How to go about it! Visit a site and explore and while doing so – Check the site with respect to the following parameters and prepare a concrete report on it 1. The creative aspect of the site say, full of vivid, interactive graphics and clever tools. An e.g. is Smartmoney.coms famous Map of the Market (a heat map that gives a color-coded live snapshot of the stock markets hottest sectors and companies) that can now also be customized to ones portfolio. Is the site customizable giving one the ability to say, banish links one deems unimportant and have his preferred interface? Do the site offer a free e-mail service, or a free newsletter subscription?
Do the site offer comprehensive search of its site and of the web. Are there any forums hosted with say, fund portfolio manager? Do they offer access to research reports, say e.g. Microsofts fin site Research Wizard 6. The quality of the information content offered by the site say, is there plenty of the standard news, market data and advice for the investor. has expanded to include every finance topic you can think offrom what to do if your car is totaled to writing a willplus tools like online bill paying and presentment). Do the site offers access to IPOs and free bill paying (say, like what Charles Schwab & Company do when for accounts of over $100,000 get access to IPOs and also free bill paying via Schwab BillPay). The Best and The Worst aspect of the financial site (Dont try too hard to do this, if you think what you are saying is just for the hack of saying something on these aspects.. please dont!). Do the site offer both online banking and trading?
Say, a site started off as a online trading site and later added online banking in an effort to handle more of its customers’ total net worth. What all financial instruments can be traded over the site say, bonds, fixed income securities etc. What about online bill payment and bill presentment services. Does the site allows for one to track stock portfolio. How neat is the technology used by the site; e.g. Microsofts finance site is simply superb when it comes to technology. Check the Site Map and see what all is being offered – under broad categories like, Investor, Banking & bills, Retirement & Wills, Taxes, Insurance, Saving & Spending, Family & College, Mortgages & Loans, Community etc.
Additional parameters like -Presentability, Contents, Information Dissemination, Browser Compatibility, Load Time and Technical Quality etc. Examples of 8 above can be BEST: Easy to use and easy to format. The stock analyzer, with its simplistic and naive explanations of company figures is annoying for experienced investors. A single, unified site, which can handle your stocks, bonds, and even savings account. WORST: The line between editorial content and sponsored links is blurry. Some of the financial advice is painfully simplistic BEST: An amazingly deep collection of links for everything from business news and research to the marine weather forecasts WORST: Great links, but without customization, navigation is tedious.
BEST: Has more than 20 foreign country interfaces. WORST: Click beyond your home page and the sites design deteriorates fast. ) Now, one has to explore and analyze one financial site at a time comprehensibly. In a group decide and pick yours and make a concrete report . You might like to compare the site against some standard site. While evaluating the site the above parameters can be used as anchors for achieving the task.
Go ahead with adding anything different (but relevant!) that you have to say about the site. The report has to be in a flow form discussing in-depth about the site. especially the link related to personal finance In the mean time you might want to contact some of the faculty members over the mails and if need be go and personally meet them. Also try and get some inputs from anyone in your family or friend circle who you think might be using the financial sites (for whatever reason!) and call on him/her to give inputs about the various parameters. This will be useful for the references one needs to have in the report. So get cracking! The purpose is of making sense out of this primal mud of non-clarity (above). Charat Maheshwari (IIMB) contact: charat .
