One challenge to integrating the vast amount of information, data and technology available on the internet into an investment selection process is the sheer volume of data.
This article is designed to point you to some of the most useful financial websites.
AAII’s Computerized Investing (CI) product is merging with overall AAII membership, and this is the first of our new CI periodic columns. All AAII members will have access to CI’s historical articles and read new CI in the Journal columns.
Stocks
This section is broken up into four sub-categories: stock screening, stock valuation, research and data and charting and technical analysis. While many of the sites offer two or more of these features, there are some that excel in one over the other. When determining which sites to include, I looked for trustworthy sources with frequently updated data and content. Screening options listed are web-based screening tools (downloadable software programs were excluded).
One of the best places to get started with screening can often be your discount broker. Discount brokers have significantly enhanced their online tools over the last several years and provide these free tools to their clients.
After you’ve narrowed down your desired investable universe, your next step will be analysis. One of the best ways to research an individual company is to check out its Investor Relations page online. Most investor relations webpages provide event presentations (like Investor Day presentations or conferences), access to the company’s filings (such as its 10-K annual reports), a press release news archive, information on the history of the company, dividend history and more.
Stock Screening
FinViz
Free – $39.50/year
- Solid balance of valuation and technical analysis metrics
- Doesn’t offer ability to lag fields or include percentile ranks
- “Elite” version includes fundamental charts, intraday data, email alerts, up to 100 screener presets, the ability to export screen results, custom screening ranges, statistical views and more
- Free version is a good starting place for screening
GuruFocus
$499/year for U.S. markets
- Over 60,000 U.S.-traded and international stocks, offers over 200 screening variables
- Built-in metrics used by popular investment “gurus,” like Warren Buffett or David Dreman as well as hedge fund, mutual fund or global gurus.
- Allows users to include valuation ranks and create customizable screening fields. Data covers select international markets and the U.S. market.
- Raw financial data from Morningstar; intraday U.S. price data from Quotemedia.
- Offers an Excel add-in
- No free screening option
- Sometimes the site can be a little confusing or overwhelming.
Morningstar
Free – $199/year
- Premium: Over 500 screening criteria, roughly 15,000 stocks. Screen against constant values, industry benchmarks, values of specific tickers and database benchmarks. Create customized fields and views.
- Screen on proprietary ratings and grades, including Morningstar star rating, fair value, economic moat, stewardship, growth, profitability and financial health.
- Premium screener more comprehensive than free one
Portfolio123
$38 – $200/month (15-day trial)
- Backtest up to 15 years. Over 400 benchmarks to compare your backtesting results to
- One of the largest libraries of fundamental screening variables and predefined screens—over 1,300 screening parameters
- Create custom screening variables, universes, ranking systems and lists
- More than 9,000 active U.S. companies (over 6,000 with fundamentals) and over 1,600 Canadian stocks
- 64 predefined screens and 41 predefined ranking systems that users can customize
- Data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, Compustat, S&P Capital IQ Estimates, ICE Data, IEX
Profitspi
Free – $62.96/month
- Primarily a technical analysis screening tool. Stocks on all of the U.S. exchanges, plus Canada TSX and TSX Venture
- Free: save up to five custom screens. Premium: create and save an unlimited number of screens
- Visitors can use all site functions, but data and customizations are held for the duration of the visit only
- Over 90 criteria (over 50 technical indicators and over 40 fundamental metrics). Custom fields are not free form. Visitors: data as of two weeks ago. Paid: view unlimited number of passing stocks, receive a daily email with up to 10,000 symbols passing their custom screens.
- Predefined scans cover 18 different candlestick patterns.
- Backtest screen criteria and trading strategies across a range of dates (up to 15 years, free users only one month with two-week-old data). Tests against a specific symbol or simulate multi-holding portfolios.
- Pricing data from Quotemedia and EDI, fundamental data from Sharadar
- Data updated daily
- Users have ability to lag fields
Stock Rover
$279.99/year (AAII discount)
- No free screening; standard screener starts with the lowest-priced plan Essentials
- Over 300 metrics for Premium users and over 400 metrics for Premium Plus users
- Premium Plus users can also screen for ETFs
- Can create custom views: 30 for Premium users, 60 for Premium Plus users. Views can be shared with other users.
- Create custom screens or modify built-in screens
- Premium screener: add weight to criteria in order to generate a ranking of stocks, write custom equations and filter on historical data
- Data provided by Morningstar, Zacks, Intrinio, Quandl, Yodlee and the IEX
- AAII members get a discount on Stock Rover products (First year cost is $59.99 for Essentials, $134.99 for Premium, $209.99 for Premium Plus)
Stock Valuation
Finbox.io
Free – $300/year; offers pricing specials
- Fair value estimate tool based on valuation analyses built using consensus Wall Street estimates.
- Spreadsheet add-on: Excel or Google Sheets
- Valuation models: discounted cash flow analysis, dividend discount model, earnings power value, comparable companies analysis, cost of capital and return on equity analysis (all editable in web browser)
- Create a customized watchlist
- Offers a stock screener
- Institutional quality data from S&P Capital IQ (coming soon)
- Free users can use all the features above, but data will only populate for a small subset of companies and metrics.
