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“Free” is one of those words that always catches my attention, even if it is more marketing than reality. That’s because I enjoy finding free(ish) products or services that simplify life and passing that info on to other people.
That’s why a list of free stock research sites is investment advice I’m excited to share. It’s important – especially for beginners – to understand market data and market news, and these stock research websites can offer you the analysis tools required to become educated about the stock market.
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Overview of the best free stock research sites
Site | Best For |
Motley Fool Stock Advisor | Moderately active investor |
Morningstar | Long-term investor |
Seeking Alpha | Beginner to moderate investor |
FINVIZ | Beginner and experienced day traders |
Stock Rover | Active investor |
TradingView | Investors looking for an active community |
Yahoo! Finance | Beginner investor |
The Wall Street Journal | Moderate to active investor |
Zacks Investment Research | Active investor |
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 free stock research sites
Motley Fool Stock Advisor
The Motley Fool is respected for its long track record as a reliable stock-picking service. According to its site, its premium recommendations have outpaced the S&P 500 by over three times — and the ability to outperform the S&P 500 over a long period of time is a pretty amazing feat.
Coupled with its lighthearted attitude and generally simple style, Motley Fool fits well with moderately active investors. Beginner and intermediate investors can learn a lot from reading the detailed market research provided by their in-house advisors.
You won’t have to create an account to access its free content, but you also won’t get the site’s official stock recommendations. However, the benefits offered will include educational articles written by their analysts, including articles that speak positively or negatively of certain stocks (even if they’re not official stock picks).
Morningstar
The Morningstar Basic option is free and excellent for long-term investors. If you’re familiar with stock trading, you’ve probably heard about Morningstar, as it is a major player in stock analysis websites.
Morningstar Basic includes their article archive, limited access to stock screening, limited access to their Portfolio X-Ray, and limited access to their portfolio manager. It does NOT include their analyst reports and top investment picks.
The Portfolio X-Ray is an exciting piece of the membership. This tool scans your investment portfolio and determines its strengths and weaknesses. Based on this information, you can receive recommendations for your investment decisions.
Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha's paid service is best for active investors, and it includes an overwhelming amount of data and articles. But if you’re just looking to access a few articles a month to keep up to date on the market, the free option may work for you. With a free subscription, you can access any article about any stock—up to five articles per month.
Seeking Alpha’s strengths are investment research and stock analysis articles, so even having access to a small amount of this financial data can be helpful for a moderately active investing strategy.
FINVIZ
Well-known for its stock screener, FINVIZ has one of the best stock research sites. Its free version offers most stock research tools—including the stock screener, portfolio management, trading data, and a powerful search.
Note that the free version doesn’t include real-time and extended hours data, advanced charts, advanced screens, and alerts and notifications.
Despite not making every desirable feature available in the free version, FINVIZ is still one of the few options I recommend to beginners and experienced day traders. This is because it has tools for both experienced and beginner traders.
For example, FINVIZ has detailed research reports and technical analyses for experienced traders. It also has a helpful, customizable news feed and the ability to backtest trading strategies for beginners.
Stock Rover
The free version of Stock Rover comes with a load of great features. Its strength is stock screening, and with the free version, you can screen 8,500 North American stocks, 4,000 ETFs, and 40,000 mutual funds. This is in addition to detailed financial news, stock charts, portfolio management, and more.
Active traders will get the most out of this site. Its immense amount of data and endless stock screening options make it ideal for someone who wants to do ongoing, in-depth stock research to improve their brokerage account.
TradingView
This cloud-based social networking software lets you learn from other traders through collaboration and research. You can create a watchlist, determine stock ratings, and more.
Actual stock trades must be mostly done elsewhere, as most large brokerages are not on the platform yet. But its versatility and community make TradingView a popular platform for beginner and advanced stock traders.
Before signing up, you can find helpful information on their homepage. A ticker is at the top of the page showing many markets, including the NASDAQ, S&P 500, Dow, and more.
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)
Yahoo! Finance
This free platform has long been popular for its news feed and fundamental analysis, and it continues to be free despite recently adding a paid option.
The paid version offers many new tools tailored to your needs. But the free version offers the always popular Yahoo! Finance news feed, linked brokers for portfolio tracking, interactive charts for performance monitoring, and unlimited custom portfolios and watchlists.
Yahoo! Finance is one of the best stock sites for beginners to determine their investment opportunities. It has an enormous amount of reliable news to use to determine the valuation of starter stocks.
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal offers its market data for free on its site without a subscription, but it does not offer its news for free. You can access a specific market, stock price, dividend or bond, and more.
For its news, though, it doesn’t technically have a free version. You can typically access their print stories free through your public library or pay $36.99/month for a digital subscription.
It is one of the best financial news sources in the world, so paying to get their articles or stopping by your library may be worth it to keep yourself up to date.
Zacks Investment Research
Yes, the stock-picking service Zacks Investment Research does have a free version. Best for active investors, Zacks is another stock-picking service that has outperformed the S&P 500 by a wide margin.
Zacks’ unpaid version does not come with the popular Zacks #1 Rank List or the equity research reports. Still, it does include their e-newsletter, Profit from the Pros, and their portfolio tracker, Zacks Portfolio Tracker.
Their portfolio tracker includes the metrics of all the stocks in your portfolio or on your watchlist, including Zacks Ranks and Style Scores.
Best free stock research sites summary
Site | Best Features |
Motley Fool Stock Advisor | Stock picks, stock research articles |
Morningstar | Portfolio X-Ray, long-term investment resources |
Seeking Alpha | Investment research, stock analysis articles |
FINVIZ | Stock screener, portfolio management, backtesting |
Stock Rover | Stock screener, stock research |
TradingView | Social networking |
Yahoo! Finance | Newsfeed, custom portfolios, watchlists |
The Wall Street Journal | Portfolio X-Ray, long-term investment resources |
Morningstar | Market data, financial news |
Zacks Investment Research | Portfolio tracker |
FAQs
Which option is best for a beginner?
Seeking Alpha, FINVIZ, and Yahoo! Finance are all good choices for someone just starting out. But of those three, I would recommend FINVIZ. It has more options than the other two, as it allows you to track and manage your portfolio, screen stocks, access trading data, backtest, and use a powerful search tool.
What is fundamental analysis vs. technical analysis?
Fundamental analysis uses the theory that a stock price doesn’t always reflect the true, intrinsic value of the business. For this reason, an investor needs to dig further into the business’s underlying data to determine the true value of its shares. Technical analysis focuses on historical trends and market patterns to determine future stock prices. This type of analysis typically looks beyond day-to-day news and data reports. Instead, it uses the market itself as a way to predict stock behavior.
How do I know if I should pay for a subscription?
The free subscriptions offer a lot, but if you’re an active day trader you may need to pay for a subscription at some point. Even if you determine that paying for a subscription is a worthwhile investment, you should still do some research on stocks before purchasing one.
Why you should use free stock research sites
A free stock research site is essential whether you’re a new or experienced investor. For new investors, it’s a great way to test different sites and determine what works for you while you learn the intricacies of the stock market. You may eventually move to the paid version, but starting with the unpaid is worth it.
If you’re more experienced, a few free sites can be helpful. Even if you have a paid version, it may be beneficial to branch out into multiple free subscriptions to get a more diverse array of information.
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
Finding free stock research sites can be like finding money on the sidewalk. It feels good, and it simplifies your life. These sites will give you enough helpful information and guidance to improve your investing and maybe even increase your monthly dividend earnings.
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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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