I am starting an investment club, and have the mechanics
down. Entering this world is very, very confusing viz.
choices. Can someone help advise:

1. Brokerage firm: BetterInvesting has a firm myStockFund
that offers fractional investments and dividend
reinvestment. Does anybody else offer that?
Recommendations of brokers that are good and well priced?

2. Accounting software seems confusing. Looks like Bivio is
a good deal with taxes built in. Is there any reason to
look at the iClub software?

3. Stock and Portfolio analysis: This seems to be the most
confusing area. The new 1 year "stockcentral" seems
interesting, with the built in TakeStock. However, the
Investor's Toolkit looks better, but is expensive. The
Classic Plus seems to have everything I need, but is it
worth it over stockcentral? Where do I get the SSG data for
these stocks??? For now from stockcentral, but then what
after one year?

4. Do I need to join Betterinvesting? Does everyone in my
club? Seems like they have an online version of the
expensive software along with the tools.

I would appreciate any help.

Hi, Paul. You will get several suggestions from good folks, so choose
what works best for your club.

1. Broker. Personally, I would stay away from those group funds. You
have to consider not only the low buy price, but also the monthly fee to use
the service, and the cost to sell. A couple of low cost online brokers
that are club friendly are TDAmeritrade and Scottrade, and there are
others, so investigate their account offerings on their websites to see what
their minimum requirements and account fees might be. You need not only a
broker to give you inexpensive trading fees with little or no account
maintenance fees, but also free checking. Watch those fees and expenses,
they cut down your return on investments.

2. I won't comment on which accounting program to use, as I have
insufficient experience with bivio. My club uses Club Accounting Online.

3.Stock and Portfolio analysis. StockCentral currently offering a year
free trial, has TakeStock on line for stock analysis, and company data that
can be downloaded into Toolkit or printed out for review and comparisons.
After their free year, they are $39 annually. They are a relatively new
service, and expanding rapidly with educational resources and discussion
forums. Some pretty good folk are providing them content.

BetterInvesting is just now rolling out their stock and mutual fund analysis
online tools. To have access to all of that, and not just their public page
and BI magazine, is going to run $79/$84, for either club members or
individuals. I have checked their stock analysis, it is a good education,
but somewhat slow, more on the par with Classic. They have the more
established club and chapter network.

For personal software, Toolkit from IClub includes portfolio management
tools that Classic does not. I would definitely go with Toolkit.

4. Do you need to join BI? Your choice. Membership for the club alone
gets you liability insurance, and that's about all. Oh, I forgot a
subscription to Barrons. For members, $25 annually right now, unless that
gets raised as well, will get them the BI magazine. $59 more if they want
the other online tools and SDS data Service.

I wouldn't be surprised to see an alliance of clubs and volunteer chapters
building up with StockCentral.

Gene Rooks, SWIM Club
Space Coast Chapter

Hi Paul,

Congratulations on starting your new club! We will offer any help you need
here. I suggest that you also familiarize yourself with BetterInvesting on
CompuServe. They LOVE newbies over there and they have a special board just
for you! Find it here:
http://community.compuserve.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ws-naic&redirCnt=1

You can also find a checklist for starting a club on my club's board at
www.bivio.com/crowriver. Just look under Newcomers. It's called So You
Want to Start a Club?

> 1. Brokerage firm:

Many of us use either Scottrade or Firstrade.com. They charge $7 and $6.95,
respectively. I think they are very comparable. I can't vouch for
Scottrade, but I can tell you that Firstrade is very club friendly. I'm
sure others will chime in. Firstrade.com lets you open an account online.
You can print and mail your paperwork, then send a check later.

> 2. Accounting software seems confusing. Looks like Bivio is
> a good deal with taxes built in. Is there any reason to
> look at the iClub software?

Well, you ARE on the Bivio board, so I doubt you'll get an unbiased view
here! <G> They are similar programs. Some of who've used both feel that
the software, user-ability, and the tech support are superior here. Plus,
it's less expensive.

> 3. Stock and Portfolio analysis: This seems to be the most
> confusing area. The new 1 year "stockcentral" seems
> interesting, with the built in TakeStock. However, the
> Investor's Toolkit looks better, but is expensive. The
> Classic Plus seems to have everything I need, but is it
> worth it over stockcentral? Where do I get the SSG data for
> these stocks??? For now from stockcentral, but then what
> after one year?

StockCentral is new. They will have education, forums to discuss just about
everything, technical support eventually, and data files for your stock
analysis programs, all for $39/year. Can't beat this deal.

As far as the software goes, Take Stock is an excellent way to start! It's
a great beginner's program. But it doesn't provide for advanced analysis or
portfolio management like Toolkit does. Classic doesn't either. Another
option is to use the Take Stock program in conjunction with a membership at
Manifest Investing. www.manifestinvesting.com That combination is also
good. You'll have to sign up for free trials and check into all these
options. And keep asking questions! I like to tell newbies that the moment
the fog clears and you are ready to start your club--not before. You simply
cannot do enough advance work here. The more you do, the better your club
will be.

> 4. Do I need to join Betterinvesting? Does everyone in my
> club? Seems like they have an online version of the
> expensive software along with the tools.

OK, this is tricky. My club left NAIC (BetterInvesting) 3 years ago, along
with about 500,000 other people. My response would be HELL NO. Others
don't feel that way. They do not have software. They probably have some
royalties from IClub.com who owns all the software. IClub owns
StockCentral. Just go direct on that.

Buying Toolkit 5 at $219 is cheaper than $169 plus a $79 membership at NAIC.
And the software will last for a long time.

Does that help?

Lynn Ostrem, President
garbagecop@earthlink.net
Crow River Investment Club
www.bivio.com/crowriver