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The Best Stock Research Websites

How can a newer trader or investor navigate stock research and establish a baseline to choose the best stocks?


The wide world of stocks is confusing, especially for a beginner. Alpha, beta, candlesticks, volatility… these terms, and more, are just the price of admission to understanding what you’re investing in. That’s before you investigate the companies you’re investing in, which opens a whole other world of confusing jargon and complexity.

How does a newer trader or investor navigate this world or establish a baseline to choose stocks?

Luckily, there is no limit to stock research websites for beginners and advanced investors – you must be mindful of the quality!

Motley Fool

Motley Fool is the golden standard for total-stock research for many new and experienced investors. They offer many options depending on your investment preferences. The research focuses include real estate, value stocks, and growth stocks.

Motley Fool’s primary and original service, Stock Advisor, is an invaluable asset for a new investor. With Stock Advisor, you get:

  • Two monthly stock picks and the underlying research so you can learn the experts’ methods.
  • 10 “timely buys” and a set of foundational stock recommendations to start your portfolio. These are Motley Fool’s preferred stocks to buy and hold for 5+ years.
  • Access to the community and investing resources to help guide your research journey.

Motley Fool also offers some educational resources for non-members, so you can see the value and quality of their services before you subscribe.

 

Morningstar

Morningstar is an excellent resource for new and experienced investors alike- there’s a reason so many Wall Street pros rely on it for research. Now available for the average Joe, Morningstar mainly focuses on the quantitative side of research.

Expect to see a lot of business fundamentals analysis. This is a valuable tool for research because business fundamentals don’t change. Knowing these and how they impact stocks is key to weathering rough economic and market conditions.

Morningstar aggregates over 150 independent analyst results and compares companies against industry peers in a proprietary, algorithmic approach. This means that the research you’re accessing is reliable and thorough.

For those who need a little visual help, Morningstar has a star-based system of stars and gold/silver/bronze designations. Morningstar also has screening tools, so if you have stock qualities in mind, you can plug them in and get back a list of quality candidates meeting your requirements.

Morningstar’s full research suite is subscription-based, but they offer a free plan to check out what they have to offer before committing.

 

Seeking Alpha

Seeking Alpha is a different beast than most stock research resources. As much a social media platform as a research center, Seeking Alpha has a robust, engaged, and informed community that shares information and effectively crowdsources stock research.

That depth of opinion means that if the crowd advocates for a pick, it’s probably a good one. And, if there is information or advice that falls short of perfect, the experts in the community are sure to point out the flaws and correct the record. Even though it can be overwhelming due to sheer scope, having that kind of community is invaluable.

Seeking Alpha, aside from the community, uses quant and numbers-based analysis to generate a “Quant Rating.” Numbers don’t lie, so the quant validation is invaluable.

Seeking Alpha’s premium community access and research tools costs $29/month, but you can get your first month free.

 

Benzinga

If you’ve invested time into investment research, chances are you’ve come across Benzinga.

As prevalent as CNBC and Bloomberg, Benzinga is the ubiquitous stock news service native in many brokerage apps like TD Ameritrade.

Benzinga offers Benzinga Pro if you need a further peek behind the curtain.

Benzinga Pro’s offerings are like the primary service but much better:

News –Benzinga employs an independent team of researchers and reporters instead of waiting for legacy media to break a story, so the information you get is timely. Benzinga Pro lets you narrow your news feed to focus on areas you want to emphasize and weed out distractions.

Calendar – this gives you an at-a-glance view of earnings releases and analyst updates, SEC filings, dividend distribution dates, and other vital events where timeliness is a concern. Yes, this information is available publicly but dispersed. You’ll rarely find it all in one spot.

Newsletters – straight to your inbox, so you don’t miss a thing; Benzinga Pro’s newsletter can filter by your preferences. These also usually have more in-depth research pieces to supplement the breaking news.

The best choice for sophisticated traders and investors is Benzinga Pro Essential, which is very expensive at $249 a month, but you can get it commitment-free with a free trial.

 

TrendSpider

TrendSpider is a unique, cutting-edge research firm with an AI-led and algorithm-driven research method.

TrendSpider, unlike many of the options listed, focuses more on the technical charting of stocks rather than fundamental analysis. Think of a stock chart – up and down, left to right. Those marks indicate open/close price, volume, and more – TrendSpider helps decode them.

TrendSpider’s software consists of tools that allow you to customize the chart with your chosen indicators to tell you what the chart might do and predict price action. Technical analysis is very complicated, so TrendSpider may not be your best research tool if this is confusing.

In addition to standard indicators, TrendSpider offers AI-ran indicators like:

  • Automated trendline analysis that helps identify more subtle trends.
  • Automated heatmap to help identify support and resistance points and relative strength.
  • Multi-timeframe study to overlay indicators from different periods over the same chart.
  • Candlestick pattern detection helps traders identify classic candlestick chart patterns like the falling wedge and bull flag before they might be apparent to a human eye.

TrendSpider is built for the more advanced trader, and its technical research tools reflect this. TrendSpider is priced at several different points:

  • $39/mo: all analysis features but no alerts, and data is delayed (better for longer-term traders or investors)
  • $69/mo: includes real-time data and up to 15 alerts.
  • $119/mo: their master level tier offers over-the-counter stock data, pre-market data, and after-hours. This level also includes up to 25 alerts.

Aspiring technical traders can get a seven-day free trial.

 

Conclusion

Research on your own is valuable, but there’s so much valid information to learn and read about that it’s impossible to get a handle on markets quickly – let alone sort through the trash to find gems. That’s why any trader or investor, but particularly those newer to the game, can stand to use some of these vetted research tools. Since they’re not just designed for new investors, you can stay and grow with whatever resource you use, and it’ll help increase knowledge alongside you on the path to financial freedom.

Jeremy Biberdorf is a long-time internet marketing pro turned online entrepreneur and blogger. Check out his investing blog at Modest Money.

 

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