The Best Stock Research Tools to Grow Your Funds
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The stock market is a complicated machine that can outsmart basic investors (uh, like me). At least that’s how it seems. But in reality, many stock research tools exist that simplify and unscramble market data. They help to analyze investments and determine what is best for your situation.
Using these analysis tools, beginners can learn about financial data, market news, ratios, and stock ratings. These details can give you an edge when determining your best stock picks. You can pay attention to specific markets like the NASDAQ and determine what is the best stock to buy in certain categories.
The stock market can seem like a bewildering puzzle, but in reality, it is more like a journey with many paths. Finding a stock research tool can be like finding a map to guide you. Here are the best ones to consider for your journey.
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Overview of the best stock research tools
Tool | Best for |
Motley Fool Stock Advisor | Steady performer recommendations |
Morningstar | Long-term or fundamental investor |
Seeking Alpha | Investment research and stock recommendations |
FINVIZ | Free stock research |
Stock Rover | Comprehensive stock market research |
TradingView | Using real-time data for technical analysis |
Yahoo! Finance | Staying up to date on current news and trends |
Zacks | Tailored information for subscribers |
WallStreetZen | New users looking for simplified data and a user-friendly interface |
Bloomberg | Professional traders |
Use Motley Fool's Stock Advisor To Invest
- Over 100 Stock Picks with 100%+ Returns
- Averaged Stock Pick Return over 593% (vs. 165% for the S&P)
- 2 New Stock Picks Every Month
- Investment Community With 700,000+ Loyal Members
- 30-Day Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee
- Joy Wallet Reader Deal: The Motley Fool is offering 50% off its top stock-picking service for new members (Limited Time)
Best stock research tools
Motley Fool Stock Advisor
Motley Fool is well-known for its news feed and investment advice. The free service, fool.com, allows you to search for individual stocks and get news and analysis on that stock (no official recommendations, though).
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor is a paid stock-picking service that offers market-beating stocks from its co-founders. It is not intended for buy-and-sell trading. Instead, it focuses on the buy-and-hold investing strategy.
Included with the Motley Fool’s recommendations are investment rationales, research reports, and information about your potential purchases. The simplicity and ease of use make this research platform ideal for those looking to spend less time researching but still get solid results.
The subscription costs $199 per year. In addition to its newsletter and stock analysis, it also includes “Starter Stock” recommendations (to create a portfolio foundation), two new stock picks per month, 10 “Best Buys Now,” and access to the stock-picking service's library.
Morningstar
Morningstar has a strong reputation in stock research sites, and for good reason. It is one of the most widely recognized and has a long track record. Its data is intended for the long-term or fundamental investor. It does not include technical analysis or recommendations to buy or sell, allowing you to use their data and market research instead to make informed investment decisions.
Their research platform will become a learning tool for you as you use their real-time data to influence your trading strategies. It will help the numbers, stock charts, and metrics look less and less like a foreign language.
Morningstar focuses on mutual funds, which is ideal for long-term investing. Their paid subscription, Morningstar Premium, lists their current top mutual funds, stocks, and ETFs using their data points. The premium membership costs $34.95 per month after a 14-day free trial.
One of the coolest features of their paid subscription is the Instant X-Ray tool. This analyzes your current investment portfolio’s asset allocation and warns you if you are overly invested in a certain country, sector, or stock.
Seeking Alpha
Designed for intermediate to advanced investors, Seeking Alpha is an affordable, all-in-one product. Seeking Alpha includes fundamental analysis, financial news, investing insights, and more.
The Seeking Alpha Premium membership costs $239 per year, billed annually. With this membership, you receive access to an enormous amount of data. This includes earning calls transcripts, author ratings, and author performance metrics. You also get 10 years’ worth of financial statements, the ability to compare stocks side-by-side with peers, access to dividends and earnings forecasts, and more.
In case this isn’t enough, Seeking Alpha has over 16,000 active contributors to their stock analysis. In-house editors check all this information before it is reviewed and discussed by millions of readers.
