Financial Express has launched a web-based research tool for financial advisers and institutions to analyse funds and individual equities. Of the 24,000 funds included in the Analytics service, around 3,000 are offshore funds recognised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
Paul Wynne, head of marketing and communication at Financial Express, said one of the attractions of Analytics is its delivery and flexibility. "As Analytics is a web-based service, the data can be continually updated and is available 24 hours a day. Data on some competitor platforms are only updated on a monthly basis via the posting of CDs. Analytics is also portable as it can be accessed anywhere at any time."
The other attraction, argued Wynne, is the tools available on Analytics. "Users can customise charts and tables according to their individual wishes. They can use a mix of performance, pricing and factsheet data. They can also make comparisons on a sector, funds or indices basis and apply quartiles, percentiles and absolute rankings.
"Users can create their own benchmarks using indices, asset classes and personal portfolios. As well as tables, advisers can create line or scatter charts."
The tools can also be tailored to the user requirements of each IFA firm. The basic package for Analytics costs £5,000 a year and entitles a firm to three named users. Wynn said that the cost of adding further users is negotiable. But he added that advisory firms may not want all the services, such as analysis on equities, and can restrict the level of access for named users.