European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 30, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday March 30, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 19 business news investors plug into electronic libraries new York not while most investors continue to rely on brokers and intuition for their Stock picks Many larger investors Are turning to personal computers to tap electronic libraries for Stock Market information. In most cases All that is needed is a Modem the device that allows computers to communicate Over Telephone lines. The main Benefit of these computer services is their timeliness the ability to obtain current news said Thomas a. Meyers president of the american association of microcomputer investors and the author of a new Book on using the data bases. Now when someone gives you a tip you can actually turn somewhere and find out right away what s happened to that company  the most comprehensive service Avail Able to individuals is Dow Jones news retrieval. Operated by the publisher of the Wall Street journal and barrens news retrieval is a collection of some 39 libraries or services offering everything from Stock quotes to movie reviews. But the emphasis is on investing. For starters news retrieval is a source of information about securities prices. Sub scribers can get current quotes on stocks Bonds options and Mutual funds. News retrieval also stores historical data Tor stocks and the Dow Jones averages As far Back As 1979. A separate data base supplies current and historical quotes for futures contracts. There is also the news data base which stores items culled from the journal bar Ron s or the Dow Jones ticker and sorts them by company and Industry. The disclosure ii data base holds summaries of Finan Cial statements on 10,000 companies cover ing income and balance Sheet statements and ownership by institutions and insiders. An investor using news retrieval can also turn to the Standard & poor s on line and Media general financial services data bases for financial information. If the Stock has a following among Wall Street proves personal computers 1984 quarterly sales 4th Quarter in percent of total sales 45% in percent of units sold 1st 2d 3d 4th note does not add up to 100% due to Don t knows Chicago Tribune graphic source Dat quest research 1983 84 85 86 estimates signals it would be possible to electronically Leaf through research reports from major brokerage houses using the invest ext data base or to Check predictions of its earnings per share in the corporate earnings Estima Tor. All of this carries a Price. Individuals can subscribe to news retrieval for about $30, and there is an extra $12 annual membership beginning with the second year. On top of these fees each data base levies a usage charge that runs from $1 to $2.30 a minute depending upon time of Day. Those fees can add up quickly especially for the Novice still learning How to navigate the news retrieval system which involves mastering an obscure set of codes. Fumbling with a code while the data base s meter is ticking can be disconcerting. The Cost of such services is no Small consideration Small investors can probably do without them. People with less at stake will find it s cheaper and almost As effective to get the information from the financial pages of a newspaper noted Norm Nicholson Edi Tor of the microcomputer resources guide published by the american association of individual investors. Meyers noted the key to using these services efficiently and economically is to go on line get what you need and get off in a hurry. Since most services give free time to new subscribers use that Bonus time to get acquainted with the system. Then make sure you know what you want and where to get it before you sign on to a  a mistake Many beginners make is to browse through the electronic libraries piling up usage charges. Experienced users request the information they need and store it in their own computer. Then after sign ing off from the data base they review the information they have retrieved. And for Many investors especially those using the personal computer As a technical analysis tool to draw charts of Stock prices Warner computer systems might be a better though More limited investor s Luicie by William Doyle q. My wife and i invested in an income Mutual fund which holds Bonds last year. This fund has Check writing privileges and we wrote 10 checks on our account in 1985. We liked that convenience until we received two form 1099s from the fund in january. Now we re confused about How to handle this on our income tax return. One form 1099 lists the dividends and capital gains distributions credited to our account last year. I know we must report these on our form 1040, schedule b and d. So far so Good. But the other form 1099-b lists 10 transactions showing the Dollar amount of each Check and the number of full and fractional shares involved. I m afraid we have to report these As 10 capital gains or losses on schedule d. Do we a. Your fears Are justified. Along with a multitude of Mutual fund shareholders who wrote checks on their accounts or otherwise made a number of redemption last year you have a major bookkeeping exercise ahead of you. Every time you wrote a Check on that account you redeemed shares. The Dif Ference Between the Check amount the proceeds of a redemption and your basis on the full and fractional shares redeemed was either a profit or a loss which you re required to report on schedule d. There Are a number of ways to calculate your basis. Most Mutual fund shareholders use the average Cost method. Doing it that Way you add up All the Money you invested in the fund and All your reinvested dividends and capital gains distributions then Divide by the number of shares owned. The resulting number is your single category aver age basis per share. Multiply that average per share basis by the number of shares in each redemption and you know the basis of the shares you cashed in that redemption. Things