For investors in UK Shares, the internet provides access to a vast amount of relevant stock market, investment and financial information, as well as the ability to discuss UK shares and investment with other private investors via bulletin boards and e-mail.

One of the difficulties though, is finding the best sites and 'sorting the wheat from the chaff' as it were. This website then is an attempt to guide the private (and professional!) investor towards the best of what the internet has to offer. Via the internet you can research companies and financial products; order free annual reports; buy and sell shares; discuss investment ideas and shares with others; buy investment books and much more. This page will point you in the direction of the best sites for doing all of these things - why not bookmark it, so that you can refer back to it after you follow the links. If you know of a site that is not here, but by virtue of its quality, should be - please e-mail me to let me know! Likewise, if you are disappointed by one of the sites listed here, please let me know which one and why. This page is frequently updated as I find new information and web sites, so return often to keep up to date with what is available. In fact, why not bookmark this site (or even make it your 'home' page) so that you can refer back to it as you follow the links to recommended sites.

So, regarding useful web sites for information on UK shares, business, money and everything to do with investing in general, I have found the following very helpful:

For general information:

• Useful financial websites - helpful recent article from the Guardian

• ADVFN. An excellent site, which is part of the freeserve portal. Free real time share prices, daily and weekly columns and stock market news, newsletters etc. Well worth a look.

• Business Information and the Internet. Includes information on where to find: business and financial news, company and industry information, business advice and opportunities, self employment advice and general reference resources for financial and business info. Another superb resource with loads of good links.

• City Wire. A useful new site offering information on large and small UK companies; directors dealings; unit and investment trusts and regularly updated city and business news.

• DigitalLook. Another good web site focusing on UK shares. Includes a round up of share tips, company information, a round-up of comments from investment bulletin boards and details of directors share dealings.

• European Investor. An online financial information source for Europe's emergent new markets. The company provides real time and delayed time equity prices, indices, foreign exchange rates, investment tools and financial and market news from both third party sources and in-house journalists.

• FIND. Financial Information Net Directory. For information on UK financial service providers, (banks, building societies, insurance companies, investment managers, unit trusts, peps and isas, loans etc).

• Freequotes. Freequotes is a site that offers free real time share prices for the London Stock Exchange. However to gain access to this you will need to become a free member of themutual.net.

• FT.com (Financial Times). Extensive articles and information from the Financial Times online.

• FT Your Money. A comprehensive UK personal finance site run by the FT. Features include investment news and a portfolio tracker, as well as information on insurance, mortgages, tax, savings, loans, pensions and currency markets.

• Guardian Unlimited - Money. Articles on banking; mortgages; Isas; pensions; credit cards and loans; ethical investing; debt; savings; shares; insurance; tax; careers; gay finance; student finance; wills and other aspects of personal finance.

• Interactive Investor. (iii) Another good site. Has free e-mail discussion forums for UK equities and investment trusts as well as a free portfolio tracker. You can also be alerted by e-mail when one of your shares goes above or below a certain price, which is useful. Also has information on UK share prices, mortgages, savings, new UK share listings, online banking and other personal finance and investment topics. Registration required, but this is free.

• Michael Walters. The Daily Mail columnist and author discusses share tips from his Saturday Investment Extra column. Please note that this site is no longer free and now operates on an annual subscription basis. For a reduced rate subscription (half price) choose the Friend Discount option and enter mellowmark as the referrers username.

• MoneyeXtra. Another investment/ personal finance portal - includes a portfolio tracker and information on bank and building society accounts; unit trusts and UK shares.

• Money SuperMarket. Compare hundreds of personal loans, credit cards, savings accounts, current accounts and other persoanl finance products online.

• Moneyweb. A UK Personal Finance site that provides information on pensions, friendly societies, making a will and interpreting investment performance statistics. Also features lots of interesting articles on personal finance and investing.

• Money Week Magazine. MoneyWeek is a new financial magazine that distills the best of the world's international financial news into just 40 pages. MoneyWeek rapidly brings you up-to-speed with who's getting what, who's tipping what and who's saying what in the world of finance. Brought to you by the publishers of The Week and edited by an impressive team of financial writers.

• Moneywise magazine. Online version of Moneywise, a personal finance magazine.

  
  

  
  

• Motley Fool UK A great site covering British shares with analysis of companies, suggested portfolios and numerous bulletin boards. Other features include: a portfolio tracker; market news and comment; a glossary of financial terms; a guide to ISAS and information on online stockbrokers. Also see the book 'The Motley Fool UK investment guide'.

• Nasdaq. Technology stocks. Has details of every company in the Nasdaq index with data on share price performance and company profiles. Provides share prices, market activity reports and relevant news.