Old School Value
$588/year
- No free features available in web-based version
- Only supports U.S. stocks (no foreign-listed stocks)
- Excel spreadsheet analyzer and stock screener
- Valuation models: Discounted cash flow analysis (DCF), reverse DCF, Graham’s formula, EBIT valuation, Piotroski, Altman Z, Beneish M, customizable competitive analysis
- 10 years and 16 quarters of financial data
ValuEngine
$11.95 – $99.95/month (14-day trial)
- Free ValuEngine daily and weekly articles, newsletters and blogs
- Research on over 4,000 U.S. and 1,000 Canadian stocks
- Stock valuation analysis and recommendations (strong buy, buy, hold, sell, strong sell), fair market valuations and forecasted target prices.
- Four proprietary models: stock valuation, stock forecast, portfolio forecast and the portfolio builder.
- Industry and sector group analysis
- Portfolio wizard: build list of stocks to fit specific investment goals
- Smart Ratings display how attractive the investment might be to different types of investors—for example, the same stock could be attractive to day traders, neutral to conservative investors and less attractive to classic value investors.
- Stock screener to find top forecasted, or most undervalued stocks (and more)
- Three portfolios: ValuEngine View, ValuEngine Diversified Portfolio and ValuEngine REIT Portfolio (Professional subscription)
Stock Research and Data
EDGAR (SEC)
Free
- Archive of all publicly traded company’s SEC forms and filings
- Tutorial shows how to search and access information
Morningstar
Free – $199/year
Where to find: Type in a stock ticker in the quote box at the top of the Morningstar page and click on the stock you’re trying to search in the dropdown that appears. For stock-related articles, click the More tab then select the Stocks subtab under the Investments heading.
- Free: 10 years of key ratios and 5 years of financial statement data
- Information easily exportable to Excel
- Premium: 10 years of financial data, in-depth fund and stock analysis and commentary, Morningstar ratings, fair value estimate
- Free: Stock Quickrank tool to categorize and rank stocks on different metrics, Asset Allocator tool (requires download of Microsoft Silverlight)
- Can see institutional ownership of stocks
Reuters
Free
Where to find: Click the search box on the upper right-hand side of the page, then type in a ticker and press enter. Click on the company’s name when it appears on the next page.
- Easy to understand, well-known source
- Multiples, growth rates, profitability, financial strength, efficiency and management effectiveness ratios as well as sales and earnings figures—compared to company’s industry and sector
- Extensive analyst information on the “analysts” tab: consensus sales and earnings estimates for future quarters and fiscal years, long-term growth rate projection, historical earnings surprise data, consensus estimate trends, estimate revision summary and consensus recommendations (buy, outperform, hold, underperform, sell or no opinion)
Seeking Alpha
Free – $200/year
Where to find: For conference call transcripts, type in company’s ticker in the upper right-hand corner search box and press enter, then click the “earnings” tab, then the “transcripts” sub-tab.
- Best for conference call transcripts (free)
- Large collection of opinionated articles
- Community commentary on wide array of topics
Stock Rover
Free – $279.99/year (AAII discount)
- Over 10,000 stocks listed on the NYSE, Nasdaq and Toronto exchanges (also includes data on over 3,000 ETFs and 40,000 mutual funds)
- Over 240 stock metrics for free users, over 360 for Premium users and over 500 for Premium Plus users.
- Five years of historical data for free users, over 10 years for Premium and Premium Plus users
- Customizable tables and shareable views
- Charting capabilities (logarithmic, candlestick and dividend-adjusted return)
- Ideas section with investment articles, screening strategies and insights.
- Earnings calendar
- Premium and Premium Plus: stock ratings, data export to Excel
- Color-code and tag tickers and integrated note-taking
- AAII members get a discount on Stock Rover products (First year cost is $59.99 for Essentials, $134.99 for Premium, $209.99 for Premium Plus)
TipRanks
Free – $49.95/month (AAII discount)
- Helps investors assess analysts’ expectations, but also reports on the historical track record and accuracy of financial bloggers and analysts
- Shows aggregate analyst recommendation on a stock: strong buy, moderate buy, hold, moderate sell or strong sell
- Provides 12-month price target based on analysts’ projections
- Premium: insider activity, hedge fund activity, five most recent upgrades and more
- Basic stock screener and ETF screener
- AAII members get a 20% discount on TipRanks subscriptions.
Honorable Mentions: Dividend.com, FastGraphs, Investor’s Business Daily, Motley Fool, Nasdaq.com and The Street
Charting and Technical Analysis
FreeStockCharts
Free – $50/month (additional add ons available)
- Offers streaming real-time charts, without exchange fees, by using real-time data from the BATS exchange (older data is filled in using complete exchange data)
- Data on over 8,000 stocks and indexes with 25 years of history.
- Over 100 technical indicators, drawing tools and overlays, all customizable. Can also draw custom trendlines.
- Can sync portfolios with TD Ameritrade account
- Registered users can create and save chart layouts
- One major downside: service only works with Internet Explorer on Windows or Safari on Mac browsers. Site requires Microsoft Silverlight to run.
