Ask Me
Welcome
Use this guide to find and explore business sources for financial investments.
Guide Contents
Industry - Companies are part of, or comprise, something bigger, i.e. Industries. Use this page for links to databases with a wealth of industry-related information.
Company - This page is composed of sources that provide profiles of companies. Financial information for publicly traded companies is easier to find b/c of regulations.
Other important information - Use this page to learn more about financial terms and tools.
Bloomberg, articles, etc. - Use this page to find general information about our Bloomberg terminals. One must physically be in the Bruno Library or Bashinsky Computer Lab to use this resource.
Learning Objectives
- know where to get a macro/micro view of the economy.
- know how to define the following: Industry, Industry classification (name two systems), Company,
- know what UA Libraries' (UAL) database(s)* have industry/company information, be able to recognize (by name) some of the associated databases.
- be able to use Industry/Company databases to locate company profiles, financials and their associated industries.
- know about some free, online sources that have excellent business information content.
- be able to use some UAL databases to locate articles from 1000s of publications.
- be able to explain what the Bloomberg Information Service is and what opportunities it can provide for students.
- know what entities such as FINRA, AAII, ICI and SEC.gov have to offer for investors.
- be better informed about UA Libraries, our subscription databases, some of our services and who to call upon for additional assistance.
General Information
All sources shown are UA subscription databases unless otherwise noted. The online sources can be found on the Bruno Library Databases page. To gain remote access to these sources be sure to use your myBama password and login.
Economic Data
FOMC:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomc.htm - this link will take you to the Federal Reserve page that contains a description of the FOMC, meeting calendars, transcripts, FAQs and more.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fomc.asp - Investopedia is a good, business information reference source.
https://www.stlouisfed.org/in-plain-english/introduction-to-the-fomc - If you are ever in St. Louis vist the Federal Reserve. They have an excellent, interactive exhibit area called Inside the Economy Museum. It's free!
One can search UA Libraries' holdings---both physical and digital---using Scout and set parameters such as eBooks. Here is one eBook that was retrieved with this search tool.
US Economy
Common Acryonyms
COMMON ACRONYMS
| AMEX or ASE | American Stock Exchange |
| CD | Certificate of deposit |
| DJIA | Dow Jones Industrial Average |
| EBT | Earnings before tax |
| EDGAR | SEC's Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system |
| EPS | Earnings per share |
| ETF | Exchange traded fund |
| IPO | Initial public offering |
| IRA | Individual Retirement Account |
| NASD | National Association of Securities Dealers |
| NASDAQ | NASD Automated Quotation |
| NAV | Net Asset Value |
| NYSE | New York Stock Exchange |
| OTC | Over-the-counter |
| ROI | Return on investment |
| SEC | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission |