New Stock Research Tools

Have you tried the new "Research" button on ADVFN yet?

It's in red somewhere in the middle of all the options at the top.

I think ADVFN's done a great job (I only get a fiver for saying that but it buys me two coffees), with this new feature.

There are six different research tools - my two favourites already are directors' dealings and the dividend summary.

Click on directors and you get the latest dealings AND a link to the news on the company plus the share price.

The other really good one is the 'Dividend summary'. How handy is this - all the 'ex' dividend dates and payment dates! It's worth checking two or three times a week.

Then we also have 'company fundamentals'. For those of you who really want to go in depth there's everything you need here including five years of balance sheet info, financial ratios and dividend info.

Broker and analyst reports are also there - and you can download them. I viewed them on adobe. This tool I'd probably use at the weekend to browse through my stocks.

And finally 'Filter X'. Sounds exciting doesn't it?

You can search through any criteria you want. So you can ask Filter X to find the companies with the lowest PE's. Which could be an interesting way to find undervalued companies.

Or you can flick through the dividend yields. Or pretty much anything you want depending on how you invest.

Now I've found this new research button, I expect to use it a lot. I'm going to play around with Filter X and see if I can come up with some ideas on how to use it to best advantage.

If any of you come up with some good ideas on how to use these new features do e-mail me at robbiethetrader@aol.com and I'll pass the best ones on next week.

Another good week in the markets for me: Burren Energy continues to pile on the cash for me although 480p is a big hurdle to get through.

Also going nicely is Radstone Technology. I've taken some decent profits on a short in Close Brothers and other profits on Cattles, which went nicely to plan. Bought at 311p and sold at 354p - nice!

The next few days look interesting and it's a hard one to call though I suspect the FTSE may trade in a 4600-4720 range. But a break below 4600 and it might be time to open some shorts!