advfn.com

I’ve been using ADVFN (Advanced Financial Networks) since the untimely demise of Ukinvest, which was by far and away my favourite site.

It has taken a couple of weeks to get used to the look and feel of ADVFN, which I had used briefly in the past, but moved away from for reasons which have not changed. Read on.

I should make it clear that I am strictly a pocket-money investor and because of this am not in a position to justify the cost of additional chargeable services from any site. I rely on freebies from a number of sites to check on prices and do my research – how much longer they can remain free is not known, but I suspect they will gradually disappear over the next couple of years.

Back to ADVFN – The best feature on the site is by some way the real time streaming prices, to my knowledge this is the only site currently offering this functionality free. The reliability of this function does seem a bit suspect though. The links to company research and trade information is also good. I would however like to see a column set aside on the portfolio screen for shares traded to date. It is also a bore that I can’t enter a company in my portfolio without entering a shareholding, something which can be done on most other sites.

The Bulletin Board (free of course) is well used, more so than any other site I know with the possible exception of iii. I do however find it frustrating to have to wade through large amounts of postings to find the most recent, how difficult can it be to alter this.

I also like the link to RNS news from the portfolio which brings up the most recent announcements from RNS and AFX for the companies listed – a simple improvement to the Portfolio screen would be to include a single character to indicate a new piece of news for that day.

Sadly what I really do dislike about ADVFN is its general look, which gives me the idea that it has been put together by a bunch of unimaginative school kids.
The colours are boring and badly matched
The layout is confusing – which means I only go to the areas I know I want rather than surfing.
The content is also confusing, with too many links taking up too much space and the very minimum of comment, news, market charts.
It defeats me why at least a few of the best bits of Ukinvest could not have been adopted on to ADVFN, I appreciate that ADVFN has come through as the strongest link and Ukinvest gone home with nothing, but come on lads, the old model was smarter, more plush, faster and had a better interior. Jags don’t come with Ford badges do they, why can’t some of Ukinvest be allowed to remain.