Being a discerning investor is, for better or worse, all about the homework. If you’re “doing it right,” you’re culling through useful information regularly on stock analysis websites, stock news apps, research reports and other valuable information.
Being a data-driven investor myself, I have my favorite investment research software, stock research websites and informational apps I use to source my best stock picks—and I plan to share many of these tools with you today. By leveraging these powerful investment tools, you should gain an investing edge and make more informed decisions with how you deploy your capital.
Among my personally tested picks are Seeking Alpha’s Premium service, Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor, and Motley Fool’s Rule Breakers (which is now only accessible through Fool’s Epic premium service). I subscribed to them during graduate school, and they pointed me toward some “diamonds in the rough,” which allowed me to buy at low prices, hold for a few years, and eventually sell these appreciating assets to buy my first place: a condo in downtown New Orleans. I still utilize these services for reliable data, opinions and stock ratings to select the individual stocks I choose to hold outside of my portfolio of index funds.
So, let’s dig in. Today, I’ll highlight some of the best stock research websites on the web. Importantly, I’m taking a broad approach so there’s something here for every investor. Some are laser-focused on DIY stock research, others also help you select exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds, still others provide more stock market news, and a few are all about providing you with stock picks.
What matters most is finding the best fit for you.
Best Investing Websites—Top Picks
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Best for Research + Stock Picks
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Best Introductory Stock Newsletter
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Best Free Stock Charting Tool
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4.8
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4.7
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4.5
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7-day free trial. Premium (Black Friday Sale): $209/yr.* Pro: $2,400/yr.
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$99 for 1st year; $199 renewal
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Free 30-day trial. Offers Non-Professional and Professional Plans (Details Below)*
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1. Seeking Alpha (Best Stock Analysis Website for Investment Research + Stock Recommendations)
- Available: Sign up here
Even the free version of Seeking Alpha ranks among the best stock research websites. But we’re going to specifically highlight Seeking Alpha Premium, which caters to intermediate and advanced investors looking for an affordable, all-inclusive, one-stop shop for their investing needs.
Seeking Alpha itself has more than 16,000 active contributors sharing stock analysis. In-house editors vet these pieces before they’re read and discussed by millions of people. Reading different opinions about the same stock helps investors develop their own informed opinions on the likelihood a stock will rise or fall. I recommend this approach when learning how to research stocks.
SA also offers stock research tools, real-time news updates, crowdsourced debates, and market data. Users can create their own portfolio of favorite stocks, see how they perform, and receive email alerts or push notifications about their investments.
However, while the basic SA website has a significant amount of information, some features remain reserved for the Premium Plan and Pro Plan members.
Seeking Alpha Premium
With a Seeking Alpha Premium subscription, you will enjoy unparalleled access with an ad-lite user experience.
SA Premium is an all-in-one investing research and recommendation service that offers insightful analysis, financial news, stock research, and more—all designed to help you make better investing decisions.
Seeking Alpha Premium can help you manage your stock portfolio by putting you in touch with a large investing community—one that can help you research stocks and understand the financial world and provide you with ideas for your next great investment.
Premium plan members can see the ratings of authors whose articles they read. (After all, it’s useful to know whether you’re reading the opinion of someone with a top record, or someone who’s whiffing a lot.) And Premium subscribers unlock analyses from SA-designated “experts.”
Among the other benefits:
- A stock screener that lets you filter by average analyst rating
- Earnings conference call transcripts
- 10 years’ worth of financial statements
- Ability to compare stocks side-by-side with peers
- Access to dividend and earnings forecasts
How Has Seeking Alpha Premium Performed?
SA’s Premium subscription provides full access to the service’s Stock Quant Ratings. These are collections of the best (to the worst)-rated stocks according to three independent investment resources provided on Seeking Alpha’s website. These cross checks and validations come from: (1) the Seeking Alpha Quant Model, (2) independent SA contributors, and (3) Wall Street analysts. The list of best stock recommendations gets further vetted by quantitative and fundamental analysis.
Look at the dramatic market outperformance seen by these quant-fueled “Strong Buy” stock picks as compared to the S&P 500 (total return with dividends reinvested):
Check out our Seeking Alpha Premium review to learn even more.
