Chimp Studios (www.chimpstudios.com/) has introduced Stock + and Stock + Pro for Mac OS X (10.7 or higher), two stock watching apps featuring customizable ticker tapes, graphs, and common stock metrics. The former is free; the second costs US$4.99 Both are available at the Mac App Store.

These apps are designed for investors who want to keep an eye on stocks, commodities, indexes and mutual funds without disturbing their workflow. Both work by placing a scrolling stock ticker in the menubar or on the desktop. When clicked will display a primary window containing more information along with the ability to add and remove securities, view graphs and detailed stock metrics, and customize various app settings.

Besides the minimalist tape ticker there’s a primary window that has three main panels. The top left panel displays a list of the securities that the user is interested in. Each row shows the symbol, last known quote, point or percentage change, and the full security name. The top right panel contains details about the currently selected security including opening price, market cap, day high, day low, day volume, average volume, 52 week low, 52 week high, P/E, and if applicable the dividend yield. The bottom center panel shows a historic price graph that can be adjusted to show a timespan from one day to five years. Selecting multiple stocks from the securities list creates a comparison graph.