In the financial services business, there are advisors who like to do their own research and advisors who do not. The former will typically have their favorite tools while the latter may rely on their broker-dealer or some other partner to do the heavy portfolio research lifting. I find myself squarely in the camp of those who enjoy doing their own research. In that vein, I'd like to discuss a web-based tool that I've been using for several years by a company called Leading Market Technologies, Inc. The tool is called MarketBrowser.
I found it one day quite by accident but now consider it to be an integral part of my practice. In this post, I'll provide you with a brief overview of its capabilities and, more specifically, how I use it. Initially what caught my attention was the depth of economic data it contains. There are charts on a variety of topics from banking to employment to population to GDP to interest rates to the money supply and so much more. Each chart can include multiple series of data, pre-defined date ranges (or a custom time frame), and a variety of chart types. Of course it includes the usual technical analysis features such as Bollinger Bands, moving averages, trend lines, momentum indicators and more than I could possibly name.
Whether you engage in technical analysis or are only looking to enhance your knowledge, MarketBrowser is a tool to consider. Here's one way I use it. Each window holds up to 12 individual charts. Each month I will create a chart for each mutual fund, ETF and stock I hold in client accounts. So if there were 48 different holdings, it would require four separate files with 12 investments in each file.
