The April 15 deadline for filing your 2023 tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service is right around the corner. Is the state of your personal finances weighing heavy on your mind? This tax season, we’re connecting you to new ways to boost your holdings with investments and stocks before you sit down to prepare next year’s returns, let us help!

The extent of financial information available at your library isn’t just limited to a Dave Ramsey book on the shelf or a Wall Street Journal subscription. There’s so much more to explore, and this month at BCLS we’re highlighting one of our most powerful but underused research tools: Value Line Investment Center. An incomparable resource, Value Line lets users keep up with global financial markets, take a deep dive into a company’s operations, and learn strategies to become a stock market success!

Value Line gives users the research tools to confidently find and select stocks to add to their portfolio. Simply look up a company name or stock ticker in the marked search bar and you will be greeted with an extraordinarily detailed page dedicated to the given stock. Some features include:

• A snapshot of stock pricing information, including forecast estimates, P/E figures, trade volume and more.
• Rankings for the stock on performance, risk and financial strength to give users a glimpse at a company’s outlook.
• Earnings, sales and valuation to give savvy users a chance to dive deeper into the balance sheet.
• Single-sheet documents loaded with a financial snapshot and news from the previous three months.
• Commentary, score rankings and industry analysis, which let investors read exactly what experts and traders think of a company.

Looking for more generalized financial information on the stock market at large? Value Line has you covered there too. Under the “DASHBOARD” tab, it offers daily updates on the state of the financial world via its Stock Market Today articles. Users interested in larger market or industry-wide trends, such as autonomous vehicles or “shrinkage” in the retail sector, can find information in the commentary section.

If you need a better grasp on financial basics, check out what the INVESTMENT EDUCATION tab has to offer.

• Start with Featured Commentary to get an idea of the big topics of conversation in stocks today.
• Value Line University is a four-part module to give users an overview of investment, from explaining basic investment terms to tips on building a portfolio.
• You can also check out the Instructional Videos series posted to YouTube where a single stock is highlighted in greater detail.
• For stock-related vocabulary, use the Glossary containing more than 1,300 words and clarify the meanings of words throughout the website. 

Use all these research elements to out-pick the stock bigwigs and set yourself up for success this tax season!