Subject: Information Sources - Value Line

Last-Revised: 10 Aug 1997
Contributed-By: John Schott (schott at voicenet.com), Chris Lott (contact me)

The Value Line Investment Survey is the grand-daddy of published information about stocks of large companies (primarily U.S. companies plus a few leading ADRs). It is a weekly, three-part publication, but it takes 3 months to cycle through the full list of stocks covered. The main document reviews one firm per page (over 100 per week), with a description of the business, a chart showing the historical stock performance, tables showing key financial data, plus a written commentary about the prospects of the firm. They cover over 1700 stocks in their normal edition, and over 5,000 in extended coverage offered at higher prices. The weekly document also includes short notes on important developments in covered stocks. A separate booklet updates summary ratings and fundamental information on all of the 1700 stocks each week. A third document highlights a stock of the week and gives Value Line's views of the market. They also have a new CD-ROM based service that duplicates the data in the hard copy edition and offers the ability to search and compare stocks automatically. Several recent reviews have critiqued the way the program works - but not the quality nor quantity of the renowned Value Line data base.

Value Line proudly advertises their rating system. They divide stocks into 5 classes (1 is best). Over the years, their #1 rated stocks have significantly outperformed the markets (and each other group, its subordinates, as well). Value Line has been highly

regarded for the both the quality and quantity of its data for decades. Almost the Lingua Franca of investors, you'll find a well-thumbed copy in most broker's offices, as well as many public and university libraries.

Value Line offers a special, 10-week trial subscription for US$75 (frequently discounted to $55) which will get you the full set of pages plus a few updates. A six-month subscription currently costs $300, and one year is $570. The CD-ROM trial subscription is $55 ($95 for the 5000+ stock version). One-year CD-ROM subscriptions cost up to $995.

Visit their web site at http://valueline.com, or contact them the old-fashioned way:

Value Line Publishing Inc.
220 East 42nd Street
New York, New York 1001-5891
800 535 9648 ext 2761
+1 212 907-1500

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