Trading 2.0: More Investment and Trading Resources

* Mining the Blogosphere: Once again Douglas McIntyre of 24/7 Wall Street has created a list of 25 best financial blogs, and it's a fine array. It contains a number of sites you might not be familiar with and many that you'll want to add to your reader for daily updating. I notice that Doug also offers a free trial to his stock picking newsletter that draws upon his research.

* Distributed Expertise: Unlike the VesTopia site that I recently described in my last Trading 2.0 post, Covestor does not track the trades of a preselected group of investment managers. Rather, traders are invited into the site and permission Covestor to upload the data from their online brokerage accounts. This means that traders obtain real time track records automatically and can demonstrate their skills. It also means that members of Covestor can access the trades of other members, as well as their overall performance ratings. If a trader wanted to audition for a position with a proprietary firm, for example, this would be a fantastic medium. If you're a regular reader of this blog/experienced trader and would like to share your trading (and have access to others) via Covestor, drop me an email at the address in the "About Me" section on the blog homepage.

* Finding Winners: A major Trading 2.0 theme is that you have control of data. The ability to aggregate and manipulate information online enables the average investor to become a sophisticated stock picker. This post from Charles Kirk nicely illustrates how stock screening can be used to differentiate strategies and obtain superior returns. Kirk also highlights a valuable stock screening tool, the StockScouter from MSN Money and Jon Markman. But if you're into screening, consider a membership with The Kirk Report for its Stock Screen Machine. A recent listing, for instance, highlighted the most consistent performers from Kirk's favorite screens--something that could easily save hours in research.