Review: Sharescope

See how your investments are performing with Sharescope. Review by Kai Chandler

Product	Sharescope
Company	Ionic Information Ltc
Web	www.ionic.co.uk
Price	£79.95 + £11.95 inc. VAT per month (first month free)
We like	Equity and Unit Trust information in one place.  Data mining and technical analysis tools.   30-day money back guarantee
We don't like	Reporting is limited to what's on the screen Unit trust prices are only updated weekly Cluttered transaction view
Rating	9/10
Requirements

Whether you are already an investor or just thinking about investing in shares or unit trusts, accurate performance information is an essential tool. There's an abundance of information sites on the web such as www.moneyextra.co.uk where you can set up a portfolio of investments, virtual or otherwise, and track their performance but none can match a program such as Sharescope for speed and flexibility.

Comprehensive end of day data

Sharescope boasts information on over 3,000 shares, 4493 unit trusts and 115 indices. Prices and indices go back to 1994 but unit trusts are a more recent addition to Sharescope and prices only go back to 2000. For equities, Sharescope stores Opening, High, Low, Closing and Volume (OHLCV) data which is updated every night. Unit trusts are only updated weekly.

For equities, as well as OHLCV price data, Sharescope stores fundamental information such as 7 years' historic results, 3 years' forecast results, updated consensus (buy/sell views,) profits, dividends, interims, sector, yield, capitalisation, P/E (price to earnings ratio,) PEG (P/E Growth,) earnings per share, volatility, turnover etc. Company website and phone details are also included.

A searchable newsflow database is also updated nightly. Unless you regularly purge the database to remove 'old' news it can take a couple of minutes to reindex before it can be searched although this will depend on the performance of your PC. The AFX newsflow gives a daily commentary of events. A database of major holders' dealings gives a useful 'insiders' insight into who is buying and selling what.

Conversely, for unit trusts, only price and volatility information is held. It would have been excellent to include Micropal rating, fund manager, unit trust sector and principal holdings although this information is generally available from sources such as

http://www.funds-sp.com and www.trustnet.com www.trustnet.com

Despite all the data available from Sharescope, it takes only a few seconds to update the data while connected to the web. Alternatively, you can dial in directly for the data.

Data Mining

With so many securities available, a tool to define selection criteria and filter out those that fail to meet them is essential. This is the purpose of Sharescope's Data Mining function. Graphical analysis also helps you to see relationships between the criteria. It's easy to use - first you construct your filters, then select the ranges for them. Well-known investment guru Jim Slater proposed buying shares with certain criteria: for example, a PEG below 0.75, market capitalisation of more than £20m and a P/E ratio below 25. The screen shot shows how this can be defined. This filter instantly reduced a universe of 1,857 equities to a more manageable 125. Tighter criteria would have led to a shorter list.

Performance charts

Sharescope really comes into its own with its analytical tools. You can display a chart of any share, unit trust or index and you can combine a chart with that of one or more other shares, unit trusts or indices. This makes it very easy to see how, say BP's share price has performed against Shell's or the FT-SE index.

Technical analysts are well served as there's a fantastic range of tools. Market graphics cover the entire market and include Absolute Breadth Index, McClellan Oscillator, New Highs-New Lows and Overbought/Oversold. Specific indicators include Beta, Coppock, Correlation, MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence), Momentum, Oscillator and Relative Strength Index (RSI).There are also Line Studies, Moving Averages, Channels and Trend Lines. Don't worry if you are not sure what these mean, as Sharescope's help facility is very comprehensive and a real aid to learning.

Portfolios

To monitor the performance of your investments, or perhaps those that you wish to study before making an investment, Sharescope lets you create up to 1000 portfolios mixing unit trusts and equities as you wish. The tabular view can be tailored to show any columns of interest eg. price change between two dates. You can jump forward from the chart of one security to the next in your portfolio with a single press of the space key. Shift space takes you in the reverse direction. You can sort by any column by doubleclicking. You can record whenever you buy, sell or receive a dividend and the transaction view shows the overall performance, cost and current value of each portfolio, however, the layout of this view is cluttered and difficult to follow at first.

Sharescope can also calculate CGT liability but as it says in the help file "It is your responsibility to check that CGT calculations are correct in every respect."

Printing

There's no reporting tool in Sharescope but you can usually print the columns that you can see on the screen as long as you don't display too many columns. This is an area where Sharescope could be improved.

And finally...

Sharescope is a superb aid to any investor. It provides a rich set of tools for the technical or fundamental analyst and is excellent value at £79.95 + £11.95 inc. VAT per month (first month free.) Some very minor niggles are that reporting, the transaction view and the treatment of unit trust data could both be improved. With a 30-day money back guarantee, it must be a sound investment.

A real time version of Sharescope is due shortly and will be reviewed here when available.

 

Kai Chandler reviews top tools for family friendly surfing at www.surfcontrols.com