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Stockpickr.com Review | Portfolio Buzz reviews Stockpickr to help investors decide if it is an appropriate investing tool |
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Stockpickr.com
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Portfolio Buzz first came across Stockpickr.Com through a reference in Jim Cramer’s TheStreet.Com. An article highlighting weekend blog stories mentioned their site.
We checked it out and found a fascinating website that, we believe, investors can put to good use. By providing Stockpickr with your portfolio positions (long), the site returns possible additional stock picks based upon comparisons with other portfolios. It uses the principle that similar investors would have similar portfolios (risk, returns, momentum, value, etc.).
We completed the following review so that Portfolio Buzz guests can assess whether Stockpickr.Com might be a valuable resource for individual investors.
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Overview
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Stockpickr.Com is a resource website for both professional and individual investors. Its primary focus is to provide potential stock picks for members who update the site with their portfolio of long positions. It compares the member’s portfolio with the Stockpickr database and suggests additional or alternative stock picks based upon similarities between portfolios.
In other words, if portfolio A and portfolio B are reasonably similar, then each investor should be interested in those stocks which are different between the two portfolios in order to assess whether they would be appropriate for their own portfolio. Another way of thinking about it, if most investors who invest in company “ABC” also invest in company “DEF” then perhaps you should have a similar pairing in your portfolio.
Beyond specific stock alternatives, Stockpickr also provides information on many professional portfolios (like Warren Buffet’s), recent downgrades and upgrades, insider trading, top articles and financial blog entries, and member ratings of portfolios/stocks.
Finally, Stockpickr has forums and blog spots for member input.
This website and service is free.
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Stockpickr.Com Strengths
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Stockpickr.Com has two primary strengths: 1) its unique approach to providing stock pick information and 2) the breadth of resources and services provided to help investors make the best investing decisions.
Stock alternatives recommendations are based upon the analysis of member-provided information. In many respects it works the way that markets work, depending upon the decisions of many to unearth real information otherwise not available.
Clearly, providing everything from forums to top-viewed portfolios is a plus. However, it doesn’t mean that Stockpickr is the only place for an investor to visit on the web. Instead, it provides a comprehensive review of stock alternatives from a unique perspective, setting up the investor to move forward with more detailed financial, technical and fundamental analyses of stock picking alternatives.
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Stockpickr.Com Weaknesses
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Stockpickr has one major weakness, a few red flags that need to be watched and a few irritating features.
Its major weakness is that it is a young website and, as a result, the various parts of the website do not yet yield full value. Clearly, a stock picking algorithm that depends upon a database of member-supplied data is only as good as the data itself. As more members join, the database will become more objective and valuable. Similarly, the value of forums and member ratings will also become more valuable as the membership grows.
While youth will be overcome in time, the fact that the site has a Google Page Rank of 0 (scale of 0 to 10) means that it could take quite a while.
Two red flags are raised over the site terms and conditions. First, Section 4 of the T&C, Stockpickr Privacy Policy, is empty. This should make guests cautious about what the site ultimately plans to do with the data collected from members. Second, the T&C indicates that Stockpickr plans on sending members advertisements and newsletters, and states that members cannot opt out. It is not clear if a member can cancel their membership and thus stop receiving emails, or if they will continue on, thus falling into the spam category.
Stockpickr.com could erase these concerns by either clarifying them in the T&C or through their FAQs section.
Two irritants need to be cleaned up; both have to do with user experience. First, whenever a user’s pointer moves over the “Today’s Lists” button, the sub-index pops up and will not go away until the user actually hits the cancel “X” (see accompanying image). This is distracting and a pain. Second, there are various places where users can “rate” something. Unfortunately, it is never clear whether these ratings are for stocks, portfolios or other member’s comments. This must be clarified or the value of “ratings” will be totally lost.
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Portfolio Buzz Summary of Stockpickr.Com
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Stockpickr.com is a young, exciting website which offers a unique stock picking service that can truly help investors. It has enormous potential, which will be achieved over time as the number of visitors and members increases.
There are some issues on privacy and potential email traffic to members which the site should clarify, and there are a few user experience irritants which can be easily fixed.
All in all, Portfolio Buzz recommends that investors check out the site and use it as another key tool in making investment decisions, while watching whether the popularity of the site increases, thus making their unique approach to recommending personalized stock picks more effective.
Visit Stockpickr: Offical Stockpickr.Com Website
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