• Nothing-Ventured.com A site from Durlacher Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Durlacher Corporation Plc. The site offers the opportunity to invest in Durlacher hi-tech new issues and private placements, as well as investment news and comments; e-mail alerts that monitor the market for you; stock market news, prices and charting facilities and online trading in realtime.

• Researching Companies Online. Features a step-by-step, interactive tutorial on researching companies using a wide variety of free resources on the internet. Also includes a tutorial on web search strategies.

• Sharepages. A relatively new site which offers UK stock market coverage; analysis of equities; company profiles and quotes.

• SmallBiz UK. Recently listed by the Financial Times as one of their recommended sites for British small firms, Smallbiz.uk.com provides a quick and easy way to get practical help for day-to-day business. Smallbiz.uk.com is independent and works in association with trustworthy organisations who provide products, services and information for small firms.

• The best-selling business, investment and finance books at amazon uk. See what's hot and what's not in business, finance and investment books at amazon.co.uk - updated weekly.

• Thompson Financial Network. ThomsonFN.com is a website providing free tools for selecting and researching stocks. Features stock quotes, news, charts, insider data, institutional interest, stock options and related information.

• UK-invest. If you are looking for the UK Invest site, it has been incorporated into the ADVFN site. An excellent site, which is part of the freeserve portal. Free real time share prices, daily and weekly columns and stock market news, newsletters etc. Well worth a look.

• Using the Internet for Business Information. How to find business information on the internet by using search engines; newsgroups; e-mail discussion lists and other search sources.

• Yahoo UK Finance. Excellent for business and financial news, delayed quotes etc. Other categories include: the euro; a portfolio tracker; message boards; reference sources and currencies.

  Business and Financial News:

• Moreover.com. The latest headlines are provided below, click to read the stories...

  
  

  
  

• Ananova Business News. Ananova Business News - a good news site with frequent updates.

• BBC Business News. BBC Business News - excellent business news service with searchable archives.

• London Evening Standard Business Day Regularly updated business news from the city pages of the London Evening Standard.

• NewsNow Business News. Newsnow Business News - updated every 5 minutes!

• Teletext. Another good source for UK business news with financial headlines and market reports.

  Company Annual Reports:

• CAROL Company Annual Reports OnLine. A limited number of companies with annual reports to read online.

• FT Free Annual reports. For free annual reports of many UK companies from the Financial Times. Order free annual reports online and they will be sent to you by post. Can be slow to load.

  Company Information and Research:

• Hemscott UK Equities. Very useful company information site, providing brokers forecasts, details of major shareholders, company contact information, 5 year profit & loss history, share prices (20 minute delay) and historical share price graphs, bulletin board...etc. Covers both FTSE and AIM stocks. Basic information is free, while more extensive information (directors dealings for example) can be accessed for a monthly fee.

• The New Online Investor Linksite. This web site has links to the homepages for hundreds of UK companies.

• Wright Research Centre. Excellent site giving detailed company information, including a business description, the number of shares in issue, market cap, price trend analysis, latest earnings & dividends, company web site address, quarterly & 12 month earnings and dividends as well as a 'quality rating'.
  

  Currency Converter:

• Oanda An excellent site which features a currency converter as well as currency forecasts, research papers and historical exchange rate data.

• Universal Currency Converter. Extremely useful for converting any currency - find out how much your pounds, dollars or euros are worth.

  The European Single Currency:

• EmuNet. Comprehensive information on European Monetary Union and the single currency. Produced in conjunction with European Insight Group and the European Commission.

• The launch of the Euro. Excellent BBC guide to the Euro including advice for Euro investors.

  Free Shares:

• A number of internet related companies (mainly ISP's and portals) are offering 'free shares' just for registering and using their web sites. These include Totalise (already listed on AIM); The Mutual.net; (another AIM listed company); and Blue Carrots. There is no need to use these companies as your ISP; although you get extra free shares if you do. Totalise offers an excellent free e-mail service; while Blue Carrots offers cashback discounts on online shopping.

  Futures and Options:

• London International Futures Exchange. Futures and options explained by Liffe.

  
  

  

  
  
  

  Investment Trusts:

• Trustnet Investment Trusts. Extensive free information on investment trusts, similar to the unit trust service above. Provides free, daily updated prices, performance, charts and detailed background information on UK Investment Trusts and OEIC's. They also supply data on Exchange Traded Funds, Splits data for Investment Trusts, Venture Capital Trusts, and an Exchange Rates calculator for almost 100 world currencies. Other features include a guide to ethical investment; an ISA Education Guide and a portfolio service.

  Insurance:

• Find. FIND (Financial Information Net Directory) is very useful for finding UK insurance companies; or any other investment or finance related company for that matter.

• GoSure. GoSure is an entirely Internet based travel insurance company offering online travel insurance quotes.

• www.screentrade.co.uk. Compare quotes from major insurance companies and buy online. Offers UK car insurance quotes as well as home and travel insurance.

