Quote Originally Posted by Surferbeetle View Post
.csv files can also be opened and then pasted into excel workbooks. Excel is a fun and addictive modeling tool with which you can see what is happening under the hood. It leads to harder tools such as mathcad, maple, and mathematica.

I will post some titles from my excel financial tools library later.

Not meant to be a knock but Google has free historical data for funds, etfs, and stocks which can be downloaded as .csv files for analysis. I am looking for historical options data and welcome leads.
Yes, of course on the .csv files for Excel. I generally open them in Excel first. I like being a Morningstar subscriber because of the "x-ray" service they offer. You are correct that one can do the research on one's own via Google and such, but often I am time constrained, and have my other hobbies Part of the Morningstar service includes cross-checking fund contents. In other words fund x and fund y might have equal proportions of company A's stock. So the cross-check helps me understand the risk better if I know what each fund is holding. Lots of other cool stuff too.

Not based on fact, but I have a feeling that a lot of corporate employees don't really manage their 401k funds with interest. Many will just pick the default fund and go for the ride. Dunno.

My "small war" on Wall Street is for the most part trying to find winners while keeping the expense ratio down