Keeping track of all the financial sites on the web can be a mind-bending job as internet usage and services grow exponentially. But here are some of MONEY's favorites, along with a description of each. We'll update this list periodically and invite your comments.

What's New

• Bank Rate Monitor's Infobank operated by the same company that supplies monthly savings yields to MONEY. (See my earlier review below .) Infobank gives you immediate access to Bank Rate Monitor's weekly surveys of deals on CDs, mortgages, home equity lines and loans, personal and car loans and credit cards. Looking for the best 6-month CD? A few clicks of the mouse will pull up a ranking of the 6-month CDs offered by 100 banks that market their accounts nationwide. In addition, Infobank updates home, credit card and consumer loan rates weekly for about 100 cities nationwide.

  
  

• Security First Network Bank,which aside from one office in Pineville, Kentucky, operates only on the web, lets you to open checking and money market accounts on-line, and is currently adding savings accounts and credit cards as well. Its rates are competitive: Security First recently paid 3.5% on its money-market deposit account, for example, versus a national average of 2.6%.

  
  

• Bank of America lets you transfer money between accounts on-line, check out the balances of any credit cards or loans you have through the bank and, for a $6.50 monthly fee (which can be waived if, say, your paycheck is directly deposited to the bank) even allows you to pay bills over the internet.

  
  

• MyBank has a state-by-state listing of some 530 banks home pages across the country to show you if any banks in your area maintain a useful Net connection. Who knows, you might be surprised to find that your local bank is a cyber-pioneer.

  
  

• NetWorth is a megamall of fund and stock data, recently bought by electronic personal-finance giant Intuit. The site has what we consider the best fund screening engine on the Net, allowing you to sort through more than 7,000 funds using as many as 15 different factors, ranging from past performance to sales charges to investment minimums. The data comes from Morningstar, the research service that also provides mutual fund data for MONEY. Once you've screened down to a manageable number of candidates, NetWorth lets you investigate each one in more detail. Individual fund reports give you charts of net asset value performance, phone numbers and descriptions of the funds' investment style. Note to serious computer-investing jocks: Impressive as NetWorth's screening powers are for an on-line product, they can't match those of CD-ROM-based software such as Morningstar Ascent and Value Line No-Load Analyzer (both $95 per year for quarterly updates). Some pages on Networth's site prompt you for a password, but don't worry: any page at the site is free to every registered Networth member. (To register, you simply enter name, address and so forth on an on-line screen.)

  
  

• Mutual Funds Interactive is run by Marla Brill, who about fund managers for the Boston Globe. You can't do screening here, but you can get plenty of free detailed information not available at NetWorth, including profiles of nearly 50 fund managers and insights on funds from industry experts like Equity Fund Outlook newsletter editor Thurman Smith.

  
  

• InvesTools is a clearinghouse of research on funds and stocks. You have to pay for most of the useful information at InvesTools, but it's worth it. For example, InvesTools is the only internet site from which you can download a variety of fund newsletters such as the No-Load Fund Analyst ($20 per issue) and complete Morningstar fund reports ($5 each).

  
  

• Fidelity serves up useful tools such as interactive retirement and college planning worksheets, plus performance data on more than 400 funds available through the Fidelity Funds Network no-transaction-fee program.

  
  

• Twentieth Century funds is a clear step ahead of the pack, however, by being the first fund company to give investors access their accounts and let shareholders transfer balances from fund to fund over the net.

  
  

• Mutual Fund Investor's Center offers in-depth explanations of just about every conceivable topic in mutual fund investing, from the basics of reading a prospectus to how much no-loads save you over time. After all, getting your hands on the Net's wealth of fund data is just the start; you then have to know what to do with it.

  
  

• Stock Smart is our top site for stock research. It not only offers the basics, but can also help serious stock investors compare specific companies with their peers. By clicking on the "Industry Roll-Ups" section of Stock Smart's home page, for example, you can sift through a database of 7,173 companies that is broken down by 27 seven major industries, ranging from banking to utilities, as well as 111 finer divisions (so-called sub-industries), such as savings & loans and water service companies. Stock Smart also has one of the most impressive systems on the web for letting you track the value of your investments.

  
  

• Research magazine's site is also worth a visit. Although some parts of the site are reserved for brokers and professional money managers, the InvestorNet section gives individual investors access to a powerful stock-screening feature that can sort some 9,000 stocks by 28 measures, including earnings growth rates and share-price volatility. Screening is ideal if you're trying to find stocks that jibe with your investing style. For example, with just a few clicks of the mouse, a growth investor can search for companies whose profits are bounding along at, say, at a minimum of 30% a year, that have P/E multiples of 20 or less, and that are also rated a buy by Wall Street analysts.

  
  

• EDGAR is the place for you if you like to dig into the minutiae of a company's financial statements where you can download at no charge annual and quarterly reports, proxy statements and virtually any other document that companies are required to file with the SEC.

  
  

• Closing Bell is the place to visit if you're a bona fide stock fanatic who likes to keep daily tabs on the issues you own. The service will email you as often as every day any news on as many as 600 companies that you designate.

