What started out as an online extension of a book has turned into a complex Web site for financial professionals, its developer said.
Dfin.com began operation in December 1996 with the publication of “Financial Institutions Internet Source Book” by McGraw-Hill, said Gary Evans, co-author of the book and owner of the Web site.
He’s also the president of newly formed Bank of Internet USA, based in San Diego.
Evans said the Web site gets between 12,000 and 20,000 visitors a month. It has been submitted to such search engines as Alta Vista, Excite, Northern Lights and Yahoo! Canada.
He said the most popular features of the site include career help linked to a variety of job search sites, another section on federal home loan rules and a section on copyrights and trademarks.
There are also financial calculators to figure out how much of a mortgage someone can qualify for and how long it takes to pay off.
The site also has a multiple stock quote section with detailed analysis of individual companies and performance charts in three different formats. The section provides relative ranking of stocks based on their dividends, price appreciation and revenue growth rates, he said.
Wondering what corporate insiders at a particular company are doing with their own shares? The site has a link to find out.
Several financial planning aids are included as well to help plan for retirement, college and other investment goals.
While the Web site has advertising, Evans said he doesn’t intend to operate it as a business, but more as a hobby and testing ground.