get More complicated because when you write a Check you redeem full and fractional shares. Better have a Good calculator. Furthermore you have to do this calculation for every Check writing or other redemption. Hang on for More complications. You can also use the double category aver age share method. That Way you Sepa rate the shares into two groups those owned six months or longer and those held for six months or less. Although much More Complex that method allows you to differentiate Between Long term capital gains Only 40 percent of which Are taxable and fully taxable Short term capital gains. Then there s the first in first out method. Under that Fifo method the shares redeemed Are considered to be those owned the longest. Finally there s the specific identification method also called identified share through which you instruct the Mutual fund to redeem x number of shares you acquired on such and such Date. Hairy you know it is for More detailed information get a copy of internal Revenue service publication 564 from your local irs office. If you re still stumped turn the chore Over to a Good accountant. Q. I have been investing in a Mutual fund for 15 years and always Felt that the annual summary i receive each january which lists my investments and reinvestment for the previous year the total number of shares in my account and the account s year end value was sufficient for record keeping purposes. Suddenly i realize i will need Complete records dating Back to my original Pur Chase so i will be Able to calculate my capital gains when i redeem my shares. What should i do a. Write the fund and ask for annual statements for each year. Some Mutual funds provide that information free of charge. Most Don t charge for recent years Choice for a data base. Warner specializes in securities prices and when using the sys tem to fetch Stock quotes investors need never bother with cumbersome codes the software does All of the work automatically. Where Dow Jones news retrieval offers Only daily or monthly summaries Warner can provide the information on a weekly basis. Warner s historical information extends Back to 1975 and covers in addition to the Dow averages All of the Standard & poor a amex and Nash a indexes. There is also historical data on interest rates Gold and Silver prices As Well As Mutual funds and options. Warner incidentally is the Only Market play among the data bases. It went Public in february 1985 at $1 a share and now trades at around $7. Warner does not have membership fees nor does it have any minimum monthly charges to retrieve quotes. It costs $1.70 a minute during business hours to obtain Stock prices less than a year old and 60 cents a minute off Peak and weekends. Older quotes Are $3 a minute during prime time $1.20 a minute other times. In Addi Tion there is a $1 minimum connect charge. Given this schedule it is generally cheaper to retrieve one or two current quotes from Dow Jones. Getting a Batch of prices of say 200 daily quotes would probably be cheaper using Warner. An investor willing to Trade some flexibility for ease of use might consider the Tele scan data base. Tel scan is actually a $50 software package that links ism pc s to the Tel scan computer which holds prices and some financial information on about 7,000 stocks. All users do is Type in a Stock s name or Symbol Tel scan plots prices and some technical indicators. Usage is billed at 50 cents a minute during the business Day 25 cents a minute at other times. For those investors who like to keep track of insider trading Vickers on line maintains a data base of insider and institutional Stock holdings. After an initial $50 sign up fee usage is billed at $1 a minute All Day. Statements but Levy modest fees for old re cords. Q. I have a Money Market Mutual fund on which i write checks. Will i have to report a capital gain for each Check a. Thankfully no. Because Money mar Ket Mutual funds invest in Short term debt securities they use accounting procedures that normally keep their share values con Stant $1 a share in most cases. As a result there s neither a capital gain or a capital loss when you redeem shares of a Money Market Mutual fund. King features columnist Doyle welcomes written questions but he can provide answers Only through the column. You can write to him in care of the stars and stripes Apo 09211, . Forces United press International copyright 1986 thursday March 27 nose composite most actives by volume Stock div Avistar scaled us Home Massey Fri ism Western Arl at to Kim a Texaco in carb vol close earns be old 4,192,600 11 $ 3.96 2.0 3.759,000 31% 3.26 10.0 6.8 2,550,400 8 /2 2,428,200 l7/s 2,196,900 149vb 10.67 14.0 2.9 2,141,600 12 0.95 13.0 2,067,400 22 /4 1.376.0 5.4 2,019,900 20 /2 2.14 10.0 2.5 1.961,800 30 /8 4.64 6.0 10.0 1,926,000 22 a 20.3 nose composite largest net changes Stock Cap cite Jhson cont in lev fedral exp Matsue Mars Mcl time inc Ray chm Dover Bard or close Chae earns be old 238v4 53/4 $10.78 22.0 0,1 56 4 /4 4.84 12.0 3.6 159va 3% 11.53 14.0 3.5 66 /2 3 /2 2.59 25.0 78 of 3% 7.44 10.0 0.7 104% 3% 4.46 23.0 2.9 76 2ve 3.15 24.0 1.5 123 3 3.68 33.0 0.4 42 2% 2.83 15.0 2.1 52w 2% 2.78 19.0 1.2 amex composite most actives by volume Stock div vol close earns be old Wickes 1,056,300 6 $ 0.11 55.0 dome Petro 660,100 i i key pharm 500,100 17% Wanbli 382,800 19% 0.8 Lorimar Tel 361,700 26 /4 Dillard s 357,600 43% 2.29 19.0 0.3 West Lar 300.600 20% 1.48 14.0 7.5 Phi Ptel 249,300 4% 0.76 6.0 4.9 am into 248,500 7va 0.33 22.0 Ste rugs 227,300 163/4 0.61 27.0 0.6 amex composite largest net changes Stock close Cage earns be old Kapost 156 4 $ 7.73 20.0 0.7 Seaboard 99 i 3 12.48 8.0 0.5 Wescoff 47 2 /2 7.24 6.0 1.4 Hstings 41 /4 2% 3.57 12.0 1.0 Medlar 88 /4 2 /4 4.61 19.0 1.3 Citadel i 5p/4 2 7.37 7.0 Baker Milchl 173/4 2 0.85 21 0 tech Ops 31% 13 1.60 20.0 Lorimar Tel 26 /4 a i Frisch 28 /2 to i 0.28101.00.8 be Price to earnings ratio old dividend yield Del deficit St yield in Stock earnings latest 12 months unaudited