  
  

• E*Trade is the best of these cyberspace brokers for stock investors. E*Trade charges a flat $14.95 to buy or sell as many as 5,000 shares of any company listed on the New York or American stock exchanges. If you invest in firms whose shares are listed in the so-called Over-the-Counter market, as are many technology and small-company issues, the tab is a slightly plumper $19.95. To open an account, you simply go to E*Trade's home page, download an application form (or call 800 786-2575 and ask for one) and snail mail it back with the $1,000 minimum balance to set up an account. Once E*Trade has received your check, you can begin trading. You simply log onto the site and enter the ticker symbol for the stocks you wish to buy. You can do this any time, day or night, although your orders are executed during the stock market's business hours.

  
  

• Accutrade is your best bet for trading no-load funds on the web. For example, Accutrade lets you buy at no charge more than 650 no-loads from some 115 sponsors, including such well-known families as Berger and Dreyfus. Similarly, through its OneSource program, discount giant Charles Schwab gives you commission-free access to some 600 no-load funds in 75 families, including such brand names as Twentieth Century and Janus. If you think you're likely to buy and sell no-loads that are not part of the discounters' no-transaction-fee rosters- some well-known companies such as T. Rowe Price have not signed up-you're probably better off going with Accutrade. Reason: you'll never pay more than $27 for any trade. Schwab's minimum fee, by contrast, starts at a heftier $39 and runs about $70 for a $10,000 trade.

  
  

Browsing Points -- Web sites with more links:

• The Syndicate. Your financial page of pages, the Syndicate is a jumping-off place for investment information of all stripes. Hundreds of hot links are organized into convenient categories, like bonds, stocks, finance pages, investment gurus and so forth. It also features "The Finance Jump Page" with nearly 1,000 links to commercial finance pages. Recently added features include articles on investing, a brokers corner, and excerpts from the writings of many investment personalities.
  
  

• Digital Ink. The main interest here is data from the Vancouver Stock Exchange. Closing statistics from all of the issues traded on the Vancouver exchange are available here. Some company profiles can be found. Under construction are areas on Financial Newsletters and Financial Markets.
  

• Nijenrode Business Webserver. A handy-dandy place to begin browsing for financial services on the net, this logically organized site from Nijenrode University in the Netherlands offers links to a variety of business and financially oriented websites. Besides the usual sources you can find links to economic data, risk and insurance, international business, law, human resources, and business ethics.

• Goethe Investment. Dynamite site with a wealth of references to financial data around the world. Links to sources of historical quote data, currencies, futures, etc. from around the world are available here. Also impressive is a repository of financial shareware products. The links here can send you in dozens of different directions all throughout the world. Worth spending some time.

• Global Network Navigator. Recently purchased by America Online, the Global Network Navigator is an attractive stepping-off point for net navigation. The Personal Finance Center service offers chapters from personal finance books, links to articles on the net and has a "Personal Finance Internet Resources" page providing annotated hot links on a variety of personal finance subjects. The sub-categories on the resource page include Investing, Credit Cards, Home Finance and Real Estate, Banking, Financial Planning, and Taxes.
  
  
• Investorama. Nicely done page of links to other interesting sites organized as follows: NAIC (information from the National Association of Investment Clubs), Quote servers, Government links, Brokerage firms, 'Zines, News groups, Corporations, Services, Investing home pages, Mutual Fund Companies and a collection of miscellaneous links. There are some brief annotations and the page is bright and pleasant.
  
  
• Investorweb. While still under construction, Investorweb promises to be a useful place for finding company web sites. Companies who have web presences are listed alphabetically here with a color coding indicating the usefulness of the site to the investor. An IPO Corner is promised in the future, as are samples of investment newsletters.
  
  
• InvestSIG. The website of the special interest group (SIG) of the Capital PC User Group provides quite a few unannotated links to other financial sites on the net, including some book sites, bibliographies, and magazines and newspaper sites. While not overly exciting on its own there are a number of links to financial sites here that might be worth exploring. Further there are links to financial software available on the net for the shareware enthusiasts among us.
• Kiwi Net. The main attraction of Kiwi Net is a very nicely organized, readable list of financial points of interest on the net. Also featured is a series of "lectures" on business and corporate finance and pointers to other educational services on the net. The classroom concept is experimental. Worth exploring if you have the time.
  
  
• National Corporate Services. A nicely organized and reasonably comprehensive browsing point for financial information on the web. Categories include Fastest Growing Companies, Company Financial Information (links to publically traded companies with web sites), Stock Prices (links to various quote servers), International Stock Prices and Financial Data, Commercial Corner (Investment Bankers, Brokerage firms, financial services, Attorneys [YoW!] and Financial Publishers), Market Games and Simulations, Banking, Lending and Credit, and others. Not a dazzling presentation but lots of meat and potatoes on the table.

