Zecco Sneaks Out New Beta Site; AMTD, OXPS
| 25 February 2010
Our super-sleuths have discovered some improvements happening behind the scenes at
Zecco.com. The company has been hard at work upgrading its Web platform and is in the process of slowly rolling out and testing those improvements through an invite-only beta process.
The program started in late-January and is expected to conclude in mid-March. In the meantime the company is running both a beta site and thier existing "live" site simultaneously while they work through bugs and gather feedback.
Improvements to the site include:
- Expanded stock and options research section
- Advanced charting tools
- Better stock, ETF, and mutual fund screeners
- A new options strategy builder
While we haven't had a chance to do a complete reveiw of the new features, here are some quick stats for you:
The advanced charting features will now allow users to overlay more than 30 different technical indicators on their charts. (Which, if you actually did that, we would recommend you read our article about
the problems with indicator piling.)
The options strategy builder allows users to search for options strategies that matches certain investment objectives. If you're more advanced you can switch between strategies, modify implied volatility used to calculate profit and loss, and adjust each of the legs that make up a strategy. Presumably the process helps options investors role-play scenarios as a way of testing their trading hunches. This product is an upgrade from an existing strategy-builder product.
The new research platform will allow users to buy or sell equities directly from the research pages, with just one click.
We're told the ZeccoShare community dashboard will go through some upgrades.
The new site will also offer a Web-based desktop interface, giving users the ability to drag and drop modules and create more personalized "views." It's tough to match some of the softward based applications offered by TD Amertrade's (AMTD) thinkorswim or optionsXpress (OXPS), but it's a step in the right direction. We don't believe it's as sophisticated as
what we've seen from tradeMONSTER, for example, but if anything customers will appreciate the ability to see free real-time streaming quotes.
If you're a Zecco customer but you're not on the list you can check out the
new site here. Let us know what you think!
