Welcome to the SFA Finance
Page
From the Department of Economics & Finance, Stephen F. Austin State University
Here are links for information on the
Economics & Finance Department
Finance Major
Finance Faculty
and for Finance course
descriptions
FIN 269 Personal Finance is being offered as a web course. See 269welcome
FIN 333 Introduction to Financial Management will be offered as a web course again
Spring Semester, 2005. See 333welcome
See below for links to other interesting and useful finance sites. Inclusion of a site
does not constitute an endorsement by SFA or the Department of Economics and Finance.
Links to particular firms or institutions are offered as samples of that type of firm or
institution and not as a recommendation.
Go to SFA 
Economics Page or 
College of Business Page or 
SFA Home Page or Economics
& Finance Department Page or Finance Club Page or SFA Library Economics &
Finance Resource Page
Study interest calculations with the Interest Book
There are many interesting career possibilities in finance - see careers in finance.
v2.87 May 19,2005 A.D. Comments and suggestions to Rgriffith@sfasu.edu
© 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 R. Griffith
Web resources - tools &
links I recommend to help you develop a web site of your own or improve the one you have.
Here are the different sections of this page you can go to:
Publications &
Organizations - Investments
Bonds
- Mutual Funds
- Stock &
Commodity Exchanges
- Stock Brokerage
firms
- Price Quotes
- E-Money
- Personal Finance
Spending and
credit
Insurance
Taxes
Retirement
Banks and Other Financial
Institutions
Real Estate
Miscellaneous
Texas government
Other university finance
pages
Publications & Organizations
- Wall Street Journal on the Web has some free content.
An annual subscription to the full version costs $59 or
$29 with proof of a print subscription.
Welcome to Barron's Online
- Forbes Magazine homepage
- CNNfn - the financial network - home page of CNN's
financial channel
- The Association for Investment Management and Research
(AIMR)
- Includes information on CFA program
- American Finance Association
-
Investments
- General
Frequently Asked Questions (from Usenet investment group)
- The Stock Market Game lets you try your hand at
investing with a hypothetical portfolio.
- Fidelity Investments Home Page Investment
information and tools.
Quicken Investments page. Lots of
tools and features. For example, their Stock Search will let you
find stocks that meet your specified criteria.
Many companies have dividend reinvestment plans, some of which let you invest additional
amounts also. Here's a site with lots of information about these plans: DRIP Central
Many investors are using the web to research and trade securities. Online Investing from the Wall Street Journal has a
good introduction to this.
A free report
"Avoiding the Next Enron:13 Key Danger Signals of Stocks to Sidestep" is
available from The Prudent Investor. Click here to request
the report.
- The Internet has multiplied opportunities for stock frauds. The SEC Internet Fraud page "tells
you how to spot different types of Internet fraud, what the SEC is doing to fight Internet
investment scams, and how to use the Internet to invest wisely."
Stock Analysis Random - a page just for
fun - generates random buy and sell recommendations.
Yahoo! finance page. Stock quotes, business and
financial news & comment.
Companies now file their reports with the SEC in electronic form, which are available from
the SEC's Edgar system.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers' EdgarScan
is an interface to the SEC EDGAR Filings. EdgarScan pulls filings from the SEC's servers
and converts them automatically to key financial tables
Stock Maven "Stock research center, real
time quotes and news, live financial markets data, research tools to evaluate and track
stocks of publicly held companies."
Back to page contents
Investing in Bonds
from the Bond Market Association offers lots of basic information on bonds as well as bond
price quotes with explanations of how to read them.
The Treasury Department savings bond page gives
information, current values, and enables the purchase of savings bonds online.
Mutual Funds
- Usenet
Group - Mutual Funds FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
The Mutual Fund Cost Calculator from
the SEC enables investors to easily estimate and compare the costs of owning mutual funds.
Personalfund.com A similar cost
calculator with a built-in fund database and suggestions for lower cost funds.
- Quicken Mutual Fund page
includes fund screens from Morningstar plus other information
- Mutual Funds magazine (requires registration)
- Fidelity Funds Network
Information on all the funds available through its Funds Network, not just its own funds.
Forbes Mutual Fund page includes a fund
screener as well as lists and other information.
- Schwab OneSource
Information on all the funds available through its mutual funds marketplace
- Money magazine mutual
fund center
- The Mutual Fund Education Alliance™ the
non-profit industry association of no-load open-end investment companies. Includes a
fund search feature as well as information and educational materials. "Here, you'll
find largest collection of mutual fund companies, website links, fund listings and
exclusive planning, tracking and monitoring tools available on the Internet."
- Internet Closed-End Fund Investor
- InvestorGuide Mutual Fund
Research InvestorGuide This page offers information, ratings, screens,
etc. that allow you to research specific mutual funds.
MAXfunds articles and information on mutual funds,
emphasizing smaller funds.
Index Funds fund profiles, data, and
articles on index funds
Back to page contents
-
Mutual Funds - sample fund groups
- Gabelli
Mutual Funds
- Scudder
- American Century (includes the former Benham funds)
- Fidelity
Mutual Funds
Vanguard Funds Known for its index funds, but has
others as well.
T.Rowe Price Another major fund group
with investment tools in addition to information on their funds and services.
Stock & Commodity Exchanges
- The New York Stock Exchange
Welcome to the CBOE
- Philadelphia Stock Exchange Home Page
- The American Stock Exchange
- The Chicago Stock Exchange
- Chicago Mercantile Exchange Home Page
NASDAQ Not exactly an exchange, but a major market.
