Important Notice for Users of the Stock Investment Guide Software
Better Investing (BI) and iClub/StockCentral.com are in the midst of switching their data service from S&P to Morningstar. There has been a lively discussuion on BI’s I-Club-List about the impacts to software users like The Stock Investment Guide, but no clear answers exists.
SIG, despite repeated request by me, remains (officially) unrecognized by NAIC. (I submitted my requests to NAIC about once per month for more than one year without success. I also spoke with Kamie Zaracki, CEO of Better Investing, twice during annual conventions about submitting SIG 3 for endorsement. This lack of recognition means that BI has not communicated with me regarding the changes. Moreover, based on discussions with other non-NAIC software authors, there is little benefit in pursuing such recognition further.
Since it is impossible to predict the outcome of the switchover on 22 December 2010, here are steps you can take to ensure you can continue to analyze stocks. So far, I do not expect any impacts in the interface used to retrieve data. This means I expect you will be able to continue to download data through SIG after the switch. However, users should prepare in event BetterInvesting has problems when the switch is thrown, or if they block users from accessing their data subscription.
Step One: Update your data files now.
Refreshing your data files is easy, if you have a data service set up in SIG’s Preferences. In Library window, select either the Stock Library item or a portfolio. Click the check mark icon near the ticker symbol box. This selects all of the check boxes in the current view. Then click the Update Data toolbar button.
Updating your data before NAIC’s switch gives you protection in the event of any data issues.
Backup Plans:
1) In the event that SIG is block from directly accessing your subscription, remember that you can always download .ssg data files directly from BI or StockCentral.com with your web browser. These files can then be imported into SIG.
Hopefully users will not be forced by Better Investing to use this process.
2) A second backup SIG users have is the Free Data Option. I still believe the data provided by BI and StockCentral are better and more complete. Yet, you have a safety net because you use the Stock Investment Guide software.
The switch in data service is expected to occur on 22 December. I will personally be testing both data services to ensure there is no impact.
Thanks,
Brad