StockCharts.com
Free – $39.95/month (plus add-ons)
- Robust ChartSchool features a wide array of charting, scanning and educational content
- More than 50 technical indicators and overlays
- Can add annotations and technical lines to charts
- Free real-time data from the BATS exchange
- Includes line, bar, Renko, candlestick, Ichimoku, OHLC bar charts as well as point & figure charting
- Maximum of three indicator overlays on a particular chart for free users. Basic, extra and pro versions each offer 25 technical overlays per chart.
TradingView
Free – $59.95/month, 30-day free trial
- Custom indicators using Pine scripting language
- Collection of 10 chart types including bars, candles, hollow candles, Heikin Ashi, line, area, Renko, line break, Kagi and point & figure. Intraday Renko, Kagi, line break and point & figure charts are only for Pro Plus and Premium users; free and Pro users see end-of-day charts.
- More than 100 free predefined technical indicators, over 50 free drawing tools
- Free real-time cryptocurrency data
- Users can publish charts to share ideas with members of the community and receive comments and ratings
- In addition to stocks it follows futures, indexes, currencies, bonds, cryptocurrencies and CFDs (contracts for difference)
- Fee-based subscriptions: real-time intraday data direct from different exchanges
- Can add on individual markets, some for an additional fee that ranges from $1 to $110 per month (offers over 50 exchanges and data feeds)
- iOS application available
Funds
This section covers the best websites for analyzing, researching and screening mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and closed-end funds (CEFs).
Many investors use their discount broker’s website and tools to search for and analyze mutual funds or ETFs. This may be particularly helpful if your brokerage offers commission-free funds, because that will likely be an available screening field. TD Ameritrade has a free fund screener that you can use without TD Ameritrade being your discount broker, although only 15 fund results will be displayed (TD Ameritrade clients see the full list of results). Vanguard offers a free screener to non-clients, however, only Vanguard funds are searchable in the screener. Your broker will also likely offer a wide array of key metrics for analyzing ETFs and mutual funds.
One of the best places to start when researching a fund is the fund’s actual website. Mutual fund companies provide detailed information about the fund, along with details regarding the fund’s holdings, its strategy and more. Aside from the fund’s website, investors have these third-party options for researching mutual funds, ETFs and closed-end funds.
CEF Connect
Free
- Share prices and ranges for closed-end funds (CEFs), interactive charts and fund basics such as net assets, shares outstanding, category and daily volume, distributions, pricing history, performance and portfolio characteristics of each fund
- Sort funds by discount, premium, distribution rate, total assets and year-to-date return
- Education center with articles on closed-end fund basics, types and strategies, plus advanced topics
- Data provided by Morningstar
Closed-End Fund Association
Free
- Daily fund leaders with the highest one-day net asset value appreciation. Separates CEFs by asset classes, including leverage funds section.
- Lipper market averages and the number of funds within each Lipper category to compare individual CEFs with the market average for asset class
- Weekly average premium/discount scorecard for equity and bond CEFs
- Links to current and archived news relating to closed-end funds; includes an audio section
- Upcoming offerings section
- Data provided by Lipper
ETF.com
Free
- Data on 2,160 ETFs, including fund flows data
- Data supplied by wide array of data partners, index providers (such as Thomson Reuters and MSCI), ETF issuers and public documents, including source documentation from the SEC filings and other sources. All index data is licensed directly from index providers.
- Free account allows custom screen fields and an ETF watchlist
- ETF newsletters, industry perspective, whitepapers and Index Investor Corner articles, as well as timely educational content and analysis articles
- Sector, index and world heat maps
- ETF ratings provided by FactSet
- ETF-specific details: top 10 holdings, portfolio management and fees, fund structure, 10-year annualized performance data, portfolio data/stats, tradability data, ETF sector and country breakdown, MSCI ESG ratings
- Ability to download PDF of ETF-specific reports/stat pages, data typically updated daily
Investment Company Institute (ICI)
Free
- Provides industry data on ETFs, mutual funds, closed-ends funds, unit investment trusts (UITs) and retirement plans
- ICI blog Viewpoints covers a wide array of topics
- Comprehensive annual Fact Book available for free
Morningstar
Free – $199/year
Where to find: Go to the main Morningstar website, then click the More tab. Select Mutual Funds, ETFs or the Tools subtab. To search a particular fund, type the ticker in the search box at the top of the page.
- Free screener: Search for funds by fund type, cost and purchase, ratings and risk, returns and fund portfolio. Five built-in screens. Premium screener: larger selection of metrics and 10 prebuilt screens
- Free Fund Compare tool to evaluate funds side-by-side, Quickrank tool to categorize and rank funds
- Premium: Cost Analyzer tool shows how fees will affect a fund’s returns over time, Similar Funds tool shows comparable funds or ETFs, fair value estimate, valuation rating, consider buying/selling price, expected return, expected excess return, fund analysis and commentary (select funds)
- Thorough breakdown of a fund’s portfolio and performance: 10 years of performance data (free), historical performance rank against a fund’s category and 15-year annualized return data (when available)
- Risk statistics (R-squared, alpha, etc.), fees, expense and ownership information, links to SEC filings
- Educational articles and commentary
- Closed-end fund returns table and Quickrank tool, plus news and announcements page
Reuters
Free
Where to find: To get to Reuters’ fund and ETF screener, hover over the Markets tab, then select the Fund Screener subtab. To search a particular fund, type the ticker in the search box at the top of the page.
