| ICLUB Insider |
October 1, 2004 |
THE LATEST NEWS ON
NAIC SOFTWARE BUILT BY ICLUBCENTRAL INC.
Summary
When ICLUBcentral merged with Investware last year, we were
excited about adding NAIC Investor's Toolkit and NAIC Take
Stock to the line of investing software already offered by
ICLUBcentral. With the addition of these two products,
investors can shop for the program that best suits their
needs in one place, whether they're beginners or experienced
at NAIC style stock analysis.
We were also intrigued by Investware's "Investor's Toolkit
Extended Service Agreement." For an annual fee, subscribers
received all published updates to the software, access to
help by phone and online, and a subscription to the Complete
Roster of Quality Companies. Software companies like ours
are always challenged to come up with new, cost-effective
ways of providing customer support and updates to users, and
Investware's solution seemed to offer one way of helping us
to reach our goals in that department. And so we set about
investigating how we might remodel the Toolkit service
agreement to work with the rest of ICLUBcentral's investing
software.
Our first thought was to "not mess with a good thing," and
simply offer a similar support plan for each of our
investing software programs. But then we decided that maybe
there was a way that we could make a good thing better, and
I think we've found the answer.
Instead of offering separate support agreements for each
software program, we've designed a new software support plan
that includes four of ICLUBcentral's investing programs:
- NAIC Stock Analyst
- NAIC Investor's Toolkit
- NAIC Classic Plus
- NAIC Stock Prospector
If you own one, two or even all four of these programs (and
we know that there are some committed NAIC investors out
there who do use multiple programs to find and analyze
stocks for their portfolios), the new NAIC Investing
Software Support and Maintenance Agreement covers them all.
(We also know that "NAIC Investing Software Support and
Maintenance Agreement" is somewhat cumbersome to say, so
around here we've taken to calling it "Investing Support."
Feel free to do the same.)
Once you subscribe to Investing Support, you'll have full
and easy access to online and telephone support for help
with your software products (and we're continuing to expand
and enhance the support available at ICLUB.com to give you
even more resources to resolve your questions).
You'll also receive a CD with the latest versions of all
included programs so that you can be sure that you've got
all applicable updates installed for the software that you
presently own (as well as demos for products that you don't
already use). Then, throughout the year, we will provide you
with additional software updates for download as they're
released for each program.
We're also continuing to offer the Complete Roster of
Quality Companies at no additional charge with each
Investing Support subscription. This monthly stock screen
was designed by Ellis Traub, and includes every company in
NAIC’s OPS database that displays critical indicators of
growth and efficiency — qualities that you're looking for as
a long-term investor. As an Investing Support subscriber,
you'll receive the Complete Roster each month by e-mail.
And here's perhaps the best part. Even though we've expanded
the terrific Toolkit support plan to include four software
programs, AND added a CD that includes the latest releases
of all four programs, AND are providing support from trained
specialists like Irving Roth for all your software
questions, AND are sending the Complete Roster of Quality
Companies each month with new ideas for your portfolio,
we're able to offer the new NAIC Investing Software Support
and Maintenance Agreement at absolutely no increase in
price.
Have I started to sound like one of those late-night
infomercials? I guess it's hard not to be excited when I
talk about the benefits of our new Investing Support plan.
You can check out the complete list of features and services
included in the plan for yourself (as well as subscribe for
one, two or three years) by calling 617-661-2582 or
visiting http://www.iclub.com/isupport/.
I wish you much success in your investing, and hope that
NAIC Software is useful in identifying and analyzing quality
stocks for your portfolio.
The Community Associations Institute (CAI), America's
leading advocate group for residential community
associations, recently announced the launch of CAI
Treasurer, a new accounting software program developed
specially for self-managed condominiums, homeowner
associations, and cooperatives. Developed by ICLUBcentral
and now available for purchase, the software was built to
help smaller, self-managed associations manage their books
with minimum effort and maximum speed and accuracy.
