Are You a Real Researcher?

If you’re serious about the way you find the stocks you buy and follow them once they’re yours, here’s a link you should definitely check out: www.companysleuth.com. You tell it the stocks you’re interested in, and it automatically searches for and e-mails you stuff that would take you much longer to find – like patent and trademark applications and insider trading reports.

Especially if you trade in a taxable account, it’s possible that this level of detail could tempt you to trade in and out far too often. As discussed last week, even in a tax-deferred account, buy-and-hold generally works best.

But for those who do their investment homework, this site is an easy and at least for now, free way to get a possible edge.

(It may be of even more interest to business folk eager to keep an eye on the competition. As in: “They filed a patent application on what? Uh, oh.”)