Web sites let you leave no fund unturned: track fund lists, set up portfolios and get a handle on long-and short-term performance

Money Digest, Oct, 2002

Web sites a wealth of tracking information

After purchasing mutual funds, it's natural and often wise to want to see how they are doing. Well, there is a number of ways to do this. You can track the performance of individual mutual funds through tables in both The Globe and Mail and the Financial Post section in National Post. However, there are many Web sites that will let you track your portfolio online on a continuous basis.

One of the larger and well-known sites is The Globe and Mail's Globefund (www.globefund.com). As with many other sites, Globefund allows you to track your portfolio from any specific time period. Other features include: linking to other mutual fund sites, daily news information, resources to understand mutual funds, fund company profiles, closed-end fund data, market information, fund manager interviews and portfolio charting capabilities. The site also has a five-star rating system that lets you see which funds are performing well and which are not.

This past year Globefund also introduced a fee-based service, GlobeinvestorGOLD, which gives access to additional information such as buy-side ratings that inform investors what Canadian mutual funds are doing with their stocks, price downloads, fund alerts to your e-mail that will tell you when something happens concerning your mutual funds, profiles of fund managers and exclusive news articles. A one-year subscription to this service is $99.50. The monthly subscription is being promoted at $9.95 (regularly $14.95).

Another well-known Web site is The Fund Library (www.fundlibrary.com). Its portfolio tracking system is free with registration. Simply key in the name of the fund, purchase date, price and the number of units purchased. Once this is done, you will have access to details on how your funds are performing. You can also compete to win cash prizes in their investing contests.

Morningstar Canada (www.morningstar.ca), like The Fund Library and Globefund, has a portfolio tracking system (Note: Once again registration is free). Other Web site features include: industry information such as fund performance, popularity lists of funds, featured reports, market movers, and a report on two fund managers a week; fund profiles giving comprehensive information on over 2,000 mutual funds; news articles; feature articles and reports; a glossary of terms and phrases used in the industry; and links connecting users to other sites.

Quicken Canada (www.quicken.ca) is another site of interest. Quicken allows you to track your portfolio, see how your funds are doing versus other funds in the same fund category and receive current and past mutual fund information. The monthly magazine MoneySense has become a part of this site.

Other mutual fund research

If you want to check up on a mutual fund company, check out www.sedar.com. SEDAR is the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval. Public companies including mutual funds must file their prospectus documents in the SEDAR system. In addition to regulatory documents that must be filed with SEDAR, the site also gives basic information about the company or mutual fund.

Other Web sites that offer mutual fund information include:

* Canoe Money (www.webfin.com) has performance information on your favourite funds including winners and losers;

* Fundscope (www.fundscope.com) is a fee-based comprehensive rating service for Canadian investors;

* I. E. Money (www.iemoney.com) is a monthly magazine that contains articles on mutual funds;

* Fund Watch (www.fundwatch.ca) links investors to mutual fund companies;

* The Investor Learning Centre (www.investorlearning.ca) provides educational material on mutual funds;

* Investcom (www.investcom.com) allows you to search for mutual funds by either company name and/or category;

* Investing Canada (www.mutualfunds.about.com) provides links to other mutual fund sites containing mutual fund general information, mutual fund companies, performance charts, NAVPS, segregated fund links, and labour-sponsored fund links;

* Finance from Canada.com (finance.canada.com) contains daily pricing information, new items and mutual fund resources.

* Well-known financial author Gordon Pape's Web site (www.gordonapape.com) has mutual fund-specific articles as well as a fund selector. A directory of 146 fund companies is also provided. When selecting a fund company you are able to see the specific funds offered as well as their risk rating, type, RRSP-eligibility, load and more.

* Also, most of the Internet portal sites such as MSN, Sympatico, AOL and Yahoo have a finance section that will contain general mutual information like pricing, performance, general articles and links.