Trader’s Narrative

Last year when InstantBull.com came out, I wrote a somewhat negative review. I was a bit miffed that it jacked my browser and I didn’t see a point to its nature as an aggregator.

I’m glad to see that InstantBull no longer jacks browsers but I still can’t see the point of sites like MyTrade.com or SaneBull.com which are simply clones of netvibes, iGoogle and other superior offerings out there.

I look for the value added but can’t seem to readily find it. Anyone can set up a similar page without using their services, so why wouldn’t they? But I’m rethinking InstantBull’s value added. For someone who is new to trading blogs, it offers a great way to stumble on a whole pile of them. And for those who are still scared of RSS and setting up a reader, it can be the next best thing.

The only short coming is that it doesn’t allow for you to add your own RSS feed. So you can’t make a customized list of blogs to read the way you could, say with Google Reader or Bloglines.

But Gal (its founder) has added a few interesting but simple features which do add value.

You can search trading messageboard threads by stock ticker (symbol). Its a good way to stay on top of what is being said about a stock. But I wonder why Gal doesn’t include elitetrader in the messageboards he searches? It is the grand-daddy of them all. Maybe there’s a technical reason, but all the same I’d recommend he look into this.

And now, you can now rank all the blogs according to their Alexa (traffic) and Technorati (incoming links) ratings. So at a glance you can find the most popular trading blogs. Another way Gal could rank the blog would be according to their RSS readership numbers.

Of course, just as in high school, popularity doesn’t necessarily mean quality. But all the same, being a hyper competitive SOB, this new feature speaks to me

I’m pleasantly surprised to find that Trader’s Narrative is in good company being in the Top 10 according to Technorati and Top 12 according to Alexa.

Sanebull.com is another new Web 2.0-ish stock market site. It aggregates data from various sources: thestreet.com, Yahoo! Finance, WSJ, etc. And since it is based on ajax technology, it is lightning fast.

Compared to instantbull.com, the interface is very clean and easy to use. Evenso, the offering is so light, I’m not sure if anyone will be seriously using it. A glaring oversight: charts!

I’m not sure how the creators of such sites plan on competing with Yahoo! Finance since even Google is having a tough time unseating them. More competition is better than less; I just wish rather than these aggregators and me too sites, someone would come up with a unique offering.