Henley becomes more of an information provider

Henley Communications has launched the latest version of its Henley Investor Suite charting package which is designed to give users a wider mix of information and more powerful software tools than in earlier versions.

Managing director Fraser Guthrie says the new package is designed to help investors make better buy and sell decisions.

The new package has been built after feed back from existing users of enhancements they would like to see.

He says the Investor Suite version 6 is more solid and sophisticated than earlier versions: "It reflects what people want."

The latest version of Henley's Investor Suite software package combines a range of charting and portfolio tools along with a news information service.

Guthrie says the company, while primarily a software developer, is moving away from solely providing tools for charting to providing a more comprehensive information package.

Included in the information package are news feeds, such as company announcements from the New Zealand Stock Exchange, through to business news from offshore news agencies.

"In some ways we are the Reuters for the man in the street," he says.

Henley is becoming a more holistic information provider, he says.

"The idea is to give investors a mix of information to help them formulate their ideas."

The other parts of Investor Suite are HenleyInsight, HenleyChart and HenleyPortfolio.

Henley Insight has been specifically designed and built for rapid and powerful stock filtering. It automatically connects via the Internet and provides users with direct access to chart data and quotes on over 43,000 symbols from 20 stock exchanges around the world.

Users can filter stocks, do chart previews, select stocks by sector, capitalisation and volume, create watch lists and download up to three years history on companies.

Henley Chart is the section that allows investors to develop and optimise custom trading systems without any programming.

One feature of the charting package is that it allows investors to back test their trading system and receive detailed reports on system performance.

Other tools include drag and drop charting, and the generation of automatic system reports.

Henley Portfolio is a tool which provides a range of portfolio evaluation options. For instance it can automatically revalue a portfolio and provide detailed reports on performance.

It can handle multiple portfolios, cash/bank accounts and stock accounts with full support for multi-currency transactions.

The other improved and expanded element in the Henley package is a comprehensive education package.

In the earlier version there was the expert assistant programme which provided information on using the charting tool.

In the newer version expert assistant has been upgraded to a full educational package of 140 lessons, which provides information on methods and techniques of charting.

The educational package comes as a separate CD.

Guthrie says Henley currently has about 1000 users and he predicts that number will grow significantly.

The sort of people who use charting software like Investor Suite are those who invest in shares directly and don't have a lot of time to manage their investments, he says.

There is a massive market out there," he says, "particularly as the attraction of property is waning."

He says generally they are people in the market who want to improve their investment performance.

"They realise they have to be more professional," he says. "The latest package is designed to do that."