Harnessing the Internet for investing

Question:  I am a do-it-yourself kind of person and I would like to learn the ropes of investing by myself. Are there any books out there that could serve as my guide?—asked at “Ask a friend, ask Efren” free service at www.personalfinance.ph

Answer:  Actually, you do not even have to buy any books for now because there is a wealth of information on the Internet to get you started on investing.

But as they say, not all that is on the Internet is accurate.

That is why I have listed a number of sites that you may use to guide you in investing in the Philippines.

Please note that I will just highlight certain features of the sites. There is a lot more to see once you actually visit them.

Firstly, you would want to know if an investment is legit or not.  The first site to check out would be the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) website (www.sec.gov.ph).

Not only will you see a host of advisories on the scams out there, you get to see the financial statements and all other reports submitted by SEC-regulated companies through SEC iView.

SEC iView costs only P100 per “load” and comes with a username and password.  In the comfort of your home, just log onto the SEC iView page, enter the provided username and password, and off you go.  Each page you view deducts P0.20 from your load. Each page you print takes out P5.00 from your load.  Each load is valid for one year.

You may also want to visit the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipnas’ (BSP) website (www.bsp.gov.ph).

The BSP’s home page is the portal to its many recent media releases, issuances, publications and even speeches.

Watch out for the minutes of the Monetary Board (MB) meetings because they present a comprehensive view of the economy as well as MB policies. There are also invaluable statistics that you can use for your investment research.

If it is insurance you are after, visit the Insurance Commission’s (IC) web site (www.insurance.gov.ph). The IC’s website also has important statistics on the insurance industry that will be helpful in making both investment and insurance decisions.

Talking about statistics, you may want to check out the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) “Quickstat” (https://web0.psa.gov.ph/statistics/quickstat), which is a compilation of the National Statistics Office’s most requested statistics.

With Quickstat, you get to see statistics from the consumer price index and national income accounts to family planning and education.

If you are after the exchanges in the country, you have a choice of visiting the website of the Philippine Stock Exchange or PSE (www.pse.com.ph) or the Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corporation or PDS (www.pds.com.ph).

Both websites will give you near real-time price quotes on equity and fixed income securities.

In addition, the PDS gives the latest quotes on foreign exchange and benchmark interest rates.

For its part, the PSE gives latest disclosure information on listed companies, including initial public offering (IPO) news.

If you want to see bond ratings, you have a choice among many rating agency web sites.

There is the local Philippine Rating Services Corporation (www.philratings.com) as well as the international rating agencies of Moody’s (www.moodys.com), S&P (www.standardandpoors.com), and Fitch (www.fitchratings.com).

If you want access to fundamental research and near real-time price quotes, you may want to visit the Reuters (www.reuters.com) and Bloomberg (www.bloomberg.com) websites.  Both websites also have their mobile phone versions, cool apps for those on the go. Both provide fundamental and technical analysis on companies.

Reuters even combines the recommendations of several analysts.  There are free and paid services.  But the free services alone can get you far already.

When it comes to indirect investing through pooled funds, you may check out the website for mutual funds (www.pifa.com.ph) and unit investment trust funds (www.uitf.com.ph).

These are comprehensive sites on the latest investment performance of funds, industry statistics as well as lessons on investing.

So far, we have been talking about financial securities as investment outlets.

If you want to invest in your own business, check out the website of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) at www.dti.gov.ph.

The DTI has many free publications for downloading. They also have services for start-ups that range from business name registration, to counseling, and to patents/copyrights/trademark registration.

By the way, single proprietors register their business name with the DTI. For partnerships and corporations, you will need to register your business name through the website of the SEC.

Both the DTI and SEC websites will only tell you if a business name does not yet exist.  You will still have to pay for the registration and go through the regular registration process to secure that name.

To know more about investing in financial securities or a business, visit www.personalfinance.ph.  There is also a wealth of free tools to allow you to hit the ground running with investing.

You may also want to attend our EnRich™ Wealth Management training run on Jan. 31 and the Financial Planners’ training starting on Feb. 7, both in Mandaluyong City.

Details can also be found in www.personalfinance.ph.

(Efren Ll. Cruz is a Registered Financial Planner of RFP Philippines, personal finance coach, seasoned investment adviser and bestselling author. Questions about the article may be sent by SMS to 0917-505-0709 or emailed to [email protected]. To learn more about the RFP program, attend a FREE orientation on January 8, 2015, 7pm at the PSE Center. Email [email protected] or text <name><e-mail><RFP> at 09173464126 to register.)