Click here for a Printer Friendly Page A Tour of QuantumOnline
This Tour will allow both new and experienced users of the QuantumOnline (QOL) website to become quickly familiar with the major features of QuantumOnline. The time you will spend taking the tour will pay off many fold in the future in reduced time spent in your researching of income investments for your portfolio. The tour is quick only if you simply glance over the information to see what is available and then go on the the next item. If you read and study each individual item as you come to it, the the tour will definitely not be quick. Our suggestion is that you quickly go through the entire tour and hilite or mark the items that interest you so that you can return to study them at a later time.
Register with QuantumOnline - If you have not registered with QuantumOnline, please do so now as registration is required to use QuantumOnline and the tables and lists we will be viewing shortly. To register, click on the "Register with QOL" button at the right side of the dark green banner at the top of any page and then follow the instructions. After registering, you can begin the tour while waiting for your temporary password to arrive as the first portion of the tour covers items where registration is not required to view them.
Print this Tour page - As the first step of this tour, please click on the "Click here for a Printer Friendly Page" above and then print the resulting screen page (which is five printed pages) for both easy reference during tour and as a very useful reference when using QuantumOnline in the future.
Optimum Screen Resolution - QuantumOnline's general pages and the security lists are optimized to display best at a screen resolution of 800 by 600 pixels or greater. The income security tables are optimized to display best at a screen resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels or greater. If you will plan to work extensively with the tables in particular, you should consider resetting your screen display to 1024 by 768 pixels or greater at least for the time you are actually viewing the tables. To determine your current screen setting, click on the Start button, then Settings (except Windows XP), Control Panel, Display, and the Settings tab. Your current screen display setting is shown under the Screen resolution. To change the setting, click and hold on the Screen resolution slide pointer and move it to the right or left to select the setting you want. Then click on the OK button and then click Yes to keep that setting.
The Information Menu At this point we expect you to have registered and to have printed the printer friendly version of the Tour. Now you should use the printed version of the Tour as your reference to proceed with the remainder of the tour. Remember to hi-lite or mark any items that that you want to return to in the future.
To begin the tour, move the cursor to the "Information" menu in the dark green banner at the top of this page. The menu displays a number of information choices. We will discuss a few of the available choices. At this point we only want you to know that this information is available. We suggest that you simply glance over the pages so that you know that they exist. You can return to them later and at your leasure to study them if you decide you are interested in the information. These pages also offer a printer friendly page that will print properly on most printers so you can easily print them out to read and study the pages away from the computer.
Information Page Descriptions - Click on the top item on the Information menu "Information Page Descriptions". This is a page that describes the content of all of the information pages listed on the Information menu.
Income Investments - Click on "Income Investments" in the Information menu. This page provides general descriptions and an outline of the features of the various income securities covered by QuantumOnline including Exchange-Traded Fixed Income Investments, Common Stocks for Income, and Wall Street Special Products.
Preferred Ticker Symbols and Names - Click on "Preferred Ticker Symbols & Names" in the Information menu. YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY READ THIS PAGE. This page offers help on probably the most confusing aspect of income investing - the very confusing array of ticker symbol systems currently in use by the various sources of income investing quotes and data.
What Income Investors Should Know - Click on "What Income Investors Should Know" in the Information menu. This page provides information on a number of topics on income investing including what happens in bankruptcy, what is the redemption or call date, what happens when a preferred stock matures, what is the ex-dividend date, and why do some preferreds trade on the OTCBB or the Pink Sheets.
15% Tax Rate of Dividends - Click on "15% Tax Rate of Dividends" in the Information menu. This page will provide information on the rules defining which securities are eligible for the 15% tax rate on dividends.
QuantumOnline Credit Ratings - Click on "QuantumOnline Credit Ratings" in the Information menu. This page provides information on security credit ratings in general and the credit ratings provided by QuantumOnline in particular so that you understand the credit rating information that QuantumOnline provides.
Glossary of Income Investing Terms - Click on "Glossary of Income Investing Terms" in the Information menu. This glossary will provide explanations of most of the important terms used on the QuantumOnline website involved in income investing.
Explanations of Security Acronyms - Click on "Explanations of Security Acronyms" in the Information menu. If you ever wonder what one of the many acronyms (QUIPS, TOPrS, PINES, FELINE PRIDES, CorTS, etc.) used with income securities mean, this page should provide the explanation.
The Quick Search The Quick Search located in the upper left hand corner of any page offers three search options - by ticker symbol, by CUSIP number, and Symbol Lookup. Click on the box with the check mark on the right to see the three options.
Symbol Lookup - Click on "Symbol Lookup" option. Now enter citigroup (in any combination of upper and lower case letters) and press Enter. If you examine the resulting list you will see that each security listed has citigroup somewhere in its name. The Symbol Lookup search will find any security that has the input value anywhere in its name. When using this search you want to input one or two DISTINCTIVE words like Alabama Power, Merrill Lynch, BlackRock, etc. Do not use just one very common word such as trust, preferred, american, etc.