Seeking Alpha Pro
A Seeking Alpha Pro subscription includes all of the features offered by Seeking Alpha Premium, then packs on additional services, such as:
- The Top Ideas recommendation list
- Exclusive newsletter subscriptions and interviews
- VIP Editorial Concierge
- Seeking Alpha Pro stock screener for investing ideas
- A completely ad-free experience
In short: The Pro tier, which is geared toward professional investors, is more expensive than the Premium tier—but it comes with more goodies.
Why Subscribe to Seeking Alpha?
Seeking Alpha distills relevant financial information for you so you don’t have to—making it easy for anyone interested in self-directed investing to have a chance at outperforming the market.
Consider starting a free trial to take advantage of SA’s Premium services and see if they make sense for your needs.
- Seeking Alpha has the world's largest investing community.
- Seeking Alpha Premium helps you find profitable investing ideas, improve your portfolio, research stocks better and faster as well as track the news to find investing opportunities.
- Receive up to 15 investing newsletters filled with stock research and analysis, commentary and recommendations.
- Use Seeking Alpha Premium's Seeking Alpha Stock Ratings to find stocks likely to outperform and make you money.
- Seeking Alpha Premium's proprietary quant records have an impressive track record leading to massive market outperformance.
- Special offer (Black Friday Sale!): New subscribers receive a $90 discount off the price of Seeking Alpha Premium in their first year.
- Active community of engaged investors and analysts
- Stock screeners, quantitative tools for stock analysis
- Strong track record of market outperformance on stock ratings
- Minimal mutual fund coverage
Related: Best Seeking Alpha Alternatives [Competitors’ Sites to Consider]
2. Motley Fool Stock Advisor (Best Market Website for Steady-Performer Recommendations)
- Available: Sign up here
Motley Fool’s signature product, Stock Advisor, aims to provide investors with one thing: top picks for market-beating stocks from the site’s co-founders.
Stock Advisor is an online investment service that espouses my favorite, plain-vanilla trading style: buy-and-hold. Fool analysts provide recommendations for both “Steady Eddies” and potential high-flying stocks with sound fundamentals—an ideal combination of holdings if you want to generate strong performance without risking extremely high volatility.
Importantly, Stock Advisor doesn’t just give you a list of tickers and call it a day—it also provides investment rationales and research for each pick to help educate you before you buy.
And now, Stock Advisor membership provides access to Motley Fool GamePlan: a hub for retirement and financial planning content and tools to improve not just your portfolio, but your entire financial life. GamePlan outlines three portfolio strategies—Cautious, Moderate, and Aggressive—with picks for mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and stocks, including allocation recommendations. It also hosts a library of content about financial planning, including topics such as everyday finances, health and wellness, and estate planning. And it boasts tools including a variety of calculators, such as credit card interest and mortgage calculators.
How has Motley Fool Stock Advisor performed?
Stock Advisor stock picks have performed exceptionally well over the service’s 22-year existence. The service has made 190 stock recommendations that have historically delivered 100%+ returns.
Overall, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor stock subscription service has returned 740% through July 24, 2024, since its inception in February 2002. This number is calculated by averaging the return of all stock recommendations it has made over the past 22 years. Comparatively, the S&P 500 Index has returned 163% over that same time frame.
What to expect from Motley Fool Stock Advisor
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor service provides a lot of worthwhile resources to members:
- “Foundational Stocks”: 10 stocks that can serve as the foundation of your portfolio, whether you’re a new investor or experienced
- Two new stock picks each month
- Monthly analyst rankings of the service’s top 10 stocks based on their potential to beat the market over a five-year span
- A list of all the service’s active picks, “hold” recommendations, and closed positions
- Recommendations for stock and fixed-income exchange-traded funds (ETFs) you can use to build a diversified portfolio core
- Access to the GamePlan financial planning hub
- Access to Fool IQ, which provides essential financial data and news summaries about all U.S.-listed publicly traded stocks
- Access to a community of investors engaged in outperforming the market and talking shop
The service charges a discounted rate for the first year and has a 30-day membership-fee-back period. Read more in our Motley Fool Stock Advisor review, or sign up for Stock Advisor today.
- Motley Fool Stock Advisor is a stock service that provides recommendations for both "steady Eddie" and high-flying stocks, as well as a few ETFs for investors who want diversified holdings, too.
- Just getting started? Stock Advisor provides 10 "Foundational Stocks" you can use to anchor your portfolio.
- You're not alone! Stock Advisor membership also gives you access to a community of investors who also want to outperform the market and love talking shop.
