time opportunities (of course in small portions).
This sub-button is pretty much the closure of all the additional information on the market, in terms of wider overview, deepen focusing and better understanding of the markets.
That's it for this post, hope that the picture of the benefits of Sargels Toolbar Solution is starting to get clearer.
We appreciate all the feedbacks we receive from you and we'll give an answer back to anyone who contact us. Help us distribute Sargels Toolbar Solution among other users that can benefit from it by tell about Sargels Solution to them, twit the posts, stumble it up, talk about it on LinkedIn or Facebook and so on. Thank you all in advance.
Sargels Toolbar Team.
Since our team is dealing with financial information solution, we were invited through different financial information suppliers to cover up and review their own financial information solutions, and by that maybe finding a new sources relevant to put in Sargels Toolbar, as well as recommend this solution or that to Sargels Toolbar users, if of course we will find the solution useful and relevant. We decide to give it a chance (why not enjoying to be part of some pioneering developments in the field of the financial information solutions, as we are experts for that matter). So from now, our blog will deal with three areas of postings: The 1st and most important- covering the Sargels Toolbar buttons, sub-buttons and each and every source and component that build Sargels Toolbar. The 2nd, which is part of our working, covering financial news and issues we find relevant to mention to our readers and by that to disputant arguments between us all- readers and writers. The 3rd issue would be the one we just mentioned- covering other financial information solutions, in order to give our perspective and professional opinion about these developments and to associate our reader with the new developments and solution that comes to the financial markets, both for the private investors (day traders, swingers, forex traders, solid ones and other) and the professional investors (financial institutions, analysts, traders, back office of these institutions, brokers, brokerages, banks and more).
We hope these reviews will help you to get familiar with the latest developments of the market and to part of this areas' modernization.
If you want your financial information solution to be covered by Sargels Team, contact us, we will gladly discuss with you about it.
Sargels Toolbar Team.