From this list of securities, you can click on the ticker symbol to see the QuantumOnline page on any individual security listed. Try clicking on the C-G ticker symbol in the citigroup list. The page produced is a sample of the page that QuantumOnline provides on any individual security.
By CUSIP Number - Click on "By CUSIP" option. Now enter 30257V207 as the CUSIP number and press Enter. This CUSIP search also takes you to our page of an individual security (which also could have been found via its FPL-C ticker symbol). NOTE: CUSIP numbers are nine characters and the search will find only full nine character CUSIP numbers. This search will not find bonds via their CUSIP numbers since we do not cover bonds and the data is not in our database.
By Ticker Symbol - Click on "By Ticker Symbol" option. Now enter the ticker symbol HE-U in the upper box and press Enter. By entering the ticker symbol of any security, you will obtain our individual security page for any security we cover. NOTE: to successfully find income securities by ticker symbol you need to read our Preferred Ticker Symbols and Names page under the Information menu to have some understanding of the wide variety of ticker symbol systems in use by various sources of investing information on income securities.
An Individual Security Page QuantumOnline provides an individual security page for all covered securities and companies. This page is one of the key sources of information provided by QuantumOnline and provides a variety of information for the investor. Lets first look at a page for an individual security. Confirm that the "by Ticker Symbol" is showing as the Quick Search selection, enter PSA-A in the input box and click on the Search button. The resulting page provides the QOL information on the PSA-A preferred security. This page provides a wide variety of information and assistance for the investor.
The Parent Company's Page Before leaving the PSA-A page, click on the "Goto Parent Company's Record (PSA)" link. This produces the QOL page for Public Storage, Inc., ticker symbol PSA. This page is pretty much identical to the PSA-A page with a few exceptions.
Income Tables Note: if you are not already registered and logged-in with QuantumOnline you will have to do so at this point before you can proceed with the reminder of the Tour. Click on the "Register with QOL" button above to register or, if you have registered but not logged in, click on the "Login" in the dark green top banner to log into the site using the user name you supplied and the temporary password from the email you received from us after registration. If you have any problems with the registration and/or log in procedure, go to the Registration and Login Help page using the link at the top of the left hand column on our home page.
Now we come to one of the most valuable portions of the QuantumOnline website which is the tables of preferred and income securities. The tables will greatly simplify your research of income securities. The Income Tables include a separate table for each of six basic types of income securities plus a table that shows all six types of income securities on a single table, a table that combines the three types of preferred stocks in a single table, and a special table that includes the securities eligible for the 15% tax rate on dividends. To begin, move the cursor over the "Income Tables" in the dark green band at the top of the page so that the drop down menu appears.
Income Table Descriptions - Click on the top item on the Income Tables menu "Table Descriptions". This page describes the securities that are included on each of the nine income security tables and is a handy reference to select the table you would like to use in your investment research.
A Sample Table - Click on the "Preferred Stocks" menu item in the "Income Tables" menu. The table that appears contains the more than 700 traditional preferred stocks trading on the stock exchanges. The first paragraph of the table denotes how many preferreds are included in the table (a number that changes on a daily basis) and gives a general description of the securities.
To familiarize yourself with the tables and its features, you should try the following:
Stock Lists The next category of information of interest to income investors is included under the "Stock Lists" menu at the top of any page. This menu includes lists of a wide variety of securities including:
The other securities included on the Stock Lists menu are the Special Investment Products (SIPs). The SIPs are very specialized securities that are not really income securities but are issued by many of the same brokerage firms and banks. These securities are for sophisticated investors that take the time to study and understand these complicated securities before investing in them.
Stock List Descriptions - Click on the top item on the Stock Lists menu "List Descriptions". This page describes the securities that are included on each of the ten stock lists and is a handy reference to select the list you would like to use in your investment research.
A Sample List - Click on the "Closed-End Funds" menu item in the "Stock Lists" menu. The list that appears contains the approximately 600 closed-end funds (CEFs) that trade on the stock exchanges. The list originally appears in pages with 100 funds per page. By selecting ALL in the drop down box, you can load the list as a single uninterrupted list. The first paragraph of the table denotes how many CEFs are included in the table (a number that increases constantly) and gives a general description of closed-end funds. The lists include a link to the IPO Prospectus for the fund whenever one is available on the SEC EDGAR website.
To familiarize yourself with the lists and their features, you should try the following:
Special Lists This category includes some specialized lists of information that should be of interest to income investors and are included under the "Special Lists" menu at the top of any page. This menu includes five special lists providing reference information for income investors:
The Bottom Menu Bar The dark green menu bar has a few items that you should know about.
Finally, if you printed this Tour page we suggest that you retain the pages for future reference when you remember that we provided some particular information but can't remember how to find it. We would be happy to receive any comments or corrections you might have concerning this Tour or any other aspect of the QuantumOnline website. Please use the "Feedback" on the bottom of any page to email us.
Now you can use the QuantumOnline website as you desire to research income securities. Thanks for using QuantumOnline.
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