There is also a Pro membership, which costs $200 per month. Of special note is the stock screener which comes with this subscription. The stock screening tool helps filter stocks and create more targeted investing plans.
FINVIZ
FINVIZ offers one of the most accessible versions of a stock research website. It is an excellent tool for those who use fundamental or technical analysis.
The basic version of FINVIZ is free, but you will have to put up with ads. It allows users access to data sets for free, including three-year financial statements, portfolio tools, and stock screeners.
FINVIZ also has a paid version without ads called FINVIZ Elite. It will give you an enhanced stock screener, eight-year financial statements, technical charts, real-time and extended-hours market data, fundamental charts, backtesting, and alerts and notifications.
The cost for the Elite subscription is $39.50 per month. If you sign up for the year, it’s $24.96 monthly, billed annually.
Stock Rover
Stock Rover excels as a portfolio management site. You can sync your brokerage account and other investments and receive in-depth analytics in your dashboard.
For those looking to receive comprehensive stock market research at a reasonable price, Stock Rover is an excellent option. It won’t have endless complex data, and this can be a benefit for those who don’t want to spend hours — even days or weeks — poring over something they barely understand.
Stock Rover offers three plans. After a 14-day free trial, its Essentials plan is $7.99 per month, Premium is $17.99 per month, and Premium Plus is $27.99 per month.
Research Reports, which include premium metrics like Margin of Safety, can be bundled with your plan or bought separately. This costs $49.99 per year with a yearly plan or $99.99 per year separately.
Use Motley Fool's Stock Advisor To Invest
- Over 100 Stock Picks with 100%+ Returns
- Averaged Stock Pick Return over 593% (vs. 165% for the S&P)
- 2 New Stock Picks Every Month
- Investment Community With 700,000+ Loyal Members
- 30-Day Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee
- Joy Wallet Reader Deal: The Motley Fool is offering 50% off its top stock-picking service for new members (Limited Time)
TradingView
For those looking to use real-time data for technical analysis, this app is great. It has over 50 data feeds and exchanges that can be customized to your personal needs. This includes customizing metrics like volume indicators, MACD, backtesting, and more.
The interesting value that TradingView offers is the collective wisdom of over 30 million traders and investors worldwide, plus real-time chat. This allows you to gut-check your decisions before committing to a seriously flawed strategy.
Speaking of strategy, their minimalistic Pine Script allows serious traders to customize and code their trading strategy. And you can filter and find new stocks with their stock screener.
TradingView does offer a free basic plan, and their cheapest paid plan starts at $14.95 per month after the free 30-day trial.
Yahoo Finance
The news feed on Yahoo! Finance is well-known as one of the best and most comprehensive. It will keep you up-to-date on the latest news in the financial world.
If you’d like the most recent quote on a specific market or stock, just type in the ticker symbol, and it will list details like the current stock price, yesterday’s stock price, dividend yield, and P/E ratio.
To the right, it includes a company profile and description so you’ll know exactly what a particular company is about (like copper mining vs. data mining). The site also lists relevant news and comparable stocks to research for each query, which puts a lot of news and data at your fingertips.
Most of the information a basic investor wants is available for free. If you want more comprehensive data and visuals, you can pay for Yahoo Plus (after a free 14-day trial). The Lite version is $20.83 per month, and the Essential plan is $29.16 monthly.
Zacks Investment Research
Zacks uses a simple system of rating investments, grading them A through F based on value, growth, and momentum.
One of its most popular features is its Bull and Bear of the Day. They select two stocks to rate as a bull (strong buy) and bear (strong sell) pick. Add these to your watchlist if they fit your market strategy.
Zacks’ Portfolio Tracker tool also monitors your stocks and helps you determine when to buy or sell.
Zacks comes with two versions: the basic version, which is $249 per year, and Zacks Premium, which is $495 per year.
WallStreetZen
Most stock research websites and apps were created by finance professionals for finance professionals. WallStreetZen intends to give an alternative by providing context and interpreting the data.
This is done through tools such as the Zen Score, which breaks down the data into a simple score using the same process a professional would use to determine investment strength.
