Ron Kucynski had this idea in mind when he developed
SpeedResearch.com. It's a specialized financial browser that
allows you to customize the screen so that the Websites you
visit to obtain all your information are just a click away.
This is a shareware program that you can try out for 30 days,
after which you need to register and pay $34.99 if you wish to
continue using it. The browser can be downloaded from the
Website. After installation, which is a painless process, you
are ready to run the program. You should install the program in
the default directory. If you try to install it in any other
directory, you might experience difficulties in opening the
program.
SpeedResearch gives you the option of creating up to 10
portfolios. It isn't possible to cover all the many links
included in SpeedResearch.com here, but you can visit just about
any Website you wish from the SpeedResearch.com browser. You
have the option of customizing the screen to include more than
40 URLs (Figure 4).
To begin, you'll want to first create your portfolios. Then
you can click on any symbol in any of your portfolios to look up
quotes, charts, discussions, analyst reports, news, options
chains, short interest, insider trading or just about anything
that you can find on the Internet, all with one mouse-click
right from this page.
Along the bottom of the screen, you can see the quotes for
the broader indices such as the DJIA, Nasdaq, and S&P 500.
Positioning your mouse over any of the menus will display the
full name of the Website specific to that menu.
SpeedResearch.com is a great tool for managing your personal
finances. Most of the sites that are frequently visited by
traders and investors are likely to already be included in the
browser, and even if one isn't, you can add it as a custom link.
For most convenient access to some of your favorite sites, you
can assign Web pages to the five tabs that are prominently
located across the top of the browser's main window. Then you
can move between the Web pages quickly by clicking on the tabs.
You can change these tab assignments anytime with a simple
double-click of the mouse.
Just as with any new product, it takes a while to familiarize
yourself with this browser, especially when you are accustomed
to navigating with your default browser. Considering that there
are so many links arranged around the browser window, and within
some of these links are dropdown menus with more Websites, you
have to play around with it until you uncover all the available
links. SpeedResearch has tried to organize the layout by
arranging the links by categories (such as news, research, IPOs,
day trading, options and futures, and so on), but it can still
take time to remember where each link is located. In fact, don't
be surprised to discover later that a built-in link already
existed for one you just added.
Kucynski has plans for more features, such as being able to
sort the stock symbols and change their display colors
individually. Another addition in the planning stage is
providing users with the ability to create dropdown lists from
custom links. This will provide users with the option of adding
even more Website links.
SpeedResearch.com lacks some of the sophisticated features,
such as the Find function, that are found in the more popular
browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. But
in spite of such limitations, this browser is a worthwhile tool
for individual investors.
Source :
Stocks & Commodities Magazine July 2000