- Free basic fund screener: 26,800 mutual funds and over 2,100 ETFs. Select up to 15 screening metrics at once. Unique passing funds display shows how many funds remain after users select screening criteria.
- Screener includes the Lipper Leaders criteria (total return, consistent return, preservation, tax efficiency and expense). Field definitions to help you understand how to use the criteria in your screen.
- Screen for ETFs, mutual funds or both
- Comprehensive risk and return information for individual funds
- Lipper research reports, including fund market, flows and industry insight reports, and Lipper ratings
Zacks Investment Research
Free – $2,995/year ($1 30-day trial)
Where to find: Click the Funds tab at the top of the page. Subtabs are available for screening tools.
- Free basic mutual fund screener: 50 different data points
- Premium: export screens, save screens and access to additional fields, like Zacks “ranking” criteria, which gives over 18,000 mutual funds a ranking of one (strong buy) to five (strong sell), or fund rating criteria
- Basic ETF screener: Users select one of six pre-built filters (example: ETFs with the largest volume)
- Broad coverage of ETFs and mutual funds, including educational as well as opinion articles and video commentaries
- Search Similar Mutual Funds tool: Find comparable funds with higher ranks and performance ratings
- Offers free ETF reports
Honorable Mentions: ETFdb.com, ETF Trends, MutualFunds.com, Steele Mutual Fund Expert, XTF.com
Bonds
EMMA (Electronic Municipal Market Access)
Free
- A municipal bond database operated by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB)
- Contains municipal disclosures, market transparency data and educational materials about muni bonds
- Real-time pricing, interest rates and historical information for trades occurring on or after January 31, 2005. Bond information includes size, source of refunding and maturity
- Personalized email alerts for trading activity and new information on bonds free with registration.
- Educational content ranges from descriptions of various types of bonds to an overview of the various types of official statements and refunding documents.
- New issue calendar, economic calendar, yield curves and indices, price discovery tool and market statistics
- State-by-state information about 529 college savings plans
FINRA Bond Market Data
Free
- A not-for-profit investor protection organization
- General bond market information and price information with intraday transaction prices (delayed 15 minutes) for corporate bonds, municipal bonds, U.S. Treasury and government agency bonds, found in bonds section of the Market Data Center. Data provided by Morningstar.
- Pricing information includes execution date and time, quantity, price, yield and several years of trade history, where applicable; also indicates basic description information and credit ratings.
- Bond screen: search by issuer name, CUSIP, type, maturity, yield, coupon type, trade activity and more
- A watchlist allows tracking up to 100 issues at a time
- Educational material on bonds, bond investing and bond trading
TreasuryDirect
Free
- Run by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service
- Buy Treasury securities online from the government commission-free, including U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds; TIPS (Treasury inflation-protected securities); and U.S. government Series EE and inflation-linked savings bonds (I-bonds).
- Use one TreasuryDirect account for all Treasury products. Can reinvest interest payments and maturing securities and to sell Treasuries before maturity.
- Comprehensive information on all Treasury securities and U.S. savings bonds
- Easy-to-use interface allows you to manage your savings bond inventory and determine current redemption value
Other Investments
Real Estate
BiggerPockets
Free – $39/month
- Wide array of real estate investment educational articles, with a focus on direct real estate investment
- Webinars available (pro subscribers can go through historical webinar archive)
- Involved community with very extensive and comprehensive discussion forums
- Podcast that discusses real estate investing
- Connect with other investors; ability to search for fellow local investors
- Collection of free tools and calculators. Pro users can save reports and download PDFs
- Pro users get access to all 35 state landlord forms, 7 forms per state. Other forms available.
REIT.com
Free
- One of the most comprehensive resources for REITs, including a wide array of educational content
- Interesting and timely research and articles on REITs
- Several reports that provide extensive information on REITs, namely REITWatch report
- Downloadable data called the TTracker
ADRs/ADSs
ADR.com
Free
- Great resource for screening and researching American depositary receipts (ADRs), foreign securities traded on U.S. exchanges
- Search for ADRs by name, ticker, exchange, country, industry and more. Results are displayed in a table and include country of origin, dividend payments and corporate actions.
- Provides charts, financials, fundamentals and earnings estimates for each ADR
- Consensus recommendations and upward and downward revisions are given when available.
- Education and guidance section on depositary receipts
BNY Mellon Depositary Receipts
Free
- Offers extensive list of sponsored and unsponsored ADRs and holding company depositary receipts (HOLDRS). Search for ADRs by region, country, industry, DR exchange and depositary
- DR profile for each ADR as well as dividends, news and trading summary
- Links for further research on individual listings
- Extensive DR educational resources in a DR University, which provides both basic and in-depth education
- Free interactive charting tool
- Fundamental data not as strong as that at ADR.com
Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs)
MLP Association
Free
Where to find: Click the “MLP 101” or “Resources” tab along the left-hand side of the website.
