The internet completely changed the world for investors. There are now more free and accessible resources for investors than ever before. I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite online resources for investors, and I hope you’ll help by adding any more in the comments.
Best Investing Resources
Here are my favorite resources, broken down by category:
- Stock Screeners – Stock screeners are a good way to select stocks based on identifiable quantitative information. My two favorites are Google’s stock screener and the FinViz stock screener. I find Google’s easier to use and more precise, but FinViz has a few additional options and variables that Google’s does not have.
- News and Events – General news sites are great for big picture views. I like BusinessWeek’s website, which is free to everyone without a subscription. Also, sites like InsiderMonkey are great at tracking business and insider news, as well as publishing up-to-date information about how investors are moving their money. You can access any investing news publication – even those with a paywall – through Google News.
- Fund News & Information – Those not interested in active-selection will like a site like IndexUniverse, which is a great read for information surrounding exchange-traded fund strategies and performance. ETF Database is great for researching exchange-traded funds. They also have a very good free ETF screening tool.
- Analysis – There is no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to Wall Street analysis. Of the sites that are free, SeekingAlpha is a relatively good source for large cap analysis. Although contributing authors are generally amateur and nonprofessional investors, the comments section on each article holds most authors accountable. Another great site is the Value Investors Club. With a free membership, you can view analysis on a 45-day delay. Full membership requires getting into the club, and the commitment to post two new ideas each year. Run by Joel Greenblatt, the site hands out $120,000 in annual prizes to the best analysts which rewards members for insightful commentary on individual stocks.
- Modeling and Valuation – I’ve really started to get into Trefis, which is a modeling site that allows you to push and pull different “levers” in a business to get an idea of how each piece of a business affect a company’s valuation. It encourages investors to really think about how companies rise and fall in value. Its models are not perfect – it won’t beat a custom-built Excel model – but they’re free and very easy to use for a quick and dirty valuation of a company.
- Financials – Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, and countless websites have finacial data for any publicly-traded company, but no site matches Morningstar when it comes to great, free data. Their 5-year historical data is free to use, and they do a lot of the heavy lifting for you by breaking down financial reports into actionable ratio analysis.
Innovation in the financial world is absolutely incredible as few of these sites and resources existed 5 years ago. As more investors turn to the internet for financial advice and information, free resources should only become better and more plentiful.
What sites or tools do you find useful in making investing decisions?
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