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- 2. Table of contents: Qualitative Analysis ● Social Media Advertising ○ Twitter ○ Facebook ○ YouTube ● Advertising in Google Search using AdWords ● Reaching New Demographics ○ Reaching Females Research Takeaways and Responses ○ Reaching Millennials Research Takeaways and Responses ● Blog Advertising/Reviews of Stock Rover ○ Investment Blogs ○ Female Finance Blogs ○ College (Millennial) Finance Blogs ● Forums How competitors engage people into discussions ● Business Introduction Video Telling a story ● Adblock Research ● Feedback on Video Library Quantitative Analysis ● SEO ● Current standing ○ Alexa report ○ Semrush report ○ Semrush website audit ○ General Notes ● Is it worth writing “How to Invest Guide” for improving SEO? ● Investment research keywords for use in the future blog posts ● The list of new Google Analytics Events ● Survey Takeaways 2
- 3. Pricing Strategies ● Subscription Plans Breakdowns ● Referral Program Competitive Analysis ● List of Competitors ● InDepth Analysis ○ Morning Star ○ MarketWatch ○ Stockopedia ● Competitive Analysis ○ Finviz ○ Zack’s ○ Trade Ideas ○ Ycharts ○ Stockflare ○ Value Line ○ Sigfig/Wealthfront/Betterment ○ Stockviews ○ Stock Fetcher ○ Personal Capital 3
- 4. Qualitative Analysis Social Media Advertising Not only will Social Media Advertising help Stock Rover to improve website conversion and increase inbound traffic, but it would also diversify our current audience by reaching out to a younger population. Moreover, advertising through social media is a relatively cheap option to start testing the waters with advertising campaigns. It would allow the company to test several strategies at a minimum cost. Plus, since search engines consider social media presence as a significant factor while calculating the rankings, it will boost Stock Rover’s search engine rankings. Twitter Reasons to use Twitter Ads: ● Over 284 million monthly active users ● In compassion with other social media, Twitter has the highest number of sessions and page views ● Can create multiple campaigns to suit multiple business goals ● Great Pricing Policies ● Effective audience targeting ● Provides a great and free analytics tool specifically for their ads Twitter Ad Pricing: ● Easy to set up – simply link a credit card ● Charged only when a user takes an action aligned with your campaign objective, such as clicks, retweets, etc. (not charged for organic activity) ● Fixed budget ○ Set a daily budget for each campaign ○ The ads stop showing when the budget has been met ○ Never charged more than what you want to spend ● Pricing system is based on bidding ○ Set the maximum amount the company is willing to spend per action (will only pay one penny above the second place advertiser’s qualityadjusted bid) ○ Twitter gives suggestions on bids to optimize the campaign ○ The bids are adjustable 4
- 5. Creating a Twitter campaign: ● Can either use an existing tweet or create a new one with or without a Website Card ● Creating a Website Card: ○ Write a short description of why someone should visit the website ○ Add an image that would help us to stand out, a website URL and a strong call to action ○ When users click anywhere on the Website Card, they are redirected to the website. ○ Set up online conversion tracking ● Creating a Lead Generation Card: ○ Lead Generation Card allows users to easily and securely share their email address with companies without leaving Twitter ● Another option is creating a player card a card to provide video/audio/media. Targeting the right audience: ● Targeting options: ○ Location ○ Gender ○ Language ○ Devices, platforms, and carriers ○ TV targeting ○ Interests (news, business, PGA) ○ Keywords ○ Usernames ■ Allows to reach users with interests similar to followers of usernames added in our campaign ■ Ex: MarketWatch, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, CFA Institute, Warren Buffett, George Soros, Peter Lynch, etc. ○ Can include or exclude tailored audience Best Practices for username targeting: ● Ensure that we’re reaching a large enough audience ○ Include 1025 usernames per campaign ● Be specific instead of general by targeting the usernames that are the most closely tied to the product ● Twitter recommendations: 5
- 6. ○ Segment your username campaigns by category (e.g. one campaign targeted to the usernames of the competitors, and another targeted to the usernames of industry media). ○ Use search.twitter.com to find usernames to target. Facebook ● Goaloriented campaigns ● Choose where your ad appears on Facebook ○ News Feed on desktop ○ Righthand column on desktop ○ News Feed on mobile devices ● Target the right audience ○ Location ○ Demographics (age, gender, education and more) can be very specific ■ Education level ■ Job Title ■ Industry ○ Interests & Activities listed on FB (enormous amount of categories) ○ Behaviors (purchase behaviors and devices) ○ Connections (reach people who like your Page or your app) ● FB ads send people right to your website ● Provides analytics (Facebook measurement tools, Ads manager app) ● Pricing depends on advertising objective. ● The table below shows the objective types and how you're charged for each campaign. Note: For some of these objectives you may be able to change how you're charged (ex: per action). 6
- 7. Recommended picture dimensions (recommended by Jurica Koletic from Digital Designer, Degordian digital agency): ● 1200×717, 72dpi for the image in the post ● 480×480, 72 dpi for the profile photo ● 1200×1007 for cover photo Righthand Column Facebook ads (recommended by Hrvoje Pilic, Degordian digital agency): ● If you plan on using link ads in your campaigns, Degordian recommends 25 character titles and 90 character ad length, while the resolution of images should be 1200×627 pixels ● 20% text policy YouTube https://www.youtube.com/yt/advertise/ ● There are 3 available TrueView ad formats: ● TrueView instream ads ○ Appears on YouTube and Google Display network ○ After 5 seconds viewer can choose to skip the ad ○ You are charged only if a viewer watches the full ad or the first 30 seconds ● TrueView insearch ads and TrueView indisplay ads ○ Shown as a YouTube video thumbnail ○ You are charged when a user clicks on ad and chooses to view your video on YouTube ● Only pay when people watch, so we don’t waste money ● Target specific users ● Free analytics ● Idea: Creating a video with introduction of our product Duncan and Matt are working on it right now ○ Share your story, a little bit more personal ○ Why was the company established? What is unique about the company? ○ Brief overview of the product, what do we do better? 7
- 8. Advertising with Google AdWords AdWords Overview and Recommendations (source: AdVenture Media Group certified paid search marketing experts and Google certified partners https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhSnj3jR_6c ) ● 64.4% of people click on Google Ads when they are looking to buy an item online ● Over 40% of Google users don’t even know the top 3 results of a search are paid advertisements ● Can reach relevant customers on relevant websites across the web o Target by website type, audience type or remarketing, when and where it matters. ● Ads show up in the results of the Google search (on the top and on the right) ● Pay only if someone goes on the website (No cost per impression) ● The recommended ad type of campaign is one that shows up on the search engine results page (versus gmail or other irrelevant windows) o Easier to track ad performance o Higher quality traffic ● Ads will be shown on all devices ● Use AdWords tools ○ Opportunities tab has automated keyword suggestions from Google to improve the campaign Creating a campaign ● Can choose specific demographics o Can include or exclude certain audience ● Use as many campaigns as you want – there is only a cost per click, not per impression ● Bids system used ● Can select daily budget o Start with $50$100 per day for a couple of weeks in the beginning. That way we will be able to test and analyze which ads are the most effective ● Use ad extensions to enlarge the space your ad takes and provide additional info about your business provides more clicks. See more on https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375499?hl=en (For setting up an extension, click on ‘Set up and manage your extensions’) o Sitelink extensions, at no extra charge, let your listing show 6 additional sitelinks to different pages on the website 8
