Market Maps from SmartMoney.COM

Check out this cool and very visual representation of the various stocks in he market. It is sometimes a lot easier to understand the various attributes of a companies finances when you see them in a graphical format.

From the website:

The market at a glance The map lets you watch more than 500 stocks at once, with data updated every 15 minutes. Each colored rectangle in the map represents an individual company. The rectangle's size reflects the company's market cap and the color shows price performance. (Green means the stock price is up; red means it's down. Dark colors are neutral). Move the mouse over a company rectangle and a little panel will pop up with more information.

Check out this page for the market shown this way, and then there is this page that shows the ETF market in a similar manner.

Also, check out this cool website that is a cool way to search for stocks by selecting various parameters to separate what you consider the wheat from the chaff. It looks like a really great tool.

The only problem with these tools is that for analytical people like me, they are addictive!