# Globe and mail Globe Plus or Morningstar premium subscription?



## leoc2 (Dec 28, 2010)

Wanting to do more reading. Cost differences aside, does anyone have an opinion on which service you prefer?


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## Islandguy (Oct 19, 2011)

I use www.globeinvestorgold.com through the Globe and Mail. It is a great tool for searching and researching stocks, but it does not include a large amount of written reports and recommendations (I think Morningstar does). I would not say it is worth the price. 

Luckily, my father pays for the subscription to Globeinvestorgold, and about 5 of my family members use the same subscription. This makes it worthwhile. Perhaps you could considering going halfers with someone, or sharing passwords so you can gain access to both sites. 

I'm hoping to sign up for Morningstar in the near future, but at $200, it is tough to justify the price.


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## augustabound (Apr 20, 2009)

leoc2 said:


> Wanting to do more reading. Cost differences aside, does anyone have an opinion on which service you prefer?


Keep in mind that some online brokers include access to these services or if you don't have an online broker currently check into it. 

I think I read that globeinvestor gold is available through TD Waterhouse and I think Morningstar is available through Disnat. 

So if you're looking for a broker too, search a bit and you may save yourself the membership. (But of course, don't make this your primary reason for choosing the broker, it's one of those "nice to have" things)


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

Wow, trying the Disnat demo account. This thing is F A S T.

Why can't other brokers be like this? You'd think they're too poor to hire a decent web programmer. TDW is almost as bad as Rogers site.


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## leoc2 (Dec 28, 2010)

augustabound said:


> Keep in mind that some online brokers include access to these services or if you don't have an online broker currently check into it.
> 
> I think I read that globeinvestor gold is available through TD Waterhouse and I think Morningstar is available through Disnat.
> 
> So if you're looking for a broker too, search a bit and you may save yourself the membership. (But of course, don't make this your primary reason for choosing the broker, it's one of those "nice to have" things)


I'm with BMO investorline and found the morningstar access after my original post.


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## augustabound (Apr 20, 2009)

ddkay said:


> Wow, trying the Disnat demo account. This thing is F A S T.
> 
> Why can't other brokers be like this? You'd think they're too poor to hire a decent web programmer. TDW is almost as bad as Rogers site.


The big banks don't have to be fast. They know the switching costs keep most people there. 

Thanks for the heads up on the demo at Disnat. I may try it out, but I don't see going there, RBC discount allows U.S.$ in registered accounts and until everybody else (other than Questrade) allows it, I don't see going anywhere else.


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

That's a good point, why do so many places not let you hold USD in registered accounts? TD lets me buy NYSE listed shares in my TFSA, but only by converting the purchase amount in USD to CAD at the moments spot rate. It seems very inefficient, if you already have USD you can use for the same purpose..


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

ddkay said:


> That's a good point, why do so many places not let you hold USD in registered accounts? TD lets me buy NYSE listed shares in my TFSA, but only by converting the purchase amount in USD to CAD at the moments spot rate. It seems very inefficient, if you already have USD you can use for the same purpose..


This is my biggest peeve with the big banks and why I stay with Questrade. Imagine the cost of converting back and forth over the years. If DISNAT fixed this I would seriously consider them, as they are also the only Cdn brokerage with mobile trading apps. The big banks just have no competition


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

ok i see it's going to be one of those blast-the-banks saturdays.

little bear how can you possibly tell from an online broker's demo, especially outside trading hours, how fast their website really is.

it's quotes & order transmission in real time that need to be examined. One cannot know about order transmission until one opens an account & actually uses it. Uses it not once, but enough times, with enough kinds of securities, and in enough different markets, to actually have an accurate opinion.

btw you're feeling all fetucchi because tdw acts difficult over US purchases in tfsa ? so keep US stuff somewhere else. By the time your tfsa gets big enough to hold serious stuff tdw will have a new mainframe that'll be capable of supporting all US strategies up & running ...


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## Assetologist (Apr 19, 2009)

mode3sour said:


> If DISNAT fixed this I would seriously consider them, as they are also the only Cdn brokerage with mobile trading apps. The big banks just have no competition


CIBC also has apps for banking and their discount brokerage.


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## nahanni (Nov 24, 2011)

*Market research re mutual funds. Tracking investment returns.*

Hi

I subscribe to Globeinvestor Gold and trade mostly in mutual funds. I like it for the tracking in My Portfolio. It is the best tracking / accounting for investment returns that I have seen. All the reinvested distributions are automatically recorded. Daily prices are posted more quickly than elsewhere. The portfolio tools are excellent for balancing your portfolio. The charts are excellent. I use them extensively to compare with other funds.

The fund profiles are pretty comprehensive. But there is little commentary about the funds. I enjoy reading the columnists but would not purchase the service for that.

I used Morningstar before they changed it to premium services. Their portfolio management has some interesting tools to analyze funds. But entering and maintaining the data is cumbersome. I like their fund commentary and analysis. But I prefer Globeinvestor Gold.

I use TDW brokerage. They have commentary from Morningstar on it. But it much abbreviated and I do not refer to it often. 

There is no info from Globeinvestor Gold that I can find. I use research mostly to track the indexes and read commentaries. TDW does not provide any investment return analysis that I can find. I have not found any good way to download investment transactions into Quicken and enter them manually. There is also no analysis to allow analysis of asset composition in order to balance mutual funds. Basically, I use TDW just to make trades. 

I also track my investments in Quicken. It provides investment returns but it may not be reliable if you do not understand how they are computing returns and entering the appropriate data. My primary use of Quicken is as accounting software for all my financial transactions. I also use for accounting clients because it excels at recording investment transactions.

I also use Morningstar's Paltrak software for mutual funds. It provides a wealth of fund analysis that you cannot get elsewhere. It is cumbersome to get around. The portfolio accounting is extremely cumbersome and not useful as a permanent record. Entry of data is really a pain. Prices are only updated once a month. It is very expensive at $650/ year.

While I like the data, I will not be renewing it. I can see why it is useful for investment consultants where the cost is pooled among several consultants. Personally, I cannot imagine entering the data to track my client's portfolios. This software needs much improvement to be really useful to track entirely portfolios. I suspect most use it only to print off fund profiles and comparisons. It has the potential to be a powerful all-round investing tool. But they need a better vision about how it could be used and make it more user friendly.


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