Money Smart Week

Money Smart Week is just around the corner. Are you ready? During April 20-27, organizations around the country will be educating individuals on a variety of personal finance topics. Morningstar has two special events this year which you may want to promote.

The first event will be Wednesday, April 24th at 5:30pm Central. Morningstar’s Christine Benz and Adam Zoll will discuss how to prepare your finances for life events ranging from college planning to saving for retirement. Watch the live stream video or the recording.

In addition to their regular training sessions, they are offering a special Money Smart Week training for Morningstar Investment Research Center users. Login to the webinar and call in to their teleconference on Friday, April 26th at 12pm Central. They’ll focus on navigating the database, using the screening and portfolio analysis tools, and where to find helpful information.

Want to spread the word at your library? Print or post their overview sheet with more detailed information: http://library.morningstar.com/mkt/mirc_moneysmart_2013.pdf

And don’t forget to utilize their new Investing for the Long Run book  – A free guide with strategies and solutions to help you shape up your personal finances – to promote Money Smart Week to your community!

 

Library Programming: ‘Muffins and the Market’

Marketing for Libraries

Patrons of Portage District Library Use ‘Muffins and the Market’ Investment Group

Staff members at the Portage District Library in Michigan go above and beyond for their patrons. One of their most successful programs is an investment and discussion group, Muffins and the Market. Business and reference librarian Nicolette Sosulski explains how the group sessions affect those patrons who look to further their knowledge of the investment world.

Almost four years ago, the group was introduced by Warren Fritz, a veteran investment broker who desired to teach fellow patrons how to use investment resources. The Portage staff shared his interest, forming the Muffins and the Market group. As Sosulski says, “I personally believe that the mission of a library must include educating the public enough to ask tough questions of the professionals with whom they interact–be they investment brokers, medical specialists, lawyers, et cetera.” Meeting twice every month, the group discusses a certain aspect of the market and investment information resources.

Participants have been very receptive to the program. A useful contributor to the meetings is Morningstar Investment Research Center. Stock and fund charts along with the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) examination in the analyst reports prove to be most valuable. Out of all the databases that the Portage library employs, patrons tend to lean toward Morningstar Investment Research Center for reliable financial resources.

Muffins and the Market is not the only successful program that attracts business and investing patrons to Portage District Library. Sosulski and the rest of the staff host an investment program geared for teens that uses National Endowment for Financial Education resources. Speakers from the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulators come to the library and offer one-on-one counseling for patrons. Sosulski also teaches a monthly market research class in addition to other services directed toward business patrons.

Why are Sosulski and the Portage District Library so intent on providing all these financial education services to their patrons? Because, she says, “Having this wealth of investment information and instruction made a dollars-and-sense, real-world difference to each of them.”

If you would like further marketing ideas or material to help promote Morningstar Investment Research Center at your library–or for materials you can use on your own staff training site–contact  libraryservices@morningstar.com.

Money Smart Week

The American Library Association and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago are recognizing April 2-9 as Money Smart Week at your library. This is a week for libraries to help promote financial literacy and hold programs designed to help consumers manage their personal finances.

Morningstar Library Services will be participating in Money Smart Week with a free webinar, Investing 101: Simple Strategies to Get Started in the World of Investing. The session will cover the basics of how to start investing, including why you should invest, determining your investment goals, and finding the right mix of stocks, bonds, and other investments for you using Morningstar research.

The session will be done via the web, so it should be accessible from any location with a computer. This is an event that you can hold as a large group at the library or promote to patrons to attend on their own. Also during Money Smart Week, we will have our regular database training session, which can be attended by anyone as well.

Morningstar Investment Research Center web training will be held April 7 at 11 a.m. Central time. Investing 101 will be held April 8 at 11 a.m. Central time. Patrons can register by e-mailing librarytraining@morningstar.com and mention Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.

Price Check Time-Saver

Image via Wikipedia

The Training Corner | by Lars Wasvick, Associate Product Manager at Morningstar

Has anyone asked for prices on a number of different stocks? What if a patron wants the loss or gain from the previous day on multiple mutual funds? It’s actually quite easy to find this information on Morningstar Investment Research Center.

Here’s one way to tackle it. Let’s say you have a portfolio with five stocks in it. You see the market is having a nice day and want to check out how your stocks are doing. Simply go to Morningstar Investment Research Center’s search box, type in the first ticker symbol, and hit “get report.” Write down the price and continue on by entering the second ticker in the search box and hit “enter.” Write down that price, and so on. Finally you have a comprehensive list of today’s performance for the stocks in your portfolio.