- Enjoy access to GamePlan: Motley Fool's financial planning hub, which includes advice on personal finances, taxes, retirement, and more, as well as calculators and other financial tools.
- Limited-Time Offer: Get your first year with Stock Advisor for $99 (vs. $199 usual value)—a 50% discount for new members!
- Discounted introductory price
- Strong outperformance above S&P 500
- High overall average return for stock picks
- High renewal price
- Not every stock is a winner
Related: Motley Fool’s Rule Breakers vs. Stock Advisor
3. TradingView
- Available: Sign up here
TradingView is a useful investment research software for stock traders who rely on technical analysis.
The stock research app provides stock charts with real-time data and personally selected indicators including moving averages, Relative Strength Index (RSI), Bollinger Bands, and more.
TradingView also provides a powerful stock screener that can help you research stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), closed-end funds (CEFs), foreign exchange (forex), cryptocurrencies, and more. The screener comes with pre-built data sets, with fundamental sets including the likes of Overview, Performance, and Dividends, and even technical sets such as Oscillators and Trend-Following. TradingView also pre-built screens, such as Large-Cap, High-Dividend, Most Volatile, even Largest Employers.
This investment research service works well for traders looking to gain an edge on the stock market by utilizing the 50-plus data feeds and exchanges offered on the platform.
- TradingView provides an easy and intuitive stock charting experience w/tools to share and view trade ideas.
- Use this stock analysis app to leverage real-time data and browser-based charts to do your research anywhere.
- Collaborate with 50 million TradingView investors.
- Non-Professional Plans: Essential ($12.95/mo. or $155.40/yr.), Plus ($24.95/mo. or $299.40/yr.), Premium ($49.95/mo. or $599.49/yr.)
- Professional Plans: Expert ($199.95/mo. or $2,399.40/yr.), Elite ($349.95/mo. or $4,199.40/yr.), Ultimate ($499.95/mo. or $5,999.40/yr.)
- Test out the service with a free 30-day trial.
4. Motley Fool Epic (Best Multi-Strategy Stock Picking Service)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: $300/yr.*
Motley Fool Epic isn’t itself a stock-picking service—instead, it’s a bundled selection of four popular Motley Fool stock recommendation products, three of which you can only enjoy by becoming an Epic member:
- Stock Advisor: Buy-and-hold stock picks designed to deliver consistent performance with less volatility. Stock Advisor is the only one of these services you can subscribe to individually. (See our Stock Advisor review.)
- Rule Breakers: Stocks that have massive growth potential, whether they’re at the forefront of emerging industries or disrupting the status quo in long-established businesses. (See our Rule Breakers review.)
- Hidden Gems: Stocks of medium-to-large businesses, selected by Fool CEO and co-founder Tom Gardner for their “all-in, visionary leadership teams.” More so than the other services, Hidden Gems is mindful of macroeconomic and market environments—and how they might dictate how aggressively you should invest.
- Dividend Investor: This recommendation service revolves around producing equity income. Fool analysts target companies that deliver above-average yields and dividend growth, with the hope of producing both competitive total returns and an income stream that should carry you through retirement.
Epic members will get five new picks per month across the various services, can access all active recommendations, and also view Cautious, Moderate, and Aggressive strategies including specific stock allocations.
But Epic makes this list because it’s more than just a pile of recommendation services. Epic membership also unlocks access to a number of stock research and analysis tools, as well as other informational products, including:
- Fool IQ+: Fool IQ, which comes with Stock Advisor, provides essential financial data and news summaries about all U.S.-listed publicly traded stocks. With Epic, you get Fool IQ+, which includes all the features in Fool IQ, as well as a much wider variety of financial analysis data (earnings coverage, insider trading data, analyst opinions, and more) and advanced charting options.
- GamePlan+: GamePlan is a hub for retirement and financial planning. It includes exchange-traded fund (ETF) rankings; portfolio strategies (including stock, ETF, and mutual fund picks) with allocation recommendations; content about a variety of financial topics such as taxes, estate planning, and everyday finances; and a variety of tools, such as credit card interest and mortgage calculators. GamePlan is available when you sign up with Stock Advisor. However, GamePlan+, which you get through Epic, delivers a wider array of articles and tools, as well as more in-depth coverage.
- Epic Opportunities: A members-only podcast from Motley Fool.
You can learn more by reading our Epic review, or sign up today at Motley Fool.
- Motley Fool's Epic is a discounted combination of four foundational stock-investing services rolled up into one membership.