- MLP basics section
- Helpful FAQ page
- Basic tax principles section discusses how MLPs can affect an investor’s tax situation
- List of current MLPs and MLP funds
- Educational articles on MLPs and retirement accounts
Yorkville Capital Management
www.yorkvillecapital.com/mlp-research.aspx
Free
- MLP newsletter
- Stability score and a growth score for MLPs
- In-depth whitepapers and education section
- Dividend Tracker tool tracks MLP dividend dates
- Earnings Tracker tool tracks MLP earnings report dates. Sortable table provides earnings estimates (and reported values after an MLP reports), surprise percentage, quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth
- Fundamentals Tracker tool provides fundamental data for MLPs such as yield, market capitalization, distribution growth and more
- Links to MLPs’ K-1s and performance table includes MLP performance information
Options/Futures
Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)
Free
- Delayed quotes are provided free
- Virtual Trade tool: test your trading strategy without the use of real money
- Sections for trading resources and strategies for familiarizing yourself with options and futures investing
- Extensive education section provides seminars, online courses, webcasts, market commentary, educational tools, online tutorials and quick facts
- Numerous tools for individual investors. Some areas require site registration.
Commodity Future Trading Commission
Free
- Government-commissioned organization aimed at ensuring the integrity of the futures and options market
- Market reports include financial data, economic analysis and a monthly summary of the futures market
- Education area includes section on fraud awareness and prevention.
- File complaints and report suspicious activities, get case status reports and disciplinary history
- Information on industry oversight, laws and regulations. Includes an international section
- New press releases linked on the main page, with a listing of recent events
Options Industry Council
Free
- Online classes, webcasts, a virtual trading system, seminars and audio and video podcasts designed to educate investors on options and futures
- List of the options seminars presented around the U.S.
- Information on various options and futures trading strategies ranging from basic to more advanced
- Tools include options, collar and covered call calculators
- Delayed quotes
- Extensive market data and free email alerts
Financial Planning
Financial planning encompasses a broad array of financial concerns that most individuals must deal with during their lifetimes. Banking, insurance, budgeting, savings, taxes and health care issues are a few of the many aspects of personal finance that make it a daily, coming-and-going series of decisions.
The main categories we highlight here are personal finance, retirement planning, estate planning and taxes. Sites that are included have frequently updated information, tools and/or calculators and meaningful, useful content.
Personal Finance
Bankrate
Free
- Up-to-date rate comparisons for bank accounts, CDs, mortgages, credit cards and insurance
- Extensive collection of personal finance calculators and tools
FINRA
Free
- BrokerCheck tool allows investors to research the backgrounds of investment professionals and firms
- Wide array of tools and calculators: retirement calculator, IRA required minimum distribution calculator, savings calculator, college savings calculator, accrued interest calculator, fund analyzer, 529 college savings plan expense analyzer, risk meter, scam meter and more
- Includes news releases and investor alerts
Kiplinger
Free – $59.88/year (specials available)
- Articles cover a wide range of personal finance topics
- Rate information on mortgages, CDs, credit cards and auto loans
- Premium: newsletters and special reports
SmartAsset
Free
- Articles on home buying, taxes, retirement, banking, credit cards and investing
- Income tax calculator, housing affordability calculator and other calculators
- Find a Financial Advisor tool
Retirement Planning
Bankrate
Free
- Basic retirement planning calculators
- Collection of articles on retirement planning
- Retirement planning blog
MarketWatch
Free
- Interactive high-quality retirement planning tools and calculators
- How-to guides like “how to invest for retirement” and “how to write a will”
- Wide range of video and up-to-date article content on retirement
NewRetirement
Free – $210/month (AAII discount)
- Helpful basic retirement calculators and tools
- More-involved retirement planning tools for PlannerPlus users including: a personalized retirement plan, PlannerPlus advanced tools and more
- Easy-to-understand content
- Analysis charts provide suggestions on how to better optimize your retirement plan
- Adds new tools often and receptive to user feedback
- AAII members get a 20% rebate on PlannerPlus
Social Security Administration
Free
- Apply for retirement benefits online and manage social security benefits
- “Retirement toolkit” PDF of information regarding retirement and applicable processes, benefits and considerations
- Retirement publications: Educational content and articles available in PDF format as well as audio format. Publications are also available in different languages.
- Basic tool for estimating retirement benefits
ThinkAdvisor
Free
- A website for financial advisers, but still has a wide array of useful financial planning information, including an entire section dedicated to retirement planning
- Also includes articles on estate planning, tax planning, life/health insurance and more
Estate Planning
EstatePlanning.com
Free
- Basic articles on what estate planning is
- Latest news on estate planning
- An estate planning glossary
Nolo
Free – $79.99 ( estate planning software)
- Specializes in explaining legal matters to laymen
- Though the home page promotes the company’s books, forms and software, there is also a large amount of helpful commentary
- Wills & estates section includes articles and Q&As on estate-planning basics, wills, probate, living trusts, estate and inheritance taxes and more
- Gives guidance on finding a lawyer to work with
- Some of the premium products are promoted in the articles, but the articles also contain links to useful external websites
Tax Information
Bankrate
Free
- Easy to read and understand
- A wide range of calculators: 1040 tax calculator; 401(k), 457 and 403(b) payroll deductions; earned income tax credit calculator; estate tax planning; hourly paycheck calculator; determining your tax bracket; net-to-gross paycheck calculator; flexible spending accounts; self-employed tax calculator; 1040EZ tax form calculator; and the tax-deductible loan calculator
- In the tax advice section: tax brackets, income tax calculator, tax deductions, state taxes, filing taxes, and more
IRS.gov
Free
- Comprehensive resources
- Authoritative source for answers to tax questions
- Access to tax forms and applicable instructions
- News Releases section keeps readers up-to-date on recent tax legislation
- Could be overwhelming for people without knowledge of IRS-speak
MarketWatch
Free
- Not extremely robust tax section, but good flow of articles that are up to date
- Displays publication date with articles, something other websites don’t always do
TurboTax
Free
- Tax tool that also offers a wide array of calculators including: TaxCaster, W-4 Withholding Calculator, Self-Employed Expense Estimator, Dependents Credit & Deduction Finder, ItsDeductible, Documents Checklist, Education Credit & Deduction Finder and Tax Bracket Calculator
- Tax tips and videos
- Useful blog and FAQ section that answers tax-related questions
Portfolio Tracking and Optimization
Portfolio trackers provide useful insights into the performance of your portfolio. Portfolio optimization goes a step further, using analytics to give even deeper insights to make your portfolio more efficient. When determining which sites to include, I looked for tools that can track more than just stocks, have unique analytics, can link directly to a broker or offer other unique calculators and analytics.