• Stocks and Commodities. This service offered by Onramp Access, Inc., an internet access provider in Austin, Texas, includes a short annotated bibliography of finance-related sites and a more comprehensive listing of links on a variety of economic and financial topics. While not as lengthy as the Syndicate's list (above), this one is a bit more manageable starting point for browsing the financial web.
  
  
• IOMA Net. Billed as "Information Services for Professionals" from the Institute Of Management and Administration, this free service offers samples from IOMA newsletters and other services. More importantly, IOMA NET offers a long page of links to a variety of financial and economic web sites. The list is rather loosely organized into departments (Administration, Finance, Management, and Sales and Marketing). No descriptions are offered, but the wide variety of choices outweighs the lack of value-added material. The listings are not so comprehensive as those of the Syndicate (above), but the organization is marginally better.
  
  
• Raphael A. Rottgen's Financelinks. Nicely organized page of links covering links to quote servers, financial instruments, Government information, international, news and research and many other categories. Nicely done, but with too many of those $#@$%^& blinking/flashing words for my taste and ancient eyes. Turn 'em off Raphael, we get it.

• Waldemar's List. A comprehensive jumping off site for Futures investors. This list provides jumps to Futures Exchanges, data and service suppliers, quote services, historical commodity prices, home pages created by individual traders, and other useful depositories of information relevant to the futures trader. Not for the faint of heart -- adjust your risk quotient and dive in if you dare.
  

Mutual Funds

• Mutual Funds Magazine. Besides offering the full text (and some of the graphics) to each issue of Mutual Funds Magazine, this handy site offers a wealth of information on over 6,000 mutual funds. Getting an overview of a fund is a breeze and the profiles displayed include phone numbers, names of the fund managers, expenses and fees, risk-adjusted star ratings, total returns for one, five and ten years, and other stats. For ranking enthusiasts, Mutual Funds Magazine offers the "Top-Performing Funds of the Day" and the "Latest Performance Rankings." A total return calculator and a decent database screening program round out this fine example of a well thought out website. Unfortunately, they've recently made a decision to start charging for full use of the website. The price as of mid 1996 was $4.95 per month for full access. Let's see, if I could charge a nickle a hit here I'd have . . . . Nah, too complicated, I better keep my day job.
  
  
• Mutual Fund Research, Inc.. A good resource for mutual fund data, this site provides links to over 60 different fund families, mutual fund performance reports, links to exchanges and other mutual fund related facts. There's also a series of weekly reports on top performing funds by various categories.

Market Information:

• Bank Rate Monitor Infobank. A useful site to find banking rates for mortgages, home-equity loans, certificates of deposit and credit cards for more than 50 U.S. Cities. Updated at least weekly, the site has lots of valuable information as well as a nifty little mortgage comparison calculators for Java savvy browsers. See my review in the June 1996 issue of Money Magazine.

• Bonds Online. Nicely done, comprehensive source for bond information including treasury quotes and yields, corporates and munis, bond funds, ratings from Fitch Investors Services and a database of issues and brokers by state. Another nice feature is the Bond Professor, Dick Wilson, who answers questions on the bond industry posted by the public. Also included is a glossary of terms and articles on investing in treasuries and other related securities. Worth spending some time if you're looking to the bond market.

• Briefing. This compact site is a nifty little place to pick up on current market information, check out some financial market analysis, and keep track of the latest reports of several key indicators. A particularly nice feature is the Market Calendar which tells you when the next release of economic indicator data will be posted, what the latest data is and even offers a brief definition of each item. Stock and Bond indices are updated periodically throughout the day with brief news items attached.

• Kurt's Currency Rates. Need to compare the Indian Rupee to the Japanese Yen? The U.S. Dollar to the French Frank? Here's a very quick way to get the answer. Kurt Swenson at Lund University in Sweden has put together this simple program. Point and click, specify the currencies, and instant gratification. Well, almost instant. The nicest thing is that it's simple and fast -- not a lot of fancy graphics to slow you down. Thanks Kurt.
• FBG Göttingen: Institute for Finance and Banking at the University of Göttingen. It looks imposing but you can view it in either English or German and it provides a good dollop of information and links to information on World Banks, Financial Markets, Currency and Currency-Exchange, links to libraries, and other goodies.
• Netfund. For followers of the French Stock Exchange,c'est le pied! Besides end of the day share quotations, the site offers graphs and charts, analysis, buy sell recommendations, analysis of the CAC40, and links to other sites. Available in French or English.

• Quicken Financial Network. Quicken has done it again with a very nice web site that has ambitions to become the one stop financial web site. Currently included are a portfolio and quote manager courtesy of NetWorth, current news articles, a database of articles from a large selection of periodicals, and even insurance quotes and calculators. Later this year a personalized news service and direct insurance sales will be available. For more information, see my review in the August 1996 MONEY Magazine.

• Quote.com. Arguably the best stock and fund price quote service on the Internet, Quote.com lets you maintain a portfolio of up to 50 investments and sends you a daily report by e-mail at the end of the day on how they performed. The catch, of course, is that you have to pay -- recently about $10 a month for the basic service, which also includes e-mail alerts if your stock or fund goes above or below limits you specify. But any visitor who is willing to register can get up to five quotes a day for free (note: Quote.com is also the supplier of stock and fund quotes for Money's site on Pathfinder). For an additional fee, Quote.com also offers data on a number of foreign markets as well as options, futures and commodities data.
  
