Morningstar

Morningstar is an independent investment research website, specialising in managed funds (unit trusts, oeics and life & pension funds). That's as far as it goes, however, as you cannot trade funds on this platform.

Morningstar is best known for its innovative analytical tools like the stylebox and the portfolio x-ray. The stylebox portrays a fund by its investment "style" (i.e. value, growth and blend) and the typical market cap of its underlying holdings (i.e. large, medium and small). Funds are placed in a nine-cell matrix. Those closest to the northwest corner are the least risky and those nearest the southeast corner are most risky.

The Portfolio X-Ray tool produces a comparable classification of a portfolio in terms of style and income, and highlights the underlying asset allocation. Enter your funds via the Funds Lookup button. Drill down further by clicking on the Select A View dropdown menu (Overview, Asset Allocation Stock Style, Stock Stats, Bond Style Bond Stats, Stock Sector, World Regions).

Other content and tools on the Morningstar site include:

Fund Quickrank, allowing you to search funds by overview of past performance, total Returns data 3-month to 10-year performance graphics benchmarked against MSCI, FTSE, Citigroup, Lehman and JP Morgan market indices, risk & rating data (volatility; R2, beta and alpha statistics; Morningstar star ratings), portfolio tools (style box and x-ray, valuations and growth rates; asset, geographical and sector allocation and holdings) and charges.

The ISA Funds Quickrank section is as Funds Quickrank but excluding funds that are ISA-ineligible.Life & Pensions Quickrank allows you to search by wrapper (i.e. life or pension fund), by name (provider and fund) or by category. Otherwise identical to Fund Quickrank.

Funds Screener filters by Overview, Returns , Rating & Risk (star rating, Sharpe ratio, standard deviation) and Portfolio characteristics (e.g. "style").

Fund Compare: Hit Add Funds to select funds for comparison from a dropdown menu. Compare by Overview, Returns, Rating & Risk and Fees.

Portfolio Manager: A free facility for monitoring and updating your holdings and for creating watchlists.

A valuable data bank for managed funds, although not quite as content and tool-rich as it first appears. Some of the tools are duplicative and could do with some pruning. Morningstar is no racehorse either. Navigating is uncomplicated but "sticky".