Macroaxis
Free – $199/year
- Optimization engine scores your portfolio’s efficiency
- Correlation analysis for equities and portfolios, volatility-adjusted portfolio return analysis
- Idea-driven portfolio origination and thematic optimization
- Fast portfolio “quick fix” rebalancing module
- Over 500 different fundamental, technical and predictive indicators
- Cryptocurrency center that offers a wide array of tools like screeners, digital portfolio optimization, arbitrage map, coin correlations and more
Morningstar
Free – $199/year
- Free users get basic portfolio tracking tool, instant x-ray, stock compare tool and investment radar tool
- Instant X-Ray shows basics on portfolio allocation, stock types, fees and expenses, stock style diversification and geographic diversification, stock stats (like portfolio price-earnings ratio, price-to-book ratio, return on assets and return on equity versus the S&P 500 index).
- Stock Compare and Fund Compare tools: See different stocks and funds side-by-side
- Premium: Portfolio X-Ray tool offers a more in-depth analysis and Portfolio Monitor tool
Personal Capital
Free
- Registered investment adviser (RIA) and offers a robo-advisory service
- Can track spending, saving and retirement goals (can link debt and credit accounts to budget and manage cash flow)
- Link to brokerage accounts or manual input
- Aggregated tracking of your portfolios with different brokers, performance compared to indexes
- Fee Analyzer tool shows hidden fees in mutual funds, investment accounts and retirement accounts as well as the fee impact on portfolio value over time
- Resources tab includes useful articles on investing, retirement planning, estate planning and personal finance
- Has a mobile application and offers robo-advisory service
PortfolioCharts
Free
- Helpful “how to manage your portfolio” information
- Free calculators include annual returns, drawdowns, financial independence, heat map, long-term returns, portfolio finder, portfolio growth, retirement spending, rolling returns, start date sensitivity, target accuracy and withdrawal rates.
- Library of information that includes several topics: basic concepts, goals and milestones, investing psychology, portfolio theory, retirement income and tools and data.
Portfolio Visualizer
Free
- Portfolio optimization tools: mean variance optimization, minimize conditional value-at-risk, minimize maximum drawdown, maximize Sortino ratio, maximize Omega ratio, risk parity and maximize diversification, Black-Litterman Model, rolling optimization, historical and forecasted efficient frontier
- Portfolio analysis tools: Monte Carlo simulation, asset class allocation backtesting tool, financial goals and portfolio backtesting tool
- Asset analytics: fund screener, fund performance, asset correlations and asset class correlations
- Factor analysis: factor regression, match factor exposure, fund and ETF factor regression and factor performance attribution
- Market timing: market timing models, core-satellite
SigFig
Free
- Simple and clean design makes navigation easy
- Easy to link brokerage accounts or manually add holdings
- Risk questionnaire to determine risk tolerance
- Allows customizable views of portfolio (add or remove the metrics that are displayed)
- Offers “managed portfolios” (robo-advisory service)
TipRanks
Free – $49.95/month (AAII discount)
- Portfolio tracking tool is not free
- Add stocks, ETFs and mutual funds
- Can link to brokerage (InteractiveBrokers, Vanguard, E*Trade, TradeStation, Ally Invest, Fidelity or Robinhood) or enter holdings manually
- Email notifications and alerts for portfolio holdings
- Compare and share your portfolio
- Separates news into “bullish” and “bearish” categorizations. News sentiment page shows overall public sentiment on a particular holding
- Earnings calendar
- Portfolio analytics page: portfolio beta, dividends and price-earnings ratio
- Management fees tool finds similar funds to your current fund holdings that have lower fees and a similar portfolio allocation, investment philosophy, performance record and more
- Make your portfolio shareable with other TipRanks users.
- Follow experts that are tracked on TipRanks
- AAII members get a 20% discount on TipRanks subscriptions.
Honorable Mentions: AllocateSmartly, FeeX, Next Capital and Stock Rover
Financial News and Analysis
Although you can typically find a company’s stock price on dozens of websites across the internet, not all sites provide meaningful company information beyond the basics. Aside from going to the individual company’s website to dig out press releases and announcements, there are staple websites that provide useful and meaningful news about a given company, avoiding the “noise” that may come from unreliable sources.
