Brilliant concept, as I've been struggling with this exact problem for a while. A few comments:
Details on how you decide a fund rating would be nice.
The "Forecasts that drive our models" doesn't tell me what's really going on. First item: "US Small Cap vs Large". So you're biased toward small cap? That's the implication, but it's not explicit. I'd like to read why. Also, two of the three listed items talk about international (without any explanation), yet my specific plan recommendation has just a sliver of international exposure despite several options in that regard.
Usability: after finding my company's plan and creating an account, if I click on "401k guidance" in the top nav, I don't expect it to show the search field to find other company plans. Rather, I expect it to show me my plan(s). (I see it's under My Stuff, but that's less obvious.)
Currently fund ratings are determined as risk adjusted excess return versus the fund's best fit index. A "C" is average (no curve here!), so you'll find most index funds will be rated C. Funds that have returned more than 3% more on an RAR basis over the past year are deemed A.
We'll want to revisit ratings as we build out - to look at the graphic representation of excess returns in a universe and then customize ratings around reasonable percentiles.
On the +/++ and -/-- portions of the ranking: these are simply momentum scores for the sector in which the fund participates. So, an A++ fund is a manager who is doing well on a risk adjusted basis, in a sector that has strong current momentum.
We'll need to be more explicit on the biases. You're right they don't tell me much. The biases are clearly based on the forecast 10 year returns. At present we are negatively disposed to international generally. You can actually read through our views on the blog: http://www.kivalia.com/blog/post/2013/07/11/Investment-Outlo...
See if that helps.
Will take usability thoughts into account as well. Thanks!
Details on how you decide a fund rating would be nice.
The "Forecasts that drive our models" doesn't tell me what's really going on. First item: "US Small Cap vs Large". So you're biased toward small cap? That's the implication, but it's not explicit. I'd like to read why. Also, two of the three listed items talk about international (without any explanation), yet my specific plan recommendation has just a sliver of international exposure despite several options in that regard.
Usability: after finding my company's plan and creating an account, if I click on "401k guidance" in the top nav, I don't expect it to show the search field to find other company plans. Rather, I expect it to show me my plan(s). (I see it's under My Stuff, but that's less obvious.)
Very good start!