FinancialMedia.org

Nasdaq Tinkers with Twitter

Nasdaq has set up a Twitter account that lets users inquire about a particular stock price.   Simply send a stock ticker symbol with a dollar sign prefix, such as $GOOG, to @datajunkies and get a message like "$GOOG: 455.65".   The service is "fueled by Nasdaq last sale" which is supposed to offer real-time data.   However, Twitter's messaging system introduces a delay of at least 5 seconds which means that investors probably should not rely on the service to make trading decisions.

DailyFinance Launches iPhone Application

DailyFinance, a blog operated by AOL Money & Finance, has launched DailyFinance for iPhone.  The free iPhone application offers real-time stock quotes from BATS exchange, tracks multiple portfolios, and delivers customizable news from over 3,000 sources and professional-grade charting.

Wall Street Journal Offers Free iPhone Application

The Wall Street Journal has launched an iPhone application which gives readers free access to its news content, videos and podcasts.  As one of the few publishers to monetize its content on the Internet succesfully, the Wall Street Journal continues to give away its content on mobile devices and to forego subscription fees from iPhone and Blackberry users.

Monitor110 Shuts Down

Monitor110 has shut its doors after failing to raise another round of funding.  The news and data aggregation service had previously raised $20 million and had recently signed up over 100 trial clients at over 60 hedge funds, asset management firms, and investment banks for its research report service.  Silicon Alley Insider had reported last month that Monitor110 laid off one third of its staff and was trying to sell itself to Reuters.  Roger Ehrenberg offers in his blog, Information Arbitrage, a frank and insightful look into the rise and fall of Monitor110 as an investor and a co-founder.

Hugin Group Offers Interactive Stock Quotes and Charts Solution

Hugin Group is offering an interactive stock quotes and charts solution for integration into the corporate websites of listed companies in Europe.  The solution features current and historical pricing data, investment calculators, benchmark comparisons to indexes and peer groups, and interactive charts that correlates with company press releases issued through Hugin.  With operations in Europe and strategic partnerships in the US and Asia, Hugin Group is an NYSE Euronext company offering regulatory news and financial media distribution services to the investor relations and public relations industries.

Stockgroup to Offer Streaming Data and News to BlackBerry Smartphone Users

Stockgroup Information Systems has unveiled a preview of its new Stockstream Mobile streaming real-time portfolio manager application for BlackBerry smartphones.  The application gives the individual investor and professional trader access to live data and news covering 40 global exchanges and all financial instruments from Reuters.

Interview with Carter Kirkwood, Docuthentic

We have interviewed Carter Kirkwood, founder and CEO of Docuthentic LLC, a company that operates VaultStreet, an online service that enables users to retrieve, store and authenticate financial records. Mr. Kirkwood presented VaultStreet at this week's Finovate Startup in San Francisco.

FM: How is VaultStreet more than just a virtual filing cabinet?
Carter Kirkwood: We're different in that we are not a passive filing cabinet. We provide automatic collection of online documents, automatic organization, and authentication of document originality. We also make it easy to securely share online documents with your trusted advisors - accountants, tax preparers, mortgage bankers and so on. Users sign up for the service and give us access to their online accounts with financial institutions. They only have to do this once. We then automatically retrieve the users' financial records and organize them. We then store copies of the electronic documents in a secure online repository that's available 24/7. Documents are stored along with an electronic signature that identifies the source of the document and confirms that the document is unaltered. Essentially, we authenticate the documents.

FM: What is the response so far?
CK: Although we've only recently started to market the service, we are already seeing significant interest from institutions, for which there is a huge opportunity to use VaultStreet to reduce the cost of printing and mailing paper statements.

Financial professionals, such as financial planners and CPAs, are also very interested because they see the opportunity to provide a valuable service to their customers by making it easy to switch to online documents.

We have also seen a significant consumer interest in the service. Consumers are embracing the convenience of being able to organize all their online financial records in a single, secure location that also safeguards their privacy.

FM: So how are you getting the word out about your service?
CK: We're using many marketing channels, and also working with bloggers and financial journalists who are interested in our story. I have become an active blogger on our site at http://weblog.vaultstreet.com/WL/.

People we talk to immediately seize on the fact that we help to reduce the volume of printed materials and the benefits that has for consumers and institutions.  We're also finding that consumers are especially drawn to environmentally-friendly solutions.

FM: How about your partnerships with financial services companies?
CK: We're talking to a number of financial services companies and financial services providers. We find that they are attracted to two sets of "green" initiatives, one being environmental and the other being financial. 
Businesses, banks and brokerages benefit from the cost savings that come from convincing their customers to use a paperless solution.  They no longer have to mail the actual documents.

FM: What else is in store for VaultStreet?
CK: We're getting plenty of feedback from our beta-testers and doing a lot of listening. There have been great suggestions for new product features. We're already considering ways to help consumers store personal documents, such as birth certificates, wills and tax or travel reimbursements and receipts.  We're also developing ways to manage business operations that require the secure handling of paperwork, such as real estate transactions and medical record-keeping. We want to hear from our users about where VaultStreet and our wider development company Docuthentic should go next.

QuoteMedia Partners with Zecco

QuoteMedia, Inc. has landed a two-year contract to provide streaming real-time portfolio management and tools to Zecco Trading.  Offering real-time news and market data, Quotestream™ II will be marketed to Zecco customers for $20 a month.  For non-professional traders, QuoteGrid will offer streaming quotes for $8 a month.