- Get access to more than 300 recommendations, reports, and analyses across the Stock Advisor, Rule Breakers, Hidden Gems, and Dividend Investor services.
- Get at least five new stock recommendations every month,
- Membership also unlocks GamePlan+ financial planning content and tools, Fool IQ+ stock research tool, a members-only podcast, and more.
- Limited-Time Offer: Get your first year with the Epic for $300 (vs. $499 usual value)—a 40% discount for new members!*
- Discounted introductory price
- Strong outperformance compared to the S&P 500
- High overall average return for stock picks
- Diversified array of recommendations for investors targeting growth, income, or both
- Additional value from GamePlan financial planning content and tools
- High renewal price
- Not every stock is a winner
5. Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks (Best Data-Driven Stock Recommendation Service)
- Available: Sign up here
Are you looking for a way to beat the market consistently? Consider Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks.
Alpha Picks is a stock selection service that provides you with two of the best stock picks each month that SA determines have the greatest chance for price upside. They base their selections on fundamentals such as valuation, growth, profitability, and momentum—not hype.
The stock selection process relies on Seeking Alpha’s proprietary, data-driven computer scoring system to screen and recommend stocks for more conservative “buy-and-hold” investors.
And if results from their backtest (run from 2010 to 2022) are any indication, historical simulations of the methodology behind their strategy prove it has worked: Alpha Picks’ recommendations outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 180 percentage points (+470% for SA vs. +290% for the S&P 500).
A bit more detail about how this works: Alpha Picks relies on the existing Seeking Alpha Quant model available to Seeking Alpha Premium and Pro users, but with a bit of modification. Namely, all recommendations must meet the following criteria:
- Hold a Strong Buy Quant rating for a minimum of 75 days
- Market cap greater than $500 million
- Stock price greater than $10
- Is a publicly traded common stock (no American Depository Receipts [ADRs])
- Be the highest-rated stock at the time of selection that has not been previously recommended within the past year (Alpha Picks releases one pick at the start of the month, another in the middle)
If you sign up for the service, you can expect the following:
- Two long-term stock picks to buy and hold for at least two years, delivered every month
- Detailed explanations from Seeking Alpha behind why they rate each stock pick so highly
- Notifications when a recommendation changes
- Regular updates on current Buy recommendations
The service, designed for busy professionals interested in building a portfolio that outpaces the market but without the time to commit to finding these opportunities, is worth considering. If you’re interested, you can sign up for a discounted first-year price of $449.
- Seeking Alpha's Alpha Picks is a stock picking service designed for busy professionals who might not have the time needed to select stocks for their own portfolio.
- Using a proprietary computer-scoring model, Alpha Picks makes "buy-and-hold" picks that last at least two years.
- Since its launch in 2022, Alpha Picks has delivered market-beating performance, with a remarkable 105% increase compared to the S&P 500's 33%.
- Rigorous backtesting also has shown Alpha Picks' methodology would have strongly outperformed the S&P 500 index between 2010 and 2022 (+470% vs. +290%).
- Special Offer (Black Friday Sale!): Receive 28% off the first year's subscription price by signing up via our link.
- Data-driven, computer-generated stock selection process
- Avoids human bias
- Strong backtest performance vs. S&P 500 index
- Competitive price point
- Not enough actual performance data
- No frills, just stock picks and info about them
Related: Best Swing Trade Alerts Services
6. Benzinga Pro (Best for Fast, Actionable Market News and Research)
- Available: Sign up here
Benzinga Pro is a platform for day and swing traders and investors to get fast, actionable market news and stock research.
The service specializes in providing exclusive breaking news stories on publicly traded companies. Benzinga’s Newsfeed covers all sectors, analyst ratings changes and SEC filings from companies. You can customize these news feeds based on watchlists you create within the platform.
Other notable Benzinga Pro features include:
- Audio Squawk: A team calls out actionable news during pre-market all the way through after-hours trading.
- Insider Trading Tracker: What are corporate insiders (company officers, big stakeholders and other important people) doing? Are they buying? Are they selling? How much do they own? This tool helps you learn more about insiders’ “skin in the game.”
- Stock Scanner: Get real-time, customized updates on the stock market.
- Charting: You can chart stocks within the Benzinga Pro platform, which uses a TradingView developer API (application programming interface).
- Calendar: Get dates for earnings reports, dividends, economic data releases, initial public offerings (IPOs), SEC filings and more.