- 10. Recommendations for a killer ad: ● Unique Selling Proposition that answers the following questions ○ Why is Stock Rover is better than other investment research platforms? ○ Why should customers trust Stock Rover? ■ Privacy guaranteed SR doesn’t share customers’ information ■ Description of the power of our metrics and algorithms ○ Why should customers use the platform right now? ■ It is time to invest right now – growing market ■ When you start investing early, you give your money more time to potentially grow ○ What are the unique points about SR? Be different, include personality in the ad ■ Include some of our unique features for stock research ■ User friendly interface for investment research – You have everything you need for a successful stock pick in one window ● Unique Selling Proposition should be catchy, splashy, tactful – not overthetop or too aggressive ● Target different audiences with different campaigns (look at the research about ways to target women and millennials) ● Headline ○ 25 characters or less ○ Include a central keyword in the headline ○ Capitalize Each Word ● Ad Text ○ 2 lines of 35 characters or less each ○ Describe benefits first and only then describe your offer and features ■ Mention the benefits of investing – show statistics (average stock returns, dividend yields, etc.) ■ One stop shop for investment research ○ Precise, concise and unspectacular ○ Include special prices, promotions and exclusive offers ○ Avoid one word keywords too broad, a lot of traffic is untargeted ○ Can include negative keywords in order to exclude irrelevant queries ■ Such as “Land Rover” ● Regularly check Click Through Rate (the ratio of clicks to impressions) to see whether we target the right audience ● Check Quality Scores for each keyword and run Ad Preview and Diagnosis 10
- 11. Reaching New Demographics Reaching Females Research Takeaways and Responses Key Concepts How to Address While men are more likely to invest with a performance goal, women tend to think in terms of purpose—retirement, health care for them or their loved ones and so on. ● “Goals” feature to organize portfolios by purpose ○ Could be implemented in forums ● Create screeners specifically for goals, or library sections set up by goals ○ e.g. “Stocks to save for retirement” portfolio or screener ○ “Investing when you have kids” ● Goal based blog posts Women are less confident than men when it comes to investing. ● Give them statistics that show they don’t need to be ● Women research things thoroughly and ask questions ○ SR gives them the tools to do this! ● Reach out to female finance blogs ○ Stress importance of investing Women are more likely to use advisors than handle finances personally. ● Probably stems from the same confidence issue. Address one, fix both ● Forums community Either specific feeds for women, or just feeds targeted toward women Reaching Millennials Research Takeaways and Responses Key Concept How to Address “Millennials are taking advantage of a variety of hightech and social media tools that allow them to plow their wealth into investment vehicles of their choice.“ ● Remain active on social media ● Keep doing blog posts ● Increasing visibility is key factor here seems like we fit the mold A low number of millennials are investing despite the fact that the beginning of a career is the best time to start investing, as it gives money time to grow. ● Find a way to raise awareness of how good investing is for millennials ○ Partner with professors, school investment groups, etc ○ Targeted forums and blog posts Millennials spend more time monitoring their investments, and seem more engaged, optimistic ● We already fit this mold, we just need to get them using the product 11
- 12. and confident in their financial situation than other generations. More than 70% of millennials describe themselves as being "selfdirected" in their investing, likely because millennials have a hard time believing that advisors have their best interests in mind. ● “DIY” branding We provide the tools to help you succeed ● Forums and blog posts, again, with advice and research tips Millennials want to engage with brands on social networks. ● Continue to be active on social media respond to tweet questions, do webinars, etc. ● Make sure we have a company presence on our forums, once live Millennials want to cocreate products with companies. ● We already do this with our feedback system ● Add a feedback/suggestions forums page Millennials are using multiple tech devices, and plan to continue to do so ● Don’t neglect mobile and tablet platforms ● Potential integration with Apple Watch and other wearables far down the line Millennials are extremely brand loyal. ● Get them started early once we hook them in, we have them 12
- 13. Blogs Note: Have emailed all, minimal responses. Traffic listed is by month. General Finance Blogs Blog Description What they can (potentially) do for us MoneyNing How to maximize your efforts and channel your desire of reaching financial freedom into results, insights on saving, investing, frugal living, coupons, promo codes. ● Advertisements ● Reviews (examples here and here) ● Have emailed, no response My Money Blog Personal finance blog written by one man, talks about personal investing, life, and others. Good number of sponsored posts, but also many independent, seemingly nonsponsored reviews! ● Ads ● Reviews (examples here and here) ● Sponsored posts ● Have emailed, no response GroupSpecific Finance Blogs Paired down to relevant items Females Blog Description What they can (potentially) do for us DailyWorth http://www.dailyworth.com/ Website and free, daily email about personal finance for women. Gives money advice in simple, sassy, onceaday, digestible servings. ● Advertisements they’re the most popular femalegeared finance blog. ● Review of site ● have emailed, no response 13
- 14. Millennials Blog Description What they can (potentially) do for us The College Investor http://thecollegeinvestor.com/ Blog to showcase common sense thoughts and ideas with younger adults. ● Recommend us as a tool. ● Ads ● Reviews Sponsored available, but not particularly what we’re looking for ● Have corresponded, decided not right for us at current time 14
- 15. Forums * The categories or subcategories that are highlighted in bold are either most popular categories in a particular forum or, in my opinion, the most relevant and informative ones. Ideas we can inherit from Stockopedia discussions for forums in Markets ● User profile like on other social media websites, so you can upload profile picture, follow other people and post your writings and thoughts. ● Ability to leave comments and send private messages ● List of Regular Columns (topicbased categories, contributed by Stockopedia staff or members whose posts were reviewed and syndicated by Stockopedia staff) ○ Small Cap Value Report ○ StockRank reviews (Can be a useful channel after we introduce our stock rankings) ○ GuruScreen reviews ○ Portfolio Tips ○ Stock in Focus ○ Weekly Wrap ○ Site Announcements ● Stockopedia also categorizes posts in ○ Active Threads ○ New Posts ○ Most Popular ○ Most Discussed ○ On your Favourites ● Other categories ○ Stock picks and ideas ○ Strategies and screening (Value Investing, Growth Investing, Technical Analysis, etc.) ○ Sector Boards (Auto, Banks, Chemicals, Energy, etc.) ○ Miscellaneous (Macro, Economics, Gold, Fund) ● Also we should keep track of the most followed writers and give some recognition to the top contributors. Stockopedia gives Contend Awards: ○ Contributors whose articles were published and syndicated to Stockopedia web partners receive the 'Stockopedia Author' Badge for their profile ○ Also, based on the number of community reads, comments or likes a contributor receives Gold, Silver or Bronze awards. 15
- 16. Ideas we can inherit from Morningstar: ● Mark some posts as Favorites and have an archive of Favorites in your profile ● Have an ability to subscribe to certain contributors and send private emails ● Being able to leave comments Forum categories and features: (a lot of subcategories, maybe too many to navigate successfully) ● Fund Forums ○ Allocation/ Balanced Funds ○ American Funds ○ Bogleheads Unite (626,246 posts) ■ Discuss financial news and theory, while also helping less experienced investors develop their portfolios. ○ ClosedEnd Funds ○ DoubleLine Funds ○ ExchangeTraded Funds ○ Fidelity Investments (222,036 posts) ○ Mutual Funds (207, 938 posts) ○ PIMCO Funds ○ T. Rowe Price Funds ○ TIAACREF Funds ○ Vanguard Funds ● Stock Forums ○ Alternative Investments ○ Income & Dividend Investing (124, 820 posts ) 16
- 17. ○ Market Insights ○ Products and Services ○ Stock Picks (72,005 posts) ○ Warren Buffett Investing ● General Forums ○ 401(k) & IRA Planning ○ Bond Squad ○ Green Energy & Investing ○ HandsOn Investing (66,506 posts) ○ International Investing ○ Investing During Retirement (81,760 posts) ○ Investment Basics ○ MoneySaving Tips ○ Morningstar.com (69,171 posts) ○ Off Topic/ General Chat ○ Personal Finance ○ Portfolio Design/ Management ● Here is their visual representation of the “Topic”’ section ● Besides choosing forum category, you can assign topics (there is a huge list of them or you can also customize) ● You can select the feature of emailing replies to you ● Users should be able to report if a certain post is off topic, inflammatory, advertising, or copyright content ● Ability to print posts ○ This would cater to our demographic ● Basic users cannot post anything 17
