How to find Stock Ideas

Good ideas are hard to come by. There are plenty of mediocre ones, but how does one maintain a steady influx of ideas and knowledge?

Let's go through many of the different ways an investor can go about searching for ideas.

Screens

The most popular would be a stock screener. There are many free ones but here is a list that I refer to:

• Yahoo Screen - Free screener with lots of parameters
• CAPS Screen - An interesting screener based on community expectations
• Google Screen - Simple to use. Maybe too simple. Google like
• Magic Formula Investing - The little book that beats the market

Screens are an easy way to find plenty of stock ideas but include researched and backtested stock screeners and you can get some powerful stock picks.

Blogs and Sites

An obvious one here.

Everyone has a different type and size circle of competence, so gathering a good range of sites that are not identical to your views and processes will keep you on your toes and will definitely help you expand your own circle of competence and see things from different angles.

For example, I'm a value investor but I still look into dividend, growth and even occasionally technical investing.

The purpose isn't to apply it, but to know whether it can benefit my strategy. Plus, it's always important to know why something does not work.

Weekly & Monthly Journals

Reading company related news and short articles will help you get an overview of the company and all the noise that goes with it, but nothing much beyond that.

Reading high quality journals will help you get informed about many different issues beyond stock analysis.

Forbes, Smart Money, Wall Street Journal and even the free Morningstar articles are good places to start.

Books

Good investing books often have indepth instructions and case studies to follow and learn from. There is literally no better way than to follow past examples. You will also find many ideas throughout the book and later on, you can look up competitors and similar industries to increase your pool of ideas.

Conference Calls, Transcripts and SEC

This is probably the most time consuming, but what better way to learn about a company than to listen to the conference calls or read the transcripts. Seeking Alpha publishes conference call transcripts for free which EVERYONE should take advantage of. I even have the transcripts set up with my RSS reader so I receive all transcripts. I've also come across some ideas this way.

The SEC website is also another vital location. It won't necessarily give you ideas, but it will definitely plant conviction and understanding into your brain. The SEC site is quite daunting and confusing at first, but just browse through and you'll get used to it in no time.

Putting in the Effort

In the end, it is up to you how much effort you put in. If you are able to invest just a little more time in the searching, filtering and analyzing process, you are already at an advantage compared to the average investor.

If you are finding it difficult to find valuable ideas with a large margin of safety during times like these, these methods will surely help you in your search for the next successful investment.

Jae Jun runs Old School Value, a value investing service providing stock valuation spreadsheets, stock analysis and value stock screeners for the DIY investor. He writes a weekly Tuesday column for Benzinga.