  
• Pawws Financial Network. This is another commercial service broadly similar to Quote.com but offering more powerful portfolio tracking and links to brokerage services. Cost: recently about $10 a month for the basic package. Single quotes, however, are free. This is a good place to for a quick look at the current (15-minute delayed) price of a stock or the NAV of a mutual fund (as of the previous day's close). Take the demo tour before signing up.
  
  
• Historical Commodity Prices. Nothing fancy here, just a listing of front-month futures contracts for selected commodities put together by a net citizen for other net citizens. The data goes back about five years and is updated only periodically, but is an easy place to pick up some quick data on commodities.
  
  
• John Greiner's Page. This is an eclectic collection of facts and figures by a graduate student who seems to have a lot of time on his hands. The main achievement here is a listing of brokerage firms and a comparative table of fees. Mr. Greiner also lists companies with Drip plans (Dividend Reinvestment Plans) and mutual funds. Telephone numbers and hotlinks if available are included. Useful.

• Canada Net. Data at your fingertips for Canadian Markets. Contains sections on the Canadian exchanges (end of day averages, most active, etc.), mutual funds (Net Asset Values as of the end of each month), real estate, and career opportunities among others. Also features a Business Directory, sort of a Canadian yellow pages. Very useful for those who are investing up north.
  
  
• The Holt Report. Daily report of market activity posted on the web or e-mailed directly to subscribers. Very nicely formatted daily tables listing highs, lows, close and percentage change for most major indices and averages, foreign markets, currency and gold. Lists the most actives for the NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX.
  
  
• Stock Master. Formerly the Experimental Stock Market Data from MIT for the chart lovers in all of us, Mark Torrance has put up performance charts on almost all U.S. Equities and some Mutual Funds. 20 minute delay stock quotes are also available.

  
  

• TIPnet. This commercial site offers a variety of services. At a price. All the standards are here: Autoflag will track your portfolio; Company Reports will allow you to get news from Reuters, Comtex, S&P MarketScope, Market Guide Company Reports, and Zacks Estimates Services; News will get you news from Reuters and Comtex; Quotes and Market Snapshot -- well, you figure it out. There is an historical database that goes back to 1973 for NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ quoted stocks, and you can screen for stocks that meet some of your criteria through a menu driven screening program. Prices start at $9.95 per month, but you can spend $34.95 per month for the full range. A limited sample is available, so test drive before plopping down your plastic.

Exchanges:

• The Bombay Stock Exchange. For all those interested in world wide trading or, of course, my many Asian readers, the web site of the Bombay Stock Exchange should be in your bookmark list. Of course, there are free stock quotes on all the securities traded on the exchange (in Indian Rupees). There's also free business news from the area, a page of Business/India links, and an "investment portfolio service" (get ready for the sales pitch here) where the "expert team of investment advisors" will recommend a portfolio -- only $50. I passed, but your mileage may vary. Still there's a lot of information on how to invest in India available for free, so take a look if that's your bent.

• African Stock Exchange. Here we have a lovely listing of all the companies on the African Exchange. Every company has a link with info on the CEO, address, assets, liabilities, and other interesting stuff. The data seems to be current only to the nearest month, but all in all it's nice to get a look at business in the now not so dark continent.

• American Stock Exchange. The web site for the American Stock Exchange features the daily AMEX Market Summary, short articles and references to the exchange, listings of all the companies and options listed on the exchange (sorted either by company or by symbol), information and definitions of various derivatives, a gallery containing downloadable pictures of the exchange and other Wall Street areas of interest, an "Information Exchange" offering articles like "Capital Formation: How Companies Raise Money in the 90's," and a small but useful page of financial web links. You can't get quotes here, but it's a good place to find the symbol for those tough to locate options or the end of the day exchange statistics. The company listings also offer hot links to companies who have web pages of their own.
  
  
• The Chicago Board Options Exchange. Market statistics, news releases, options listings and other information about the exchange is available here along with a basic introduction to options, a glossary of terms, and a reading list. The site also offers an interesting "Virtual Visit" to the exchange complete with images and explanations of the exchange and its work. Information about CBOE options products, literature and other information can also be downloaded.
  
  
• Chicago Board of Trade. Wow. This is a most impressive site. If you're into futures and commodities, this is a must on your Bookmarks list. In addition to 15 minute delay commodity quotes, there is a wealth of analysis, daily reports, historical and instructional material available here. The explanations of the various products are concise and accurate. The graphics are colorful and well done. One caveat: If you try to view the opening screen with images off you'll be disappointed. All the buttons and explanations are graphics and Netscape or Mosaic is probably necessary. Expect to wait a couple of minutes while the graphics appear, but the wealth of data is worth the wait. Makes me want to start a hedge strategy myself. Soy Beans anybody? Oh, they trade in financial futures too.

