As Cabot Wealth Network analysts, we research stocks all the time, culling information from a variety of sources. Of course, we have our favorites—and today we want to share what we think are the best investment websites with you!
Among sites requiring paid subscriptions, we use Value Line, Investor’s Business Daily eTables, Zacks, American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) and Barron’s. We utilize these services for reliable data, opinions and ratings to help us select many of our stocks.
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We also check out free websites, which help us conduct some due diligence to double-check our data and conclusions. We strongly recommend that you also develop a system to double-check the information you have gathered and the advice you have received. Your investment results will improve greatly if you take the time to dig a little deeper.
In the interest of teaching you how to become a better investor, we have compiled a list of the best investment websites that can help you make informed investment decisions. Our best-of-the-best online resources appear below under the general categories of Education, Research, News and Tools. (Our Cabot website, of course, covers all of the categories extensively!)
Cabot Wealth Network: cabotwealth.com
Any list of the best investment sites has to start with the one you’re currently reading!
Cabot’s website contains a wealth of free information describing our investment advisories and expert analysts, showing our latest stock picks, and providing a daily market update. The site also features valuable information on such topics as Stock Market Analysis, Market Timing, Selling Stocks, Technical Analysis, and many others. Additional information is available on Growth Investing, Value Investing, Global Markets, Options Trading, and Small-Cap Stocks.
Best Investment Sites for Education
AAII Investor Classroom: aaii.com/classroom
Contains various lessons covering everything from managing risk to evaluating dividend stocks. Best of all, you can easily find guidance on a specific investing topic. The cost to join is only $74 a year.
Investopedia: investopedia.com
This is an excellent source for definitions of financial terms. In addition, the site has tutorials and articles broken down by investment level and style, such as Beginners, Active Traders, and Retirement. Free.
Best Investment Sites for Research & Analysis
Security analysis falls into two broad categories: fundamental analysis and technical analysis. Fundamental analysis involves analyzing the characteristics of a company in order to estimate its value. The process includes examining a company’s financial statements and financial health, its management and competitive advantages, and its competitors and markets.
By contrast, technical analysis focuses on the price and volume activity of a stock. In its purest form, technical analysis assumes that all the fundamental factors of a company are reflected in the price of its stock. Technical analysis studies the market supply and demand in an attempt to identify where a stock’s price will go in the future.
AAII Stock Ideas: aaii.com/stockideas
The Stock Ideas area on the AAII site offers both education and investment ideas for members looking to construct and manage a stock portfolio. The area profiles more than 60 strategies grouped by investment style. Members can read about factors that make each approach unique, see how a hypothetical portfolio following each approach has performed during various market environments, and access stocks filtered by each screen. The cost of an annual membership is $74.
Morningstar: Morningstar.com
Morningstar.com is a reliable source for fundamental stock data including historical data, financial statements, and price data for individual companies. Morningstar is also the leading source for mutual fund and ETF data, offering a wide range of performance information. The site also includes a comprehensive screener and mutual fund ratings. The basic service is free and includes five years of data. The premium service (Investor; $249/yr.) offers 10 years of data and comprehensive research tools including portfolio tracking, analysis, and optimization.
SEC EDGAR: sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publishes filings for publicly traded companies in its EDGAR system. Pay particular attention to Form 10-K, which is a company’s annual report and a gold mine of information. Form 10-Q includes complete quarterly information. Free.
StockCharts: stockcharts.com
Many sites offer price charts, but StockCharts is more advanced with additional charting options, educational content and extensive technical analysis. StockCharts also offers a broad collection of scans for technical conditions, including candlestick and point & figure patterns. Free real-time price charts. The basic service is free; premium service varies by service level but starts at $18.42/month.
Stockrover: stockrover.com
The site provides a stock screener, sorting capabilities, charting, individual company information, technical data, and a portfolio tracker. The basic service is free, but a premium subscription allows you to download data into a spreadsheet at $80/year.
Zacks Investment Research: zacks.com
Offers comprehensive data for more than 5,000 companies, including sales and earnings estimates, revisions, and past surprises. The basic free service offers lots of information; the premium services include even more and start at $249/year.
Best Investment Sites for News
Barron’s: barrons.com
Barron’s includes its own articles, and articles from some of the other best investment sites - The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, and MarketWatch. A subscription is required to read the actual articles from Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal. The price varies depending on the number of publications you subscribe to but starts at $2/week.
Bloomberg: bloomberg.com
Bloomberg offers extensive economic, business, and stock market news plus live streaming video. The site also carries a comprehensive economic calendar.
CNNMoney: money.cnn.com
CNNMoney aggregates news articles from a variety of credible sources along with fundamental and technical data for each query. The site does a good job of highlighting breaking news. Free.
MarketWatch: marketwatch.com
Another good company news website. MarketWatch features articles from leading sources including WSJ.com, Barron’s, TheStreet.com, and Seeking Alpha. The site also contains company press releases to give you “unfiltered” news about a company as well as articles with an analytical slant. MarketWatch also provides historical stock prices with charts. Free.
YahooFinance: finance.yahoo.com
Yahoo is one of the best investment sites for industry and sector news. The site also offers the top business news, company briefs, and personal finance. Type in a ticker symbol, and you will receive a current quote, flexible chart, message boards, and the latest news on your company. Free.
Best Investment Sites for Tools
Bankrate: bankrate.com
This site featured up-to-date rate comparisons for bank accounts, CDs, mortgages, credit cards, and insurance. Bankrate also offers an extensive collection of personal finance calculators, income tax resources, and tools. Free.
Discount Brokerage Research: Most discount brokers offer research on stocks and mutual funds from third-party services. While the research offerings differ, most top discount brokers give their customers free access to research reports from companies such as Morningstar, Thomson Reuters, and Standard & Poor’s.
Investor Relations Websites: Simply type the company’s name or ticker symbol followed by “investor relations” in a search engine such as Google. The investor relations section of a company’s website can offer a large amount of information including presentations, annual reports, dividend history, press releases and a calendar of upcoming events.
A Simple Stock Screen That Works: Although we use free websites mostly to double-check our data and conclusions, we also use some free sites to find stocks. My brokerage firm’s handy website provides screening tools to find stocks fitting my requirements (listed below). Your broker likely has similar screening capabilities.
Holding a good portion of your portfolio in companies that meet this list of criteria will greatly reduce your chances of suffering large losses during unforeseen market declines.
Our best screen, using Standard & Poor’s data, is easy to create and filters to find companies that meet the following four criteria:
- S&P (Standard & Poor’s) Star Ratings of 4 or higher (5 is best)
- S&P Fair Value Rankings of 4 or higher
- S&P Quality Ratings of A- or higher
- Dividend yield greater than 1.0%
Of course, if you’d prefer to have those screens done for you, you can subscribe to any of our investment advisories by clicking here.
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*This post is periodically updated to reflect market conditions.