If you’d like the fastest real-time news feed, profitable trading ideas, and exclusive content, consider signing up for Benzinga Pro today.
- Benzinga Pro is built for traders and investors to receive actionable market news and research in real time.
- Utilize Benzinga's competitive news advantage for receiving breaking news and research to enhance your analysis.
- Leverage scanner and charting capabilities to get customized movement updates in the stock market.
- Enjoy the experience of professional day traders, who share their real trades throughout each trading session.
Related: 10 Best Investments for Roth IRA Accounts [Target High Growth]
7. Zacks Investment Research
- Available: Sign up here
Zacks Investment Research also sits among the best stock market research websites, delivering a subscription-based service that you can use to improve your own due diligence or lean on for stock selection.
The investment research site has a free service that provides general market data and information about the financial markets and business news. One of its popular features is the Bull and Bear of the Day, where the service selects two stocks and rates them as a Bull (strong buy) or Bear (strong sell) pick.
However, the Zacks Premium service unlocks access to:
- The Zacks #1 Rank List to develop your investment strategies
- Focus List portfolio of long-term stocks
- Custom stock screener
- Equity research reports and more
The Portfolio Tracker provides constant monitoring of your stocks to help you decide if you should buy, hold, or sell.
If you want even more firepower, Zacks Investor Collection provides access to Zacks Premium and other services, including ETF Investor and Stocks Under $10. You can try the service for 30 days for just $1. After that, it’s $59/mo. or discounted to $495/yr. if paid upfront.
Investors who desire even more information can get Zacks Ultimate. This plan provides even more exclusive services, including Black Box Trader, Blockchain Innovators, Marijuana Innovators, Options Trader, and more. After a $1 30-day trial, Zacks Ultimate costs $299 per month.
- Zacks Investment Research offers several research products to provide the information subscribers want to know about market opportunities
- Features include: Zacks #1 Rank List, Industry Rank List, Premium Screens, Focus List, Research Reports, Earnings ESP Filter, Zacks #5 Rank List
Related: Zacks vs Motley Fool: Which Stock Picking Service is Better?
8. Morningstar (Best Research Site for Fund Investors)
- Available: Sign up here
Morningstar Investor is a rich platform of investment research tools designed for the buy-and-hold crowd, and it plugs investors into one of the world’s foremost sources for mutual fund and ETF data and analysis.
Morningstar’s ratings are among the service’s most revered features. The original Star Rating—which measures a fund’s risk-adjusted past returns—has been around since 1985 and helped steer countless investors toward cheaper, better-constructed mutual funds and ETFs. But Morningstar doesn’t just look to the past. Its forward-looking Medalist Ratings use traits such as a fund’s parent organization, the managers responsible for making decisions, and fund strategies to determine a fund’s ability to outperform over the long term. You must be a Morningstar Investor subscriber to access Medalist Ratings.
Morningstar also provides a wealth of information and comparable data points about mutual funds and ETFs—fees, risk, portfolio composition, performance, distributions, and more. Morningstar experts also provide detailed explanations and analysis of many of the funds the site covers.
Stock owners shouldn’t feel left out—Morningstar also provides everything you need for stock research, including equity data, corporate financials, analysis, and even Star Ratings of publicly traded companies.
With Morningstar Investor, you can also:
- Seamlessly and securely link your external accounts to get a holistic view of your assets from one simple dashboard
- Use Morningstar Portfolio X-Ray®, which evaluates what you hold from numerous angles—asset allocation, stock sector, valuation, fees, and more—and can identify any overlaps between accounts that might impact just how diversified you are (or aren’t!)
- Set up stock and fund watchlists
- Enjoy stock news and commentary that’s tailored to your holdings
- Screen for securities that match your investing goals using a variety of performance and valuation metrics
- Follow Morningstar authors so you can check out their latest articles, videos, and podcasts as soon as they’re posted
Not sure if Morningstar Investor is right for you? Try it out with a free seven-day trial. You can check out the current deal, as well as discounted rates for students and teachers, in our details box below.
- Morningstar Investor offers expert research, investing analysis, and advisor-grade portfolio management tools that are tailor-made for buy-and-hold investors.
- Morningstar is one of the most prized sources of mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) data in the world.
- How does your portfolio stack up? Put it through Morningstar's Portfolio X-Ray, which will provide insights such as whether you have too many overlapping holdings or whether you're paying too much in fees.
