A new year...a new website

A new year is upon us. There is much at stake in 2012, a year that brings as an important election in the United States as well as some more clarity about the economic and political future of Europe. Investors have a big stake in both outcomes. Currently, the Stock Trends picture is pointedly dismal, with North American stocks in gripping bear markets. The optimist should be encouraged, though – perhaps enough to see the potential political shifts ahead resulting in better equity returns this year. Our new website will help engage you more with the market trends that evolve.

Stock Trends will continue to offer investors a solid foundation of weekly analysis of North American equity trends, something it has done since first published twenty years ago. The New Year also offers us a fresh start with a new website design. Although still focused on investors with an intermediate-term or long-term trading horizon (‘swing traders’ and conservative investors), the Stock Trends website now has functionality that will improve the user experience. The site will also introduce some new content, including new trading strategies that employ the Stock Trends analysis. Editorial content will re-commence, including future commentary by outside contributors. These improvements are long overdue, but we are pleased to finally bring them to life.

During the course of the next month some of the editorial will help clarify some of the new content and website features. Hopefully, users will offer feedback about the site so that we can respond in our on-going site development. It is our hope that the Stock Trends audience develops a rewarding relationship with the site that is suited to each investor. The stock market is often an unwieldy, volatile beast – but Stock Trends can help even the most basic investor tame it.

New Stock Trends web site features:

Home Page

•          A more content-focused home page with weekly tables highlighting significant stocks.
•          A tabbed presentation of all North American markets covered by Stock Trends – the TSX, NYSE, NASDAQ, and NYSE- AMEX.
•          Tabbed graphs of the trend distribution and composite index for each market.
•          Pop-up graphs for stocks listed in each table or report. Simply hover over the name or symbol of the stock. Click on the stock name or symbol to view its Stock Trends Report page.
•          A new main menu navigation system that makes it easier for users to access the extensive content on the site.
•          A display of actively published Stock Trends Portfolios, with new trading strategies.
•          Editorial and Articles access, with both freely available and subscriber-only content.
•          Stock Trends Weekly Ticker provides delayed intraday pricing on composite indexes and significant stocks, displaying current Stock Trends indicators as well as the price change since the previous week’s close. This differs from a traditional ticker which shows only the daily changes - it allows users to see how the market is progressing in the current week. Users can click on individual stocks in the ticker to view a Stock Trends Report.

Stock Trends Reports

•          A new tabbed presentation of the Stock Trends weekly analysis of individual equity issues.
•          Stock Price tab providing current daily (delayed) pricing (available only to subscribers)
•          Industry tab to easily compare stocks with their peers (available only to subscribers).
•          Subscribers can easily add stocks to their Watch List
•          Users can now share ST Reports by email, on Twitter and Facebook.
•          Searching for stocks is now much easier with the predictive text entry boxes for ST Reports, ST Charts, and ST Historical data. Simply enter the name or symbol of the issue you for which you are looking and cursor or click on the issue matching your request.

Watch List

•          Subscribers can now generate their own reports on selected equity issues. Users can manage their Watch Lists under the My Stock Trends section of the main menu. Easily add an equity issue from a ST Report or from ST Filter Reports.

Editorials

•          Weekly subscriber editorial content will be supplemented by periodic daily blogs and articles from other content partners.
•          Easily share editorial content by email, Twitter or Facebook.

Stock Trends Portfolios

•          A new selection of model ST Portfolios will be introduced – all supported by extended trading history and current portfolio reports with buy and sell signals.

Member login

•          A new member login buttons in the site header makes it much easier for subscribers to access content.

Industry reports

•          New U.S. market industry reports are now available in the Reports section.

These and other enhancements will certainly improve the Stock Trends user experience. We will also work toward further improvements in the coming months. Stock Trends will continue to deliver the TSX Stock Trends Weekly Reporter (STWR) by pdf, but development to streamline the production of pdf publications and add U.S. market STWR pdf publications is still forthcoming. The best way to get Stock Trends reports on a timely basis is by logging into the member areas of the website. We will endeavour to communicate more productively by email in the future to alert subscribers about new content added to the site, including notifications of weekly data updates and new editorial content. Overall, subscribers should expect more communication from Stock Trends.

Thank you for your patience as we worked toward this new website. I wish much success to all in 2012! We can work together toward trading profits.