Assignment 1. SEC Web Site Demonstration

Demonstrate how to locate SEC data and various financial statements.

Select any publicly traded organization (e.g., your employer may be a good choice). Locate the organization on the SECs Web site athttp://www.sec.gov. Use theEDGAR databaseon the SEC Web site to view the organizations 10k filing. Also, search for the companys standard industrial classification (SIC) code. Retrieve the different financial statements in the 10k filing. Check out the footnotes in the financial statements. Discuss any emerging issues that are evident on the SEC Web site.

Let's do an example in case you have trouble. You will need to write this down or print it out somehow so you can use this example to get to the information.

Click on the SEC Link in the instructions; it will take you to the SEC Home page. You can explore that for a while. But to get to our sample information, in the second column and under the second blue bar "Filing & Forms (Edgar)" click on "Search for Company Filings".

On that page under "General Purpose Searches" click on "Companies and other Filers".

On the next page type "Wal Mart" (without quotes and make sure you put in the space and do not use a "-"; just Wal Mart) the click on "Find Companies" at the bottom of the box.

Now see "Wal Mart Stores Inc?" Note the SIC Code just below it.

Click then on the 0000104169 and take a look at all the information there. Look down the page at all the information filed by Wal Mart with the SEC. Note you do not see a 10K form???? Click on "Next 40." Not too far from the top you will finally see the 10K!!! Click on "html" for the 10K then on the next page to get to the beginning of it click on "d10K.htm." You are there. Wal Mart's most recent 10k will come up.

Explore this; it is quite long and quite detailed. I suspect you will be amazed to see how much information a company must share with the world and how much is available to you if you go looking. Take a good hard look over this document.

Do some research on this site to tell us just what a 10K is?

Give it a try, and then try another publicly traded company. Try a big one; it will be easier for you to isolate. If you cannot get any further than Wal Mart, you can discuss what you find about them for this assignment. However, TRY to select different companies so the entire class is not researching the same company. We will all learn more this way.

Discussion 1.

Visit theBusiness Job Finderathttp://www.careers-in-business.comto explore a career in finance. You can also visit any website you can find with job data, for example:www.careers-in-finance.com.Prepare a report profiling one of the finance positions listed. Includeeducation and skills required and average starting salaries. An objective of about 100 words should apply to your topic post. Discussion 2. Let's use our Discussion Board to continue to familiarize ourselves with what is out there in cyberspace to support business people. Check out the following sites:

• Check the Economic Statistics Briefing Room for data on production and consumption athttp://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/economy/.
• Visit the Education site at the NYSE athttp://www.nyse.comSelect "About the NYSE," and then click on "Education."
• The AMEX site contains market information and other features athttp://www.amex.com.
• See which companies have IPOs athttp://www.ipocentral.com.
• Find information on small companies athttp://www.nasdaq.com.
• Select a company from the NYSE list athttp://www.nyse.com. Use the "Search" box in the upper right corner or the "Listings" tab on the left side to find the company of your choice, and then review its stock quotes, market data, annual reports, etc.
• Interest rate info in a nutshell is available athttp://www.Channel3000.com/money.
• For info on government securities seehttp://www.publicdebt.treas.gov.
• To learn more about interest rates and yield curves go tohttp://www.smartmoney.com/tools.

If you have trouble clicking on these locations just copy/paste the link to your address bar.

In the chat room comment on things you found interesting at these websites ... go ahead, explore them, enjoy them and tell us something about your trip.Although you are not required tocommenton every website, it would be helpful if you at leastbriefly visiteach one.

Discussion 3.

Below are some additional websites for you to explore. Please do so and comment briefly what you find in each. Select any company you are interested in and see what you can find out about that company through these sites.For example, try usingFord (stock symbol is "F") or Starbucks (symbol SBUX)and summarize what you discover. You can look up the stock symbols for other companies at theMSN Money website, too(http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/find-symbol).

• Business Headlines:http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/
• Current stock market information and data can be found athttp://www.businessweek.com/investor/index.html
• MicrosoftMoneyCentralathttp://moneycentral.msn.com/home.aspoffersaccesstoawealthofstockdata.

Discussion 4.

Check out these websites:

• Check out business solutions at ACCPAC athttp://www.accpac.com

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation provides access to consumer information, press releases, and banking statistics athttp://www.fdic.gov

• Information about banking services from the American Savings Education Council can be found athttp://www.asec.org
• The Bank of Western Massachusetts offers a number of business banking services including lock boxes and electronic funds transfers. Visithttp://www.bankwmass.comfor more information.

• Credit law information can be found athttp://www.ftc.govandhttp://www.pirg.org

• U.S. Exim Bankhttp://www.exim.gov/index.cfm
• U.S. OPIChttp://www.opic.gov/

Please review these websites and tell us about one or two things you discovered. Be sure to document your findings using proper APA style references and in-text citations.