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CDx3 Notification Service Website - Preferred Stock List^TM

Preferred stock information is scattered all over the Internet, making it very difficult and enormously time consuming for preferred stock investors to see comprehensive and current information for specific preferred stocks.

Preferred Stock List^TM is designed to solve this problem for subscribers to the CDx3 Notification Service.

Preferred Stock List^TM is a very powerful browser-based software application that gathers, sorts and consolidates preferred stock data from multiple sources and presents it in a single table. Preferred Stock List^TM is a data gathering tool that does the work for you so that you can focus on using the information rather than collecting it.

Preferred Stock List^TM Scope

Program Overview

Loading Preferred Stocks Into The View Table

Sorting

Refreshing "Perishable" Data In The View Table

Printing A Hardcopy

Securities To View: View Checked Rows Only

Securities To View: From Your Watchlist...

Securities To View: Enter Symbols To View...

Saving Preferred Stock Information To Your Computer

Save As: Symbol Watchlist...

Save As: Spreadsheet (.csv)...

Preferred Stock List^TM Disclaimer

There are three types of preferred stocks - traditional, trust and 3rd-party trust. With Preferred Stock List^TM you can view all preferred stocks or a subset in a variety of ways plus all Exchange Traded Debt Securities (which are very similar to preferred stocks but are actually bonds that trade on the stock exchange). You can then save the results to your computer as a watchlist of trading symbols that you are interested in for quick future access or save the entire table in spreadsheet format for further analysis.

It is important to note that Preferred Stock List^TM is not intended to be a data analysis tool. That is, there is no intention to re-invent Microsoft's Excel or similar spreadsheet programs. If you need to look for trends, perform multi-level sorting, develop mathematical correlations, conduct statistical analysis or process complex calculations use Preferred Stock List^TM to gather your preferred stock data for you then use the Save As Spreadsheet function to put the resulting data into your spreadsheet program for analysis (don't have a spreadsheet program? Download OpenOffice for PC or Mac for free).

Clicking on the Preferred Stock List^TM main menu tab produces the following screen:

The area on the screen where preferred stocks will be displayed in table format is referred to as the "View Table." If you click on one of the Hot List links, this View Table will be automatically populated with the pre-selected data of your Hot List.

Note the two drop-down lists labeled "Securities To View" and "Save As" above the View Table. The Securities To View drop-down list allows you to designate the type of preferred stocks you would like to see. The Save As drop-down list allows you to save the resulting information to your computer.

These two drop-down lists will be discussed in detail below, but if you are running Preferred Stock List^TM while you are reading this, let's load some preferred stock data into the View Table right now.

Preferred Stock List^TM allows you to perform massive data gathering of the 1,000 to 2,000 U.S.-traded preferred stocks and Exchange Traded Debt Securities or just one preferred stock that you are interest in or everything in between.

Using the Securities To View drop-down list, you can see that Preferred Stock List^TM has a total of nine options for loading securities into the View Table.

The first six (All Preferred Stocks, Traditional Preferreds, Trust Preferreds, 3rd-Party Trust Preferreds, All Exchange Traded Debt, All Preferreds And ETDS) are pre-defined while the last three (View Checked Rows Only, From Your Watchlist and Enter Symbols To View) allow you to control which specific securities are displayed.

To make a selection from the Securities To View drop-down list, just click on your selection then click the Go button. When the data you have requested is initially displayed in the View Table it will be sorted by IPO Date. Data loading times vary with browser and connection speed.

Let's load some data into the View Table.

Click the small down-arrow to drop down the list of Securities To View, click Traditional Preferreds then click the Go button.

All traditional preferred stocks trading on U.S. stock exchanges will load into the View Table.

Your web browser will display indicators that Preferred Stock List^TM is loading data. Depending on which web browser you are using (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.), these indicators are slightly different. Most display a message at the bottom of the screen while data is being loaded along with some type of animated spinning graphic. Clicking screen objects during the data download process will slow (and perhaps even terminate) the task, so please be patient and wait until all of the loading indicators and messages that your browser presents have disappeared.

Loading the View Table with Traditional Preferreds takes about 10 seconds before it is completely finished.

Now that we have some data in the View Table, let's review a few of the program's features. After that we'll go over how to save data from the View Table onto your computer.

Once you select the preferred stocks that you would like to see by making a selection from the Securities To View drop-down list, Preferred Stock List^TM will tour the Internet and gather a variety of information for each preferred stock and present it in the View Table.

Note that the column headings in the View Table are blue. That means that you can click them to control how the View Table is sorted.

