What is Vidivici?

Vidivici is a financial search engine that helps you find the right investments. It lets you see what other people think about stocks (and soon, other financially-relevant things, like exchange rates and interest rates), enter your own views, then uses all this information to work out the best investments for you – with the objective of maximising your expected returns while keeping your risks within the bounds you find acceptable.

It’s like a sort of “sat nav” for investing – instead of telling you the next turn, it tells you the next trade.

Why should I tell you my views?

If you tell us your views, we can generate tailored trade ideas for you, which you can decide to act on if you wish. Your view then also contributes to the community View Pool, which in turn helps other people make better decisions of their own (they may well end up following you).

Aside from that, we give you a convenient way to keep track of what you thought and when, compare your forecasts with other peoples’ and be notified when the unexpected happens.

But why should I let everyone else benefit from my views?

We use all our other users’ contributions to help you, and in turn use your contributions to help them. And assuming your views are credible, it’s a little more likely other users will follow suit – in turn making your views more likely to become true. So whether you’re an altruistic community-spirit or just looking out for No. 1, it’s really a “win-win” for you.

What if I don’t have a view?

If you have no view of your own on anything, that’s fine – we’ll generate trade ideas for you tailored around your current holdings, your risk appetite and the prevailing community sentiment.

How do I express my view on a stock?

Just look up the stock using the box in the top-right of our web page, and you’ll should see a chart appear showing people’s views on that stock. If you’ve signed up and are logged in, all you need to do is drag the dot to where you think the stock price is most likely to be heading.

You can also express how confident you feel about your view using the slider beneath the chart. And underneath that, you can keep notes as to “Why” you think what you think.

When you’re done, click “Post my view” and it will instantly become available for all to see. Anyone looking at the same stock at the time will see your view dot automatically appear on their chart and a notification pop up next to the chart.

How do I clear my view on a stock?

Select your view on the chart and click the button “Reset my view”.

I can’t find a stock I have a view on – where is it?

We currently support all GBP-denominated company stocks on the London Stock Exchange including AIM. We don’t currently support non-company stocks, e.g. funds or investment trusts, or stocks listed elsewhere. If there are stocks missing or you particularly need us to support other kinds of investments then please let us know via our support forum.

My view doesn’t seem to fit into your system – what do I do now?

We’ve deliberately kept Vidivici’s view capturing simple, but at the same time powerful. In future releases we’re planning to let you express views in new ways and on other things, so the system becomes more powerful, but do this in a way that doesn’t sacrifice simplicity. Some of the things we’re looking at are: taking views on dividends, on arbitrary groups of stocks (e.g. financials, FTSE-100, the whole market etc), relative views (e.g. A will outperform B), exchange rates and interest rates. If you’ve a particular request, whether it’s in one of the things in the list above or not, then please let us know – we’d love to hear from you.

What is “credibility” and how is it calculated?

Credibility is our measurement of how plausible a view is. When we show you the credibility of other peoples’ views, it’s based on a variety of factors: how recently the person expressed their view; whether or not it’s still on track; how extreme it appears to be relative to other views; how strong a track record the person has expressing accurate views; and whether the view is consistent with his or her own investments (so basically, have they put their money where their mouth is).

We also calculate the credibility of the community view itself, which is based on how many views have been expressed and how credible they are.

When we process your own views, what matters here is the credibility in your eyes, which we take to be 100% – after all, they’re your views. But over time, as your views becomes less relevant, we automatically reduce your confidence level in those views so they carry less weight when we search for trade ideas for you. You might notice your view ‘fade away’ over time on the views chart; if you update it, it will appear brighter again.

When we search for trade ideas, we look to maximize the overall credibility of the underlying views, so the ideas themselves are as credible as possible.

What is the “community view”?

The community view on a stock is the aggregate of the complete “pool” of views on that stock, weighted according to the credibility of each view. It’s updated continually and provides a quick snapshot of the community sentiment right now, presented as if it was the view of a regular user.

Note that in our analysis, and when we generate trade ideas, we look at the full range of views on each stock, not just the community view.

If a user enters misleading information I disagree with, can I report it?

All our users are free to express their views in our platform and we don’t exercise any kind of editorial in the substance of those views. However our terms of service do prohibit the posting of deliberately misleading comments, attempted market abuse or offensive language, and we do police this. Additionally if you suspect that another user has breached these terms of use, or otherwise feel that their posts are unacceptable, then you should let us know by reporting it to abuse@vidivici.com. For users on shareprice.co.uk, when you select a post in the views chart, to the bottom right there’s a “Report this comment” link that you can use. We will take appropriate action to ensure our terms of use are adhered to.

How do you come up with trade ideas?

See How it Works.

Are your trade ideas the same for every user?

No, the trade ideas you receive are unique to you, tailored around your current holdings (including your available cash), your risk preference and any views you have entered into the system.

Why do trade ideas come in batches?

The trade ideas that Vidivici identifies capitalise on the dependencies between different stocks, calibrated according to peoples’ views on those stocks. Our search process will tend to home in on sets of stocks that give you a well-balanced portfolio, so that when one stock falls, another will tend to rise – or at least, not fall quite so much. So the individual trade ideas are designed to be executed together, as a set, and are specific to your particular portfolio. If you make changes or leave some trades out, you might not be taking advantage of these dependencies optimally, which might result in you carrying lower expected returns and/or higher risks.

Do I have to sign in to receive trade ideas?

Yes, currently you need to sign in to receive your latest trade ideas.

I’ve just changed my view and it says “searching for ideas” – how long will I have to wait?

