Companies & Finance: Websites

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Dictionary sites

Financial Glossary
From Yahoo! Finance
Hypertextual Finance Glossary
From Campbell R. Harvey at Duke

Company Stock Research Sites

There are many commercial providers of financial and investment information. These are only a sample, but all include a good amount of "free" market information; e.g. current stock quotes, stock indices, market and company news. Sites with strengths in particular areas are noted.

Bloomberg
Good for business news. This site also has many calculators (e.g. for car loans, mortgages, insurance, currency exchange, investments ...).
MSN Money
Reuters.com - Stocks
Yahoo! Finance - Stock Research Center

Comprehensive, 'meta', sites

Yahoo! Finance
A good site for public company research, with an intro to investing, screeners, calculators, calendars, and an Education Center, among many other features.
Financial Web
A commercial site (owned by Internet Brands, Inc.), with decent introductory articles on many aspects of finance.

Types of investments

Sites about types of investments, that is ...

ADR's

If you're not sure what an ADR (American Depositary Receipt) is, here's a quick definition from Wikipedia.

ADR.com (from JP Morgan)

Bonds

IPO's

Mutual funds

Company Directory sites

These sites offer limited information on companies, usually only products or services, location and contact information. They do not usually distinguish between public and private companies.

Europages
"The European B2B search engine"
MacRAE's Bluebook
An industrial directory for the US
MBendi.co.za
"While MBendi’s scope includes all the regions of the world and all industry sectors, our main focus is on energy, mining, travel, trade and the developing world, especially Africa."
ThomasNet.com
Formerly the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers, a giant set of yellow pages for industry. Registration required, but searching is free.

Socially responsible investing

In addition to the websites below, be sure to check out the subscription database ESG Manager for SRI screening.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
An international initiative to develop voluntary sustainability reporting guidelines for public companies. Works in cooperation with the United Nations Global Compact.
Corporate Register
This is the repository for reports written under the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). Registration required, but reports are free to view.
CSR Wire
A news site about corporate social responsibility; also has some GRI reports.
EthiSphere Institute
"... an independent center of research, best practices and thought leadership that promotes best practices in corporate ethics and compliance ..." They publish a list of the World's Most Ethical Companies.
GMI Ratings
GMI Ratings is the leading independent provider of global corporate governance and ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) ratings for companies worldwide. In 2010, The Corporate Library and GovernanceMetrics International merged to form GMI Ratings.
Green Money Journal
A monthly publication.
GreenBiz.com
A sustainability news site.
ICCR (Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility)
"... a coalition of faith and values-driven organizations who view the management of their investments as a powerful catalyst for social change."
MSCI ESG Socially Responsible Indices
Includes the KLD 400 Social Index (launched in 1990), perhaps the oldest socially responsible stock index.
PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment)
"The United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Initiative is an international network of investors working together to put the six Principles for Responsible Investment into practice."
Here's a link to the six principles.
UNEP Finance Initiative
Founded in 1992, after the Rio Earth Summit.
US SIF
Formerly the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment.
A professional organization for professionals, firms, institutions and organizations engaged in sustainable and responsible investing.

US Governmental Sites

EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis & Retrieval System)
As of 6 May 1996, this is the automated and required way for US public companies to submit their documents (a.k.a. filings or forms) to the SEC, or Securities & Exchange Commission. There are exceptions of course; click here for a full description of what's there and what's not.
Forms List - SEC
Descriptions of the individual filings (grouped by type, or alphanumeric) and what should be in them (e.g. Proxy Statements, 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K reports).
FRED - St. Louis Federal Reserve Board Data
Current and historical U.S. economic and financial data.
FRASER
Historical data and statistical publications of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank.

Lists (Forbes, Fortune ...)

Exchanges

This is not a comprehensive list obviously ...

Chicago Stock Exchange
CME Group
Possibly the largest futures exchange, it is comprised of four Designated Contract Markets (DCMs); they are the formerly independent the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, and the New York Mercantile and Commodity Exchanges. For some explanation of their history, try this Wikipedia article.
NASDAQ
NYSE Euronext
Formerly just the New York Stock Exchange, this exchange is complicated -- it acquired the American Stock Exchange ...
Wikipedia's List of stock exchanges

Corporate culture

Executive PayWatch (AFL-CIO)
"Uncovering a Company's Corporate Culture is a Critical Task for Job-Seekers"
An interesting article by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., on LiveCareer.com.
Vault.com

Currency Exchange Rates

OANDA.com
Includes historical calculations back to 1990 for 164 currencies. (Limit of 2000 data points for historical conversions.)
Universal Currency Converter - XE