- 18. Ideas we can inherit from Market Thoughts Discussion forum http://www.marketthoughts.com Not a very active forum, but they do not provide the number of posts ● Ability to create a profile, send private messages and emails to other forum members ● Categories (very straightforward and clear) ● General ○ Announcements (This could be the place where we can announce SR’s new features) ● U.S. Markets ○ Market Commentary ○ Individual Stocks ○ Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds and ETFs ○ Trading Systems and Market Timing Models ○ Market Polls ● International Markets ○ The Asia and Australasia Board ○ The China Board ○ The Europe Board ● Learning to Invest or Trade ○ Books and Periodicals ○ Research Papers, Articles, and Speeches ○ The Dow Theory ● Others ○ Off topic Ideas we can inherit from FatWallet.com forum http://www.fatwallet.com Moderately active forum ● Ability to filter posts by rating (if we incorporate a certain rating or allow people to rate posts), by date (e.g. last day, last two days, last week, etc.) or by topics (e.g. Investing, Insurance, Personal Finance, Tax, Real Estate etc.) ● It would be also nice if users would be able to search certain posts by their names Ideas we can inherit from d2jsp forum http://www.d2jsp.org/ Not finance, but very active ● Instant messenger, chat ● Shows online user list or how many users are online Ideas we can inherit from StockFetcher forums Very simple and moderately active forum no notable features, simple categories Categories: ● General Discussion (64,573 posts) 18
- 19. ● Filter Exchange (45,851 posts) ● Stock Picks and Trading (16,645 posts) ● Announcements (771 posts) ● Indicators and Measures ● Filter Phrases ● Public Filter List ● Shared Symbol Lists ● StockFetcher for iPad 19
- 20. Telling a Brand’s Story When telling a brand’s story there are 5 key questions that must be answered. Here they are, and how we can answer them for Stock Rover ● Who? ○ We are Stock Rover. ● What? ○ The swiss army knife of investing tools. A web app that allows you to do your investment research quickly, intelligently, and efficiently. ● Where? ○ Company in Boston, but we can be used anywhere. On your computer. Or your phone. Or your tablet. ● Why? ○ Because investment research is necessary, but tedious. When Howard started investing, he “started to feel that a lot of the tools were very difficult to use, that the investing process was inefficient, not repeatable, every website opened up a separate page and you were just shown a lot of random data, depending on the format of the page, and it just seemed difficult.” Stock rover was born out of an attempt to answer these issues, and it does so successfully. ● How? ○ Through the programming background of our founders, and the rest of our team. We actively solicit feedback, and it has helped grow and shape our product to tailor it perfectly to the needs of our customers. 20
- 21. Adblock Takeaways Main Takeaways: Make the site less pleasant with adblock than without it ● Maybe increase popup frequency, interstitial ads ● Colorful images of sad puppies asking them to whitelist us ● Or just create our own ads or tips on how to use the product Examples of what to display: ● Informative ○ ● Coercive ○ How to detect adblock (using Javascript and jQuery and Google Adsense) ● http://w3guy.com/detectingadblock/ 21
- 22. Feedback on Video Library ● “Advanced Charting Technicals”, “Advanced Charting Fundamentals” ○ Need to be updated because of the new UI, mainly because the chart looks different ● “Advanced Charting Price Settings” ○ Consider updating because of the new UI, mainly because the chart looks different; not critical because ‘Price Settings’ functions the same way despite the changes in the chart ● “Adding Stocks to Portfolio” ○ Outdated table, consider updating the video. ● “Filtering Stocks in the Table” ○ Needs to be updated; we do not have Task Wizard anymore (many videos have Task Wizard but in some it is not critical) ● “Saving Stocks in the Table” ○ Needs to be undated. It functions differently now. ● “Saving Research Tickers” ○ Needs to be updated. We do not have a research box above the table now. ● “Advanced Table Features Webinar” ○ Consider updating; provides useful information, but some of it is not relevant because the app is updated now. ● “Stock Rover 101: An Introduction to Stock Rover (9/22/15)” ○ Needs to be updated. The app looks really different now. ● “Alerts” ○ Needs to be updated; resolution is not great and you can’t change it to 720p HD; plus, since we had UI update, alerts are located in a different place now. ● “Deep Charting” ○ Consider for updating because of the new UI now; though, this webinar provides some info that is still relevant. ● “Advanced Table Features” ○ Needs an update. Since UI is different now, some features that were covered are not relevant anymore. ● “All About the Insight Panel” ○ Consider updating, ‘Market Summary’ is separated now. ● “Advanced Screening with Stock Rover” ○ Needs to be updated because of the new UI. 22
- 23. Quantitative Analysis SEO Current Standing Alexa report ( 06/08/15) : ● According to Alexa report our website’s overall grade is A, which implies that we are in a strong current standing. ● SR has a smaller bounce rate percentage (25.7%) than Morningstar (30.7%) ● Surprising fact: The number of Morningstar female users is way above the internet average (general internet population). At the same time, the number of male users is below the internet average. The conclusion is we need to target more women. Our current percent of female users for March, May and June is 6.5% and based on Morningstar demographic statistics, women are interested in investing. ● Another surprising fact: School (I assume it includes schools, colleges, and universities) is the top browsing location for Morningstar, it’s way above the internet average. We need to target schools and develop strategies for it. ● In addition, according to Alexa report (date 07/02/15), 4.1% of unique SR visits from June 29th to July 2nd comes right after users went on seekingalpha.com. 23
- 24. Seekingalpha.com is our second source of unique visits, which indicates that posting blogs on seekingalpha is a good strategy to increase our user community. ● Paid Keywords for morningstar.com: ○ Best mutual funds (to be precise best meutual fonds) note: I have no idea why they target keywords with wrong spelling ○ Fidelity muni fund account ○ Fidelity mutual fund minimum investment ● Keywords targeted by competitors: ○ Earnings calendar ○ Vtsax ○ Vtsmx ○ Sharpe ratio ○ Vanguard funds Semrush report (06/09/15) : Traffic: 36 Semrush rank: 2.9 M Backlinks: 134 total backlinks Top keywords (keywords that generate the most organic traffic): Keyword Volume Piotroski score 260 Piotroski f score 260 Baidu vs google 170 Best stock research sites 140 Best stock research 50 Stock grades 40 ← Based on the updated report (July 2nd) 24
- 25. Main competitors: morningstar.com marketwatch.com fool.com thestreet.com zacks.com itg.com jirinc.com semrush.com tdameritrade.com wyattresearch.com investmentresearchdynamics.com valueline.com research2.fidelity.com Semrush website audit (07/02/15): Errors: ● 11 pages have duplicate title tag (the list of pages is on a separate document in SEO folder) ○ Why this is not good: Basically, using the same titles for different web pages makes it difficult for search engines to decide what pages to display in search results. Also since we use the same title tag, we lose the opportunity to use more relevant keywords. ● 1 page doesn’t have a title tag http://www.stockrover.com/library/excel/megadatasetwithscreenercriteria.xlsx ● 29 pages have duplicate meta description (the list of pages is on a separate document in SEO folder) ○ Why this is not good: We lose opportunity to use more relevant keywords. Also, search engine robots have difficulties while distinguishing web pages. It is better to have no meta description at all than to have a duplicate one (multiple trustworthy resources.) ● Shows that www.stockrover.com/blogpiotroskihighfscorescreener.html has 13 broken internal images Possible reasons why the image can be broken: ○ Image might not be named properly ○ File path in the code might be incorrect ● 1 external broken link ○ http://www.stockrover.com/blogaetna.html 25