What NAIC Club Accounting does for investment clubs, the new
CAI Treasurer does for community associations. It can:
- Help associations keep accurate books.
- Build and analyze a budget.
- Invoice unit owners and track dues, late fees, and
payment histories.
- Comply with legal requirements.
- Create 25 GAAP-compliant financial reports instantly
for your board, bank, or insurer.
CAI Treasurer also comes with information and resources from
the award-winning Community Associations Institute on how to
handle problems facing self-managed associations.
CAI member community associations may purchase CAI Treasurer
for just $239. Order by calling CAI at 703-548-8600, or
online at http://www.caitreasurer.com/buy.
For more information about CAI Treasurer, please visit http://www.caitreasurer.com.
Knowing when to buy or sell the stocks in your portfolio is
often a difficult decision, whether it's your club or
personal portfolio. Here are some guidelines that might help
you out when you're faced with the daunting decision about
whether or not to sell a stock you own.
In no particular order, you should consider selling a stock
in your portfolio whenever any of the following conditions
exist:
- You need the cash. Sure, you're saving and investing
for the long-term, but if a need arises and you need
cash today (perhaps for college tuition for your kids,
or to buy a home, or to pay off a debt), consider
tapping into your portfolio to raise the funds.
- You have found a better potential investment, either
with a higher level of quality or with a better
projected total return. Selling a stock to upgrade
your overall portfolio is usually a smart choice. Just
be careful to consider the effect of any applicable
capital gains taxes and commissions in your decision
to replace a stock.
- You need to rebalance your portfolio, either by size
of company or industry. NAIC suggests that investors
maintain a balance of small, mid-sized and large
companies in their portfolios, along with stocks from
many different industries. Investors who followed this
guidance and didn't let technology stocks become
overweighted in their portfolios didn't see as much
damage to their portfolios in the tech crash back at
the turn of the century.
- The stock is vastly overvalued. Many NAIC pundits
recommend that stocks be sold if their current P/E
ratios are much higher than their historical average
P/E ratios, specifically if the stock's relative value
is 150% or higher. These stocks typically don't have
much of an upside, but plenty of downside.
- There is an adverse management change, such as the
departure of a dynamic CEO or founder of the company,
particularly if those individuals were driving forces
behind the company's success. When these kinds of
changes occur, a company's past history may not tell
you much about the company's future.
- The company is facing declining profit margins,
perhaps from increased competition, in three to five
consecutive quarters. Looking at the PERT, you can
identify stocks that are experiencing degradation in
their profitability and thus are good candidates for
selling.
- If a stock has significantly declined in price from
the time of purchase, you may want to sell it in order to
take a tax loss and thus offset any other capital
gains that you have incurred in your taxable
portfolio. You can always consider repurchasing the
stock in 31 days (to avoid having the loss be wiped
out by the wash sale rule).
- If you have a member withdrawing from your club,
considering selling a stock that you're holding at a
loss in order to raise cash to pay off the member.
Again, you can consider repurchasing that stock in 31
days if you believe it has long-term merit. Remember,
though, never to sell a stock that you're holding at a
gain in order to pay off a departing club member -- in
this case you should transfer the appreciated stock to
the member so that the club can defer recording
capital gains on the shares.
ICLUBcentral software programs such as NAIC Investor's
Toolkit, NAIC Stock Analyst and NAIC Classic Plus are packed
with tools that can help you make informed decisions about
selling stocks from your portfolio -- with PERT worksheets
and graphs, and the NAIC Challenge Tree or stock challenger
applets.
For more information on any of ICLUBcentral's programs to help you manage your portfolio, please visit http://www.iclub.com/products/.
In the next ICLUB Insider: "When NOT to Sell a Stock."
Read past newsletters, subscribe, or unsubscribe at:
http://www.iclub.com/newsletters/
Copyright 2004 ICLUBcentral Inc. All rights reserved.
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