Will a virtual visualization make a real difference in the way you manage your portfolio? That's what Fidelity Investments is betting on with the beta launch of "StockCity," a virtual reality platform that lets customers zoom through their portfolio as if they were on a helicopter winding around New York City, with stocks depicted as buildings in sector-specific neighborhoods.
The size of the buildings is determined by the closing stock price (height); the number of shares outstanding (width); and the 90-day average volume (depth). As a result, Bank of America becomes a low-lying office park, and Tesla a gaunt—but soaring—skyscraper.
The aim, according to Fidelity Labs VP Hadley Stern, is to
build a product that helps clients better grasp how their stock
holdings stack up.
The prototype, released Wednesday, was inspired by the Boston skyline and in development for 18 months. Customers can fiddle with a desktop version before the Oculus VR headsets—on which Fidelity developed the virtual simulation—become more commonplace for gamers and investors alike.
For managing money, Stern says, "competing and playing may
be an option, but maybe visualizing in and of itself is the answer."
But all that is open to discussion, Stern says, noting that customer feedback will be key in shaping the final product. After unveiling the platform in Las Vegas at the International Traders Expo, Fidelity plans to host a hands-on session for active traders to provide their feedback. Some possible additions: Building heights that recalibrate in real-time; birds circling a building if there's significant Twitter activity; doors that let users "inside" a company to evaluate its products.
Read MoreHow to find an active manager for your unsafe bull market
The company wouldn't say what they've spent to create StockCity, the company says it spends a total $2.5 billion on technology each year, which includes the multiple projects underway in the research & development unit.
To be sure, many projects the lab develops never see daylight. Fidelity Labs has chased some experiments that ended up being fleeting fads (remember the iGoogle homepage?); other movements, like that of Second Life, it let pass entirely.
"We cannot predict what will take off," says Stern, who estimates about 50 percent of the group's projects end up in use. But "it isn't experimentation for experimentation's sake."
But both wearables and virtual reality will be part of larger movements, Stern says. Fidelity has built investing products for both Google Glass and the Pebble Watch; it is actively adapting information about customer behavior from those existing apps to build products for the forthcoming Apple Watch.
For instance: A client may use a watch to check a ticker or make a quick trade, but not to rebalance a portfolio.
"We look at our smartphones 200 times a day," says Stern, estimating "about half of those times could be served by wearable device."
Read MoreDr. Doom's strategy: "Only lose 50%"
It's still unclear exactly what role virtual reality will serve, and when exactly it will pick up steam. Oculus does not have a consumer product available, though a new Samsung mobile VR headset using Oculus technology will be out later this year. Engineers have purchased some 180,000 Oculus developers' kits, according to a spokesperson, but the company does not have an estimate of how much content is being created on it.
For now, Fidelity's VR experiment is but an experiment. Stern says the Oculus headsets will need to slim down and solve a "vertigo" problem: The depth perception causes some users (including yours truly) to become nauseous when they take it off and re-enter the real world.
"All the bits and pieces have to be in place for something to take off."
So Fidelity's working on putting its bit into place.
The prototype, released Wednesday, was inspired by the Boston skyline and in development for 18 months. Customers can fiddle with a desktop version before the Oculus VR headsets—on which Fidelity developed the virtual simulation—become more commonplace for gamers and investors alike.
For managing money, Stern says, "competing and playing may
be an option, but maybe visualizing in and of itself is the answer."
But all that is open to discussion, Stern says, noting that customer feedback will be key in shaping the final product. After unveiling the platform in Las Vegas at the International Traders Expo, Fidelity plans to host a hands-on session for active traders to provide their feedback. Some possible additions: Building heights that recalibrate in real-time; birds circling a building if there's significant Twitter activity; doors that let users "inside" a company to evaluate its products.
Read MoreHow to find an active manager for your unsafe bull market
The company wouldn't say what they've spent to create StockCity, the company says it spends a total $2.5 billion on technology each year, which includes the multiple projects underway in the research & development unit.
To be sure, many projects the lab develops never see daylight. Fidelity Labs has chased some experiments that ended up being fleeting fads (remember the iGoogle homepage?); other movements, like that of Second Life, it let pass entirely.
"We cannot predict what will take off," says Stern, who estimates about 50 percent of the group's projects end up in use. But "it isn't experimentation for experimentation's sake."
But both wearables and virtual reality will be part of larger movements, Stern says. Fidelity has built investing products for both Google Glass and the Pebble Watch; it is actively adapting information about customer behavior from those existing apps to build products for the forthcoming Apple Watch.
For instance: A client may use a watch to check a ticker or make a quick trade, but not to rebalance a portfolio.
"We look at our smartphones 200 times a day," says Stern, estimating "about half of those times could be served by wearable device."
Read MoreDr. Doom's strategy: "Only lose 50%"
It's still unclear exactly what role virtual reality will serve, and when exactly it will pick up steam. Oculus does not have a consumer product available, though a new Samsung mobile VR headset using Oculus technology will be out later this year. Engineers have purchased some 180,000 Oculus developers' kits, according to a spokesperson, but the company does not have an estimate of how much content is being created on it.
For now, Fidelity's VR experiment is but an experiment. Stern says the Oculus headsets will need to slim down and solve a "vertigo" problem: The depth perception causes some users (including yours truly) to become nauseous when they take it off and re-enter the real world.
"All the bits and pieces have to be in place for something to take off."
So Fidelity's working on putting its bit into place.
Kayla Tausche
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