Publication Date: 9th June 2003
Author: Melanie Wold
Fractal Edge, a data visualisation software provider, has developed a technique that condenses real-time data into a single pictorial display, making it easier to read and use.
Portfolio managers at investment funds and banks manage thousands of pieces of data on hundreds of companies at the same time, traditionally by using spreadsheets.
Fractal Edge's application, Fractal Mapping, provides a visualisation layer that sits on top of existing applications and makes portfolio data more accessible.
Richard Laughton, managing director of Fractal Edge, says because Mapping makes the use of data more efficient, a client could remove its second data feed to save money.
The data can come from internal spreadsheets or externally from Bloomberg. The user defines the universe of data - stocks, sectors, position or market and decides how to measure it using various colour schemes.
These may be changed to reflect real-time ticks, risk exposures, trends and portfolio performance. Fractal Maps display thousands of individual data points on multiple levels on a single screen.
Users then point and click to drill down through the levels to the relevant piece of information. One user describes Mapping as 'a synthesis of left and right brain'. It can be used to compare multiple share portfolios against the Nasdaq index, or to monitor and assess the performance of employees or accounts against benchmarks.
Its customers are investment banks, asset managers and funds of funds, says Laughton. There are two products planned for release soon, says Laughton. Fractal Intelligence, which will 'digest' a firm's spreadsheets and present them in pictorial format, will be released in a couple of weeks, says Laughton.
Fractal Financial, which takes data from Bloomberg as well as spreadsheets, is on pre-release and will go into production this summer.
