Assessing CNBC Pro: Two thumbs up

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

I had an opportunity to talk to Ariel Nelson, director of CNBC digital products and strategy, on Tuesday about the new CNBC Pro product that was launched, and take a quick tour to examine its features.

First, some background:

CNBC reached out to about 1,500 television and CNBC.com users. What it found was that about two-third of them track an equity other than U.S. stocks. About 75 percent of those pay money to track those investments, and about 82 percent of those feel as if they’re missing information while they’re away from their desk.

That research begat CNBC Pro, which provides news and data for assets traded on more than 100 foreign exchanges. It’s costing $24.99 a month or $269 a year and is available on computers and Blackberries. It will be available on iPads, iPhones and Android phones early next year.

Assessing the product:

I liked how the changes you make on your computer show up on your Blackberry, and vice versa. For example, if you move an equity up higher on your watch list on your PC, it shows up on your phone too.

The charts are outstanding. When scrolling a price chart of a stock, the cursor reveals the open, high, low and close for each day. I’ve not seen that on any other chart.

Your stock and equity selections drive your news headlines. So, if you’ve picked wheat futures as an equity you’re watching, you’re going to get stories in your news feed about the wheat market.

The analytics section is also nice because it allows you to compare return and performance for investments across assets.

CNBC is migrating its 16,000 CNBC Plus users over to CNBC Pro. CNBC Plus was primarily a TV product.

One final note: The USA Today about CNBC Pro neglected to mention that CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo writes a column for the newspaper.