Trader’s Narrative

For most, the constant flood of real time news can be overwhelming. There are already many sites which aggregate news, categorizing and organizing them into more manageable streams. For the past week I’ve been using an invitation only financial news service called SkyGrid that does this and much more.

Behind the constantly updating headlines delivered by SkyGrid is a sophisticated set of algorithms that not only check for reputation and relevance of the source but also measure the sentiment expressed in the article. SkyGrid then categorizes the news as either red (negative), green (positive) or grey (neutral). So with a glance you can tell what the prevalent news is for a company or sector. Here’s a recent screenshot:

The user interface, with its clear and intuitive layout, is reminiscent of a Bloomberg terminal. You can filter the stream of real time news to blogs, mainstream news sources, EDGAR, etc. You can also add specific sectors as well as do a search for any public company by typing in its name or symbol.

SkyGrid was founded by Kevin Pomplun in 2005 and later attracted VC funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, RRE Ventures, BlackRock, and Esther Dyson. Pomplun says that he started Skygrid because “If you looked at the information landscape prior to the Internet, it was manageable. But with the explosion of content you had a fire hose of data that is hard to digest, and people needed a way to filter it.”

Until recently, SkyGrid cost $6000/year (or $500/monthly subscription). Their business model has changed to an advertising supported model, so they are now offering the same product for free. But they are limiting accounts to invitations exclusively. You can request one at their site but who knows how long it will take for them to respond and send you access.

As a gift to my readers, I’ve finagled a limited number of SkyGrid invitations. I would like to ask that as a courtesy, you only take the invitations if you intend to use the service and provide feedback to the SkyGrid team. This is a free service so earn some good karma by sending them an email after you take their baby for a spin (there is a huge feedback button on the top right of the screen once you login).

If this isn’t something you’re interested in, then take a pass or pass it on to someone who is because if the other invitation offers on other blogs is an indication, these will go fast. Click here for the SkyGrid invites (all gone!).

Here’s a video of SkyGrid: