A locally developed investment software program called Dynamic Investor Pro is getting some pretty good buzz in the investment world these days, and its owners are ready to launch a national marketing campaign for their product.

Dynamic Investor Pro is the brainchild of Raymond Dominick of Bigfork, a small business manager and consultant who managed a software company for several years before stepping out to develop his own investment software.

By listening to people talk about what they really wanted from investment software, Dominick knew he needed to design a user-friendly program for anyone, from the most experienced investors to those whose only investment tool may be a 401(k) account through their job.

“So much of successful investing is about research, analysis and the timeliness of making critical decisions,” he said. “I thought there had to be a way to employ technology in these aspects of the process to both speed it up and ensure that thoroughly researched and analyzed recommendations are available in a timely fashion.”

Dominick tapped software development specialist John Kyle of Kalispell to build the program.

“I had the idea and explained to him, ‘This is how I want it to work and look,’” Dominick said. “John handled the mechanics of building the program. We’d go back and forth.”

They formed Dynamic Investing LLC in 2008, with Dominick as chief executive officer and majority owner, and Kyle as chief programmer and minority owner. By early 2009 the first version of Dynamic Investor Pro was ready.

“The difference between then and now is almost night and day,” Dominick said. “We put out the first version in less than a year, knowing it would take three years to get where we wanted to be. We still had a workable product [at first] but now it’s so much better. We’ve built in features no one else really has.”

They released Version 4 of the software in December 2011, and already the program has received high praise from users. Among the software’s fans is Mike Carr, chief market strategist at Dunn Warren Investment Advisors and author of “Smarter Investing in any Economy.”

Carr told Dominick he uses Dynamic Investor Pro and has frequently recommended it to other investors.

There are about a half-dozen popular investment software programs on the market, Dominick said, but what he’s hearing repeatedly from Dynamic Investor Pro’s client base is that it’s “far superior” to other programs.

“There are lots of other software companies, and it’s not that they’re bad,” he said. “They tell you what and when to buy, but equally important is when to sell.”

Dynamic Investor Pro has a market exit signal that tells investors in no uncertain terms when to “get out or move to something super safe,” Dominick explained, adding that the program will tell investors whether a potential investment is a good idea, questionable, “or if it’s a flat-out no.”

The program can be customized to meet individual investors’ needs.

“It’s designed to set up to manage [investments] daily, weekly or once a month and still make money,” he said. “Each person can decide, ‘How much time do I have?’

Dominick became enthralled with the world of investing at an early age. He started playing the stock market at age 16.

“I’d heard if you want to have a secure financial future, that’s the only way,” he said.

When he was 17 he hopped on a Greyhound bus in his home town of Chicago and headed for the University of Montana in Missoula, where he intended to study forestry.

Instead, he wound up with a journalism degree and became a writer and managing editor for various business magazines before delving into small business management.

He and his family lived in Helena for a number of years, relocated to Kalispell in 1995 and settled into rural Bigfork in 2004.

Dominick said his journalism background has been an asset working with clients and being able to answer questions and provide customer service.

He’s also tapping his writing skills to write a book “for investing for the ordinary person.”

As Dominick and Kyle take their software to the next level, their marketing largely will be done via the Internet, with specialized advertising in publications such as Smart Money magazine. As their client base grows they expect to start adding employees to handle customer service yet this year. Most employees would be based in their homes, and Dominick hopes to hire Montana residents.

What started as a simple quest of creating an investment software program that “anyone can do,” Dominick is pleased with the evolution of Dynamic Investor Pro and its potential.

“I’m satisfied we’ve reached the vision of what the program needs to be,” he said.

For more information about Dynamic Investor Pro, go online to www.dynamicinvestorpro.com or call 877-822-1445.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.