Moneyweb launches free share charting software

Moneyweb Explorer integrates charts with fundamentals to give share investors the full picture

Moneyweb Holdings, South Africa’s leading online provider of business and financial news, has launched Moneyweb Explorer – a comprehensive technical analysis programme available free to users. It can be downloaded from moneyweb.co.za and when used while connected to the Internet, links directly to the wealth of detailed information on the Moneyweb database.

CEO Alec Hogg is confident Moneyweb community members will be delighted with Moneyweb Explorer: “We’ve worked on this project with PrimeCharts for some months. It will pave the way for South African investors to join international trends where fundamental information and charting are available free of charge through the Internet.

“South Africa is still in a time warp with high pressure salesmen hawking rather poor technical analysis products at big costs – R12 000 up-front is around the usual price. Moneyweb Explorer, customised for local investors and built by the long-time SA market leader, is better and being free, obviously cheaper than these offerings.

“We’ve taken Moneyweb Explorer further by integrating PrimeCharts’ state-of-the-art technical analysis with our flagship website. This gives users a seamless experience with constantly updated fundamental information complementing the share price charts. It should help our community members invest more profitably.”

Hogg says the business model is based charging users R140 a month for the daily price updates for their data. This is in line with the market price for these downloads with a large slice going to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in licensing fees.

The new product uses all of the major technical analysis tools and allows users to chart all shares on the JSE and indices, unit trusts, warrants, futures and bonds. The programme can be customised by users with trend lines, indicators and moving averages saved individually for every chart analysed.

Once the user signs up, data is automatically downloaded and updated. In the process, new listings, deletions, name changes, share splits and other maintenance of the database is done automatically.

The Moneyweb Market Scanner lets users scan the market or any section of it for shares whose indicators move them into buying or selling territory.

So, for instance, after having stocks identified as “buys” or “sells”, users are able to work with the share price graph of the company and, with just a click, draw all the fundamental information needed to assist their decision process.