The sites mentioned below either offer overall market news and analysis or provide company-specific news archives. To confirm company-specific news, I always recommend that an investor check out the company’s investor relations page and look for press releases.
One source excluded here was Yahoo Finance. Due to changes in its news aggregation and design, the page is no longer as useful as it once was. Yahoo Finance is a good resource for historical stock prices, however. The website also has a basic portfolio tracker, and “key ratios” page for stocks.
Barron’s
$19.99/month, specials available
- Daily market commentary and wide array of articles
- Articles analyzing stock investments
- Columns include: Stocks to watch, sector focus, income investing, the economy, tech trader daily, focus on funds
- Video center for alternate delivery of timely news content
- Stock-specific pages include: quote, company and people, financials, research and ratings and advanced chart
FinViz
Free – $39.50/year
- Simple interface
- Good for company-specific news, not market commentary
- Wide range of news sources aggregated in one place
- Harder to use for “popular” stocks with a lot of news items because users can’t search historical news
- Free version sometimes has pop-ups that can get in the way, but they’re easy to click out of
MarketWatch
Free
- Separate boxes for MarketWatch-originated news, news from all other sources and press releases
- Organized, user-friendly interface
- Aggregates news from Dow Jones web properties (like WSJ and Barron’s) for companies by industry
Wall Street Journal
$19.50/month, specials available
- Good for company-specific news, but also a wide array of broad articles on the stock market, politics and the economy
- Interesting Wealth Adviser email that aggregates articles
- Wide range of information includes key stock data, competitors and stock graph
- Unique financial data display shows a graphical view of trends in metrics
Economic News and Data
Bloomberg.com
Free – $39.99/month
- 10 free articles per month
- Good depth of information
- Comprehensive economic calendar
- Useful explanation of what various reports mean
- Watch Bloomberg TV on the website
- Sector news selection tool
The Economist
Free – $190/year
- Three free articles each week with registration
- Economics made interesting
- Wide range of topics covered
- Convenient “Economics A to Z” section defines wide array of economic terms
EconStats
Free
- Wide array of economic data includes U.S. indicators, interest rates (U.S. and LIBOR), oil inventories, global equity returns and select international reports
- Large data tables are functional but not visually appealing; statistics can be downloaded into Microsoft Excel
- Great site for raw data, but not analysis
FRED
https://research.stlouisfed.org
Free
- Comprehensive database features more than 140,000 economic data series
- Data is presented in a chart; can view or download the actual economic data
- Straightforward navigation, with broad categories and sub-indexes of specific data sets
- Narrative is limited to working papers and regional publications from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank
- FRED app for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices
Miscellaneous
Return and Index Data
FTSE Russell
Free
- Data on FTSE Russell indexes
- Blog is available
- Research reports and insights
Ken French Database
http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ken.french/data_library.html
Free
- Historical research for Fama French factors: book-to-market, size and operating profitability, size and investment portfolios, historical benchmark returns and more
- Data is downloadable in text format as well as comma separated value (CSV)
- Clicking “details” next to a particular data category explains the data points collected
MSCI
Free
- Historical data for MSCI indices
- Publishes research and news articles
- Blog available
S&P Dow Jones Indices
Free
- Historical data on S&P indexes
- Indexology blog
- Research and commentary
Shiller P/E
http://www.econ.yale.edu/~shiller/data.htm
Free
- Maintained by Nobel laureate Robert Shiller
- Downloadable data used in Shiller’s book “Irrational Exuberance” (Princeton University Press 2000)
- Data set consists of monthly stock price, dividends, earnings data and the consumer price index (to allow conversion to real values), all starting January 1871
- Also historical housing market data (U.S. home prices) starting in 1890, updated monthly
- Long-term stock, bond, interest rate and consumption data (updated annually) since 1871 also available
Wilshire
Free
- Information on Wilshire indexes
Insurance
Insure U
Free
- Public education program created by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to assist consumers with information about insurance issues
- Collection of news releases
- Research includes consumer education, statistical reports
Life Happens
Free
- Straightforward basics on life, disability, long-term care and health insurance from nonprofit organization
- Online tool allows you to search for agents by name, ZIP code or city and state
- Articles, videos and consumer guides explain the difference between various types of insurance and the types of policies offered
- Calculators include: life insurance needs, disability insurance needs and human life value
- An updated blog discusses current insurance issues of interest and allows visitors to post comments
LifeInsure.com
Free
- Quote search engine doesn’t require personal contact information
- The list shows the A.M. Best rating and premium amount for each resulting company; click on company name for more ratings and a company summary
- Well-written materials explain basic types of insurance, plus how rates are calculated and recent developments
- Video alternative is available for some articles
- Shows how to calculate how much life insurance you need
- Blog discusses life insurance news
Healthcare.gov
Free
- Helps individuals get health insurance coverage
- Information on how to change your plan
- Information on things to consider when selecting a plan
- Cost of health care: premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket costs
- Introduction to HMO, PPO, POS and EPO health care plans
Annuities
Annuity FYI
Free
- Annuity basics page discusses what annuities are, along with a description of different types of annuities
- List of articles and guides
The Society for Annuity Facts and Education (SAFE)
Free
- Nonprofit charitable organization to educate and inform the public about annuities and their place in a portfolio
- Annuities FAQ page and a useful glossary
- “Should I buy an income annuity” calculator
- Videos including Understanding Fixed Annuities and The ABCS of Annuities: Annuity Basics
Medicare
CMS.gov
Free
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offers information for anyone
- Covers health care providers and office managers
- Information on partners and employers
- Information on potential plans
- Medicare general information, documents for appeals and grievances, billing, CMS forms, coding, Medicare Advantage information, Medicare contracting, Medicare Fee-for-Service information and much more.
