Wikinvest offers a new portfolio tracking tool
by CI Staff
Wikinvest is a free website that allows users to post, read and discuss financial information. The site recently launched a portfolio tracking tool that can download your financial information from brokers and banks. The creators' goal was to develop a tool that would eliminate manually entering portfolio data and combine multiple accounts into one location.
To use the tool, you first register with the site and then input your login and passwords for the brokerage and bank accounts you want to add. The site pulls the relevant data from the financial firms into its portfolio tool. You can see how your portfolio is performing over various timeframes, read relevant portfolio news and see a list of fundamental data for each security. You can also create custom views.
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The portfolio tool supports ETFs, stocks and mutual funds and updates price information in real time. Your portfolio performance is measured against the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average over numerous time periods. In addition, you can view aggregate portfolio statistics like price-earnings ratios and return data.
Clicking on a ticker symbol takes you to the Wikinvest page for the security. Data for individual securities includes a detailed analysis written by site contributors, a price and volume chart, current news on the company and a summary of financial statement data. The company analysis typically includes a brief history, current market and company conditions, future prospects and competitive analysis. Source references are listed as well.
Wikinvest's portfolio tool also has the ability to send personalized e-mail alerts about the stocks held in your portfolio.
Discussion
I do not wish to give access to my brokerage account information to third parties.
posted about 1 year ago by D from California
Let's see; if someone were to successfully hack the site they would have peoples brokerage and bank account numbers along with their usernames and passwords. Heck , so would anyone working for Wikinvest, including anyone contracting network or IT support. It's surprising they didn't anticipate this would be a deal killer.
Maybe their revenue model depends on their having intimate detail about peoples holdings and behavior. This would also be faulty thinking because the banks and brokerage houses already have this data (going back decades) so they wouldn't gain a competitive advantage or have anything to offer the largest potential customers that they don't already have. I must be missing something, I don't get it.
If they set it up in such a way the everyone felt secure, they would have a stab at creating a research and social networking site for investors, which would have some value, to them and their users, if they could achieve critical mass.
posted about 1 year ago by Martin from New Mexico
If someone were to "hack" the Wikinvest system and access your login information they could not access your brokerage accounts. The Wikinvest system is "read-only" into your investment accounts. As a result, it is impossible for someone to make trades or obtain funds from your account even if they compromised your Wikinvest login.
posted about 1 year ago by Wayne from Illinois
Wikinvest is a trailblazer. It is exactly what everyone wants, but the brokerage firms (Schwab, Ameritrade, etc.) have refused to offer. Everyone with a brokerage account wants to know their PERFORMANCE on an ongoing, and oftentimes, daily basis. Wikinvest delivers that.
Since Wikinvest is READ-ONLY, those concerned about hackers should feel less concerned about someone emptying their account. Only those with online access directly to their brokerage accounts (requiring knowledge of both their account number and password) are in danger of having their accounts hacked.
By using Wikinvest on a regular basis, you would also be alerted to any suspicious activity long before your monthly statements or trade confirms arrived via US mail. Wikinvest offers both the performance most investors want without the risk of directly accessing their accounts in plain view of your friendly hacker.
As an investment advisor, I applaud wikinvest for delivering a much needed service for individual investors in such a secure manner.
posted about 1 year ago by James from Colorado
How does this "read-only" access work?
You give Wikinvest "your login and passwords for the brokerage and bank accounts you want to add".
I don't know about all logins, but mine provide read and write (trade) capabilities.... so how is it that Wikinvest only gets to read?
posted about 1 year ago by Richard l. from Illinois
There are many other portfolio monitoring programs that give you access to detailed charts and updated market analyses, track dividends and calculate total portfolio returns that do not have direct access to one's login and password information. I have used Wikinvest but found it too messy to update passwords and other data, that I change on a regular basis to prevent precisely the sorts of problems that such sites inherently possess, ala Sony Playstation. I recommend the portfolio manager that ft.com offers. It is very use to use and has all the features. Motley Fool also has a very good portfolio manager tas does the Smart Money website.
posted about 1 year ago by Ramaswami from Arizona
If you are looking for other top online portfolio tracking tools, these are the ones recommended by the editors of Computerized Investing: http://www.aaii.com/computerized-investing/article/the-top-online-portfolio-managers
posted about 1 year ago by Wayne from Illinois
I fail to see the use of this tracker. Unless I'm missing something one can only view performance up to one year. For me that renders a tracker completely usesless. Unless I can compare my portfolio to other indicies, over time, I have know use for it.
Is there a way to view performance beyond one year? I couldn't find it.
posted about 1 year ago by Observer from California
