What is it?
Cork-based website providing latest business news, share quotes and investor information covering Ireland, UK, US and other financial markets. It also – as Sharewatch Trading – offers an execution-only sharedealing service with the claimed lowest commission rate in Ireland (0.3pc).
Who is it for?
The small private investor mainly. The ‘day trader’ community, which was decimated after the tech bubble burst, re-emerged again last year after the Irish Stock Exchange (ISEQ) and other stock markets started to grow again. Sharewatch allows private investors to play the markets at a lower cost than if they were to use one of the established stockbrokers.
What information does it contain?
Unsurprisingly its primary focus is the trading section. As well as outlining the services offered and giving pricing information, users can download the relevant forms and apply for a trading account. The trades themselves are conducted via a lo-call telephone service. The home page contains business and financial news dominated by company results from London, New York and beyond. There are also the latest share quotes provided by Yahoo! Finance. For Irish investors, the ISEQ quotes are of obvious interest but the latest share price movements from stock markets all over the world will also interest many. Other sections cover brokers’ tips, recent share sell-offs by company directors, free company reports and newspaper share tips, as well as helpful tools such as foreign exchange and mortgage calculators.
How does it look?
Busy but well organised.
The verdict?
A fully-fledged financial portal for those interested in sharetrading. For those that are not, the extensive business and financial news coverage should be reason enough to bookmark this site.
By Brian Skelly