  New Issues:

• EPO. Aims "to become the leading online investment bank for EPOs (electronic public offerings), a digitalised version of primary market offerings".

• Issues Direct. "Issues Direct has been established to promote direct equity investment by individuals in new issues coming to the market".

  Options:

• Prophet Charts. A US based site, but worth noting for its excellent price and volume charts.

  Ofex:

• Ofex. A useful bookmark for those who hold shares on the unregulated Ofex market. Information is provided on Ofex sectors and prices, trading statistics and new issues as well as a corporate calendar and a 'monthly review'. The site also has answers to frequently asked questions about Ofex

  Stockbrokers:

• Charles-Schwab. Allows online trading of UK and US equities.

• DLJ Direct. Online dealing and lots of company information is available at the UK version of this site from Stockbrokers DLJ Direct.

• Killik & Co. Another online stockbroker with advice and free daily market news. Clients get access to on-line research areas.

• Stocktrade. Offers real time execution only dealing and is part of Brewin Dolphin.

• Torrie & Co.(Fastrade) An online stockbroker with online dealing and a useful free monthly e-mail newsletter.

  
  Technical Analysis:

• Relative Strength Index Triggers. This site gives relative strength index triggers for FTSE stocks which are overbought or oversold. Updated daily using Metastock software.

  Technology, Internet & Biotechnology Shares:

• Bio Equities. Information on Biotechnology Companies. Their mission statement claims that they aim "to meet the increasing demand of scientists, investors, commerce and government for timely, accurate and commercially useful information and intelligence on biotechnology companies, technologies and products world-wide."

• Biotech Analytics. A site that contains press releases from UK biotech companies and is updated whenever there is a new press release.

• Bio UK. Another excellent and very comprehensive site for UK biotechnology shares.

• Equity Investigator. A new site offering free company profiles plus research, opinions and forecasts on 8 selected technology shares, per month. Subscribing (for a fee) provides unlimited access to all the research.

• Techmark Research. Techmarkresearch.com provides information, news and, most importantly, informed comment on the software and IT services companies quoted in London. Techmarkresearch.com also brings you share prices, techMARK indices and, its very own, Software and IT Services Share Index. A very useful site for anybody interested in researching technology stocks and it is updated throughout the day.

  Taxation:

• Inland Revenue. Not most peoples favourite site, but very useful for information on tax - from self-assessment to capital gains tax. A well designed site that is very comprehensive and includes copies of tax forms that can be printed out if your own copy is missing or covered in coffee stains!

• Just Tax: Just Tax is a UK Tax Return service, providing a quick and easy solution to an awkward but important job, giving people more time to do what they enjoy best. It´s a comprehensive package providing completion of UK self assessment Tax Return forms, all calculations and much more. Just Tax is a professional, customised service based on individual circumstances and requirements. You can request a (free) brochure from their site, or try the (free) online quotation request form.

  Unit Trusts and OEICS':

• Morningstar. An excellent website which offers easily accessible and objective information on more than 3000 funds available to individual investors in the UK. Using a set of Morningstar proprietary tools, investors are able to research and follow their fund investments, free of charge. The 'My Portfolio' tracking feature is excellent for keeping tabs on your ISA / PEP and other unit trust holdings. A great tool is the the Portfolio X-Ray™, which will provide a geographical summary of your holdings to assist with asset allocation. You will be able to use the Morningstar Portfolio X-Ray™ feature to find out how your funds are working together. It lets you know if you are diversified enough or over-exposed to a specific sector or region. You can see if the top holdings in each of your funds overlap each other and discover your overall diversification.

• Trustnet Unit Trusts. Free unit trust information service from Trustnet with daily unit trust prices and performance league tables. You can also search for the highest yielding unit trusts to place in an ISA. Another useful feature is the ability to find funds main shareholdings and performance graphs. Also features information on OEICs; a guide to ethical investment; an ISA Education Guide and a portfolio service.

  Other useful (General) sites we recommend:

• Google. Probably the best search engine there is, with an uncanny knack of finding relevant sites. Try it below!
  

  Search WWW Search hotelsandflights.com

• Dead Economists Society. According to the Dead Economists Society they are "dedicated to the appreciation of the extraordinary insights of classical liberal economics. A classical liberal economist is defined as one who has been a champion of free markets, limited government, and the private property order."

• Energy On - Compare UK Gas and Electricity Suppliers Online: Save money on your utility bills - compare rates from all the suppliers in seconds and see how much you can cut your bills by switching supplier.

• Free Bets and UK Online Bookmakers. If you are wanting to place a bet online try this list of UK online bookmakers - some of them even offer you a free bet when you open an account online.

• Creditreport. Get a free copy of your credit report online with a 30-day FREE trial of the CreditCheck Monitoring Service. (USA residents only).