• The Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The Merc's page features daily settlement prices of all CME futures, estimated volumes and open interests as well as news and other interesting tidbits about the workings of the exchange. A very nice set of background articles explains the workings of the exchange and provides a glossary of futures-related terms. A useful site for all futures players, but also worth a look for those of us who are just plain curious. Go hogs!
  
  
• Kansas City Board of Trade. Billing itself as the "Exchange that invented stock index futures and where the world comes to trade hard red winter wheat," the website of the Kansas City Board of Trade promises to be another useful site for the seasoned trader. Daily price summaries of transaction on the board are available as well as instructive information on the market and specific contract specifications. Another strong website for the daring investor.
  
  
• LIFFE: The London International Financial Futures And Options Exchange. After you get past the "Warning and Disclaimers" page by clicking on an "accept" button, this is a very interesting service for international investors in the derivatives market. LIFFE claims to be "Europe's premier financial derivatives exchange and the third largest futures and options exchange in the world." Hype aside there's a lot of information about these more exotic investments located here. But beware. Much of the information is stored in zipped files (a compression program common to DOS and Windows) to be downloaded to your home computer. Without the proper helper applications this can be mighty frustrating.
  
  
• The Vancouver Stock Exchange. Valuable trading and contact information on all 1,600 companies traded on the exchange. Exchange averages and statistics are updated at the end of each trading day. Phone numbers for member brokerage firms can be found here as well.
• Vienna Stock Exchange. For all those interested in world wide trading or, of course, my many European readers, this unofficial web site covering the Vienna Stock Exchange should be in your bookmark list. (Deja vu all over again? See the Bombay Stock Exchange above.) The daily results for all indices and shares traded on the exchange are listed here. Further, graphs of past results of each security can be generated with the click of a mouse. Another useful feature is that results of every trading of the year so far can be accessed through a simple calender format.

Other finance-related sites:

• AAII On-Line. Don't expect glitzy graphics and lots of interactive whiz-bangs at the home page of the American Association of Individual Investors, but you will find lots of useful educational material here. The Not-for-Profit AAII has been around for 20 some odd years educating people to become better managers of their money and you'll find lots of articles on investing, picking a broker, insurance, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other interesting topics. It's also got a nice, but by no means complete, glossary of financial terms. It's heavily text oriented so be prepared to either print a lot or spend some time reading on-line.

  
  

• BudgetLife. Helpful, if modest, website which provides free low cost term life insurance rates. Lists the cheapest 25 rates that meet the following criteria:
  
  
  • Guaranteed premium for the stated term*
  • Renewable and convertible
  • Rated A- or better by the A.M. Best Co.
  
  
• Chambers of Commerce. Not really my cup of tea, but if you need to find an address for a local chamber of commerce this rather specialized web site is the place to go. And if your own local chamber isn't listed there, they'll be glad to hear from you.
• Chicago Parnership Board, Inc.Stuck with a Limited Partnership sold to you back in the good old days when everybody was loading up on tax shelters. Well, you're not alone. But some people actually want to pick up these exotics. If you're interested in cutting your losses and getting on with your life, this might be the page for you. The Chicago Partnership Board boasts education, listings of partnerships, auction schedules and "The Investor's Guide to Buying & Selling Limited Partnerships." It's free so all you've got to lose are those confusing partnerships.
• Edgar. The SEC's on-line database contains SEC filings for a number of companies. It offers data from 1994 and 1995 for companies who have chosen to file electronically. Electronic filing is being phased in gradually. The search engine is decent, but be forewarned, the server is often busy and response time can be abysmal. CONSUMER ALERT: This project is slated to end on October 1st. The SEC has stated that they hope to keep the information available free to the public, but it is by no means assured.
  
  
• Edgar Online. This is the commercial version of the SEC's Edgar database described below. Unlike the SEC's site, Edgar Online, features up-to-the-minute corporate filings (at the SEC site you may have to wait a few days before the data is available). In addition, Edgar Online offers e-mail alerts to subscribers whenever a filing for a specified company occurs. But all of this comes for a price. The basic service requires a $30 deposit and each document costs $4.95. Subscriptions charges including the alert feature can cost from $9.95 per month to $99.95 per month. You'll have to be the judge as to the value of the timiliness of the data. If you don't do a lot of trading the free Edgar is probably more your cup of tea.

• National Gemstones. A sparkling page. Literally. While investing in gems is probably not advisable for the average investor, if you'd like to learn something about valuable gems and enjoy looking at pretty pictures on the net this is worth investing some time! Some very useful information abut gems and investing in gems for fun and profit is available here, but more to my liking are the spectacular gifs of stones in the Smithsonian Gem and Mineral Collection.

• National Real Estate Exchange Network. To these inexperienced real estate eyes, this looks like an excellent site. The site contains a listing of sites offered for exchange or sale across the country. The trader can view the offerings or post an offering of her own. The data base is well organized and easy to use, though I find the small print a bit difficult in the listings. You can sort by state or by price or you can view by investment property type, ie. Residential, 501c3, Commercial, etc.