Here is an even easier way to get the data you’re seeking. Rather than repeat everything five times, just use a few commas. Let’s say the portfolio consists of McDonalds MCD, Home Depot HD, Microsoft MSFT, Colgate-Palmolive CL, and Macy’s M. Go into the search box and type MCD, HD, MSFT, CL, M (you can even do it in lowercase) and hit “get report.”

The new page you see has the price, gain/loss, day high/low, volume, and the 52-week high/low for all of the stocks in your portfolio. You’ll find this is much faster, and it gives you a complete list. This will also work with mutual funds, even if you combine the search with stocks. Of course, fund prices, or net asset values, are calculated at the end of each trading day, so the day high/low will be the same and volume will be zero.

Another suggestion if you have many stocks, funds, or both and want to save on typing tickers: Save the string of tickers separated by commas in a word processing, text, or spreadsheet file. The next time you want to get your quote report, just cut and paste the string into the search box.

For more helpful tips on the new features to Morningstar Investment Research Center, or for an overview on the database, please join us for training on Feb. 3 at 11a.m. Central Time. Visit the Client Site http://library.morningstar.com/tracking to attend, or e-mail librarytraining@morningstar.com for further details.

Providing Investment Knowledge Without Influencing Investing Decisions

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The Training Corner | by Lars Wasvick, Associate Product Manager

One concern some clients have when training patrons is accidentally giving patrons investing advice. I’ve had this issue come up a few times during training sessions. For example, when looking at a stock report a patron will often ask the librarian, “Do you recommend that stock?”

I know what that feels like; I get asked the same question when I conduct training. It’s those types of loaded questions that make me nervous because if I say yes, or no, I could be influencing an investment decision. So, here are five tips to get patrons more involved in the training and prevent you from giving investment advice.

1. Ask patrons what stocks and funds interest them. There are companies all around us, and nearly everyone has some sort of mutual fund in a retirement plan. Patrons are often embarrassed if they have little investing knowledge or don’t keep up on their investments. Let them participate in the session. It will make it more interesting for them.

2. Let Morningstar do the work. On the homepage of our database we have a link to Morningstar Stock and Fund Recommendations. Show patrons how easy it is to find the lists and analyst reports. If you ever get a question about what to invest in or whether you recommend a particular stock or mutual fund, tell them to ask Morningstar. We’ve already done the work and we have an honest and objective opinion.

3. Plan ahead. One thing I always do before demonstrating our screeners is create a plan. For example, on a stock screen I will jot down the criterion to give me a screen with an adequate amount of results. It takes only a few minutes and it ensures that you won’t be left with scarce list that prompts questions you may not have answers to.

4. Look to current events. When showing a stock report, a good way to make an unbiased choice is by picking out a company in the news. For example, during the spring and summer of 2010, BP was involved in a massive oil spill. This was front page news, which makes for a perfect company to look at during a training session. Using topical examples allows patrons to see the relationship between news and stock price.

5. Rely on the features. Sometimes when you ask for participation, you get an obscure answer. For instance, in one training session I asked patrons for a stock to look up. A gentleman suggested American Tower Corporation. It’s slightly embarrassing to admit that I have never heard of that company. Rather than fumble around for the ticker symbol, I simply typed the name in the lookup box and I was able to locate the snapshot very easily. I highly recommend using our tools to make your job easier. Consider the Benchmarks on our screening tool, Data Analysis tab on a stock or fund page, and the Portfolio X-Ray Interpreter view.

For more helpful tips on the new features to Morningstar Investment Research Center, or for an overview on the database, please join us for training on Dec. 2, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. CST. Visit the Client Site http://library.morningstar.com/tracking to attend, or email librarytraining@morningstar.com for further details.

Morningstar Can Help You with Investment Program

The Training Corner | by Lars Wasvick, Associate Product Manager

Using Scenarios

At Morningstar we want to provide you with the training resources you need so you can educate your colleagues and patrons on how to use our database. We are happy to work with you in creating training materials, as many clients have done so with us on PowerPoint presentations.

Another interesting idea to help create interest in learning about the database and navigating its practical applications is scenario training. For example, if Joe the patron was to ask you what EBITDA means, where could you find the definition, or rather, where would you tell him to look?

The correct answer is to visit the Glossary on the Help & Education page, which seems logical, but might not be as easy to find without some basic navigation training on the database. Since we provide many training sessions throughout the year, we have come across popular questions and situations in which people are looking for certain information.

If you find yourself looking for an effective way to train library staff and patrons and think scenarios may help, give it a try with some basic situations, or if you need ideas, feel free to contact us for some frequently asked questions and common scenarios.

For more helpful tips on the new features to Morningstar Investment Research Center, or for an overview on the database, please join us for training on Nov. 4, 2010, at 11 a.m. Central Time. Visit the Client Site http://library.morningstar.com/tracking to attend, or email librarytraining@morningstar.com for further details.