Messages: What Members Are Asking On-Line

Where can I find the standard deviation of an individual stock’s price over a period of time?

—J.C.

Figure 1. StockCharts.com CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE FULL SIZE.

CI Editor Responds: The StockCharts Web site (www.stockcharts.com) allows you to plot the standard deviation of a stock. The figure below shows a one-year daily price chart for IBM with the standard deviation plotted on the top of the chart. To plot the standard deviation, create a Sharp Chart for the desired ticker. You can then adjust the timeframe and select standard deviation from the Indicators area. Users can plot daily charts for up to three years at no cost. Subscriptions to StockCharts.com, which offer longer charting periods, more indicators, and advanced features such as technical screening, begin at $9.95 per month.

Is there a Web site that covers preferred and convertible preferred stocks?

—P.K.

CI Editor Responds: We have found two Web sites that deal with preferred and convertible preferred stocks—PreferredsOnline (www.epreferreds.com) and ConvertBond.com (www.convertbond.com).

PreferredsOnline, a service of BondsOnline, allows subscribers to research and track preferred stocks, convertible preferred stocks, preferred funds, REIT preferred funds, and baby bonds—exchange-traded $25 par value corporate bonds. The service covers over 3,000 North American preferred stock securities.

Subscribers to PreferredsOnline may also set up portfolios of preferred stock, convertible preferred stock, and corporate bonds to track their investments as well as receive alerts for dividend and call announcements, dividend changes, ratings changes, and capitalization changes. Users can perform express searches based on issue name, CUSIP, and ticker, or more in-depth searches based on maturity and call dates, rating, coupon, dividend date, price, yield, and security type. Once you have run a screen, individual security data and research is also available.

Subscriptions cost $29.95 per month for access to preferred securities.

ConvertBond.com is a division of Morgan Stanley and currently tracks over 800 convertible securities. The site offers news on numerous topics including new issues, conference calls, redemptions and calls, credit rating actions, buy backs, and bankruptcies. Users can create multiple portfolios of convertible securities as well as receive alerts for their holdings based on such items as new issues, conference calls, redemptions and calls, buy backs, spins, symbol changes and SEC filings. There is also a search module where users can specify criteria such as issuer; the price of the convertible security and the underlying stock; year-to-date price performance of the convertible and the underlying stock; current yield; premium; parity of the convertible; industry and sector; and Moody’s and Fitch ratings.

Membership to ConvertBond.com costs between $200 and $2,500 per year. A free seven-day trial is available.