In addition to simplifying the data, it also provides a cleaner user interface. This makes accessing the information and browsing their app more user-friendly.
And, as if this wasn’t enough, the app is free. There is also a premium option, which costs $59 per month.
Bloomberg
We certainly can’t ignore Bloomberg, even though it’s unsuitable for amateurs. Bloomberg is an incredible resource used widely across the professional investing world.
If you’re investing to earn income, Bloomberg could be for you. Their data is updated faster than anyone else in the market. If you need credit research analysis, data on fixed-income sales, or are in the debt capital market, they’re the best.
And if you need the ability to communicate with other traders consistently, their instant messaging feature opens this world to you. In essence, all the professionals are on Bloomberg.
The biggest catch is the price. The Bloomberg Terminal is $27,660 per year and leased for two years. (Yikes!)
Use Motley Fool's Stock Advisor To Invest
- Over 100 Stock Picks with 100%+ Returns
- Averaged Stock Pick Return over 593% (vs. 165% for the S&P)
- 2 New Stock Picks Every Month
- Investment Community With 700,000+ Loyal Members
- 30-Day Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee
- Joy Wallet Reader Deal: The Motley Fool is offering 50% off its top stock-picking service for new members (Limited Time)
Best stock research tools summary
Tool | Basic Plan Cost | Best feature |
Motley Fool Stock Advisor | $199/year | Newsfeed, stock picking service |
Morningstar | $34.95/month | Market education, Instant X-Ray portfolio analysis |
Seeking Alpha | $239/year | Enormous amount of data |
FINVIZ | Free | Free version with lots of technical information |
Stock Rover | $7.99/month | Portfolio management, functionality |
TradingView | $14.95/month | Real-time data, technical analysis |
Yahoo! Finance | $20.83/month | Daily trade ideas, 24/7 tech support, fewer ads |
Zacks Investment Research | $249/year | Bull and Bear of the Day |
WallStreetZen | Free | User-friendly app, simplified data |
Bloomberg Terminal | $27,660/year | Fastest data updates, access to a world of professional traders |
FAQs
Do I need to be a day trader to use a stock research site?
No. Stock research sites come in all forms, including those designed specifically for day traders. But there are just as many designed for long-term investors, portfolio investors, and mutual fund investors.
Can’t I find financial statements for stocks and other data just by searching the internet?
Yes, but you’ll spend incredible amounts of time doing this. The benefit of having this available in an investment research site is accessibility. When it is compiled into one location, it will take considerably less time to find what you’re looking for.
What’s the biggest benefit for a beginner using these tools?
If you want to learn about investing, these tools provide the education necessary to become a successful investor. Each tool is designed differently, with a different audience in mind, but they all intend to educate their users.
Why you should use stock research tools
You can be a successful investor without using a stock research tool, but finding the right tool for you will make the process simpler and faster. You’ll have fewer mistakes and less guesswork. These tools provide the education and data necessary to make even a basic investor able to use the market to its full potential.
The important piece is to find the one that works best for your goals. Some of these products can be very expensive. And some can be overwhelmingly complex. Finding what meets your knowledge level, involvement level, and interests will help you have a good experience.
Use Motley Fool's Stock Advisor To Invest
- Over 100 Stock Picks with 100%+ Returns
- Averaged Stock Pick Return over 593% (vs. 165% for the S&P)
- 2 New Stock Picks Every Month
- Investment Community With 700,000+ Loyal Members
- 30-Day Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee
- Joy Wallet Reader Deal: The Motley Fool is offering 50% off its top stock-picking service for new members (Limited Time)
The bottom line
The stock market may be a complex machine, but even the everyday investor can outsmart it. Using data analysis tools may give you the edge to make your portfolio work for you — and more importantly, make your money work for you.
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Writer
A veteran wordsmith and research nerd, Brittany Wren spent a decade working in higher education where she helped people overcome challenges to chart a path forward. These days, she writes about personal finance, careers, parenting and education. Her content has been published by a wide variety of brands including T-Mobile, Intuit, LifeLock, Reliant Fund Administration and CURO Financial Technologies Corp.
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