Introduction

Marketwatch.com is a global finance site that is part of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network. The site is awash with financial and economic news, commentary and trends. The site is well-designed with clearly marked links and an attractive white and blue color scheme. The right side of the homepage has a market ticker for all the latest information on the day’s trading.

Features

Marketwatch.com has a navigation bar at the top of the homepage that takes you to specific areas around the site. That works well if you know which sector of finance you’re interested in. If not, you’re better off using the search function for the quickest results.

The site is laid out much like a news site, with all the latest economic headlines at the top of the homepage. As you scroll down, you’ll find more topics such as real estate, Washington, entertainment, banks and European markets.

A multimedia section along the left side of the homepage contains all the latest economic and market news videos. The video and sound quality of the videos is very good.

The user forums are under the community section of the homepage navigation bar. A drop down screen will appear. Click “groups” to view the forums. Other users frequent the forums and discuss topics such as market trends, trading advice, politics and medicine.

Tips & Tricks

The tools and research section is the most fun component of Marketwatch.com. The tools include functions that track the best and worst stocks over the past year and the upgraded and downgraded stocks over the last thirty days.

Users can also register and enter the stocks, bonds and mutual funds from their portfolios. Then, when the log on, their daily portfolio performance is tracked and displayed on the homepage. This is useful if you’re in a hurry or at work at you want a quick look at how you’re doing on the market that day.

Pay special attention to note that the site’s search box is located at the uppermost right hand corner of the homepage.

Newbie Friendly Rating

Although Marketwatch.com is loaded with information, its clean design and simple layout make it fairly easy to understand and navigate. Like any site with such a vast amount of information on it, it will take some time to look through everything. Overall, we give Marketwatch.com a Newbie Friendly Rating of 7.