- 26. General Notes: ● Same gender demographics (~15% of new users are females), same bounce rate for new users (~50%), slightly higher number of new sessions (~200 more sessions in Q2) ● In Q2 (Apr 1 Jun 30) our 65+ community accounted for 25% of our new user traffic. The second largest user community is 25 34, which accounted for 19% of new user sessions. This is a change from Q1, where 2534 community accounted for 23% and 65+ for 22%. Since February our 65+ years old community was growing noticeably faster than any other age sectors. This information is based on monthly growth rates. We need to make sure that we are reaching all user demographics and diversifying our audience. One of the easiest ways to reach the youth, I believe, is launching an ad campaign on social media. My top pick is Twitter. ● There is growth of sessions from “Financial Services/Investment Services” and “Financial Services/Financial Planning” segments for the last two months (June, May) ○ This is great because it means that we are reaching our target audience ● 5.4% of new sessions come from Canada 26
- 29. Keyword Description Avg monthly searches Suggested bid Canslim O'Neil's can slim screen is a philosophy of screening, purchasing and selling common stock (developed by William O'Neil, the cofounder of Investor's Business Daily)It focuses on growth metrics but also has a momentum component to determine when stocks should be bought and sold. 720 $2.37 Altman Zscore The output of a creditstrength test that gauges a publicly traded manufacturing companies’ likelihood of bankruptcy 1,600 $0.02 RSI Relative strength index An extremely popular momentum indicator that has been featured in a number of articles, interviews and books over the years 40,500 1,900 $0.97 $1.75 ADX Average directional index ADX is used to quantify trend strength. ADX calculations are based on a moving average of price range expansion over a given period of time. 6,600 140 N/A $0.52 MACD Moving average convergence divergence One of the simplest and most effective momentum indicators available 6,600 210 $1.35 N/A Stochastic oscillator A momentum indicator that shows the location of the close relative to the highlow range over a set number of periods 720 $0.97 Aroon Aroon Indicator An indicator system that determines whether a stock is trending or not and how strong the trend is (tech analysis) 390 260 $1.66 $0.72 Backtesting The process of testing a trading strategy on prior time periods 590 $2.34 29
- 30. Keyword Description Avg monthly searches Suggested bid Magic formula investing A term referring to an investment technique outlined by Joel Greenblatt that uses the principles of value investing 1,900 $3.27 Fibonacci Retracement The potential retracement of a financial asset's original move in price 1,600 $0.68 Black–Litterman model (BlackLitterman tool for asset allocation was mentioned in a survey as a desired feature) Mathematical model for portfolio allocation developed in 1990 at Goldman Sachs by Fischer Black and Robert Litterman, and published in 1992. It seeks to overcome problems that institutional investors have encountered in applying modern portfolio theory in practice. 210 N/A Ideas: ● Consider incorporating Magic formula stock screener or Canslim screener and write blog posts about them (similar to piotroski f score post). Some free and priced competitors use such screeners. ● Another idea for the blog is a post Explaining how backtesting works in the blog ● Consider incorporating some technical analysis indicators (ex. Aroon Indicator, ADX, MACD, etc.) ● Elaborate on RSI in the blog what it is and how it is calculated (it is commonly used as a technical on our platform) ● Because technicals are difficult to rank for (there are a lot of relevant search results that would outrank us), The data on specific technicals above should be used to help guide secondary keywords. This means we would use them in blog posts about something else, hoping someone might stumble upon it in their searches. 30
- 37. Survey Takeaways Preferred Features: ● Both basic and premium users highly valued portfolio tools and screeners (as expected) ● Underused the library ○ This is unexpected, I suggest promoting it it can be a very powerful tool ● Basic Preferred Features ● Basic Desired Features 37
- 38. ● Premium Preferred Features AdFree Version ● Approximately 20% of users are willing to pay for an adfree version with no extra features from basic ○ Suggest implementing after , also making ads more annoying to increase this percentage. 38
- 39. Price Points ● Users were surveyed about at what price Stock Rover would be too cheap (and couldn’t be good), a great bargain, expensive (but still worth buying), and too expensive ● Takeaways ○ Can’t go much higher than our current premium offering (at $250) unless we improve the product ○ Increases are very linear take into consideration when determining price jumps between tiers of SR (average slope is $63) Investment Experience of Survey Respondents ● The vast majority of users are intermediate to advanced investors. Continue tailoring the product to them while also developing ways to rope in new novice and pro users ○ For pro, I suggest adding higher caliber tools ○ For novice, I suggest adding more education and investment suggestions ■ Recommendations will be great for this 39
- 40. Subscriptions Yearly vs. Quarterly. ● People prefer cheaper yearly subscriptions, but still worth offering both to tailor to all. ○ In addition, it is always better to give people a couple choices, that way they can see the better deal easily. Think, expensive wine in a restaurant. Competitors used: ● Used to find some of the companies for competitive analysis. ○ Brokerages, noncomparables omitted ○ Morningstar in depth analysis ● Good places to poach ideas/customers from 40
- 41. Recommendations based on user suggestions: ● We need to find a more effective way to communicate with users ○ Notification panel would work well for this ● A lot of people mentioned about difficulties with navigating in the app, and many of them wish for step by step guidelines. ● Some premium users wished for features that already exist. ○ Suggestion: Update SR Premium and Basic User Guides. ● Some users (5) wrote that we need to improve our charting ○ See competitive analysis sections on Ycharts and Finviz ● Many users (6 prem, 1 basic) would like SR to provide a larger selection of international stock. ○ People mostly mentioned European stocks. ● Increase the number of portfolios allowed and the number of tickers in a portfolio/watchlist. ○ Took into account for pricing plans ● Mention the feature of displaying all portfolios in one table in next hidden features webinar ● Tool to combine stock portfolio folders (1) ● Create a forum where users can suggest new features, provide recommendations for the website improvement, and vote on them (1) ○ We’re doing this ;) 41
- 42. All the desired features mentioned by users Subscription Status Investment experience level Desired Feature Premium Advanced Ability to add options pricing in the portfolio to track covered calls Premium Advanced piotrosky fscore as a screening parameter Premium Advanced Add Morningstar star rating for stocks Premium Advanced REIT metrics Premium Advanced Ability to combine stock portfolio folders Premium Advanced market indexes Premium Advanced Rebalancing of multiple portfolios using a master model portfolio Premium Advanced Backtesting (3) Premium Advanced Stock Valuation calculation Premium Advanced increase the number of portfolios Premium Advanced Automatic rebalancing Premium Advanced Increase technical analysis capabilities Premium Advanced Broker sync (11) Premium Advanced Transactionbased portfolio (P&L) tracking Premium Advanced Portfolio updating real time Premium Advanced Allow for withdrawals, and calculate returns taking withdrawal Premium Advanced International stocks (7) Premium Advanced ETF analysis and screener (4) Premium Advanced Mutual funds analysis (3) Premium Advanced Flexible size of portfolios (a larger # of tickers allowed in 42
- 43. portfolio) Premium Advanced See what others are buying or screening for Premium Advanced Easier trade data cvs file importing Premium Advanced BlackLitterman tool for asset allocation. Premium Advanced stock screen Premium Advanced Built in valuation calculations Premium Advanced freecashflow analysis Premium Intermediate earnings release dates Premium Intermediate Mutual funds analysis Premium Intermediate Quant ranking at least 500 companies Premium Intermediate iphone app Premium Intermediate column hiding in portfolio screen Premium Intermediate TSX 60 index Premium Intermediate The ability to track a portfolio for its life, not just 10 years. Basic Professional Stress testing Basic Professional Unlimited # of portfolios (3) Basic Professional Backtesting Basic Professional ETF sreening, analysis Basic Intermediate Extend graphing periods Basic Intermediate Stock headlines Basic Intermediate DCF valuation Basic Intermediate real time quotes in portfolio Basic Intermediate Yield curve Basic Intermediate IRR 43