Searches require significant computer processing power, and therefore time, on our side. Fortunately, we’re pretty well equipped and typically you’ll get results within 20 seconds, and sometimes within just a few seconds – but it depends on the load on our servers at the time as well as on your views, requirements and the number of holdings in your portfolio.

How often should I expect to receive trade ideas?

It depends on a lot of things:

• Firstly it depends on your views – if you change them a lot then it’s likely you’ll receive trade ideas quite frequently. Also if your views have a short timescale, you’ll tend to receive ideas more often, whereas if your views are longer-term (12 months, say), the frequency of trade ideas we send you will be in tune with that.
• Secondly it depends on the community’s views. If there’s been some major news about a company prompting a lot of people to revise their opinions, that might mean we generate new trade ideas for you. All sorts of things can prompt community views to change, and we’re continually analysing this information and looking for new new ideas for you.
• Thirdly it depends on the size of your portfolio. If you have a large portfolio, the effect of trading commissions in your decisions is relatively small, so we’ll tend to find trade ideas more often than for someone with a smaller portfolio (£1,000, say) – for whom each trade needs to have a large positive contribution to justify paying the brokerage fee.
• Fourthly, it depends on your risk appetite. If you’re quite risk-averse, then our trade ideas will tend to concentrate in less changeable stocks, and you’ll be getting ideas less often.
• Finally, it depends on the markets. If prices are moving around a lot, then we might find trade ideas for you more often (but only if the information we have is sufficiently credible).

On top of all this, we only notify you when we find ideas that offer an improvement equivalent to at least 1% on your annual expected return. This ensures that when we do send you trade ideas, it’ll be worth your while considering them.

I haven’t changed any of my views so why have I just received some trade ideas?

As explained above, there are a lot of factors that can lead to us finding new trade ideas for you, not just your views.

What trading costs do you take into account?

In searching for the best trade ideas we seek to maximize the liquidation value of your portfolio after all trading costs have been taken into account. We take into account a £10 per-transaction fee plus any applicable stamp duty, both on the trades you place now, and the trades you’d need to place in future to realise a cash gain. These costs can have a huge bearing in determining what’s the best decision for you right now, so it’s crucial they’re factored into our (and by extension your) calculations.

At the moment, we don’t take into account any other forms of tax, for example Capital Gains Tax. In certain cases, such taxes might have a bearing on the what are the ‘right’ investment decisions to make. If you think this might be the case then we suggest you consult a suitably qualified professional advisor before placing any trades.

What if I don’t like the trades you suggest?

If you don’t like any of the trades we suggest, it’s easy to go in and adjust your views, and we’ll come back with something better. If we’ve suggested buying a particular stock because the community is very positive about it, but you disagree, then you can simply click on the name of the company (in the ideas bar at the top of your browser window), which takes you to the page for that stock, and you can express your view on it there. We’ll then revise our trade ideas for you. Similarly if you think the trade ideas are too risky, you can adjust your risk preference (accessible via the Vidivici icon in the top-left of your browser window) and we’ll start looking again. You can repeat this as often as you need to, until you feel comfortable with the suggestions.

How do I execute the trades suggested by Vidivici?

It’s entirely up to you what you do with our suggestions. If you want you can execute them with your broker of choice, in the normal way, then come back to vidivici.com and enter up those trades. We’ll then start tailoring suggestions around your new portfolio.

What if I execute different trades to the ones Vidivici suggested?

The trade ideas that Vidivici generates come as sets of trades, carefully worked out to capitalise on the dependencies between different stocks, calibrated according to peoples’ views on those stocks. In other words, we try to ensure that when one stock falls, another will tend to rise – or at least, not fall quite so much. So the individual trade ideas are designed to be executed together, as a set, to get the desired impact on your expected return and risk.

That said, it’s of course your decision, and if you want to skip, add or alter some of the ideas, that’s no problem.

I need some financial advice – can you help me?

No, sorry – we never give financial advice. If you need financial advice then please consult a suitably qualified and authorised professional.

Are you able to execute trades on my behalf?

No, we have no capability to execute trades on your behalf, so you can rest assured this will not happen (whether you want it to or not). Executing trades is between you and your broker.

So will your ideas make me more money?

That’s the X million dollar question! Unfortunately it’s not a question we can answer, because our ideas are based on your views and the views of the community. Although we carefully analyze the credibility of each view in our system, we can never “stand by” the veracity of what are – when it comes down to it – other peoples’ opinions.

What we can say, however, is that given your views and the views of the community, our ideas will (on average) tend to lead to greater expected returns for given risk. It’s about helping you make the best decision at the time, armed with all the information.

How do I register feedback?

Just visit our feedback forum and let us (and the rest of the community) know what you think. You don’t need to create a separate account to do this.

How do I request a new feature?

In our feedback forum you can search for the feature you have in mind and if someone else has already requested it, you can add your vote and post comments. Or if you’re the first to request it, just post your idea direct to our forum. We listen to feedback really closely – tell us what you wish for and you might just get it.

How do I get help?

Vidivici offers support via a self-help forum on which members of the user community are active. You can search to see if your question has already been answered, or post your question for the community to answer. Vidivici staff are active on this forum and often answer queries directly.

Can I get support directly from Vidivici?

No, we do not offer a direct email or phone-based user support service, however Vidivici staff are active on our self-help support forum.

Who are you?

Vidivici is a close-knit team of financial engineers, software developers, user-interface specialists and quantum physicists, based in Brighton UK. You can find out more here.

Are you authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA)?

Yes. Our registration number is 567654.

What are your plans for the service?

They’re too numerous to list here! Please visit our feedback forum for more information on the ideas that have been requested and that we’re working on or considering. We’d really appreciate any requests or feedback you’d like to give us.