Research to Riches, Part 2

Financial newspapers.

The “Newspapers” section of Chapter 6 in The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing opens as follows:

Just about every newspaper includes stock tables, but there are times when you need more than a quote or volume information. During those times, it’s a good idea to check out one of the four papers in this section.

The four were The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, the Financial Times, and Barron’s. All are still going concerns, but in May 2021, News Corp acquired IBD. It now operates under News Corp’s Dow Jones & Company division, alongside the WSJ and Barron’s. So, the only non-Dow Jones & Co publication among my original four is the Financial Times. It, too, was acquired — by Japanese media company Nikkei, Inc. in July 2015.

You can tell from my reference to stock quotes and volumes in newspapers that this book goes back a long way, to the 1990s in its first edition, when the internet was a novelty. These days, few people get stock info from newspaper tables, and even if they do it’s probably digitally.

In this Part 2 of Research to Riches, I’ll focus on newspapers.

The Wall Street Journal

My intro to this industry standard remains as true today as it was in the fifth edition:

This is certainly the Big Kahuna among investment newspapers. Everybody who’s anybody glances at the WSJ from time to time. It’s a good idea for you to do the same.

Its website was recently redesigned. After a spell of unbearably sluggish performance, the tech team clicked into action and got the site working lickety-split again.

Like many financial conglomerates, Dow Jones offers a bundle of its multiple publications. In this case you can get digital access to the Journal only for $9.75 per week (first year at $1 per week), but access to the Journal, MarketWatch, Barron’s, and IBD for $13.75 per week (first year at $1.75 per week), as follows:

If you like reading a daily paper, you’ll be pleased to know they still print one:

Last weekend’s print edition began as follows, and could be read in the Journal’s e-reader as well, with clickable links:

Investor’s Business Daily

I wrote in the book that:

Investor’s Business Daily is the result of William O’Neil’s frustration at the lack of what he considered the most important information about stocks. Because he couldn’t find it anywhere, he decided to publish it himself and thus was born Investor’s Business Daily. You can read all about O’Neil’s investment approach on page 71.

IBD’s website looks like this:

Its claim to fame is its stock tables, which were O’Neil’s main reason for starting a new paper. From the book:

They contain five SmartSelect measurements you won’t find anywhere else: earnings per share rank for the past five years, relative price strength rank for the past 12 months, industry group relative strength, an overall evaluation of sales and profit margin and return on equity, and accumulation/distribution for the past three months. The five measurements are combined into a composite rating that gives the most weight to earnings per share and relative price strength.

These days, it focuses on pre-selected lists, as shown in the following dropdown:

The first one displayed, the IBD 50, is the publication’s flagship screen of leading growth stocks that “gives you 50 companies showing strong relative price strength and top-notch fundamentals. Before you decide what stocks to buy, always check out these new and innovative stocks that historically far outperform the S&P 500.”

Well, we can check that claim.

The IBD 50 is tracked by an Innovator ETF, symbol FFTY. The following chart shows how it’s fared recently against the S&P 500:

Hmm. The index might be a good starting point for ideas, but hasn’t exactly provided one-stop shopping for market-beaters.

The IBD 50 is based on O’Neil’s CAN SLIM system identifying the seven characteristics of top-performing stocks. They are:

They’re growth characteristics, mostly, and O’Neil himself was a devoted follower of growth and momentum. Performance depends on many factors, however, and markets are pretty efficient, making it hard to beat the indexes with inflexible formulas.

Also, note the last bullet, “Market Direction.” That could well be the chief wild card in the mix, given that stocks tend to move in a block. We can all agree that owning in an uptrend is better than in a downtrend, but none among us can forecast either — and the IBD 50 has not kept pace in the market’s recent uptrend.

The publication is still a worthy research tool, offering a number of other features and abundant resources for both aspiring and experienced investors:

You can get IBD as part of the WSJ + package mentioned above, or on its own for $379 per year ($199 for the first year):

Financial Times

From the book:

If you’re craving a global perspective, consider the Financial Times of London. The so-called pink pages, named after the distinctive color of the paper, bring you news, editorial, and global market prices with commentary. 

I was a fan then and remain one today. The FT isn’t investor-centric per se, but focused on the macro lay of the financial land. Its Lex column is particularly engaging, as you might expect after meeting its pride and confidence at the get-go:

Below is a sample Lex column, on hydrogen power:

A typical Financial Times news story looks as follows, with the YESTERDAY in this case meaning November 19, 2024:

You can try the FT for four weeks for $1, then $75 per month thereafter. It offers other plans as well:

Barron’s

From the book:

If The Wall Street Journal lost your business, Barron’s might catch your fancy. Either way, you’re dealing with Dow Jones & Company. It owns both papers.

Yes, and it now owns IBD as well, as mentioned above.

Barron’s used to be a weekly paper, and still is in the print edition, but its website offers constant updates throughout the week, many of which find their way into the weekend print edition. That receives a dedicated space on the website.

Here’s the front page of the November 11, 2024 print edition:

Its website offers real-time analysis throughout the week:

Barron’s is famous for its data tables. Here’s its new highs and lows for the Nasdaq:

More than The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, Barron’s focuses on investing. All news is filtered through the lens of what it will mean to a certain stock, the economy, or the next move by the Federal Reserve. It’s a good addition to any investor’s toolbox.

You can get Barron’s as part of the WSJ + package mentioned above, or on its own for $5 per week ($1 per week for the first year):

Coming in Part 3: Newsletters.