If you’re like me you don’t often think about stocks outside of their current market value. I have also never met a mobile software application to make me excited about it either. But, Bloomberg from Bloomberg LP just might make me see things differently. And for you high stressed stock brokers and the like out there who already do, read on as this might be your next best friend after those Tums on your desk.
The iPhone’s Stocks application is really only good for tracking the current monetary value of a given stock. This also includes it’s measurement in points and percentages it’s gained or lost but that’s just about were it all ends.
In steps Bloomberg, a financial news and stock tracker like no other.
Bloomberg starts off with it’s splash screen stating “INFORMATION WITHOUT BOUNDRIES”. Does it hold true? Let’s see.
The first of four icons at the bottom the the screen is News. This one’s pretty simple, you get exactly that, the news. No fluff or filler. The news covers all the major markets and gives you only financially related news. From the North American markets to the Asian/Pacific Bloomberg has you covered with current events around the world and always up-to-date. You also get the added bonus of Bloomberg Exclusives which you won’t find any where but here.
World Markets – allows you to follow entire markets from around the world like NASDAQ for example.
The markets are split up into three regions: North/Latin America, Europe/Africa/Middle East and the Asian/Pacific. The best thing is that unlike the built-in Stocks app all the markets here are built-in; no need to find the stock ticker for let’s say the Dow Jones Industial because it’s already there.
Tap on any one of the markets to bring up a more detailed forcast and its current standing. Here you also get tabs to view Industry Movers and Stock Movers to see who is doing good or not so good within that market.
My Stocks – similar to the built-in Stocks app but a hundred times better. Nice touches like the ability to input the amount of shares you want to track. My Stocks will then calculate the value, percentage, points, or even Value Change lost or gained.
Need a little more information about a company. A simple tap on the stock in question gives you just that plus a 52-week summary and related news.
Stock Finder – also similar to the Stocks app but with an even nicer interface. Better designed to allow you to see the stock ticker and more of the company name. From here you can look up a stock and get the same company information as with My Stocks before you decide to make that purchase. Need a better view on a stock for the past 6-months. Tap on it and turn you iPhone on it’s side and view it in landscape mode.
Bloomberg is not only the most professional looking app I’ve used so far. It is the most polished, and dare I say refined application with attention to detail like no other, yet still maintaining the ease of use found in the iPhone’s built-in applications. Bloomberg also manages to stay consistent with the built-in applications in terms of visual design and function but gets a little personality by using an all black interface with mostly orange and white text. Everything you need to track your your stocks is right here with the exception of past financial records, quarterly earnings, assets and other request only information.
Did it live up to it’s splash screen’s statement. Yes, and for the price of Free this is an awesome application. If you can call following stocks awesome. If I were a stock broker this would be the first third party application on my iPhone.
Wyatt's Tech Corner 