Category: News & Chatter

News & Chatter

Stock Market Clouds

I have combined stock market trading and tag clouds to create Market Clouds.

Market Clouds shows the popularity and activity of stock market companies.

The font size of the symbol is determined by the symbols market trading popularity or activity. A bigger font size means the stock is actively trading and popular. A smaller font size shows the stock is less active and less people are trading it.

I find tag clouds and market clouds fascinating. Clouds are a way to order and prioritize seemingly endless amounts of data and information flow.

Market Clouds allow you to quickly visualize the popular or active stocks of the day, by weeding out inactive or unpopular stocks by making them smaller, and showing us the juicy plays and most popular and active stocks with huge letters.

Check it out and let me know what you think about Market Clouds!

Google Introduces Google Finance

Google has introduced Google Finance pages for stock charts, news, and company data. The Google Finance pages aim to compete with the likes of Yahoo! Finance and Microsoft’s MSN Moneycentral.

I still prefer using Yahoo! Finance for most of my research, but the I do enjoy the crisp look and feel of the new Google Finance pages. Over the coming weeks I see myself utilizing Google Finance pages more and more for my stock market research.

The Google Finance main page for a stock ticker displays useful information, such as basic balance sheet information, company news, and an interesting chart application. The charts allow you to scroll left or right allowing you to seamlessly move forwards or backwards in the price and volume history of a company. Check out GOOG at Google Finance to browse Google’s stock price and company information.

Well, I like the new Google Finance pages. What do you think about them?

Rumor: Google Buying Sun Microsystems

I was reading a news aggregation website, reddit, and came across a blog article regarding Google buying Sun Microsystems.

Logically, I could see this rumor coming to fruition. I think part of me would like to see Sun, a company I respect, purchased by Google, another company I highly respect.

Google and Sun are (supposedly?) working together to create Google Office – an online suite of software to challenge Microsoft Office. Sun is known for it’s excellent server hardware and the Java environment. Google is constantly and perhaps exponentially growing in its need for data storage and processing power. Google needs more computing resources. Fast. Google may also need more human resources, another advantage it would gain from buying Sun. Sun Microsystems engineers and developers consistently produce high quality software and systems.

My question is: What could Google possibly gain from purchasing Sun Microsystems? True, Sun has the hardware and people that Google could use. But does Google really need Sun Microsystems?

The only possibility I can think of is based on another rumor: the GoogleOS.

Has anyone else heard this rumor of Google planning to buy Sun?

Read the original article: It looks like Google’s Buying Sun After All.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

A stock trader friend linked me to an article stating the “Google Buying Sun Microsystems” rumor is completely false and the rumor is being used to manipulate Sun Microsystem’s (NASDAQ: SUNW) stock price. This article contains background information regarding the rumor’s author and the rumor history. Read the article: Digg is used for Sun stock manipulation.

It appears this rumor has been verified as being a completely false rumor.

BlackBerry Patent Settlement Reached

Research In Motion, the maker of the popular BlackBerry, has a reached a settlement with the patent holding company NTP.

In the settlement, Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) has agreed to pay NTP $613 million for the rights to use the patent. RIMM’s use of the NTP patent for the BlackBerry will run out in 2012.

In after-hours trading, shares of RIMM drastically jumped 20% (+13.68) upwards, closing at 85.60, due to the positive news of the settlement agreement.

For more information, check out RIMM @ Yahoo! Finance.

Stock Market Business News Research

Stock market research can be a daunting task for many people, especially beginning traders and people new to stock market and mutual funds. As beginners, we haven’t learned the kind of information and news stories we need to filter, and to spot the news that will positively or negatively affect a stock’s price. Constantly staying informed and having good business news sources allows us to maintain a competitive advantage over other traders and investors.

There are many great business news websites. Here are 3 of my favorites:

Yahoo! Finance – I use Yahoo! Finance pages daily to get news about the stocks I’m watching. I also get stock prices, charts, news – easily. I can research stocks based on their sector such as gas, technology, financials. I also research upcoming IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) of companies that will begin trading on the markets. Yahoo! Finance makes it easy to check out a company’s financial situation by reading their Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, and Income Statement.

Google Business News – I enjoy reading Google Business News because of the comfortable, user-friendly interface. Google Business News also displays a thumbnail picture related to the news story. This allows me to quickly scan pages for news stories I am interested based on the picture and headline alone. I cut down the chatter and efficiently filter through vast amounts of new business articles and reports.

Newsvine – This is a new news site I have been using recently which I find very nice and clean like Google Business News, with a twist. Newsvine is partly a community driven news site and partly a traditional wire news site. You can read AP and other wire articles, or you can read articles and news stories by everyday business people in a blog-like way. Currently, you have to be invited to Newsvine or sign-up at their page and wait weeks to be added. I have 10 Newsvine invitations available to give out to friends and readers, which allow you to setup a Newsvine account immediately. The first 10 commentors will receive Newsvine invitations.

What’s your favorite business news website?