• National Financial Services Network. Here's a site that sure to have something for just about anybody looking for personal finance info. Some categories covered include home, auto, and education loans, credit cards, insurance, brokers, CD's, money markets and other similar topics. There links to many institutions, lists of some loan rates, etc. All organized nicely by state or locale. But beware. A lot of this is just fancy marketing. It would be a lot more useful if the banks and other institutions would post their current rates for comparison shopping. As it is there's a lot of fluff about all the great programs at the instutitions, but not a lot of nourishment.

  
  

• The Securities Law Home Page. Terrific site for the legally impaired (or even those who know something about the law, but not Security Law per se). There are essays and information on U.S. Security laws, state security officials and regulations, commodities law, brokers, arbitration, mediation and other law related web sites. Check this out before you sell your brother-in-law that hot tip. You may not make any money here, but it may help you from losing your shirt!
• Financenter. A personal finance resource center that provides interactive calculations, current statistics, definitions and articles explaining terms like "Adjustable Rate Mortgage" and "Home Equity Loans" and "On-line Services." Currently only the Home Loan, Auto Loan and Credit Card sections are open, but under construction are sections for Institution Ratings, Insurance Quotes, Investment Analysis, and Retirement Planning. The calculators, statistics and articles are useful, but "On-line Services" is basically a way to connect marketers with potential buyers -- you fill out a form requesting specific information (for example, a first mortgage rate quote) and representatives will get back to you via e-mail, snail mail, or telephone depending on your preference.
  
  
• Fred (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). Here's a quick and easy way to get historical (not hysterical) U.S. economic and and financial data straight for the Clydesdales mouths. This branch of the Fed provides daily and weekly interest rates, business indicators and regional economic data for Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. The Fred files are either in ASCII format or in the .Zip format (Mac Users will have to get something like PKUNZIP to read these files). Useful.

• The Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Profiled by Yours Truly in the April 1996 issue of Money Magazine, the FRB of NY offers a wealth of material on U.S. Savings Bonds, U.S. Treasuries and Notes (and how to buy them on your own), current bond prices and yields, economic analysis and articles, and a dandy calculator to figure out the current value of those dusty old savings bonds you've been collecting all these many years. Also check out the links to the websites of the other Fed banks.

• Information Innovation Internet Center. Check this out. This database service contains very brief definitions of financial and market related terms, organized like a dictionary or encyclopedia, from a company called Innovations. But the dictionary is just the starting point for burrowing down into articles and definitions on a variety of topics including financial management, accounting, technology and others. In addition, the site offers a guide to management software, a database of Web resources, a Web Bibliography and other goodies. Parts of the service are still under construction, but this promises to be a useful reference and education area.
  
  
• InfoMarket. Capitalism is making some headway in Russia. This web service, in both Russian and English provides quotes, news and historical data on the Russian Securities Market. This may be to exotic for many, but it's an interesting opportunity to learn about the beginnings of capitalism in what was formerly the marxist stronghold. Interesting enough for English speakers, for those who read Russian the site promises "much more data."
  
  
• J.P. Morgan. The home page of the giant investment banking firm is well worth exploring. In addition to the usual PR machine information about the firm there are research reports, special indices, including J.P. Morgan's Commodity Index, currency indices, government bond index, and mortgage indices. For the economic modeling enthusiast, Morgan touts it's RiskMetrics a "regulatory dataset [which] allows participants in the financial markets to test the new proposals from the Basel Committee on using internal models to estimate market risk." Well, ok, you try it. I'll stick with the currency indices.
• nVESTOR. This stock market simulation game, sponsored by the League of America Investors, is a web site only in that you must go there to register for the game which is then played via e-mail. Players are given a starting portfolio of stocks worth $100,000. Financial details of real companies are available. The League maintains and values your portfolio and ranks your success versus other players. No real money is involved, of course. Because the game is played via e-mail, rather than in real time on-line, costs could be lower for players who pay by the hour for internet access.



• Silicon Investor. Billed as a resource center for technology stock investors, this service has several attractive features. The Chart Generator draws candlestick charts for publically traded technology companies. There is a bulletin board section and a "Spotlight" of interesting tech stocks. Current financial data and company profiles drawn from recent 10-K's are available.



• NIKKO. A colorful (literally) site featuring investing perspectives in Japan from a financial service company called, what else, The NIKKO Securities Company, LTD. The site features the NIKKO Indices, a series of indices based on Japanese stocks, The NIKKO Research Center, reports on the basic state of the Japanese economy and general trends from the NIKKO Company perspective, the NIKKO System Center, and a area called The Dynamic Corporation which profiles certain Japanese companies. Featured as of October 1995 was Japan's only publically owned funeral service company Koekisha. An interesting undertaking. The indices have a month lag. You can also subscribe to their research reports, most in Japanese, but many in English as well, and access historical data if you "register yourself on the internet in advance."
• Remedies. OK, so it's like a really hip page, ok? Beautiful graphics, well organized and everything, but I'm just not a technical analysis kind of guy. But if you hear technical analysis calling you, George DeCamp offers a good place to start. Two different chart types are illustrated here, there's a nice little investing contest to test out your technical analysis theories and a thorough financial links page. So try it out. I do wish it wouldn't blink at me so much tho, George.

