Updated Articles

  1. What products do you have on Synaptic Research?

    Synaptic Research covers all the life, pension and investment products which can be sold by independent financial advisers in the UK. The standard data available through the system is as follows, and is subject to frequent change in the light of in...
  2. How do I define portfolio holdings and settings?

    You define the settings for a portfolio using the Portfolio link in the menu bar of your manual fund list. This lets you enter three pieces of information: the holding in each fund; how to value the holdings; and the benchmark to compare the o...
  3. What are the definitions of fund performance figures?

    Quartile ranking A fund’s quartile ranking is its position within its IMA/ABIsector, based on absolute past performance, over a given time period. Synaptic Research uses two different measures of quartile rankings within its fund factsheets: Cu...
  4. Can I delete research?

    All research within Synaptic Research is automatically stored. Therefore, if you don’t want to keep a piece of research you have to explicitly delete it. This can be done using the Delete  link on the menu bar. Alternatively, you can delete multip...
  5. What are the differences between fund research and product research?

    It may be useful to note the following minor differences between product and fund research – facilities which work differently, or which are not available on fund research: A grid of fund research cannot be flipped. It can only be displayed in its...
  6. What are the differences between product-focused and client-focused research?

    As described above, client-focused research is where you enter client details and (depending on the type of product) details of policy benefits/contributions. Product-focused research is where you simply skip this information, in order to carry out ...
  7. Can I display factsheets from the data grid?

    The data grid provides quick access to factsheets about companies and individual contracts: Click on a company name in the grid for a company factsheet. Click on a contract name for a contract factsheet. In addition, you can right-click on the ...
  8. Can I distribute personal presets across the firm?

    As described above, we recommend that presets are initially created in personal mode, so that they only apply to you. You then distribute the presets across your firm once you have finished editing them. You can do this by clicking on the  Change p...
  9. How is the distribution of returns graph calculated?

    N.B. This graph is very difficult to read with more than one fund on it. It is only really designed to inspect a single fund. The distribution of returns shows the pattern of the fund’s returns each month over the chosen period. The system looks ...
  10. What data does FE fundinfo supply?

    Synaptic Research uses mutual fund and index data supplied by FE Fundinfo. FE Fundinfo is a data company which specialises in the collection, validation, dissemination and analysis of fund information. It supplies more than half of all UK fund man...