Update: New Computer Investing Products
by CI Staff
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Reuters Select Folios
FOLIOfn, Inc., an on-line brokerage firm and financial services technology provider, has partnered with Reuters.com to market Reuters Select Folios. This new service marries Reuters.com's stock screening capabilities with FOLIOfn's fractional shares trading and portfolio management technology.
Reuters Select Folios consists of eight stock selection models applied to the FOLIOfn universe of more than 4,000 tradeable securities. Reuters.com provides regular updates for the model Folios, each of which contains approximately 30 to 50 securities.
The Consensus Folio seeks stocks that analysts like now, while checking against excessive exuberance. The Favored Value Plays Folio looks for reasonable value plays that are well regarded by the investment community. The Income Stocks Folio targets Reuters Select Folios
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opportunities among dividend-paying stocks. The Industry Leaders Folio identifies firms leading in profit margin, debt load, and growth in their industries. The Relative Growth Folio seeks stocks with strong sales and earnings growth on a long- and short-term as well as a relative basis. The Relative Value Folio sets a preferable set of thresholds for measures such as price-earnings, price-to-sales, price-to-free cash flow, and price-earnings to growth. The Return on Investment Folio attempts to locate companies positioned for the long term. Finally, the Sales Growth folio looks for companies generating strong top-line growth.
Using FOLIOfn's Web-based brokerage technology, investors can buy these complete portfolios with no minimum. FOLIOfn also includes more than 75 portfolios based primarily on indexes and other quantitative measures that the brokerage firm offers to its clients.
A subscription to FOLIOfn allows access to the premium area of the FOLIOfn site, including: the Reuters Select Folios, commentary outlining the strategy, and the screening criteria for each Folio, plus 200 free trades per month.
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MidCast Pro
HillCast Technologies has released its MidCast Pro software for personal digital assistants (PDAs) that automatically updates stock prices for streaming, real-time quotes. The software runs on over 40 wireless devices, including BlackBerrys, Palms, PocketPCs, Web-enabled phones, and hybrid "smart phones" that combine cell-phone and PDA functionality into a single unit.
While the software is compatible with a variety of platforms, its main features will vary depending on the handheld device you are using.
MidCast Pro offers streaming quotes from the Island electronic communication network (ECN) for a $25 one-time set-up fee. Users can also pay an additional $24.95 a month for New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange, and Nasdaq Level I quotes, as well as foreign currency quotes for $49.95 a month.
MidCast Pro's main screen is a watch list of user-defined symbols, which are constantly updated through a connection to MidCast's server. You can display over a dozen columns of data, including symbol, tick, price, volume, trade size, bid/ask, and open/close.
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Depending on your PDA, you can access tick-by-tick price charts with corresponding volume. Each of the price and volume items available at the watch list also appears on the chart screen. One drawback is that MidCast Pro does not offer historical charts.
Users can also set alerts based on breaking news, price, bid/ask, and volume changes for any symbol in the watch list. Alerts will appear on the screen or be sent via short message service (SMS) or E-mail.
Other features include real-time headlines and articles from over 60 sources for any symbol and secure, wireless links to several brokerage Web sites, including Ameritrade, E-Trade, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and Scottrade.
Quicktakes
Earnings Edge
www.markethistory.com
Earnings Edge from MarketHistory.com helps traders identify companies that exhibit consistent trading patterns before or after an earnings release. The feature uses a company's historical trading activity around earnings releases as the basis. An "Edge Index" indicator shows how strong a signal is. Monthly subscriptions to MarketHistory.com begin at $24.95; a free 30-day trial is offered.
Fidelity Guarantees Trades
personal.fidelity.com
Fidelity Investments now guarantees one-second trade execution of stocks in the S&P 500. Market orders (buy, sell or buy to cover) of 100 to 500 shares placed during regular market hours will be immediately filled at the National Best Bid or Offer (NBBO), or the trade will be commission free. All Fidelity account holders, regardless of their trading activity or means of order placement, are eligible for one-second execution.
Prophet Patterns
www.prophet.net
Prophet Financial Systems has launched Prophet Patterns, a software-based scanning technology. The service scans more than 3,000 actively traded U.S. stocks for chart patterns that have preceded dramatic price movements. The service generates signals based on technical analysis and proprietary algorithms and shows the expected direction of the movement, price targets, a timeframe for achieving the price movement, as well as an overall predictive rating of one to five stars. Prophet offers two services: Prophet Patterns DX scans charts on daily bars and Prophet Patterns scans intraday intervals. The services cost $29.95 a month each, or $49.95 a month together. A free seven-day trial is available.
New Nasdaq LiveQuotes
www.esignal.com/livequotes
eSignal is the exclusive provider of Nasdaq LiveQuotes, a subscription-based, streaming real-time market data tool for Nasdaq.com users. LiveQuotes includes Nasdaq's TotalView Data Products, such as Level II quotes and Nasdaq's TotalView market depth service. Nasdaq LiveQuotes costs $14.95 per month plus exchange fees and add-on services.
New FutureSource
www.futuresource.com
The FutureSource Web site has recently been redesigned. New features include updated charting functionality, market-specific content, a new traders' tools section, and an expanded education area. The site also offers additional analysis from industry experts, a custom news package by OsterDowJones, news and analysis specific to key markets, additional pre-formatted quote boards, and new quote and charting technology.
SmartMoney ETF Center
www.smartmoney.com
The SmartMoney Web site has recently added an area covering exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The ETF Center offers editorial content with breaking news, analysis, commentary, and a library of educational articles. Visitors can analyze ETFs, sort the funds based on specific items, evaluate several ETFs at a time, and search for ETFs using over 50 investing criteria or predefined screens. The ETF Center is currently free, but eventually will become part of SmartMoney Select for $5.95 a month.