Its page provides quotes from many markets, not just its own.
- Back to page contents
Stock Brokerage firms
A Business
Week article describes the "revolution" going on in the brokerage business
and how it affects investors.
Another
Business Week article does an excellent job of pointing out the fallacies of
short-term trading.
Gruntal & CO., Old-line firm founded in 1880
Nikko Home Page Japanese securities information
Schwab Online A major discount firm offering onlline
trading.
Prudential Securities Broker owned by an insurance
company.
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Online A large
brokerage firm's online page.
SalomonSmithBarney A leading investment banking
firm.
Fidelity Brokerage Brokerage
established by major mutual fund group.
Ameritrade An online only broker.
- Back to page contents
Price Quotes
- YAHOO quotes & charts
- Holt Report Index Page
- NYSE ticker & quotes
- NASDAQ quotes provides quotes for Nasdaq, AMEX,
NYSE & OTCBB
- Bloomberg has quotes
for key Treasury issues
E-Money
Electronic money, digital cash, even a cashless society are topics receiving a lot of
attention in financial discussions these days. You can read about some of the issues in my
paper "Cashless Society or
Digital Cash?" and my more recent article "Is Virtual Cash a
Reality?". Below are some links related to this area, including firms
working on electronic payment means.
- DigiCash home page now eCash Technologies.
- Nick Szabo's Home Page essays and papers on
related issues
- CyberCash Home Page
- Millicent: DIGITAL's Microcommerce System
- Welcome To NetChex
- Electronic Money and Money in
History
- Digital
Money Project Includes links to many essays and sites
Short of true e-money are accounts that let you send payments by email
Here's a couple:
PayPal "is a
completely free service that lets users Beam
Money to anyone with an email address."
Yahoo! PayDirect is a similar service from
Yahoo!
Personal Finance
- FIN 269 Personal Finance is being offered as a web course. See webcourse Next
offering Spring 2006
-
- Collection
of links and online brochures about a variety of consumer-oriented information
compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta mainly from government sources including
other federal reserve banks.
FinanCenter: Compare, calculate, and learn
segments on many personal finance aspects.
- CNNfn - your money News
and information related to individual finances from CNN financial network
Money Magazine has lots of articles and tools
related to personal finance.
iMoneyNet is "the premier provider of low
risk, short-term saving, borrowing, and investment information to consumers, institutions,
and financial data portals" (rates on all sorts of instruments).
The Kiplinger page has much useful personal
finance information, including retirement, taxes, insurance.
Financial privacy is an important consideration. The FDIC has a good information page on it.
Creating a
Budget Help from MetLife's Life Advice site.
FDIC Consumer Publications
"Guidance on how to become a smarter, safer user of financial services."
Fed on credit cards A good basic
explanation of credit card terms and how to choose the best credit card. Links to
semi-annual survey of credit card terms.
Fannie Mae's page
has useful information and online calculators for home buyers.
American Risk and Insurance Association Major
academic insurance organization.
Life Insurance Wiz.com Insurance company
that offers free online quotes for auto, health, homeowners, whole and term life
insurance. Also provides a list of insurance resources and glossary terms.
Welcome to Insure.com "The Consumer Insurance
Guide"
Yahoo! Insurance Provides FAQs on
different types of insurance, other information and articles, and quotes.
- Back to page contents
- The Department of the Treasury:
Internal Revenue Service
Tax Topics Comprehensive set of links to
tax resources, including IRS publications, arranged by topic.
-
- Back to page contents
Types
of Retirement Savings Plans good basic descriptions
Planning Your Retirement - helps from
Fidelity Investments
SSA Home Page Social Security Administration
Retirement calculator
from Money magazine lets you input amounts and estimates of various factors and gives you
a year by year cash flow projection based on your inputs.
401Kafe - articles, calculators, etc to help people
understand and manage their 401(k) accounts.
Many companies are switching from traditional defined benefits plans to "cash
balance" plans. See Cashpensions
page for information about this and how it can affect workers.
Back to page contents
Banks and Other Financial Institutions
The number of banks and other financial institutions with web pages has increased
rapidly. Here is a small sample.
- Fredonia State Bank of Nacogdoches (Now Bancorp South
- Fredonia)
Commercial Bank of Texas (Nacogdoches)
- BankAmerica Home Page
- Salem Five Internet Access
- Savings bank which provides Internet banking
- Wells Fargo's Home Page
- J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated
- The Lloyds Bank Campus
- Banking, Mortgage Loans, Financing, Mutual Funds
- Presidential Savings Bank
- FSTC Home Page
- Financial Services Technology Consortium
- Fighting Check Fraud
- Credit Union National Association, Inc.
- Credit Union Land
- Links to information about credit unions
- The Texas Credit Union League & Affiliates
- Back to page contents
Real Estate
- Fractals WWW Real Estate Server
Real Estate Listings
- Mortgage Market Information Services, Inc.
Mortgage rates, calculators, lenders, etc.
- HomeFair Information on
moving from NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS
-
- Back to page contents
Other links sites
- FinanceWise, "the first
search engine to focus specifically on financial-only content."
Finance Site List links to
finance journals, associations, working papers, etc.
- Resources on the World Wide
Web hundreds of finance related links organized by categories
-
- Back to page contents
Texas government
- Texas State Government Texas Home Page with various
links
- Comptroller of Public Accounts
- Texas Legislative System
- Legislative Budget Board BBS
- Higher Education Coordinating Board
- Back to page contents
- Ohio State U finance
department home page
-
Back to page contents