- Special Offer 1: Click our sign-up link to receive $50 off your first year of Morningstar Investor. (Annual plan only.)
- Special Offer 2: Students receive one year of Morningstar Investor access for just $25!
- Special Offer 3: Teachers receive a 60% discount on Morningstar Investor access.
- Top-flight fund research and analysis
- Portfolio management tool
- Powerful screener
- Watchlists
- Tailored news and commentary
- Below-average charting
- High monthly billing rate
Related: Best Investing Apps for Teens
9. Trade Ideas (Best Stock Analysis Site for Active Traders)
- Available: Sign up here
Trade Ideas employs an artificial intelligence-powered assistant named Holly. This AI becomes your virtual research analyst who never sleeps and instead sifts through technicals, fundamentals, social media, earnings, and more to pick stocks as real-time trade recommendations.
Holly stays busy, too. She runs more than 1 million simulated trades each night and morning before the markets open with more than 60 proprietary algorithms to find you the highest-probability, most risk-appropriate opportunities to invest in stocks.
This stock scanning and analysis tool doesn’t stop there, though. You can also build your own scanners and screeners with over 500 data points and indicators to choose from. You can backtest your trading strategies, and also forward-test them in the real-time trade simulator. This allows you to learn, test, and optimize, without risking your own money.
The powerful service allows you to access real-time streaming trading ideas on simultaneous charts to learn how to trade into risk-reward balanced trades. In other words: You can invest and learn at the same time.
Where Trade Ideas excels
Where Trade Ideas excels is not only giving you the data and ideas you haven’t seen elsewhere, but also how to manage your money. The AI-powered smart risk levels on every chart are suitable for both long-term investors and active traders.
As the stock market evolves, TI’s software adjusts levels and the trading plan to match. The best part? You can learn how to do all of this without risking your principal through a real-time simulated trading environment.
After you’ve grown comfortable with the service and trading, you can choose to go live with the trade ideas and start investing real money by connecting directly through a brokerage like Interactive Brokers or E*Trade. (The full list of available brokers you can use through the service is available on Trade Ideas’ site.)
I’m a newsletter and alert aficionado, so I should point out a couple of Trade Ideas products. For one, it has a standalone alert service in the form of a weekly Swing Picks newsletter. This gives you five new trade ideas in your inbox from the company’s model portfolio every Monday. Trade Ideas’ Standard and Premium subscriptions include these stock picks. Trade Ideas also has a free Trade of the Week newsletter highlighting one stock pick TI has identified for members.
How does Trade Ideas find stock picks?
Trade Ideas finds its Strength Alerts by focusing on a unique approach that emphasizes relative strength. They start by identifying the most effective indicators and chart setups, based on their top-performing algorithms. They proceed by applying statistical analysis to assign weighted values to each indicator and chart setup, allowing for a quantitative evaluation of their significance. Advanced server technology allows TI to evaluate every stock in the market using these weights and then sort them based on which achieved the highest score. Their team of experts curates these findings to ensure subscribers receive only the most promising trade recommendations.
While Trade Ideas offers exceptional value, it’s important to note that there’s a considerable investment required. Note that you must sign up for Premium to receive full access to the Holly experience. However, you can enjoy a big discount by using the code mentioned below.
Consider starting your Trade Ideas subscription with no contract involved. Cancel anytime.
- Trade Ideas is a stock market app that teaches you how to trade and invest.
- Using a simulated trading platform, you can learn how to trade and invest without risking actual money.
- The service offers a free newsletter and also AI-powered automated trading for premium subscribers.
- Special Discount: Take 20% off any first month or year of a Trade Ideas subscription using promo code "WEALTHUP".
- Free live trading room that delivers actionable guidance
- In-browser and desktop interface functionality
- Automated trading capabilities
- AI-powered trade suggestions
- No mobile app
- Pricey subscriptions for some traders
10. TrendSpider (Best for Refining Trading Strategies)
- Available: Sign up here
- Best for: Traders of all experience levels looking to trade more efficiently
- Platforms: Web, mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)
TrendSpider offers a comprehensive platform for traders to create, backtest, and refine trading strategies, scan and analyze the market, and time trades with precision. With its advanced tools and features, TrendSpider is designed to make trading more efficient for both novice and experienced traders.
