The highs and lows of the stock market have been given a musical twist.

Brighton-based ShareCrazy has relaunched its plain-speaking investment web site and added a weekly report sung by online guide, Joe Public.

Managing director Alan Green said: "Joe Public is a cartoon character who helps visitors around the site.

"He represents the private punter who loves shares, ask questions in everyday terms and wants information he is going to understand in return.

"People relate to Joe as an individual and buy into his role as an online narrator.

Joe was created by Brighton musician Sputnik Weazel to give the site a fresh feel and personal touch.

"It's Sputnik who gives Joe his voice. He is a well known musical force and will be bringing ground-breaking reports to our site.

No-one else has anything like this." Sputnik has performed live with Eddie Izzard and Jools Holland.

Each weekend, he uses ShareCrazy's weekly market report as inspiration for a song which he then performs in a style chosen by visitors to the site.

He uses digital recording equipment to lay down a short track and makes a Flash animation showing Joe Public performing the tune.

The sound and images are then uploaded to the site.

Sputnik is the stage name for Nik Bizell-Browning, who holds an MA in Classical Music from Sussex University and describes himself as an itinerant punk musician.

He said: "In the Middle Ages, news used to be spread around the country by travelling musicians and the online song round-up is going back to that idea. Joe is a modern troubadour on the internet.

"Each week's piece is really short, not much more than a chorus, delivered in a glib, tongue-in-cheek way.

"It is meant to raise a smile and make people want to come back to the site whether or not they are interested in buying shares.

"The internet is a great medium for sound bites of this type and as connections get faster we may even be able to do this for a live online audience."

ShareCrazy was founded by Mr Green in 1996 after he read a book called Armchair Tycoon by Malcolm Stacey, a self-made multi-millionaire.

He followed the book's advice and made what he describes as a "fair bit of money".

Frustrated with investment web sites which were "staid, mundane and full of jargon", Mr Green decided to inject some fun into an easy-to-follow online presence of his own using the assets he had accumulated to fund the project.

Mr Stacey was brought on board as a daily trading commentator and, since then, ShareCrazy has grown into a wide-ranging investment portal covering share information, online chat and market news.

www.sharecrazy.com