| ICLUB Insider |
October 18, 2004 |
THE LATEST NEWS ON
NAIC SOFTWARE BUILT BY ICLUBCENTRAL INC.
Summary
As I visit with chapters around the country and participate
in their investor and education fairs, I'm surprised at the
number of people who have never heard about NAIC Take
Stock. Many are not even aware that NAIC has not only
endorsed this product but has added a new and entertaining
educational dimension to it.
"Why," I'm asked, "did NAIC introduce yet another stock
analysis product? We already have plenty to confuse people
about which software to recommend!"
The answer is that all of the NAIC Software products offered
to date require familiarity with the Stock Selection Guide
before they can be put to good use. Let's face it!
Learning the SSG can be intimidating for many; and we have
left many potential investors and members behind by
insisting they learn it before they can invest successfully.
So, assuming you are an experienced SSG person and
comfortable with it, Take
Stock is not for you. It is,
however, a fantastic solution for the many people you know
who are not: your family, friends, acquaintances, or maybe
some members of your club who would like to make a
contribution to the discussions but can't -- or members you
wish would do so. It's for all of those with whom you would
like to share the benefits of the NAIC experience, but have
been unable to.
Instead of focusing on the complexities of the SSG, it
introduces the user to the NAIC investing concepts behind
the SSG, which are very simple. In basic mode, the user
enters the name or ticker symbol for the company to be
analyzed. The program will import (from the Internet to
which she must be connected) more than 100 data items as
well as the current price, and offer a "First Impression"
indicating whether it looks like a good company or not and
whether it's selling at a reasonable price if it is a good
company. (This data is from the same source as OPS so the
numbers will be the same as anyone else's.)
After answering five questions based on what she sees on the
screen (the right answers are even suggested there), Take
Stock produces a completed SSG as well as a report telling
her the reasons one would want to buy the stock, and listing
the items that might rule against it.
The program grades the company's quality on a scale of 1 to
10 based on the same growth and efficiency characteristics
you analyze in Sections 1 and 2 of the SSG. And, it even
suggests the highest price you might pay and still achieve a
15 percent return and a 3 to 1 upside downside ratio.
After the user has done enough stock studies to be confident
that the answers suggested by the program are consistently
good ones, she can disable the initial five-screen wizard
and allow the program to apply all of the judgments
automatically. In that case, all she has to do is enter the
ticker symbol and hit the [Retrieve] button. The program
will turn out the SSG and the report in an instant.
And the educational opportunities have only just begun.
"Drilling down" into the program (clicking on the large
buttons), reveals the reasons behind each of the valuations;
and, if the user has a desire to learn more about the
underlying principles, clicking on the large "Concepts"
button will present them in simple terms.
All of the opportunities to research using the Internet are
available with a click of the "Web" button. And, already
provided on the Web menu, you'll find sites you can go to
directly to explore the news and financial statements of the
company you're studying.
Once comfortable with the program, advanced users can enable
"Advanced Mode" which adds the ability to override the
program's conservative default judgments and to save the
completed stock studies.
This is a program that's fun, most enlightening, and at the
same time empowers even the most naïve of novices to invest
successfully from the beginning, using NAIC's proven
principles.
I'm sure there isn't a single person reading this that
doesn't know at least one person that could profit from
using Take Stock. Okay, so maybe it's not for you; but it
would be a great gift for those you want to share your good
fortune with!
For more information about NAIC Take Stock, please visit:
http://www.iclub.com/takestock/.
Microsoft has released a new security-centered Service Pack
for users of the Windows XP operating system. This Service
Pack improves your security; however this improvement may
come at the cost of restricting legitimate use, including
your NAIC Club Accounting software. There are three known
issues at this time, and fortunately, if any of these affect
your computer, you need only make a few simple adjustments
to keep NCA running smoothly.
- The NAIC Club Accounting software will not open or
displays a Java error.
When you start Club Accounting for the first time
after installing XP SP2, a window pops up,
declaring "To help protect your computer, Windows
Firewall has blocked some features of this
program. Do you want to keep blocking this
program?"
Click Unblock. If you accidentally selected Keep
Blocking, you can unblock it again by going to
Start > Control Panel > Security Center > Windows
Firewall > Exceptions and check the box marked
Java.
- Reports are blank.
When opening a report via Print Preview, a new
portion of Internet Explorer called the
Information Bar appears. A message on the bar
displays, "Pop-up blocked. To see this pop-up or
additional options click here...."
Click on the information bar. Select "Always allow
pop-ups from this site." Another window appears
asking "Would you like to allow pop-ups from
'127.0.0.1'?" Click Yes. Reports will no longer be
blocked.
- NAIC Club Accounting does not start. In this case, the
new Windows XP built-in firewall is preventing NCA from
running. The firewall can be reconfigured to allow Club
Accounting and only Club Accounting through:
a) Go to Start > Control Panel > Security Center >
Windows Firewall > Exceptions > Add Port.
b) Call the exception NAIC Club Accounting.
c) For the port, enter 10259.
d) Select TCP.
e) Click Change Scope.
f) Under Custom List, enter 127.0.0.1.
g) Click OK three times.
It may be necessary to reboot your computer. NAIC
Club Accounting should now start.
If you have any questions regarding Windows XP Service Pack
2 and your NAIC Software, please contact customer support.
In the last issue of the ICLUB Insider, I discussed some of
the valid reasons that long-term, buy-and-hold investors
might sell a stock from their portfolios. But just as there
are times when it will be appropriate to sell, there are
also times when it's probably the wrong decision to unload a
stock from your portfolio.
Here are a few reasons NOT to sell a stock from your long-
term portfolio:
- Because the price of the stock hasn't "done anything"
since you bought it. Stock prices move up and down in
spurts, not in a smooth continuous line, so it may be
months before a stock's price moves up from your
purchase price. If you're concerned that some factor is
affecting the company's growth potential and causing
other investors to shy away from the stock, re-examine
the company's fundamentals and see if the stock is
still has reasonable potential. It's never useful to
focus on short-term price movement (or lack thereof).
- Because you want to realize a "paper profit." Many
investment strategists (okay, let's call them brokers)
like to recommend that you sell part of your shares
after a stock has increased in value from your initial
purchase. In theory, this practice is intended to help
you "lock in" a certain amount of profit from your
investment. In practice, it generates an easy
commission for your broker. If you followed this
strategy to the hilt, you'd end up selling all your
best performing stocks and leaving the dogs to wallow
in the mud. All you'd have left would be a bunch of
problem companies in your portfolio and even bigger
losses down the road.
- Because the stock is showing a loss on paper. The
stock market always comes back, so make sure it's the
company and not the market you're selling. Also,
remember that your next investment has to perform even
better on percentage basis just to overcome the losses
and get you back to your portfolio's value as it stood
before you sold, so it might be better to just hold on.
Re-evaluate the stock as if you didn't already own it,
and then make a decision based on the fundamentals.
- Because the company has been the victim of temporary
bad news. The market reacts with terror to even the
slightest bit of bad news, but that's no reason that
you have to join in the melee. Keep your eye on the
long-term, and judge the impact of the news on the
stock's long-term potential, instead.
Don't make the mistake of getting tripped up by one of these common errors in selling. The Stock Selection Guide is your best tool to evaluate your
current holdings, so put the power of your personal computer
to work today with NAIC Investor's Toolkit, NAIC Stock
Analyst, NAIC Classic Plus or NAIC Take
Stock.
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Copyright 2004 ICLUBcentral Inc. All rights reserved.
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