• Wall Street Direct. Though commercial in spirit, this site still has lots of freebies. The glossary of Futures terms is educational and thorough. Calendars of conferences, tradeshows, seminars and workshops are useful. There's a bulletin board/forum for user exchanges and selected market statistics and data. On the commercial side, the book store offers a nice selection of financial books and software packages. There are links to charting and brokerages services, press releases, product reviews and a myriad of other offerings.
• The World Bank Home Page. While much of the material at this site is available only by subscription or for a fee, there's still a pretty good selection of economic data and scholarly work from around the world available here. Data sets concerning economic growth world wide can be downloaded here. Also abstracts of many of the World Bank's papers and research topic can be accessed with full text downloadable or via snail-mail for a price. Worth a look for the economist, but I can't say that it makes for light reading.

Brokerages:

• Lombard Institutional Brokerage. Besides the obligatory free quotes for stocks and options, this firm's web page offers "intraday" charts for 7,000 stocks and 61,000 options so you can watch the performance of a security over the course of the day. Historical charts are also available. Of course, if you are a Lombard customer, even more services are available.
  
  
• E*Trade. Another on-line brokerage firm, E*Trade offers free quotes, discount brokerage services, a page of financial hot links called "Trade Web Financial Information" and a link to E*Trade's investing game. While the interface is less than intuitive, the E*Trade game can be a useful tool for either the novice investor or the experienced investor who wants to try her luck with more exotic investing techniques without actually risking real capital. Basically, each investor is given $100,000 in pretend capital to invest and a variety of ways to invest it. Try it. The only risk is that you'll get hooked and spend lots of dollars with your net provider.

Government and Related:

• Consumer Information Center. Here's what Money Magazine's Peter Keating says about this site in the Forecast 1996 issue of Money: "These days you [can] find on-line guidance from everything from choosing the right infant formula to shopping for a funeral that won't kill your savings. One of the most popular offerings:'66 Ways to Save Money.' And here's No. 67:Read the pamphlet on-line and you'll save the $.50 cost of ordering it by mail. All of the CIC's more than 200 publications are available in Electronic form. And the site's design beats the standard government issue too, with colorful screens and easy-to-follow directions." Couldn't have said it better myself, Peter!

• The Department of the Treasury. Stepping off point for all the divisions under the Treasury, including the IRS, Customs, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Mint, and even the Secret Service. Most of this is PR material, mission statements and other knickknacks of the bureaucracy, but there are several links to useful economic statistical repositories and listings of the bulletin board phone numbers for many of Treasury's own statistical boards. Don't be surprised if you have to try several times before access is permitted. This can be a very busy area.
  
  
• The IRS Home Page. Need Form 2106 (which allows you to declare employee business expenses) at the last minute? This site has it, and every other federal tax form - except the 1040EZ - plus every IRS instruction book, all in downloadable form.

• The Tax Prophet. San Francisco tax attorney Robert L. Sommers, an erstwhile San Francisco Examiner columnist and self-proclaimed prophet, offers advice with attitude. Check his take on avoiding the nanny tax.

• TaxSites. Another San Franciscan, Tax preparer Frank McNeil, has put together the Web's best list of tax-related sites. You'll find links to everything from places to download state tax forms to a program that checks whether you're saving enough in your 401(K).

• U.S. Department of Commerce. Aside from the usual public relation noises, this web site provides a very valuable stepping off place for retrieving government and economic data. Many of the services, like statistics from the census bureau, patent and trademark information, and a search engine called "Fedworld:a Locator for Federal Government Information" are free, but some of the data is available only through subscription. The good news is that a free test drive of each of the subscription databases, like the Economic Bulletin Board, is available. It would be easy to spend days and $$ exploring this site. Policy wonk heaven.
  
  
• The Federal Tax Code. Call us crazy, but sometimes being able to check the federal tax code can be a big plus. This service from MIT provides the entire U.S. Tax code complete with search engine and hypertext. Not all of the code is yet in hypertext format, but the sections that are complete make a handy reference tool. The text is somewhat outdated as it is based on the code data base as of 10/23/93, but gopher links to more current data are provided. Also useful for insomniacs.
  
  
• Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet. While not technically a financial website, Thomas (as in Jefferson) is a very handy way to keep up with Washington. The full text to all current bills is available here as well as the full text of the Congressional Record. You can examine pending bills by subject, by title, and by date. You can read the major bills that have been enacted already and check the schedule for upcoming bills. You can also get the e-mail address of most representatives and senators.
  