When the preferred stocks that you request first appear in the View Table they will be sorted by IPO Date (most recently introduced issues will be listed first). Clicking any column heading will sort the View Table in ascending order (smallest value first) by the column you clicked. Clicking the column heading again will re-sort the View Table again but in descending order.

Remember that Preferred Stock List^TM is a data gathering tool rather than a data analysis tool. To perform more complex sorting you should save the data as a spreadsheet and use a spreadsheet program (such as Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice or similar). We'll review how to save the View Table as a spreadsheet onto your computer in a moment.

Just above the column headings on the left side of the screen you will see a clickable feature that refreshes the data in the View Table.

Some of the data presented in the View Table is "perishable," meaning that it can become out-of-date very quickly. For example, the Last Price column is the market price of the last trade that took place on the stock exchange for each preferred stock. The Volume value is also very perishable since it shows you how many shares have traded so far today. Such perishable values change continually throughout the day so refreshing the data is important (note that this data is delayed about 20 minutes; confirm all data before considering investing).

To refresh the data in the View Table click Refresh.

Whenever Refresh is clicked, Preferred Stock List^TM returns to the Internet and updates the information associated with the currently displayed list of preferred stocks in the View Table.

Just above the column headings on the left side of the screen you will see a clickable feature that allows you to produce a printed copy of the data in the View Table.

Clicking on Print opens a new window on your screen with the View Table data presented in a single table. In the upper-left corner of this new window is a Print button that allows you to print the table on your printer.

The View Checked Rows Only option works in combination with the checkboxes that you see at the front of each preferred stock row in the View Table.

Using this option is a two-step process.

First, select the individual preferred stocks that you are interested in by clicking on the checkbox in front of each row.

Once you have checked the preferred stocks of interest, select the View Checked Rows Only option and click the Go button.

After confirming that you want to view just the checked rows, the View Table will refresh and present just the preferred stocks that you selected with the checkboxes.

Before proceeding with an example of how to use checkboxes, load the View Table with "All Preferreds and ETDS" (select it from the drop-down list and click the Go button).

With All Preferreds and ETDS loaded into the View Table, let's look at an example of using checkboxes.

Let's say you are interested in securities issued by SLM Corporation. To group them together, sort the View Table by the Preferred Stock Name column (click the column heading), then click the checkboxes next to each SLM security as seen here.

Notice in this example that some of the rows are black and some are green. Preferred Stock List^TM uses black for preferred stocks and green for Exchange Traded Debt Securities. SLM Corporation has issued both types of these fixed-income securities.

With the checkboxes of the rows that you are interested in checked, selecting the View Checked Rows Only option in the Securities To View drop-down list refreshes the View Table with just the securities that you have checked.

Before we leave our discussion of using the checkboxes, notice the checkbox in the upper-left corner next to the IPO Date column heading.

This "master checkbox" allows you to check or uncheck all rows in the View Table at once. This feature can be particularly handy when you want to check all rows except just a few.

By clicking the master checkbox, all rows in the View Table will become checked. You can then uncheck the specific rows you want to remove.

Clicking the master checkbox a second time unchecks all rows.

The From Your Watchlist option tells Preferred Stock List^TM that you want it to gather current data for a specific list of trading symbols that you had previously saved onto your computer (more on how to save a Symbol Watchlist of trading symbols onto your computer in a moment).

This option is very helpful when you want to keep an eye on a specific list of preferred stocks over time, such as a preferred stock portfolio.

Even if your list includes CDx3 Preferred Stocks, non-CDx3 issues and ETDS's, you can create a Symbol Watchlist of their trading symbols (more on how to create a new Symbol Watchlist in a moment) and load them into the View Table at any time.

When you select the From Your Watchlist option and click the Go button, a window will open on your screen that allows you to designate the file on your computer where you previously saved your Symbol Watchlist (you can create any number of Symbol Watchlists as long as you give them unique names on your computer; more on creating Symbol Watchlists in a moment).

Note that the appearance of this window may be slightly different depending on the web browser program you are using (Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, Firefox, etc.).

Use this window to browse your computer's hard disk and locate the Symbol Watchlist file that you had previously saved (using the Save As / Symbol Watchlist option discussed below).

A Symbol Watchlist file contains a list of preferred stock trading symbols, separated by commas.

Once you have selected the Symbol Watchlist that you want to view click the View List button. After Preferred Stock List^TM retrieves the data (this may take several seconds) your screen will be updated with the preferred stocks designated by the trading symbols within your Symbol Watchlist file.

Another way of loading the View Table with the data for specific preferred stocks is to provide Preferred Stock List^TM with a list of trading symbols by simply typing them in.

When you select the Enter Symbols To View option and click the Go button, a window will open on your screen where you are able to enter a list of trading symbols from your keyboard, separated by commas.

