Stock Rover

Barron's Electronic Investor column reviewed a site called Stock Rover. The review was compelling enough that I checked it out and registered. The interface is more like a software program than a website interface that you might be familiar with from Yahoo Finance. Below are a couple of screen shots to give some sense of what it looks like.

So far I've looked at only a couple of things in there but it seems like there is going to be a lot of information as I get further into it. For now I have input our large portfolio into the site and looked at the charts. The portfolio portion does some interesting things along the lines of managing narrow aspects of the portfolio like the beta and the yield. It will give you dynamic yield and beta information. I've mentioned before the extent to which I manage these aspects of the portfolio.

In the lower left hand corner of the interface is a column titled views which goes into more detail than the default on various attributes including dividends, valuation, returns versus SPX among several others--these are clickable sorts that get applied to the portfolio. You can also input multiple portfolios.

The charting seems to have everything that any of the other websites have except for maybe Stockcharts.com. Stockcharts.com allows for comparing two things as a ratio such that IBM:INTC would express a comparison as a single line ratio versus the two line comparison that just about every other site has. If Stock Rover can do this it wasn't apparent as to how to do it.

While there is a lot of utility here there are some issues to be aware of. It appears to not know pinksheet foreign stocks. We own a couple in the portfolio and so what I was able to input for tracking isn't really our full portfolio. There was also some incorrect dividend information, mostly with NYSE listed foreigns where the yield was very much understated so the calculated yield of the portfolio was incorrect. Where there were mistakes with yields there very likely are mistakes elsewhere.

One area I did not see was whether or not it captures sector weightings in the portfolio the way Morningstar does. Stock Rover categories individual stocks with specific sectors but not so with narrow based ETFs. I could see where categorizing the PowerShares Water ETF (PHO) might be difficult to do but an ETF with the word utilities in it would seem to be easier to categorize but again it does not do that. I place a lot of importance on measuring sector weightings in the portfolio so hopefully this can become more robust. 

The first picture is the table at the top half of the default layout (minus the ticker symbols) and as you can see there is a lot of room to scroll horizontally to a lot more information. The picture of the chart gives a hint of the various menus to capture a lot of different types of charts.

In case anyone wonders, I am not being paid for this review; I've had no contact with the Stock Rover people. For now it is not quite there but it can still be very useful and I think some of things I've mentioned are doable as would a few other things which would be very democratizing in terms really understanding the current portfolio and what any new holding might do to the portfolio. For example, I input as much of the portfolio as I could. As an example only, I could then see what adding IBM would do to the yield, beta and market cap (the average market cap doesn't appear to yet be available but would be something I would suggest they add) of the portfolio which, from the top down, would make for a more informed decision.