- 44. Basic Intermediate more chart treadline analysis Basic Intermediate Access to and/or alerts on company news Basic Intermediate stock's current yield as a percentage of the stock's average over periods of one year, five years and ten years Basic Intermediate comparison with peers Basic Intermediate EPS and Revenue Growth Estimates Basic Intermediate Charts that would show first and second standard deviations from the mean price of a stock over at least a 10 year period Basic Intermediate Larger portfolio size (3) Basic Intermediate International stocks (7) Basic Novice 5 out of 11 novice users asked for better instructions and a paper guide Basic Novice few suggestions on how to get into the stock market * The number in parenthesis is a total number of times the feature has been mentioned by the user regardless of his/her subscription status and experience level. * The features that already exist in SR are highlighted in red. 44
- 45. Pricing Suggestions Subscription Plans breakdowns ● Let’s hold off on the adfree version for now. Let’s just try Essentials and perhaps introduce adfree later. ● Ramp up advertising, hereby giving basic users a stronger incentive to upgrade ● Keep Basic Plan as it is right now. ○ We want to keep Basic Plan desirable in order to grow our community. ○ We don’t want to create a bad image for the company and alienate basic users by taking away features. ○ Plus, we give Basic users a strong incentive to upgrade by introducing Essentials ● We suggest to maintain $249.99 for Premium Plan even though survey results suggest that the plan is a bit expensive. ○ Dropping the price again sends the wrong message ○ Our product is excellent, plus we are constantly adding/upgrading features ○ We offer discounts and will soon be giving referral bonuses. ● It is difficult to price the Pro Plan now because we don’t know exact features that will be included in the plan yet. The benchmark is $350$400, so we have a $100$150 jump. Plus, we have recommendations regarding the features. ○ Another reason to keep Premium at $250 we can price Pro higher in the future. ● We want to be careful about making Essentials too good, hereby preventing users from upgrading to Premium or downgrading from Premium to Essentials. ○ We can always add features in the future ● We want Essentials to feel like a no brainer to people who are familiar with SR already. ● We think that a $99.99 price point for yearly plan and $29.99 for quarterly plan (~30x4=120) seems reasonable based on the survey data (between too low $75 and bargain $150 for Premium.) ○ Keep in mind that these numbers were based on the current premium plan offerings 45
- 46. Overview: Basic Essentials Premium Yearly Free $99.99 $249.99 Quarterly Free $29.99 $74.99 Identity/ Framing The best free stock research tool out there; a goto educational platform to increase financial literacy and investment knowledge The flexibility and power of Stock Rover Basic, with 10 years of historical data, higher portfolio/watchlist limits, no ads, and your choice of a bonus Premium feature(s). Signature portfolio and screening facilities to help users gain clear, precise, and actionable investing insights. Plus an array of supportive tools in all corners of Stock Rover. Essentials Plan Breakdown: Upgrades from Basic: ● Adfree experience ● Hotline support addon available ($99/year fee) ● Upgrade to 10 years of data ● Auto refresh ● Increase the limits for items, portfolios, and watchlists ○ See spreadsheet for #s ● Portfolio trade history ● Alerts Note: For essentials users, support will be free for the first 30 days, same as basic. After that they will not be guaranteed a response. 46
- 47. Referral Program ● Change coupon from premium trial to be 1 month off yearly ○ Note: As this is not a publicized coupon, we can test this discount without penalty for changing ● We all agreed on doublesided referral program, thereby both a referrer and a referee receive the same reward ● Referral reward can’t be combined with other offers ● Referral will be a one time credit (not a yearly discount) and it won’t ever expire. ○ If a user ever upgrades to a paid plan, it will activate the referral credit for both the referrer and referee. ● At the end of the premium trial, instead of getting the normal coupon code… if someone has been referred they would get a different email sequence reminding you that since you were referred you get a referral discount ○ This is assuming the referral program works with each individual user having their own unique sign up link that would then put a “cookie” (for lack of a better term) in the new users’ account signifying they are a referee. Recommendation: ● When a referral is applicable: ○ If a referee signs up for a Yearly or Quarterly Premium Plan ○ If a referee signs up for a Yearly Essentials Plan ● Referrer and Referee rewards (equal credits): ○ Quarterly Premium or Yearly Essentials = $10 ○ Yearly Premium = $25 ● Officially, past referrals are not eligible for this plan. ● Basic user referrals will be phase 2 of this plan ○ Users would have to “opt in” to the program through paypal 47
- 48. Competitive Analysis List of Competitors Note: Stock Rover’s Alexa rank is 415,109. Table sorted by “Threat Rank” (subjective) Company, Description, Website Cost Per Month Cost Per Year Alexa Rank Threat Rank Morningstar, Inc Research tool keeps tabs on market activity, earnings reports, economic data, and breaking news from Dow Jones, MarketWatch, and others. Features include syncing with your Morningstar portfolios and watchlists, analyzing your holdings with Morningstar Portfolio XRay and monitoring the global Markets with real time data and the latest Morningstar analyst videos and proprietary ratings. Fintech Research Category Runner Up http://www.morningstar.com/ $23.95 $12.19 $199.00 2,909 5 Trade Ideas Computer system that acts like traders by playing thousands of trading scenarios every single day. Computers constantly learning which market relationships have predictive outcomes. Software identifies what is working in a down market or in an up market, and suggests exactly what to buy or short and when to exit. Trade Ideas Channel window is "like a Tivo for your portfolio;" providing you an ever growing menu of investment and trading layout choices. Beat us in Fintech Screener category No basic/ free plan http://www.tradeideas.com/ $43 $75 $709 $924 214,125 5 Personal Capital Service that syncs up all your financial accounts in one location. Creates summaries of your cash flow, net worth, and investment portfolio with recommendations. The upsell is their service is available to manage your investments. over 700,000 users. Personal Capital is a Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) with the SEC https://www.personalcapital.com/ 0 0 15,918 5 Finviz Stock Screener Indepth stock screening tool you set criteria http://finviz.com/ $39.50 $299.50 5,084 5 48
- 49. Ycharts Charting, screening, and tables http://ycharts.com/ $40 $300 32,738 5 Stockpedia StockRanks™ (proprietary grading system), key ratios & 8 years of historic and forecast fundamentals laid out neatly on a single page. Also has premade and customizable screeners http://www.stockopedia.com/plans/ $39$60 95,917 5 Marketwatch Free Stock Screener designed to screen for stocks using as many or as few parameters as you wish to define. http://www.marketwatch.com/ $0 $0 762 5 Zacks Stock Screener Pick stocks on a multitude of selection criteria that is most relevant to you with this stock screener. Also offers Zacks' predefined stock screens to help you find the types of companies that meet your criteria. http://www.zacks.com/screening/stockscreener $249 $1495 8,100 4.5 Stockflare Goal is to make picking stocks easy. Gives key data, for every company in the world, sourced from the leading financial data firm in the world, Thomson Reuters, for free. Helps manage your existing portfolio by identifying "badeggs in the basket." https://stockflare.com/ 0 0 299,259 4 StockFetcher Stock screener with textbased filtering can use plainenglish phrases to build your custom stock screens. Also has forums. http://www.stockfetcher.com/ $8.95 $16.95 Quarter: $24.95 $44.95 130,847 4 Value Line Popular with our users. Screeners, alerts, markets, watchlists, portfolio trackers and models. Paid versions have increasing numbers of consistently updated fullpage stock reports that are “packed with detailed current and historical financial data, 3to 5 year price and earnings projections, and unbiased commentaries from expert analysts." http://www.valueline.com/ Varies based on package. Avg: $200/year 4 49