You can enter as many symbols as you would like but remember that the more you enter the longer it will take Preferred Stock List^TM to gather all of the information. Trading symbols can be entered either in UPPERCASE or lowercase letters and can be for either preferred stock, ETDS's or both.

In this example, the View Table will be loaded with the information for four preferred stocks - PSA-O, BDN-C, SOV-C and JPM-C.

Once you have typed your symbol list, click the Submit button. After Preferred Stock List^TM retrieves the data (this may take several seconds) your screen will be updated with the data for the securities designated by the trading symbols that you typed.

Invalid trading symbols will be ignored. 

Once you have the preferred stocks that you are interested in showing in the View Table you may want to either (a) save their trading symbols as a Symbol Watchlist for later retrieval or (b) save all of the data displayed in the entire View Table to a spreadsheet for further analysis on your computer.

To see these two options in the Save As drop-down list click on the small down arrow.

A word of caution here: All web browser perform the task of downloading and saving a file to your computer differently. In fact, depending on how you have your security settings configured this function may not work at all. Your web browser's security settings need to be set such that downloading a file to your computer's hard disk is allowed.

Some versions of Mac browsers can be particularly picky about this and may disallow saving a file to your computer as the default security setting when the browser was installed onto your computer.

Before you attempt to save a watchlist file to your computer, be sure that your browser's preferences and/or security settings do not block downloading files. Your browser (such as Safari for Mac) may not distinguish between cookies and any other type of downloaded file so set your browser to never block cookies.

Also, some browsers (Safari for Mac again) preset the name of the folder on your computer that downloaded files will be saved into (such as "Download" or "Downloads"). If your browser is set to save downloaded files into a specific folder, be sure that you know what that folder name is so that you can find your downloaded watchlist file later (Safari users should look under Preferences/General).

Let's go over these two options for saving data to your computer.

It is important to understand the difference between saving a Symbol Watchlist versus saving a Spreadsheet.

When you use the Save As / Symbol Watchlist option Preferred Stock List^TM saves the trading symbols - ONLY - to your computer's hard disk in a folder and Symbol Watchlist file name that you specify.

A Symbol Watchlist is a list of preferred stock trading symbols and does not include their data. If you want to save the data associated with the trading symbols as well, use the Save As / Spreadsheet option (discussed next).

The Save As / Symbol Watchlist option is great if you have lists of preferred stocks that you frequently want to watch. You can create and save as many Symbol Watchlists as you'd like, just be sure to give them unique and meaningful names on your computer so that you can tell them apart when reloading them later (see the Securities To View / Symbol Watchlist discussion above).

When you select the Save As / Symbol Watchlist option and click the Go button, a window will open asking you to confirm the action you want to take.

The appearance of this window will be different depending on which web browser program you are using and how you have some of your browser settings configured.

The example at left is from Safari for Mac (once Safari was configured to never block cookies using the Preferences/Privacy/Block Cookies menu).

This example is from Mozilla Firefox. For Firefox users, note the choices you are given under the "What should Firefox do with this file?" question.

Internet Explorer and other browsers produce a similar Open or Save file confirmation screen.

Click Save File then the OK button.

The Save As window will then appear, asking you to designate where, on your computer, you would like to save this Symbol Watchlist and under what file name.

Remember where you save it since you will need this information again when you want to reload these preferred stocks in the future.

By default, the file name is set to watchlist. While the file name can be changed to anything, do not change the file type.

The file type is set to use the comma separated values format which is the format required for Symbol Watchlist files. Changing the file type will prohibit your Symbol Watchlist file from being able to be used by the Securities To View / Symbol Watchlist option discussed earlier.

Once downloaded onto your computer you can edit your watchlist symbols using any text editing program such as NotePad, which has come pre-installed on every Windows PC for over 20 years (Mac version for free here), or spreadsheet program such as Excel or OpenOffice (free download for PC and Mac).

The above example illustrates adding the symbol for PSA-M from Public Storage to my watchlist file using the NotePad text editor.

This option allows you to save the data currently being displayed in the View Table to your computer for further analysis.

When you select this option you will be asked to designate the folder and file name under which Preferred Stock List^TM is to save this data.

The resulting file is in a special "comma separated values" (csv) format that can then be opened by common computer spreadsheet software programs such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice (free download for PC and Mac).

The data displayed by Preferred Stock List^TM is provided by suppliers who do not warrant the data's completeness, timeliness or accuracy. Therefore, no such warranty is offered to you with respect to your use of Preferred Stock List^TM or the data it presents. Confirm all information presented by Preferred Stock List^TM prior to making investing decisions.

 

Subscribers are invited to donate to Preferred Stock List^TM data providers.