LONDON, December 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

Stockopedia, a London based startup, announces the launch of the first
social network for private investors in the UK stock market. Through
gathering and harnessing the collective intelligence of the community, the
site aims to help its members make better and more informed investment
decisions.

Managing Director, Edward Croft, said, "Being a former stockbroker, I've
seen first hand the conflicts of interest and institutional biases that can
exist in the City. UK Private Investors own 10-20% of UK listed companies but
are hugely under catered for. The features of Stockopedia are designed to cut
out the middle-man and give individual investors the ability to collaborate
and share investment ideas directly with each other."

Inspired by the examples of success stories like Wikipedia and
Librarything, Stockopedia uses social media including tagging, wikis, friend
finders and forums to encourage dialogue and activity. By monitoring users'
investment interests, the Stockopedia recommendation engine introduces them
to related companies in much the same way that Amazon introduces users to
related books. As Edward Croft continued...

"The site allows users to easily follow themes and investment trends. By
using tagging to categorise the market, we are challenging the traditional
top down hierarchy of sector categorisation. We aim to introduce our users to
more laterally related companies which they otherwise would miss."

Among the problems that private investors have compared with institutions
is a lack of access to company management. To counteract this, Stockopedia
will give shareholders the ability to create groups and associated event
calendars in order to better mobilize themselves.

"Stockopedia will allow small investors to club together and
constructively participate in a dialogue with the companies in which they
invest - in the same way that the institutions do now," added Simon Stevens,
Director of Throgmorton Trust plc and Siem Capital. "It should be a valuable
tool for directors like me to hear directly from private investors. It fits
well with the current trend.... the rise of the Instividual."

The current financial crisis is changing the structure of investment
banking. It remains to be seen whether their research departments will
survive increased regulation and job losses. Reuters News recently reported
that 40,000 jobs could be lost in the UK finance sector by 2010. Many city
professionals with time on their hands are signing up to sites such as
Stockopedia in order to access quality research when investing their own
funds.

"Stockopedia is just getting started but it could be the site that levels
the playing field between private and institutional investors," said James
Fowler, Partner, Quantmetrics Capital Management LLP.

Founded in 2007, Stockopedia is a social research network for Individual
Investors - providing a full market data platform, aggregating opinion,
prices and news while customising content according to the interests of each
user. To view or contribute to quality user-generated investment research
visit http://www.stockopedia.co.uk

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