Among the platform’s powerful tools:
- Robust technical charting and pattern recognition features, such as native multi-timeframe analysis, automatic trendlines, and Smart Checklists
- Raindrop Charts®, which provide a new way to visualize market data, focusing on trading volume at each price level
- Alternative data offerings including information on options flow, analyst actions, market breadth, insider trades, and more
- Data Flow, which enables real-time tracking of market data for all symbols, including analyst estimates, earnings, news, and unusual options flow
- Strategy Tester, which allows users to quickly develop and test trading strategies without any coding required; users can configure entry and exit rules and explore the performance of their strategies directly on the price chart
- Backtesting capabilities for technical, non-technical, and event-based strategies; once a winning strategy is identified, users can deploy it as a trading bot with just one click
Of particular note for traders is TrendSpider’s Scanner feature, which allows you to instantly test any strategy on any market and search for ideal trading opportunities. The stock scanner supports searching through watchlists, indexes, and more than 700 smart lists. Users can mix and match conditions and timeframes, allowing them to express any view in a single scan. The platform also provides a range of pre-made scanners to help users get started.
TrendSpider’s mobile app ensures traders are always connected to their charts and scanners, while the Chrome extension allows users to access real-time charts while browsing the web. The platform also offers extensive educational resources through TrendSpider University and detailed documentation for its features.
The platform also supports integration with external systems using webhooks, enabling traders to build custom alerts and bots that interact with social media channels, private chat servers, email, or order routers connected to brokerage accounts. TrendSpider’s SignalStack service can turn any signal or alert on TrendSpider into a live order in a trader’s account.
Learn more about the platform’s capabilities or sign up for TrendSpider today.
- Hone your trading skills and strategies with the TrendSpider platform, where you can use advanced tools to test trade ideas, scan for opportunities, and perfect your timing.
- Enjoy robust tools including technical charting and pattern recognition features, alternative data, backtesting, and Raindrop Charts.
- TrendSpider's stock scanner supports searching through watchlists, indexes, and more than 700 smart lists.
- Special offer: Enter code YATI25 at checkout to receive 25% off the lifetime cost of your subscription.
- Automated order execution
- Intuitive interface
- Chrome extension
- Reasonable pricing
- Mobile app is a companion app, not standalone
- Charts sometimes load sluggishly
Related: How to Invest as a Teenager or Minor (Start Investing Under 18)
11. Stock Rover (Best Stock Market Research Site for Fundamentals)
- Available: Sign up here
Stock Rover is one of the best paid stock websites for fundamental investors, in part because of its powerful stock screener.
Stock Rover helps you keep track of your portfolio with detailed performance information, emailed performance reports, in-depth portfolio analysis tools, correlation tools, trade planning, and rebalancing facilities. You can also create real-time research reports that provide a full fundamental and technical overview of a company’s performance for the last 10 years.
This service works as a web-based applet and offers a number of useful services and applications, depending on your research and analysis needs.
Stock Rover provides a comprehensive alerting facility, real-time stock screener for instances where companies trade below their perceived fair value, and signaling opportunities to buy stocks with a built-in margin of safety.
One of the best features of the web-based app is Stock Rover’s “Brokerage Connect.” This provides you with a read-only data feed of your actual portfolio holdings. This shows you a comprehensive view of your portfolios, whether they’re in one brokerage account or spread across numerous investment accounts. This view makes Stock Rover one of the best stock tracking and portfolio management apps.
After syncing your brokerage accounts to Stock Rover, details for each portfolio get populated in your Stock Rover dashboard for in-depth analytics and tracking purposes.
Consider signing up for Stock Rover with a free 14-day trial. From there, you can decide if you’d like to upgrade to the service’s premium plans for more robust tracking and analysis.
- A complete service for investors looking to use screeners, investment comparisons, real-time research reports, model portfolios, chart and more
- Use this top-rated investment analytics service to identify stocks worth buying and outperforming the market
- Hundreds of screening metrics
- Proprietary scoring systems
- Real-time executive summary research reports
- No mobile app
- No crypto or forex data
- US markets only
Related: How to Start Investing Money in Stocks
12. AAII (American Association of Individual Investors)
- Available: Sign up here
American Association of Individual Investors is a leading financial services publication with a monthly journal, thousands of online articles covering everything from behavioral finance to financial planning, and access to a Shadow Stock Portfolio. (This latter feature has beaten the stock market by a nearly 4-to-1 margin since inception.)
All of these items come included with the AAII Basic plan. But if you’d like to go with a more advanced stock research software option, you should consider AAII’s A+ Investor subscription.