  
  Making the most of the internet for investment:

  There is an excellent book called 'Motley Fool UK Investment Guide', which deals with using the Internet for everything to do with investment. More books are recommended below. The 2nd edition has been updated with revised listings of Websites and a new look.

  In addition, most companies now have their own web sites which should be easy to find using any good search engine, as should any other information you may be looking for. There is a list of suggested search engines and links to information on making the best use of them on this page. If you are new to the internet (or even for the experienced!), the superb little book called 'The Internet:The Rough Guide' covers e-mail, mailing lists, ftp, newsgroups, the Web, search engines, creating your own Web page, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and has a guide to over 600 web sites.

  At the end of the day, there is no substitute for doing your own research and using your own judgement. Bulletin boards, mailing lists and tipsheets can provide useful ideas to follow up or help to confirm your own ideas and information, but can also be used by people wanting to 'ramp' a share for their own profit. The internet opens up a wealth of information to the private investor, the key is to be able to make best use of that information and decide what is worthwhile and what is not. Hopefully, this web site will have helped you a little bit in that respect.

  Recommended Reading:
  Click the logo below for more investment & business books
  and save up to 50% at amazon UK.
   

  Investment Book of the Month:
  The Good Web Guide to Money.
  by David Emery.

  This guide to on-line advice about money contains reviews of over 100 of the best financial websites, categorising them to suit different needs. There are sections covering on-line share dealing, real-time share prices and tips, company profiles and alternative financial markets. For less ambitious investors the book covers on-line personal banking, insurance guidance, tax guidance, as well as saving and investing for children, and which websites to visit to investigate securing the best deals for mortgages and pensions. Each review gives advice as to how to find your way around the larger, more daunting financial websites and all the sites mentioned are rated for quality of information, speed and reliability, ease of navigation and design. The book also gives details of forums, events, newsletters and the best places to exchange views with like-minded people on-line. Highly recommended. Click here for more information on this book.

  The UK Guide to Online Investing.
  by Michael Scott .

  "Written from the point of view that the majority of people are still daunted by the prospect of word-processing, The UK Guide to Online Investing is a useful, if basic, primer to the subject of internet personal finance. The experienced online investor will be underwhelmed by its depth but as a springboard to bigger things, it is surprisingly effective. Published as CD and book package, the text itself is actually more or less a companion to the real work which happens on your screen, walking through the online activities and gaining free launch access into cyberspace". Click here to order online from Amazon UK.

  The Motley Fool UK Investment Guide.
  by David Berger, David Gardner and Tom Gardner.

  An excellent book from the creators of the Motley Fool UK web site, which explains investing and personal finance in a witty and down to earth style. Highly recommended. Click here for more information and reviews of this title.

  Profit from Your PC.
  by David Linton.

  Amazon.co.uk review: "There's one simple tip when planning stock market investments--don't take tips. Use your own research and there's every chance that you can outperform the market, says David Linton in this major revision of his bestseller. He is firmly of the view that turning in profits and avoiding losses is not as difficult as it may seem, with graphs holding the key to success. It is in the interpretation of what they contain-- "everything that everyone in the market already knows about the stock" according to Linton--where profits can be made. His methodical system enables the investor to spot reversals and identify trends with the help of software that allows private investors to have a home system comparable to the sophisticated equipment used by The City. The book offers sound advice in a no-nonsense style and repeatedly highlights the simple central message--cut losses and let profits run. There's advice too on buying a PC, obtaining information from the Internet and other sources, and suitable software to help you on your way, plus the offer of a free copy of the stock market simulation game Profit for Windows, which retails at £9.99. Essential reading for the growing number of small investors." --Stuart Russell. Click here for more information on this title.

  The Internet: The Rough Guide 2004.
  by Angus Kennedy.

  "While most Internet directories are weighty enough to prop open heavy wooden doors, this pocket-sized guide packs a lot into 430 pages. Published by the same people who do the popular Rough Guide travel series, The Internet & World Wide Web makes a terrific resource for travel, but it's also a good directory for your desk. The first section of the book covers the basics of the Net: how to get connected, how to choose an Internet Service Provider (ISP), e-mail, mailing lists, file transfers, newsgroups, the Web, search engines, how to create a Web page, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), online gaming, and how to stay connected while travelling. While the guide doesn't study these topics exhaustively, it provides enough to get your feet wet. Section 2 lists over 600 well-known Web sites, which you can access from the book's Web site. The third section features a well-done discussion of Net "contexts", a short history of the Net, a glossary, and "Net language", such as emoticons or the acronyms used as shorthand in posting and chat. An ISP listing concludes the guide. And if you are bringing this guide on your travels, it provides a list of 50 things to do with selections from the book". --Amazon UK. And at less than £5 this book is a bargain too! Click here for more information on this title.

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