LongTermCare.gov
Free
- Good explanations of benefit choices, what long-term care policies cover, plan costs, designing coverage to meet your needs and where to buy
- Useful links to related resources
Medicare.gov
Free
- Government website offers an extensive collection of resources, official government secure online service for accessing your personal Medicare information
- Home page reports news affecting Medicare and commonly accessed resources
- Search tools allow you to locate and compare Medicare prescription drug plans, Medigap (Medicare supplement insurance) and health plan policies, hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies and dialysis facilities
- To use the service, you must be a registered user (requires a Medicare number)
DRIP/DRP Plans
Computershare.com
- Transfer agent for many companies that offer DSPPs and DRIPs
- Search DRIP and DSPP plans by hovering over the Individuals tab at the top, then selecting “make a stock purchase”
DRIPInvesting.org
- DRIP investing resource center
DirectInvesting.com
- Basic DRIP information, DRIP forms and news
DRIPInvestor.com
- Based on the advice of Charles B. Carlson, CFA
- Monthly newsletter promotes a long-term buy-and-hold stock investing strategy
- Subscribers can access DRIP investing articles and archived commentaries from Carlson
529 Plans
529 Plans are tax-advantaged savings plans sponsored by states, state agencies or educational institutions.
Savingforcollege.com
- Information about specific 529 plans
- Educational articles on ins and outs of plans, including tax-related information
- Calculators
SEC.gov
- Basic but useful section about 529 plans
E-Newsletter
SmartBrief
- Wide array of free email newsletters
- Topics include: real estate investing, retirement income investing, wealth insight, insurance news and much more
Education
Investopedia.com: Large collection of educational articles. Also includes “video of the day,” trending articles and stock market simulator game.
InvestorJunkie.com: Investor Junkie is an investment education website that not only offers educational articles but comparisons and reviews of robo-advisers, financial software, brokers and more.
SimpleThriftyLiving.com: Simple Thrifty Living is similar to Investor Junkie in that it has reviews of software, brokers and even credit cards. The website includes “money saving” articles and even has an insurance section.
Research
SSRN: Contains a wide array of research papers and reports, including finance/investing
Charitable Giving
Charity Navigator: Website that helps investors research potential charities to gift to and provides applicable information. Charities with revenue over $1 million are rated.
National Philanthropic Trust (NPT): Public charity dedicated to providing expertise to donors
Financial Blogs
Blogs are similar to websites, except they tend to be more opinionated and free form compared to many traditional websites. Some blogs are created and managed by a larger firm (such as the Schwab blog mentioned below), whereas other blogs have only one main editorial voice. There are literally thousands of blogs out there, but below are some of the more popular investing blogs worth mentioning.
Calculated Risk: Economic-based blog
Charles Schwab Ideas and Insights: Blog that includes market commentary as well as articles on trading, personal finance and planning, retirement and more
Farr Law Firm Blog: Blog that discusses estate planning and topics like long-term care, Medicare and more
Franklin Templeton Investments—Emerging Markets Blog: Unique insight into emerging markets
iREITInvestor: Blog about REITs, written by Brad Thomas, editor of the Forbes Real Estate Investor newsletter
Mr. Money Mustache: Personal finance blog that is all about FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early)
PIMCO Blog: Blog about fixed-income investing
The Balance: Personal finance blog that covers topics like debt management, financial planning, beginning investor content, savings accounts and more
SPDR Blog: Articles about the overall market, sector investing and more
The WSJ’s Daily Shot: Requires a WSJ subscription, but provides a daily, thorough overview of investment and economic trends with charts
Podcasts
Podcasts are digital audio files that you can download to a computer or media player. They are somewhat similar to radio shows, but many follow a different format and they generally offer a wider variety of content. Podcasts can be easily listened to from your cell phone.
AQR’s The Curious Investor: Recently launched blog that interviews some of the brightest minds in the financial world
BiggerPockets Podcast: Discusses direct real estate investing with guest speakers. Very motivating even for non-real estate investors
Freakonomics: Explores topics in socioeconomics, behavioral finance and economics.
Marketplace: Provides a good overview of the economic news, often digging deeper into the headlines, interviewing key people and adding a human element to the economy and business
Money Life With Chuck Jaffe: Discussions about investing and applicable topics. Often features “buys” and “sells” for stocks and ETFs.
Planet Money: “The economy explained,” created by NPR. Also has a blog
The Meb Faber Show Podcast: Discusses investing, profitable ideas, the global equity, bond, real asset markets and more. Also has a blog
Robert from NC posted over 7 years ago:
Bruce Hendershot from PA posted over 7 years ago:
Scott from NJ posted over 7 years ago:
Tony Hausner from MD posted over 7 years ago:
William Greene from NY posted over 7 years ago:
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