Best financial blogs

Markets & Stocks

Best financial blogs

There are thousands of sites devoted to finance...these 10 may just help you make some money.


October 7, 2005: 10:15 AM EDT
By Carrie Lee, CNN/Money contributing writer


NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -

Does the regular financial commentary from your broker seem too sanitzed? And analysis in major newspapers too mainstream?


It might be time for you to check in on what's being said on financial blogs, the wild west of business commentary.


Technorati, a California-based blog tracking firm, estimates that there
are over 13 million blogs today, from 100,000 two years ago. Thousands
are financial in nature. So chances are, if you want to invest in it,
there's a blog that covers it -- from analysis of Chinese Internet
stocks to investigations of juicy items buried in corporate SEC filings
(how long has the CEO's son-in-law been on the payroll, anyway?).

The challenge for investors is to cut through all the noise.

"The best blogs have an authentic personality behind them," said Lee
Rainie, director at Pew Internet & American Life Project, a
Washington, D.C.-based Internet-tracking firm. "Like subscribing to a
great financial newsletter, the best bloggers are people who ferret out
information and make sense of it in a way to help you figure out what
to do with your money."


Despite the grassroots nature, blogs are on the radar screens of
corporate America. Earlier this year, Apple Computer won a court order
to unveil the identities of bloggers who posted confidential
information about a product in development. And Google, Delta Air Lines
and Microsoft have all reportedly fired workers for blogs that hit too
close to the work front.


But no matter how juicy the information you come across, you have to
consider the source. Just like the chat rooms and message boards that
became so popular during the Internet boom years, you can't trust
everything you read on blogs.


Blogs can provide fertile ground for pump-and-dump schemes, where
authors buy a stock, tout it online, and sell after other buyers push
the price higher (and then get stuck in the downdraft).


Take a look at some of the top financial blogs below. If all the
punditry, trader talk and personal-finance tidbits inspire you, it's
easy to start your own blog. Blogger.com and blogit.com are two sites
that will get you started.

The best blogs


1. Seeking Alpha
-- This is a good place to start blogging, because it's essentially a
collection of different blogs. The site provides links to everything
from analysis of media and Internet stocks to investing in China. The
"Sound Money Tips" link offers simple financial strategies for every
day life, from buying versus leasing a car, to selling a home without a
realtor.


2. The Asset Allocator!
– This site's "SmorgasBoard" section provides a handful of links, each
day, to articles on top business stories, and that's just the
beginning. Hundreds of links are posted for various categories. They
include everything from corporate blogs, top business news sites, U.S.
Government office sites, and investment resources. This site is not
about original content, but rather one-stop shopping for financial
information.


3. CANSLIM Investing
- Yes it's a long web address, but also worth bookmarking. This site
contains many easy to read pieces on stock suggestions, chart analysis,
and market commentary using the CANSLIM approach to investing. (The
seven letters each stand for an investing criteria, for example, "L"
represents choosing an industry leader over a laggard.)


4. The Kirk Report
– The site is written by an individual investor, Charles E. Kirk, who
promises more food for thought than blind recommendations, and delivers
on that promise. Viewers can sign up for a free, weekly e-mail
newsletter. And unlike many financial blogs, the site is ad free!!


5. Big Ben's Investing Blog
- This site, although anonymous, is called Big Ben's Finance and
Investing Blog. There's good, specific information on certain stocks
here, including profit expectations and results. Other recent standout
posts include advice on finding an online stock broker, and specs and
photo of a new Motorola device reportedly in the works.


6. The Thinking Bull
- This anonymous site offers a compilation of online financial
articles. The screen is split between articles on trading and
investing, and it's a useful stop for articles on various investing
strategies.


7. Random Roger's Big Picture
– This is a good site for investors looking for investing ideas beyond
U.S. stocks. Author Roger Nusbaum is an investment advisor
representative for Your Source Financial. His posts include insightful
commentary on recent print articles and televised financial segments,
and so give readers more than one view point on a topic. His writing
style is very down to earth, it feels like you're reading personal
letters from your neighbor.


8. Footnoted.org
– Author Michelle Leder is a veteran financial journalist who has
published a book on spotting red flags in corporate documents
("Financial Fine Print: Uncovering a Company's True Value.") The site's
subject matter is in the same, investigative vein, setting the site
apart from other blogs. Visitors can search for information by company
name, and thus make a quick and easy stop here to find corporate dirt
and other tidbits.


9. Stock and commodity trading
– This anonymous site is technically oriented, covering day to day
stock market activity, gold and currency markets. Interesting links
like 'coin stories' (includes posts about coins during the era of
Alexander the Great, a 17th century coin with a UFO like design) are
fun to read.


10. Thinkblog
- This is from ThinkEquity Partners, a research and investment banking
company. It's of the more straight and sophisticated blogs around, with
high quality commentary from CEO Michael Moe and other luminaries.
There are also dozens of links to the brightest minds in business, from
economist Larry Kudlow of CNBC fame, to tech writer Walter Mossberg at
the Wall Street Journal.


-- Carrie Lee is a business news correspondent for CNN Headline News in New York.