Publishers and News Organizations

• This Old House. While not really a financial site per se the Finance Department of the on-line edition of one of Money's sister publication in the Time Inc. family promises to be a fine source of information for the homeowner or would be homeowner. Recent subjects include Contractor Insurance and Disaster Insurance. And, hey, maybe you need some help with your rusty pipes too.
• Fortune Magazine. Money's sister magazine has a lovely website full of business information, archived stories and data from many of Fortune's most popular issues, including the Fortune 500, America's Most Admired Corporations, and The Best Cites for Business. Check out the Fortune Business report with headline news and market analysis twice daily. Better yet, listen to the Fortune Business Report with the Real Audio Player while you browse through the rest of the site.

• Interactive Nest Egg. The On-line version of Nest Egg Magazine this handsome site offers articles on finance, lifestyle links, education, limited information on mutual funds, equities and bonds and other areas of interest. Some of the offerings are a bit disappointing -- for example the mutual fund section allows some minimal screening but basically only offers the basic information on a fund, like telephone number, objective and fund manager-- but there's a lot to explore and use here. The Tradeline Mutual Fund Performance Leaders offering is interesting, if limited. The design is upbeat and colorful, but a bit difficult to read for these tired old eyes. Still these quibbles are minor. It's certainly worth spending some time here.

• BusinessTimes Singapore Online. If you're an avid investor in the Asian Markets or just curious to see what goes on in the financial markets in that part of the world, check out this site. Besides news clips from the host newspaper, BT Online gives up to date stock quotes from the Singapore Exchange, hot links to other Asia oriented sites, editorials, personal finance news, and even articles on music and cuisine. Nice place to hang out and it's easier to get there than the proverbial slow boat.

• CNNfn. Cable TV business comes to the net.This home page from CNN focuses on Financial news. Of course you can find out what's on your "favorite" cable news network and when, but you can also get stock quotes, check out commodity and currency markets, and "interact" with the editors. Nicely done page with lots of helpful information. No sign of Larry King, tho.

• Progressive Farmer On-line. Ok, so most of us don't immediately think of farming when we think investing, but one of Money's sibling magazines, Progressive Farmer has some pretty nifty stuff for the commodity trader in all of us. Check out the MarketCenter for weekly reports on futures and the commodity market. MarketQuote provides quotes and charts on futures and options. You can even check the weather forecast and see what that means for your futures bets. You probably won't find Hillary here anymore, but it's still an interesting place to check out.

• The Wall Street Journal Money & Investing Update. If you haven't already discovered this service from the WSJ, check it out. But beware. The WSJ recently decided to start charging. Beginning July 31st, 1996 everybody will have to pay. $29 per year to any subscribers to a print version of the WSJ and $49 per year for others. The Update promises "to offer continuously updated news and analysis of the world's markets." Some articles are supplemented and updated. Related articles from previous Journals are also accessible. This is a dynamic example of what can be done on the web. Bravo for a job well done. Sorry it's no longer free.
• Analyst Watch. This is the web home for Zacks Investment Researc, Inc. of Chicago and it's a winner. Trouble is, it's not free. The Zacks Service consists of Portfolio Alerts, which sends daily e-mail portfolio updates (including closing prices Zacks Ranks, PR Newswire stories, changes in analysts reports amongst others; Zacks Company Reports on 5,000 plus companies; and Custom Equity Screening which allows you to interactively screen the 5,000 or so stocks on 81 criteria. If you want, you can sample the service for three months for $22.50. At the end of the sample period it's $29 per month to continue. If you're into trading, this might be the service for you. Take a look.

Calculators and Potpourri

• MMR Software. Type in the face value and the date of your series EE Bonds and let the net figure out their current values. Of course, if you want something a bit fancier, they'll be happy to sell you a program that will let you figure out the value of all your bonds at once.

• CalcTech Calculators. Want a Windows version of several famous calculators including the ubiquitous HP12-C? You can download shareware versions here. Of course, if you're like me and can never remember the keystrokes to figure out what $2,000 invested January of 1996 at 10% per year will be worth in January 2016, then you might be better off buying the Calculator to get the manual. (OK, I lied. The answer is $5,187.48 and I did remember the keystrokes, but I can't remember how to do bond prices. Really.)

• The Mortgage Calculator. This amusing and unpretentious site features several financial calculators, including the title character "Mortgage Calculator." Other calculators include car leasing, Canadian mortgage payments, income qualification and a calculator purporting to compare the Armey Flat Tax vs. the current income tax. The creater, Hugh Chou, has done a very nice job here. The calculators are fast and easy to understand and matched the answers given by my desk financial calculator (which is a lot harder to use). There are links to Missouri realtors, mortgage rate information and you can even get a sample of Mr. Chou's voice (we'll have to take his word for it) and see what he's doing at any given time (he was sleeping and/or eating the last time I visited).
• 401K$. Here's a simple little shareware calculator to figure out what the value of your 401(K) will be in the year 2xxx. The demo version only allows you to change the number of years until retirement, your salary, and a few other variables, but not the presumed interest rates for compounding. For around $15 you can get a password that allows you to change all the variables. Or you can learn to use one of the calculators above and figure it out yourself.

As of October 11, 1996