- 50. Google Finance Features business and enterprise headlines for many corporations including their financial decisions and major news events. Stock information is available, as are Adobe Flashbased stock price charts which contain marks for major news events and corporate actions. Aggregates Google News and Google Blog Search articles about each corporation, though links are not screened and often deemed untrustworthy. Lets users see currency information, sector performance for the United States market and a listing of top market movers along with the relevant and important news of the day. Charts containing up to 40 years of data for U.S. stocks, and richer portfolio options. Realtime ticker updates for stocks. https://www.google.com/finance 0 0 1 (as part of google) 3.5 Yahoo Finance Provides financial news, data and commentary including stock quotes, press releases, financial reports, and original programming. It also offers some online tools for personal finance management. http://finance.yahoo.com/ 0 0 4 (as part of yahoo) 3.5 Valuengine Stock valuation and forecasting service with proprietary stock valuation and econometric models for forecasting stock price movement. Includes portfolio construction and tracking products. Primary products are this website for individual investors and ValuEngine Institutional (VEI), a software package for equity fund managers and other financial professionals. http://www.valuengine.com/ve/mainve $14.95 786,355 3.5 Market In Out Stock Screening Tool. HAS BACKTESTING http://www.marketinout.com/ $23.16 (commit 6 months) $219 425,835 3.5 Stock Fetcher Textbased filtering allowing you to use plainenglish phrases to build your custom stock screens. http://www.stockfetcher.com/ $9$17 $100$180 137,070 3.5 Spiking Spiking financial information with an emphasis on Institutional Investment Manager, Insider Trading, Event Driven Strategy, and Earnings Announcement. http://spiking.com/ N/A N/A 4,092,823 3 50
- 51. Vuru Reduces learning curve to investing using mathematical engine to "make stock analysis smart, simple, and fast." Uses unique algorithms based on the methods of experts like Warren Buffet and Bruce Greenwald to "simplify 10 years of complex stock data (BS, CFS, IS) into clear, transparent reports that investors of any skill level can leverage." Free. VERY SIMILAR TO OUR MARKETS TOOL http://www.vuru.co/ 0 0 326,767 3 MSN Money Allows users to set up lists of stocks to watch, follow certain corporations and receive stock updates, get the latest headlines regarding stock markets, view realtime trading figures with a 30minute delay, track their own personal finances, calculate mortgages, get information on commodities and bonds, and use a currency converter. http://www.msn.com/enus/money/ 0 0 27 (as part of MSN) 3 ChartIQ Provider of "professional grade" financial charting and technical analysis tools that work across desktop, web, tablet, and smartphone. Claims to be only company to actually delivers a seamless experience in HTML5 charting tools across platforms. Live trading from the chart, allowing traders to take their analysis directly into action, executing trades from any device to the brokerage of their choice. ChartIQ’s technology powers the charts on NASDAQ.com, Economic Times of India, marketstoday.net, eToro, Trading Technologies, Leverate, and many more. http://www.chartiq.com 0 0 343,952 3 ChartLabPro Mission is to help you Participate, Protect and Grow your investment assets by deploying a quantitative investment approach. Helps dynamically manage risk by reducing equity exposure in periods of market decline, and increase investment exposure when asset prices depict strength, in rising markets. "Isolate risk and outperform across various market cycles using ChartLabPro.com" http://www.chartlabpro.com Scaled Scaled 872,069 3 51
- 52. Capital Market Labs Harnesses the power of visual & ‘living’ data to support investment decisions. Allows financial statements of a custom (self selected) peer group to be combined into one financial statement and deliver realtime comparisons. Translates peergroup data into powerful visualizations that have ‘living’ data ready for the user to customize it on the fly. "Instead of hours of manual data analysis, CML’s visual data can inspire “Aha Moments” instantaneously." http://www.capitalmarketlabs.com/video.html 220,096 3 The Street Business news that moves markets, awardwinning stock analysis, market data and stock trading ideas. http://www.thestreet.com/ 2,408 3 Sigfig Algorithms that constantly monitor your investments, and “provide a balanced portfolio tailored just for you.” https://www.sigfig.com/site/#/home First $10,000 managed is free, >$10,000, charge 0.25% 41,421 3 Old School Value Stock valuation models based on proprietary formulas. Exports to excel. http://www.oldschoolvalue.com/ $22 $35.25 153,600 3 Tradepilot Free Stock Screener for Traders & Investors http://www.tradepilot.com/ $0 $0 854,317 3 Magic Formula Investing stock screening tool to select Magic Formula stocks, as described in Joel Greenblatt's book The Little Book That Beats the Market www.magicformulainvesting.com $0 $0 390,650 3 MagicDiligence researches and recommends the most attractive value stock investing opportunities from Joel Greenblatt's Magic Formula Investing and similar screens. http://www.magicdiligence.com/ $12 $144 1,507,818 3 Wealthfront the world's largest automated investment service with over $2.4 billion in client assets www.wealthfront.com First $10,000 managed is free, >$10,000, charge 0.25% 17,562 3 Betterment Automated invetment tool, also claims to be "world's largest." Very straightforward, you essentially just set your First $10,000 > $10,000 0.15% to 0.35% 14,673 3 52
- 53. preferences, give them your money, and they take care of the rest https://www.betterment.com/ managed is free Stockviews Community for analysts and investors to crowdsource investing. Gives investor scores based on success, you can choose to follow investors or individual tickers. Users vote “buy” or “sell” on stocks. Filter votes by either all users or by high rated “vice presidents.” Articles written by analysts. Can get “promoted” with good portfolio performance ranks go from “analyst” to “senior analyst” to “vice president.” http://stockviews.com/ Free 1,765,980 3 Stock Charts Tools, educational information, expert opinions, and support you need to understand the markets and make high quality investment charts http://stockcharts.com/ $14.95 $49.95 4,267 2.5 Option Samurai Option screener designed to give individual investors a constant edge in the optiontrading realm. Idea is to "provide the easiest option scanner." Daily scans of more the 700,000 options, incorporates data from various data sources (such as dividends, earnings data, fundamentals and more) and presents the data in an easy to read table. Also provides easy oneclick scanners to make the process of finding the best trades even easier. RUNNER UP IN SCREENERS CATEGORY FOR FINTECH. (BEAT US) http://optionsamurai.com/ $49.90 $450 2,541,918 2 Quantcha "Provides tools that help you turn great ideas about stocks into great trades." Quickly and easily model the world of trades for your favorite stocks using a forecast target and expiration date. Option to add budget and brokerage to get results that show where the bottom line really is. Integrated with social networks so you can collaborate with others on your market views and trade ideas. Multi platform support. Totally free. No registration required. No ads. https://quantcha.com/ $0 $0 880,880 2 53
- 54. ChartYour Trade.com Site dedicated to helping the individual learn how to trade successfully. Offerings the routine that Michael Lamothe, Founder of ChartYourTrade.com, follows. Breaks the routine down into what he does on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis and describes what he does, how he does it, and how you can make it work for you in an efficient and effective way regardless of the methodology you follow. Also offers trading webinars, an array of tools, Michael Lamothe’s personal weekly analysis of the State of the Market, a Universe Watch List, a Ready List, a Top 10 Setups in Bases, and more. http://www.chartyourtrade.com $27 / $57 $324 / $684 1,375,233 2 ETF Database Screeners and analyzers for ETFs http://etfdb.com/ Free or $199 40,127 2 Incredible Charts stock market charting software ( from my understanding, mostly used for technical analysis) http://www.incrediblecharts.com/ $15.95 $191 145,823 2 OptionsPlay Combines equity analytics and options to "present a new world of investment ideas to investors by discovering market signals and recommending how to trade them intelligently." Inspire investors to embrace options by attempting to remove all complexity from their application. "Give everyone the tools they need to take smart, informed risks with trades founded in mathematics, not emotion." http://www.optionsplay.com/ $20 $200 1,053,554 1 LikeFolio Applies social media data to suggest stocks by tracking likes/mentions on twitter, connecting those product trends to the publiclytraded companies they tie up to, and plotting each of the mentions on a stock chart to "help you visualize the opportunity." WON FINTECH RESEARCH CATEGORY One of the 15 Best Financial sites and Apps by CNN Money. Servers down http://try.likefolio.com/home/ $0.00 $0.00 728,417 1 54
