WinStock

Conference Categories | Apps Conference | Stock Tickers Topics WinStock -- WinStock, offered in both 16 and 32-bit versions, is a powerful client designed with the serious 'net investor in mind. U.S. Stocks, Canadian stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and money market mutual funds can all be tracked and monitored by this client. WinStock complements the wide array of investment tracking capabilities with portfolio management, alarm tracking, proxy support, Quicken import and export functionality, printed reports, and ticker searching features. Information provided for each stock includes current trading value, daily and yearly high/low values, volume traded, percent changed, number of shares traded, bid and asked prices, and investment descriptions. In addition, WinStock offers you the ability to list those pieces of information that are most important to you and to discard information that you don't currently need. A ticker search feature allows you to find a stock or similar investment when you are not sure of its full name. The portfolio management feature gives registered users of WinStock the ability to track investments over time and automatically computes the value of your overall 'net worth'. WinStock does lack several features that could make it even stronger. First, WinStock lacks the ability to display stocks with the quite familiar stock ticker bar (as can be found in WinStock's primary competition, Quote Ticker Bar). Also, some of WinStock's features and commands could be made more intuitive, especially for novice users. Both the ticker search feature and the inability to sort stocks by other than the stock name stand out as areas that need improvement. Like its competition, and as with most any free stock service, the stock rates listed by WinStock are always delayed by at least fifteen minutes. WinStock is also limited to just one stock server for its information (if it's busy you're out of luck). Still, the cost of the client is just $20, which gives you unlimited stock quotes, access to the portfolio management capabilities, and a multitude of additional features. As with Quote Ticker Bar, what could be easier and better than having free stock quotes delivered straight to your desktop? Note: At this time, the 16-bit version lacks several key features found in the 32-bit release, including on-line help, printing capabilities, ticker toolbar, Quicken export/import functionality, and more. Pros: Easy and efficient app for delivering free stock quotes straight to your desktop Cons: Stocks are always delayed by at least fifteen minutes, lacks a ticker bar, could be more intuitive New: Printing capabilities, Quicken import/export functionality, improved help Version Reviewed: 16-bit - 1.1. 32-bit - 1.12d Date of Review: 7/3/96 Reviewer: Forrest Stroud Location: ftp://ftp.teleport.com/vendors/magoldsm/winstock32.zip Author: magoldsm@teleport.com Information: http://www.teleport.com/~magoldsm/winstock/index.html