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The Role of Regulation FD

The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission's Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) was implemented in October 2000. It mandated that all publicly traded companies must disclose material information to all investors at the same time. The regulation sought to eliminate selective disclosure, where large institutional investors received market moving information ahead of individual investors.

Before the 1990s, most individuals followed the progress of their stock holdings by relying on full service brokers. Now, the Internet makes research information available to all, allowing individuals to make their own investment decisions.

What Information Is Available?

You can access the same information that "Street" analysts use to evaluate stocks:

• Company Profile - analysis of a company's business & business model. Best sources: SEC filings, company financial reports.
• Sector Profile - analysis of a company's sector/industry and how economic variables impact them. Best sources: SEC filings & media articles (trade & financial)
• Corporate Financial Reports - Best sources: SEC filings, corporate & financial websites.
• SEC Filings - Best sources: corporate & financial websites (www.sec.gov has a tutorial) .
• Corporate Investor Conferences (new & past) - Best Sources: company websites.
• Comparison of Company To Industry Peers - Best Source: financial websites.
• Timely Corporate & Sector/ Industry News - Best source: Google News Alerts.
• Insider Stock Holdings & Transactions - Best source: financial websites.
• Mutual Fund Holdings & Transactions - Best source: financial websites.
• Analyst Ratings - Best source: financial websites.
• Interactive Charting of Company's Stock - Best Source: financial websites.

How Do You Find The Best Sources?

The easiest way to find information is to use a Google (or other) search bar. Simply enter the name or stock symbol of the company. Let's use Apple Computer (AAPL) as an example. The symbol search will show you a number of sites where important information resides: Yahoo! Finance, reuters.com, businessweek.com, forbes.com, nasdaq.com. moneycentral.msn.com, marketwatch.com, aol.com, etc. Searching for "Apple Computer" will take you to Apple's own website. Go to the "Investor Relations" link and you will find financial information, press releases and upcoming and past investor conference webcasts. You can register at many corporate sites to receive timely press releases and SEC filings via email.

A good site for interactive charting is Big Charts. You can access Big Charts by clicking on  under each stock symbol/name in the "Stock Performance" pages and on each "Search Results" page below the Comments. There you will see links to interactive charts, analyst ratings, financials, SEC filings, comparison of companies within industries, corporate profiles, and insider transactions.

To get breaking news and articles (financial & trade) on companies and sectors/industries use Google News Alerts. On the Google search bar, enter "news alerts." In the "Search terms" box enter the company's name (preferred over symbol). In the "How often" dropdown, select "as it happens." Complete the registration, and after you get a confirming email from Google you will begin to receive timely emails on as many keywords as you set up.

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