New Halal Stock Screener: Feedback Required!

[usmckoontz]

Salaam All, we've just launched a halal stock screening tool in our app Kestrl: The Muslim Money App (https://kestrl.io/).

We're offering 1 week free trials to all new users and we're hoping to get as much feedback as possible on our design and features. After 1 week it's $1.49/month (or less if you sign up for 6 months or 1 year). If you have time please give it a go and let us know what you think at r/KestrlMuslimMoneyApp or at [info@kestrl.io](mailto:info@kestrl.io) .

Current features:

• Company background (price, news etc.)
• Screening across 5 different standards (AAOFI, FTSE, S&P, MSCI, DJIM)
• Discover halal stocks in different themes (Fintech, Green, High dividend etc.)
• Create watchlists

A quick screen recording of the app.

We're hoping to include more international stocks, Funds and allow you to trade through the app this year InshAllah.

Thank you so much for your help! We also offer other features in the UK including a halal investment marketplace, Budgeting and Halal Savings offerings too.

 

[kambroso]

@usmckoontz Bro- Change the name of the app. I would not remember if you asked me tomorrow.. really

 

[usmckoontz]

@kambroso Haha noted!

 

[jade2541]

@usmckoontz Screening across different standards is a good feature. Many people are interested in screening using Zero Riba and non-compliant income criteria but no app provides that feature. Do you have a stringent criterion like that?

 

[usmckoontz]

@jade2541 Salaam- thanks alot for this suggestion. It's something we can definitely roadtest with users. I feel a little hesitant to include it as a filter as there are specific shariah rulings that allow levels of interest but I will speak to our shariah advisory board too.

 

[jade2541]

@usmckoontz Thanks for considering the suggestion. Frankly, we might not need any ruling for a zero/near-zero filter as it is direct from Quran. All other rulings are relaxations. I am sure the sharia board will be willing to help people to start this riba-free journey.

 

[shatter94]

@jade2541 I completely agree with you. It has increasingly become a trend to allow ‘5 percent’ as somehow acceptable for unacceptable sources and also allow businesses to do interest based borrowing and lending. How is that okay really? There now seems to be a ‘questionable’ result as well, as opposed to just non-compliant.

 

[jade2541]

@shatter94 I am curious, what is the difference between "questionable" and "non-compliant"?

 

[usmckoontz]

@jade2541 Good question.

Non-compliant means that the company is clearly engaging in an impermissible activity like selling alcohol.

Questionable means that we don't have enough information to make a decision. A good example is Costco who sell a range of products, including alcohol. However they don't breakdown their income in their financial statements, so we can't see how much comes from haram products compared to halal.

Because of this we have to rate it questionable as it could be above the 5% threshold applied by many shariah bodies

 

[usmckoontz]

@jade2541 Thank you, we will take a look and update you. It will be a relatively quick filter to add

 

[elana0123]

@jade2541 Beep. Boop. I'm a robot.
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[miriamicus]

@usmckoontz After seeing the app, i really doubt the shariah standards. Is the shariah Standards just based on only riba percentages?

Lets take example of Spotify($SPOT). It is music industry and it should never be shariah compliant based on the business. But all the 5 standard mentioning as Shariah compliant. How is that possible? Zoya mentions as non-compliant.

 

[usmckoontz]

@miriamicus Thanks so much for pointing this out- there was a bug in our back end that is being rectified now. Spotify, along with other streaming services should not be showing as compliant.

 

[jade2541]

@usmckoontz I feel people should check compliance of stocks from more than one service, just in case.

 

[usmckoontz]

@miriamicus Thanks for pointing that bug out, Spotify and all streaming services have now been amended accordingly.

 

[resjudicata]

@usmckoontz Salamu Aleykum,

First, Barak Allahu fikom for the efforts to respond to Muslim investor needs and to have offered us the trial period for free. The subscription price of 1,xx$ with the features and the clarity of Sharia screeners in my opinion compared to Zoya/Islamicly/etc is unbeatable!

The app looks great. I only used to screener feature. I even got in touch with your customer support, which was quick and to the point.

Regarding the screener, I wished:

- it could scan stocks from international SEs, not only US.

- it had an alarm feature to notify - with acceptable delay - the user whenever a Sharia-compliant stock becomes no longer compliant.

- it displayed the date of last compliance audit against the Sharia regulatory bodies.

- it had a purification function that maps to each watched company's financial year.

Regarding the app itself, I wished it presented Sharia-compliant marketplace offers in all the regions, not only the UK.

Please continue the efforts and don't get greedy if you experience a huge success ;-P

Best Regards

MrGezzz

 

[chameli]

@usmckoontz Wow, I was just looking for something like this! It also seems like the pricing is much cheaper than Zoya (which I think is a bit above what I'm willing to pay for information on halal stocks.)

Any chance you'd be able to lay out the differences between that app and your app ? If you're aware and willing, that is.

Anyways, nice job, will definitely be looking into this

 

[usmckoontz]

@chameli Amazing thanks so much for checking it out.

Sure, we have a lot of respect for Zoya and are trying to do things a little differently to them.

Currently the main differences are:

1. Kestrl allows you to screen against 5 different standards, Zoya just uses 1 (AAOFI)
2. Kestrl charges $1.49 a month compared to Zoya's $8 a month for premium services
3. Zoya offers UK, US and Canadian stocks, Kestrl offers US currently with UK and Canada coming before April 2022 inshAllah
4. Zoya screens Funds as well as stocks, Kestrl just includes stocks though we will include funds before April 2022 inshAllah
5. Kestrl offers a range of services including Budgeting, Saving and access to other investments like property, gold and funds- Zoya only has screening features currently

 

[jsteel]

@usmckoontz Hi Areeb, take my suggestions with a grain of salt, because if you fulfil what I'm asking for, it'll require very significant effort.

If possible, you might want to include some stock analysis tools, such as debt/equity ratio, PE ratio, Free Cash Flow etc. In that case, it will become a one stop shop for all your investing needs. I'm willing to pay extra for a service like that.

 

[usmckoontz]

@chameli P.S please share with any likeminded people you may know- would love to hear more opinions!