Get social with stocks @ Stockezy.com

MUMBAI, INDIA: Stockezy.com, the portal which claims to be India's first social investing community was formed by three friends — Tushar Makhija, Rushabh Doshi and Nikhil Badwe in San Fransisco in 2007 and formally launched in 2008.

Aimed at investors and general people with interest in stock investments and trading, the site provides a platform to collaborate, learn, discuss and share ideas and make informed investment decisions.

Interestingly, Stockezy.com has two sides — business and the social media side — based on the features of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, which allows users to discuss stocks, share their buy/sell recommendations, track stock performances and ratings, post stock tips and comment on tips and recommendations.

“Stock market does not have many variables and it is much straight forward compared to any social media. Stockezy platform is created for like minded users and investors which can directly contact each other by sending messages, posting comments, tips and recommendations and engage into discussions on stocks and investments,” says Tushar Makhija, Stockezy CEO.

On the business side, users can interact and engage in discussion directly with stock experts and advisors. It has a set of six experts who guide and provide Stock and F&O (future & options) recommendations based on subscription fee model.

Stockezy connects experts and subscribers in real-time via feedback based SMS/e-mail delivery system. It has tied-up with Capital Markets to get stocks data feed from exchanges to provide realtime stock market updates, stock performances, analysis and reports to users for making informed investment decisions.

While on social media side, the site has a stock picking community where the stock recommendations are collected to create a unique community sentiment index which is based on stocks' real- performances and ratings.

With this, users can create profile with picture, interact, share ideas and discuss stock markets. Users can follow other users, make friends and keep tab of their activities. It also offers a blogging tool to the users for creating their own content, and also can share blog links as well as upload video links.

Market Buzz is similar to Twitter, which allows users to communicate in real-time during the trading hours and initiate discussions by posting queries to community experts. The site has portfolio applications which automatically updates informations about stocks' results and earnings.

About the data or information security of users, Rushabh Doshi, Stockezy CTO, says, “Applications such as portfolio applications are key to any investor or user, hence such applications are locked and remain unsharable to others. Even the users can send private messages to other users and experts via inbox.”

The site is built using Django technology, the Python-based web framework, to provide real-time market data and feed to users.

Today, the site has over 20,000 registered users with a million page views every month. With offices in Mumbai and Bangalore, the portal is looking for expansion and seeking more funds.

According to Makhija, in the past three years about US$40,000 have been spent on the portal. The three founders' strong software background is proving to be a major advantage to sustain the portal's business.

“For us, the biggest advantage is that we are only three employees (three founders). While major cost for any business is software development, we have developed our own software applications and that has helped to save cost,” reveals Makhija.