- 55. DailyAlts News, research and information platform with a mission of helping financial advisors and professional investors learn about, evaluate and utilize alternative mutual funds, exchange traded funds and closedend funds. Category of investments known as liquid alternatives, which "allows investors of nearly any size to gain access to investment approaches that have historically been available only to large and sophisticated investors." "Provides diversification benefits beyond a traditional allocation to stocks and bonds." http://dailyalts.com/ $0 $0 605,697 1 NewsHedge Squawk Uses a synthetic voice and audibly reports on over 5,000 stocks, sectors, and top commodities, Algorithmic solution that "helps you recognize anything in the capital markets which begins to trade irregularly, or notably, allowing you to easily discover opportunities and hidden risks." With no upfront costs, contracts, or exchange fees. $49/month https://newshedge.com/ $49 $588 3,637,139 1 TwelveLabs Contemporary digital trade and investment technology experience. Consumer friendly digital financial information utilising a platform that is in the hands of 1.75 billion people worldwide, allowing the everyday user to manage any asset class, whenever, wherever. http://www.twelvelabs.net/ N/A N/A 6,422,367 1 Stock xray $90 Stock investment guide software paired with data service http://stockxray.com/ $70 21,205,518 Can't tell iCLUBcentral Software and tools for investors and investment clubs. Standard toolkit (Toolkit ssg) is $179 https://www.iclub.com/ Can't tell Equity Research Service Software to “dig deeper into the Fundamentals, Key Financial Ratios, Technicals, and Industry Comparisons for Any Stock” Also part of iCLUBcentral http://www.equityresearchservice.com/ $120 5,825,019 Can't tell 55
- 56. InDepth Analysis Morningstar (MS) Analysis Website:http://www.morningstar.com/ Traffic: 1.4M Pricing Plans: $23.95 one month $199.00 one year (31% discount) $339.00 two years (41% discount) $439 three years (49% discount) Recommendation: Add an "inquire about 2 and 3 year plans" link on SR pricing page, so users are aware of 2year and 3year subscriptions at SR. Or simply list the 2 and 3 year plans as options. Referral Program: N/A (has Affiliate and Incentive Programs) Incentive Program (strategies for enhancing customer acquisition) : ○ The Sponsor Paid Program (exact prices are not indicated) ■ You purchase Premium Memberships in bulk at greatly reduced prices. You provide membership as another benefit for belonging and to attract new members ■ Essentially “reselling” subscriptions, perhaps for companies or schools ○ EndUser Paid Program ■ You make Premium Memberships available to customers at special rates. You enhance the economic benefits of belonging. ○ Discounts increase steeply based on quantity, and can save you and your customers up to 88% off the regular Premium Membership subscription rate. They do not provide exact prices, for more information contact Product Sales at +1 866 2299449 or email us at ads@morningstar.com ■ Note: I emailed them inquiring about details on these programs but they didn’t reply. General: ● Beginner investors would probably prefer using MS because it provides reports and recommendations from analysts (MS has a staff of 150 analysts) and expected growth metrics that gives them directions. ○ ETF Analyst Reports, CEF Analyst Reports, Stock Reports Users have access to indepth analyst research on more than 2,000 funds and ETFs and more than 2,000 stocks. ○ Provide buy price recommendations from their analysts (part of a portfolio management) 56
- 57. ○ Indepth coverage on 6,000 hedge funds, including performance and risk measures. Currently, SR doesn’t have an extensive amount of data on funds. ● As SR, MS also provides a very extensive free version features listed below ○ Portfolio Performance with total and personal returns ○ Screeners for stocks, mutual funds and ETFs ○ Quickranks of stocks, mutual funds, CEFs by one metric ○ Bond Calculator, IRA Calculator ○ Stock/fund comparison tool ● I like how they divide news into categories (Funds, ETFs, CEFs, Markets, Personal Finance.) It makes it easier to navigate on the website if you look for something specific. Their organization of news is very similar to MarketWatch. ● Provides highest rated stocks in different industries. SR doesn’t provide this information yet. ● I couldn't find planning of trades on MS website. MS probably doesn’t have this feature. ● Effective utilization of HELP button in Portfolio Manager Recommendation: Expand our HELP button. Consider adding New Features tab, Video Tutorials, or PDF User Guide under Help panel. Morningstar’s HELP button was very informative for me. ● A lot of dragging and dropping in the table as we proposed in the first week. It would be nice if SR could incorporate. Video link below. http://video.morningstar.com/us/misc/portfoliomanager/portfoliomanager.html ● You can add notes as a View in the table. I think it would be great if we would add this option too, so users can add comments in the table about particular tickers. ● Provide Equity style boxes. Examples: 57
- 58. Portfolio and Portfolio Analysis tools: Overall: I really like MS’s Portfolio Manager, mostly because how it is organized and how information is presented in Portfolio Xray reports. ● Ability to combine portfolios ○ SR survey respondents also mentioned this feature. It is in our roadmap and is worth implementing. ● Provides buy price recommendations from their analysts (don’t think they are extremely useful for advanced investors but definitely appealing for beginners or intermediate level investors) ● Nice graphical representation and a lot of pictures/ charts which in turn may attract a younger pool of investors it is visually more pleasant and easier to analyze. I really like it as a user. For illustrations, go to “Morningstar/ MarketWatch/ Stockopedia illustrations” folder. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B30fpF8HwZpVflNBTnlhOWQ0R0xJd253ZENn Rl81ekJwbklrSWx4SzRsQXVZcGdQSzM1bEk&usp=sharing ● Good portfolio breakdown into asset classes, stock sectors, stock types, bond styles, etc. ● Under XRay, MS provides information on a lot of metrics, such as Forward Price/ Earning, Price/ Book portfolio averages, plus Average Market Capitalization ● You have an option to convert your Portfolio to a Watchlist. Your portfolio remains saved, but now you also have a watchlist with the same holdings. Need to consider this option for SR. ● Provide news about your portfolio holdings in the Portfolio Manager very convenient. 58
- 59. ● You can save your Portfolio Reports in your own MS Archive and customize your report ● NEW! Portfolio Transactions tool is in Beta now! Screeners: Overall: MS has a lot of screeners, and it sometimes gets overwhelming to screen for stocks. However, I do think that some screeners are useful and we can eventually adopt some of them. Plus, the algorithms for all of their Premium screeners are available to premium users. ● Customizable stock and fund screeners (no quants and freedom equations though) ● Premium Fund Screener ○ A lot of builtin screeners, maybe a little too many ○ Morningstar analyst fund screens (premium only): ■ Portfolio Anchors ■ Aftertax Stars ■ Small and Beautiful ■ Hidden Germs ■ Solid LargeGrowth Funds ■ Solid MidGrowth Funds ■ Savvy Foreign Veterans ■ Conservative Foreign Funds ■ Great Bond Funds ■ Standout MuniNational Funds ● Premium Stock Screener ○ A lot of builtin screeners ○ Morningstar analyst stock screens (premium only): 59
- 60. ■ Terrific 10Year Records ■ Wealth Creators ■ Cash Cows ■ Ben Graham Stocks ■ Warren Buffett Stocks ■ Solid HighYield Stocks ■ Buyback Champions ■ Bargain Stocks ■ Momentum Plays ● ETF screener ○ Customizable with three criterias ○ Morningstar ETF screeners: ■ Lowest PricetoFair Value ETFs ■ Most Heavily Traded ETFs ■ Market Return 1year Other Tools: ● CEF Quickrank, Stock Quickrank (ranking by sectors and industries) && Fund Quickrank (ranking by many categories), ETF Quickrank/valuation (prem only) ● Funds and Stocks comparison tools (see screenshot below) ● Trade Analyzer cannot be used since Chrome doesn’t support plugins used by Morningstar, and when I tried using it with Safari, unexpected error occured (prem. only) ● Cost Analyzer for funds or exchangetraded funds (prem only) Unexpected error occured when I tried running it. I tried running it on Chrome and Safari, the outcome is the same. They might be working on it now. ● Provides Bond/ IRA calculator ● NEW! MS started providing Earnings Call Transcripts for all users ○ Could we pull these into the insight panel? 60
