Current Market Data
World Markets from CNN: This site has updated information on the current level of world equity markets. It is clean and comprehensive.
Foreign Currency Rates from DBC : DBC has an excellent site providing updated information on exchange rates between most currencies as well as updated information on most other markets.
Industry Group Performance from DBC: This site, also maintained by DBC, provides information on the market performance of different industry groups on the U.S. market.
Brady Bond Rates from BancBoston: This site has updated information on Brady bonds, classified by country. It provides both prices and yields.
U.S. and Other Government Rates from Bloomberg: Bloomberg Personal provides updated information on U.S. Government rates, ranging from short term to 30-year bonds, as well as government rates in other major industrialized markets.
Valuation Data Links
Riskfree Rates
U.S. and Other Government Rates from Bloomberg: This is a good site to start looking for long term government security rates by currency.
Risk Premiums
Ibbotson Data: The standard database for stock, bond and bill returns in the United States is from Ibbotson Associates. This is a link to those components of the site that are available to the general public. While much of the data is off limits, there are graphs available for downloading as well as research on historical returns in many markets.
Country ratings criteria from S & P: This site provides an overview of how S&P rates sovereign entities (countries). The rating themselves are not on this site, but they can be obtained from the data section of my web site.
Country Ratings from Moodys: Moody's does not rate as many countries as S&P, but it provides it country ratings on site.
Accounting Information:
Annual Reports from Reports Gallery: This site provides a comprehensive listing of on-site annual reports for many companies as well as links to their home pages.
SEC Data directly from the SEC: This site is the direct link to the SEC and can be used to download 10-K, 10-Q and other corporate filings by companies.
SEC data from NYU/Edgar : This site also provides access to SEC filings, albeit with a different format.
Initial Public Offering data from IPO Central: This site provides comprehensive information on initial public offerings in the United States, with financial information on the firms going public.
Market Information & Databases
Morningstar Data on Multiples and Financials: This site, which is still in beta version, offers much promise. Once you register (which at the moment is free), you can obtain financial and market information on individual U.S. stocks and mutual funds.
Morningstar Data on CD-ROM: This is not a free product, but it is one of the better comprehensive databases that you can get for your PC. It has financial and market information on about 800 stocks, and is remarkably easy to use for screening these stocks. They have a trial version which is pretty economical.
Information for Other Markets: This is a comprehensive set of links to markets around the world.
Betas
Beta estimation process: Few services do a better job of estimating betas than BARRA. While you might not be able to afford to subscribe to the beta estimation service, this site describes the process by which they come up with "fundamental" betas.
Earnings Estimates & Analyst Reports
Expected Growth Rates: There are several sites which report consensus growth estimates from analysts following companies. Zack's is one of the leading services for investment information. This site allows you to access information on recommendations and earnings estimates made by analysts following U.S. companies. Check out the aggregated earnings growth rate for the U.S. economy or the growth rate for any company. While this is a commercial service, it is currently offering a 30-day free trial period.
Recommendations and Earnings Estimates on an Individual Company: This is also from Zack's and allows you to access analyst recommendations and estimates on an individual company.
Macro Economic Data
U.S. Economic Data and Forecasts: Most macro economic sites are pretty dry. This one, maintained by Mr. Yardeni, the Chief Economist for Deutsche Bank, provides a wealth of macro economic information in a visually appealing setting.
Corporate Finance
Capital Structure
Corporate Ratings from S & P: Check out this site for updates from S&P on how they rate companies and averages for financial ratios by different ratings classes.
Business Publications
U.S.A. Today: If you are not too snobbish, try out this site from McPaper. It is surprisingly thorough and very well done.
Interactive Wall Street Journal: This is a "must" for the financially inclined. It is not free but it is well worth the money, especially if you are the type that likes to cut articles out of their money and investing section.
Financial World: This site, which includes the sports and brand name valuations mentioned above, has some interesting articles on investing.
Bloomberg Personal: Bloomberg is my favorite data source for market and financial data. While this site cannot match the dedicated Bloomberg terminals, it does have enough information to be interesting. The Bloomberg magazine, which is on site, and requires the payment of a fee, provides insights into the use of the Bloomberg data terminals.
Money Magazine: This is the site for Money magazine.
Forbes: This is the site for the "capitalist tool". Forbes provides more investment articles than its competitors and is well worth a look.
Fortune: Though Fortune, at times, is much more focused on corporate stories, it is indispensable as a source of in-depth company information.
Financial Times: This is the site for the "Financial Times", the best source of information on European companies.
New York Times Business: All the business news thats fit to print; seriously, this is one of the best business news sections around.
Barron's: This weekly publication has a great compendium of technical and market indicators.
Business Week: This publication has a good mix of market awareness (like Forbes) and corporate story telling (like Fortune).
Worth Magazine: This magazine, designed for investors, has some great columnists (Peter Lynch is one)
The Economist: This is, without exaggeration, the magazine to read if you want to stay on top of world news. Its country surveys are unmatched.
Morningstar Net: This is a new magazine introduced by Morningstar that holds promise.
Academic Journals, Publications and Other Research
Working papers in Finance and Economics: This site has links to both abstracts and academic working papers in finance and economics.
Journal of Finance: This is the journal of the American Finance Association. It has a mix of corporate finance, investment and capital market research.
Journal of Financial Economics: This is the "other" significant finance journal.
Calculators and Spreadsheets
Option Calculators: This site allows you to value options, convertible bonds and warrants on line. It also provides links to other derivatives sites.