J.P. Morgan Asset Management is latest to start trading paper for electrons

Trading in paper for electrons. That’s what JP Morgan Asset Management has done with its Guide to the Markets quarterly report.
Specifically, the firm has migrated and morphed the popular 7-inch by 5 1/2–inch spiral-bound quarterly report into an iPad application of the same name.
In paper form, the Guide has been in production since 2004 and recently has gone out at rate of about 90,000 copies per quarter and is sent free to advisers working with the firm.
“Like many other financial services firms, we have noted very high numbers of advisers using the iPad,” said Marlene DeLuca, global head of Insights for JP Morgan Asset Management (the Market Insights group at JPMAM publishes the Guide).
“Many an adviser has come to know and love — and look for — particular recurring charts each quarter,” she said of those appearing in the Guide, which averages 60 pages an issue.
Now those static charts, along with all the other paper content, is taking on more of a life of its own in the form of content that is more interactive.
In point of fact the Guide is already available, it goes out in PDF form on the second day of every quarter but these versions are still largely static.
“We are really going to be able to extend the use of what is in the Guide by sharing it within the iPad app, you can in some ways like this as really a home page to the guide, a set of short snippets to jump off from,” said Ms. DeLuca, who has been working on the Insights Guide since 2005.
“If I just quickly wanted to see what I could use on emerging markets commentary, I might be overwhelmed at first glance with 50 pages on the topic,” she said.
I got to kick the tires on the application myself for a few days.
It is very easy to navigate and you can easily maneuver through the slides by scrolling. Stopping on a particular slide you will find additional options, for example there is audio commentary for each (how do you do that with paper?).
Simply click the “Listen to Slide Audio,” which the firm has recorded of its own strategists.
As many advisers do these days, it is easy to share parts of a Guide with clients in person and if something in particular strikes their fancy, they can easily e-mail a PDF version of those pages from inside the app.

KICKING THE TIRES

Now there are still things I find not quite intuitive. For example, I spent a moment or two puzzling over the “Slide view” versus “Detail view” at the top of the screen in the application.
In my mind (and to be honest more than one person over the years has said that I sometimes do not think like most people would) “Detail view” would refer to the larger, full-screen view of a slide but in actuality this is the “Slide view”.
The “Detail view” presents you with the detailed things you can do with the slide, like add it to “Add To My Collections” (basically a repository of content you select), “Send To…” for sending to a client or colleague, and the “Listen to Slide Audio.”
JP Morgan also has wiggle room here to add true interactivity to the slides to bring them alive.
I know the underlying architecture can support it, meaning HTML5. So, for example if you wanted to zoom in on a particular trough or peak in a chart, JPM could have additional pop-up content.
Don’t get me wrong JPM is doing plenty in the way of static callouts to explain things on the screen itself but these are static for now and could be made interactive.
And perhaps some of this is being worked in now. JP Morgan Asset Management was kind enough to let me take a test spin of my own on a demo server prior to today’s launch.
For the moment though I do have to say that my favorite iPad application from a fund company meant for adviser usage remains AllianceBerstein’s AB Connect iPad application rolled out in December.
It has a bit more interactivity and the iteration with the firm’s blog keeps what the firm is sharing a bit fresher. There are also quite a few “Interactive Tools” associated with the app that advisers can download into it through updates. These tools make use of Javascript and realtime web technologies allowing the user to take advantage of the screen to drag and see changes on a chart.
As just one example would be the “Fixed Income Roll Calculator”
Just food for thought, nothing on the web is carved in stone after all.
Every adviser with a relationship allowing them access should check out the JP Morgan Asset Management Insight App, the price is certainly right and it is chock full of information.

Advisers that sell JP Morgan Funds will likely be getting some tutoring soon, if they have not already from their friendly JPM wholesaler.

For more information visit the Insights App page online.
Related stories:
HTML5 & AllianceBernstein’s iPad app
AllianceBernstein’s iPad app supports multiple uses
iPad app launched by Franklin Templeton
OppenheimerFunds rolls out Global Tracker, an app for iPad and Android tablets
Jackson National’s new iPad app lets wholesalers travel light
Leveraging the iPad (J.P. Morgan Funds app for wholesalers)
The Hartford’s annuity wholesalers lighten up with iPads