By Aditya Kumar Singh
Gone are the days when one had to call up ones broker to enquire about stock prices. The financial ecosystem has caught up with the advancement in information technology, and since then has never looked back. The omnipresent green and red tickers are belting about on crisp streets of Wall Street or The Square Mile or the vernacular Dalal Street. Information flow with the speed of light and people are empowered to make better decisions than ever. But is it so? In the age of no fat lattes and elementalism, have we really cut all the fat out of the interface? Are we one with the purest form of financial information, which is as instant as lightning?
The answer to the question is a reassuring yes, but with all good news in life, it has its own catch. For a start the implementation varies massively. Then is the quality of the analysis. Finally is the execution. These concepts have various degrees of intensity and hence a concoction of these makes a platform unique. It all boils down to the user, how does he wish to consume information and execute?
One of the new entrants in the market is the Edelweiss Traders Lounge. It is an analytical platform that offers the complete suite of news, technical charts, data analytics, fundamental data, etc., which is an ideal platform for novice, veteran and elite users too.
The homepage starts with an aesthetic dashboard with current information about ones portfolio. Key stocks are monitored closely in the watch list section with a convenient setup to order and maintain ones book. The news feed is snappy with neat segmentation of news pertaining to Equities, Commodity, Currency and Global Markets. Users can easily access options like stop loss, GTD Order (Good Till Date Order) where the software will automatically update your order without even opening the software according to your preference. Fund transfer, IPO subscription and transaction speed have also become lightning fast now.
An interesting trend that Traders Lounge is betting on is the increased participation of retail investors in the investment space in India. India, as an investment market, has traditionally been dominated by larger, institutional players such as brokers and FIIs. Retail investors have never had the kind of infrastructure possessed by institutional players, often putting them at a disadvantage, especially in terms of time sensitive developments that require rapid execution. Traders Lounge attempts to change that by democratising access to advanced trading tools, putting them in the hands of individual investors to enable them to make the kind of rapid, informed decisions that are game changing in a volatile market.
More seasoned players will point out the lack of few features such as multiple order cancellation in Order book, or the lack of complete price ladders. But barring these niggles, it is an excellent platform for customers to enjoy the terminal like experience enjoyed by brokers.
What the platform does really well is help an investor keep track of his current portfolio. While analytics as an area has been expanding recently, most individual investors do not have access to advanced analytical tools as they are expensive and difficult to maintain. Edelweiss makes these tools available on a friendly user interface, keeping all the complexity hidden within the hood.
Coming back to the questions, yes, it does approach trading differently. It does trim fat by connecting the customers with the latest feed of information and it does provide a platform for high speed trading to customers, enabling them to spot opportunities from any corner of the world. Trading software, as a sector, is heating up, and should have an impact on the way customers approach their trading. We at The Indian Economist will continue to follow developments in this area and bring to you the latest reviews and news from the industry. Stay tuned!