This provides the membership benefits included with the AAII Basic plan but also includes access to a robust data suite that allows you to screen tens of thousands of stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs to consider for your portfolio. It also includes more than 60 prebuilt screens based on famous investor personalities and fundamental factors.
- AAII is in independent non-profit organization helping individual investors achieve their financial goals
- The service allows access to a Shadow Stock Portfolio, outperforming the market 4:1 in the last 20 years
- Gain access to AAII's Monthly Journal and live weekly webinars
Related: Best Dividend Stocks for Beginners to Buy
13. EDGAR
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, better known as EDGAR, is a unique stock research tool—but an important one for anyone who wants accurate, original-source information by publicly traded companies.
This free-to-use service helps you research stocks by providing access to up-to-the minute filings from publicly listed companies. You can find all sorts of useful informational nuggets buried in annual Forms 10-K, quarterly Forms 10-Q, Forms 8-K, and more.
Warren Buffett famously pores over annual reports and pays particular attention to Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) sections for management’s thoughts on the company’s prospects.
Indeed, EDGAR could be considered the internet’s best stock research website by virtue of its sheer wealth of data. However, much of what it provides is undistilled data—not exactly the user-friendliest experience, especially for novice investors.
14. TC2000
- Available: Sign up here
TC2000 is an easy-to-install investment research and analysis software that allows you to build watch lists, follow stock news, receive stock alerts, scan, sort, and make personal notes on stock opportunities.
The investment software provides more than 70 technical indicators with 10 drawing tools. The heart and soul of TC2000 is the service’s Condition Wizard. This allows you to build for any condition you might think of on any indicator step-by-step.
While this doesn’t require formula writing, you can develop your own and watch “flex” conditions unfold over time.
The service also has an EasyScan service, allowing you to scan millions of data points for your conditions on the fly.
- TC2000 is a market research platform providing tools and analysis software for identifying opportunities to capture alpha.
- Receive a $25 discount for signing up today!
15. Yahoo! Finance
Long seen as a mainstay in the investment news world, Yahoo! Finance connects investors with numerous news outlets to keep investors abreast of the latest developments in the stock market.
Investors can type in a ticker symbol to receive the latest quote available, use flexible charting to see a stock’s performance over time, read the latest news stories on specific stocks, and even visit message boards to speak with other investors.
- Yahoo! Finance allows you to screen stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds across dozens of data points
- Includes several preset screens
- Intuitive interface that's easy for beginners to understand
What Are Investing Research & Stock Analysis Websites?
When you’re conducting stock research and analysis, your due diligence (basically, your homework on an investment) falls into two broad categories:
- Fundamental analysis: This is when you examine a company’s financial and other business characteristics to determine a fair market value for the stock. When conducting fundamental analysis, you use several tools to measure a company’s health and financial performance as well as making estimations about how you project the stock to perform in the future. Your stock research should also consider the company’s management, competitive advantages, competitors, and markets in which they operate.
- Technical analysis: This is when you measure the actual movement of the stock, typically via stock charts. Technical analysts use short- and long-term stock signals alike to predict where a stock will move in the future.
You can find both of these analysis types on a wealth of stock market websites, investment research software, and mobile apps. They compile the pertinent information, parse through what is and isn’t relevant, and either display the information for you or take it a step further and make recommendations based on the data.
What Are the Best Stock Market Websites?
If you’re looking to make an informed investment with upside potential (which, aren’t we all?), you’ll want to consult stock research websites to gather information and develop investment rationales. This means using trusted sources that gather information, provide news, display data, and maybe even make investment recommendations.
The best stock research websites will provide a combination of important features: stock analysis tools, stock and fund screeners, real-time data, even investing advice. (For the record, a site doesn’t need all of these to rank among the best investment resources, but the best stock market websites are typically going to be feature-rich.)
The above list of the most indispensable stock market research sites, software, and apps should help you narrow your search.
Why Is Stock Market Research Important for Your Investments?
The more you know about an investment, the more confidence you can have when you make the decision to buy or sell. So the purpose of conducting investment research is to gain as much knowledge as you can so you can make the best possible choices.
But remember: Your decisions are only as good as the information educating them. High-quality information will help you make high-quality investments. Garbage information? Well …
That’s why it’s vital to use tried-and-tested stock research tools like the ones above. They’re the difference between making an informed investment decision, and simply gambling on the equity markets.
