With
the boom of technology, information databases are beginning to play larger and
larger roles in all types of business settings. All businesses rely on useful
and important data in order for their businesses to grow, and databases are the
perfect answer for them. At their fingertips is more data than most businesses
could have even imagined before computing technology took off. Before business
owners and employees had entire rooms dedicated to files, which the companies
used as their databases. The drawback in this is how can one company’s data be
shared with others. Database software’s in today’s world are that problems
answer.
One of these software’s is called
Stock Investor Pro from the American Association of Individual Investors. It is
what is called a stock-screening database, and it allows investors to pour over
all kinds of data that is relevant to their next or past investments. It has
over 2,000 different data fields, spreading over 8,000 companies. Whether they
are graphs of past sales numbers, or graphs of projected stock numbers it
allows you to find the correct info. It allows investors to compare company
dividends, which shows which companies are producing enough revenue and profit
to reward their stockholder. All results are kept up to date to allow the
investor to have all the up to date info on a company before they purchase
stock in that company. “Perhaps most important of all, the date of the data for
each company is a screen able field. If you want to ensure the timeliness
of the results, you can identify the latest acceptable date as a criterion in
the screen.”[1]
This
database could also be used for companies looking to either merge or purchase
another company. Private equity firms can compare information and when it comes
time for arbitration and final sale they will know the value of the company and
have a set value on which they are willing to spend to merge with the business.
In this database
there is also an option to do side by side comparison of different companies
“Almost every data field pulled from an SEC filing is used to derive an
industry relative, sector relative and percentile ranking field for screen
criteria comparisons”.[2]
This gives an investor an idea of where the company lies compared to other
businesses in their field. For example if a bank was looking to purchase equity
in a certain pharmaceutical company, they would be able to pull up stock
comparisons from the top pharmaceutical companies to the bottom and see where
their company of interest fits in. Once
they view and compare the information, the database has an option in which they
can save their comparisons and pull them up at any time in the future and look
back on them.
For
any investor this database would be a huge benefit. “It
has been so established as to information the investor pointedly when to
obtain, what to get, what is the possible acquire and when to market off to get
that predicted get. It is as if an veteran investor guiding you by to revenue,
taking you by the hand”[3] The goal of this database
I would have to say is to make try to make the investor feel confident in his
purchase based on the valuable data that this software provides. The more
information it provides the better chance the investor makes a profit in the
end. “With our Stock Investor Pro,
timely data is combined with in-depth data to help you keep abreast of the
market. The monthly updates and weekly online downloads keep you well prepared
to act—act in time to make that critical difference between matching or beating
the market averages”[4]
1.
There
are a few challenges I see with this specific database that I believe an
investor would face. I think that some of the larger investment banks and
corporations would stay away from a database like this. From people I have
talked to in the investment world, they are very picky about where their data
comes from. So for many bigger companies I think would be more inclined to
create their own business database where they know their data comes from the
inside. I see Investor Pro as based more towards individual investors and day
traders. Also when first starting to use the database some investors may not
entirely trust the data is accurate and updated, so it may take a few purchases
and sales to allow the investor to see that all the data is correct and up to
date.
2.
I
believe that this database gives the user advantages in many ways. Being able
to have access to such a vast amount of companies and their data is invaluable
to an investor. The ability to pick out any two or more possible investments
and being able to put them side by side to compare would give any investor and
advantage over someone who does not have this database. In keeping track of the
users investments its also allows them to go over their investing history and
see where they went right or where they made their mistakes.
3.
Overall
I believe this is a pretty sound database, but there are always things that
could be fixed. I believe that instead of weekly and daily updates on company’s
data they should find a way to have up to the minute information in real time
so investors can be privy to changes in data as soon as they occur. This could
mean the difference between making or losing money. Also they only offer one or
two year memberships at a time at a cost of $198 and $299 respectively and that
is already at a major reduced rate. I think they should offer longer more
generous options for customers who have been with the database for a long
period of time, or even a longer option at a much more discounted rate. This
could drastically improve the intrigue in Stock Investor Pro for someone
comparing different stock-screening databases.
No comments:
Post a Comment