- 61. Info on quotes: ● More frequent updates of stock prices ● Some numbers didn’t match (5.4 % difference in net margin for industry of BAC) ● Provides Wall Street Recommendations ● Premium users have access to PDF reports on all tickers and on all analyst reports at no extra charge. They look very pretty. (Illustrations are included in the “Morning Star/ Stockopedia/ MarketWatch illustrations” folder https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B30fpF8HwZpVflNBTnlhOWQ0R0xJd253ZENn Rl81ekJwbklrSWx4SzRsQXVZcGdQSzM1bEk&usp=sharing ) Discuss Section: Created a Discuss Account username: hmrheroix ● There are many forums and blogs on various topics and seems like people are very active on them ● You can Subscribe to forums/blogs or mark them as favourite ● Portfolio Sharing Feature ○ You can share your portfolio and get feedback plus Morningstar rating and analytics on your portfolio. ○ Holdings and percentages are shared, while investment amounts are hidden to protect privacy. You can also limit the access to your portfolio. ○ You can browse other portfolios using different criteria such as conservative allocation or 5star portfolios. ○ Overall, seems that Portfolio Sharing is a great feature provided by Morningstar because users can solicit feedback from other investors as well as compare their portfolios side by side and get a star rating. MS Wins: ● Established brand, large traffic ● Cheaper than our Premium, even though the number of tools and quality are pretty similar ● Strong free version with more tools provided, such as IRA calculator, bond calculator, mutual fund screener ● Would be more attractive for beginner and intermediate level investors because of Analyst Reports, price recommendations and expected growth metrics. In general, MS gives more directions to users. ● Very deep and visually attractive XRay reports and stock reports ● Provide archive for portfolio performance reports and allow users to customize them ● Mutual fund screener, ETF screener and screeners created by their analysts ● Provides easy stock ranking tool ● Trade and Cost Analyzers (premium) and Bond/ IRA calculator (basic) ● More frequent updates of stock prices ● Active forums and interesting portfolio sharing feature 61
- 62. SR Wins: ● SR has great customization features. For example, SR allows you to change tabs in the table, while MS does not ● It is easier to navigate in SR if you need to look at multiple metrics at the same time (advantage of having everything in one screen) or if you are looking for one specific metric. ● SR has some metrics that cannot be found at MS (ex. Correlation feature in Portfolio Analysis) ● Some of the features in MS are buggy you cannot run them. I tried multiple browsers. ● The process of portfolio creation is more convenient at SR ● MS is ad heavy, even for Premium members, and is very annoying for basic users with advertising their free 14day Premium trial (have to enter credit card) ● Noticeably slower than SR ● No customizable charts 62
- 63. MarketWatch Analysis Brief Description: MarketWatch has a markets page similar to SR Markets, portfolio tracking and analysis including charts, a watchlist, tons of articles organized by specific categories or by tickers, a “games” page where you can maintain a virtual portfolio. Their portfolio tool is described as a very strong tool, similar to ours. However, when I created portfolio, it doesn’t seem as powerful as it is described. New portfolio features are probably not available yet. It seems that the main focus of MarketWatch is information provision rather than fundamental investment research. It is, in certain ways, similar to Markets and could be a good model for it. Overall, I personally wouldn’t use this product specifically for investment research because it is difficult to navigate. However, I would use MarketWatch to find the latest news, because unlike their investment tools, their news is well organized by specific categories. Website: http://www.marketwatch.com/ Traffic: 7.8M Pricing Plan: Free plus premium newsletters subscriptions (optional) General: ● Supports brokerage sync most major U.S. brokerage firms are supported ● Similar customizable stock screening, simple fund screener by fund type and net assets ● There is also an ETF screener tool but nothing opens when I click on it, buggy. I tested this tool with Safari and Chrome. ● Provides options screener (Stock options give you the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell shares at a set dollar amount — the "strike price" — before a specific expiration date.) ● Provides virtual stock exchange games free of charge ○ You can trade stocks in Realtime using your virtual portfolio, talk strategies with others in the discussion groups, create a customized public or private game for others to play ○ Would be incredible tool for Stock Rover in a classroom! MarketWatch already provides guidelines about using games in a classroom setting. http://www.marketwatch.com/game/learningcenter/faq ● A lot of news. All of them are broken down into sections, which makes it easy to find the news feeds you need. ● Supports Live Help. I tested it, response was within 3 minutes. ● Great customizable Alerts (ex. keyword alert) ○ Mainly focused on news alerts 63
- 64. ● Has “Big Charts” extension ○ It feels like it is a separate product just owned by MarketWatch ○ Similar charts capabilities; however, ■ More technical metrics, such as RSI, TRIN, Stochastic Fast/Slow, etc. ■ Charts are customizable ( different backgrounds, sizes and price displays) ● Buggy mutual fund comparison tool. It displays information about only one fund, even though the limit for comparison is 5. ● Provides CDS and Bond Indexes ● Shows Upgrades & Downgrades companies which analysts start & stop following ● Provides afterhours trading reports (from 4PM ET until 6:00PM ET) ● Multiple calendars: ○ Options Expiration Calendar ○ Earnings watch Updates, advisories and surprises. It is not an actual calendar ○ Stock Split Calendar ○ IPO Calendar ○ Conference calls links that you can download and listen 64
- 65. MW Wins: ● Huge traffic ● All tools are free, only premium newsletter subscriptions require extra fee ● A lot of news and their convenient allocation ● Brokerage sync ● Virtual stock exchange games ● Free and fast Live Help ● Great Alerts tools ● Attractive and metricheavy charts, plus you can make the chart interactive ● CDS and Bond Indexes ● Multiple calendars SR Wins: ● SR has a better screener (quant screening and freeform equations) ● Couldn’t create more than one portfolio in MW either it is impossible or confusing ● Tools at MW are buggy and completely hidden from a user. It took me forever to find a simple screener and even more to find charts. ● No filtering capabilities ● MW automatically signs me out, which is very annoying. You have to enter your password every single time you want to take a look at your portfolio and sometimes answer security questions. ● MW has limited Portfolio Analysis ● MW is slow and ad heavy ● Overall: MarketWatch website is less user friendly than SR for investment research. It seems that the main focus of MarketWatch is to provide information rather than tools for fundamental investment research. I could easily navigate in the news section, but was having a hard time finding tools and running them. 65
- 66. Stockopedia Website:http://www.stockopedia.com/ Traffic: 3.6K Pricing: UK $40/ month Europe (+UK) $80/ month US $60/ month, $550/ year (24% discount), $1000/ 2 years (31% discount), $1400/ 3 years (35% discount) UK+US $80/ month Europe +US $100/ month, $950/ year (21% discount), $1600/ 2 years (33% discount), $2200/ 3 years (35% discount) Referral Program: Conditions: ● Referral program is only available for subscribers (people who pay) ● Referrer get rewarded only when a referee subscribes for the plan after the trial within 30 days after clicking on the link Options to invite: ● Through a referral link (specific to each Stockopedia account) ● Sharing on social media ● By email ● From Webmail Referrer: ● Receives $47.2 (£30) credit ● 79% of a monthly subscription / 9% of a yearly subscription (US plan) Referee: ● Receives $78.66 (£50) discount on a package(US plan) ● Free US plan / 14.3% of a yearly subscription Total: $126 (23% of a yearly subscription) General: ● Supports international stocks huge advantage for them ● Provides 3 different currency options USD, EUR, GBP ● Noticeably slower than SR and have some UI bugs, such as idle buttons or bugs with currency (ex. set USD as a currency but in certain places my portfolio is in GBP) ● In general, attractive and clean UI 66