Financial Newsletters — A Few Good Ones

Let's look at a few financial newsletters that can help in our investment decision making. Most newsletters in this area are focused on technical analysis. It took a bit of research to find some that were centered around the fundamentals.

What is a Newsletter

First things first ..... let's look at what exactly a newsletter is...

A newsletter is a publication that is regularly distributed among a group with common interests. It usually focuses on one main topic.

A newsletter is a good way for an organization or group to keep in touch with its members. Newsletters could be free or require a paid subscription. Either way, you typically sign up to receive them by providing your email address. Email delivery is the most common method of getting newsletters out.

When Should You Subscribe to a Financial Newsletter?

Good information comes with a price. Weigh the potential returns you can make from this advice with the price tag and then decide if you want to subscribe. We recommend not jumping into it right away.... rather, wait till you get a good feel for investing first.

Newsletters are an add-on and not a prerequisite to your stock investment education.

Top Financial Newsletters

Finding a stock investing newsletter along the lines of fundamental investing was a little difficult. Here are a few with good investment advice...

• Value Line Investment Survey
  The Value Line Investment Survey has three parts:
  1. The Ratings & Reports section — one-page reports on around 1,700 companies and 98 industries. Each company report comes with Value Line's ranking, financial and stock price forecasts, analyst commentary, etc.
  2. The Summary & Index — index of all stocks in the Investment Survey and many up-to-date statistics on latest company results. It also contains a variety of stock screens.
  3. The Selection & Opinion section — latest economic and stock market forecasts, one-page write-ups about interesting and attractive stocks, model portfolios, and financial and stock market statistics.

  Value Line has about 80 experienced, independent professional security analysts and statisticians involved in this publication. The information is comprehensive but concise, and of very good quality.

  However, the newsletter is not free. It comes with a hefty price tag of $538 a year!

  You might be able to access this information for free. Most big public libraries carry print versions. Be sure to check libraries in your area to see if they have it on their shelves

• Morningstar StockInvestor
  

  Editor Paul Larson creates a portfolio of great companies with well-protected competitive positions. Larson buys these companies only when he thinks they are cheap enough to provide a margin of safety — priced irrationally low relative to their long-term intrinsic values.

  How does this portfolio do? For six years, Morningstar StockInvestor's portfolios have nearly doubled the return of the S&P 500 during the same period.

  The newsletter includes monthly issues featuring Larson’s discussion of his latest changes to the portfolio and watch lists, new stocks that meet his investment criteria, reports from company visits, and comprehensive data on wide-moat companies.

  Also thrown in are four free reports written by Larson: “Buying Core Stocks the Morningstar StockInvestor Way,” “How to Judge a Company's Management Team,” “20 Best Companies in the World,” and “Best International Stocks Today.”

  The price tag? $119 annually.

  Excellent information that is very relevant to our investment philosophy. Weigh the potential returns you can make using this advice with the price tag and then decide if you want to subscribe.

A Caution

When it come to newsletters in the stock investing world, there's one thing you need to be very careful about. There are a lot of newsletters out there that promote certain stocks ..... and that's all they do. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. So watch out for such dubious publications.

In summary, we looked at a couple of high quality financial newsletters that are perfectly aligned with how we like to invest. Look at these newsletters as tools to keep you focused and as a source of investing ideas once you've gained some investing experience

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