and my previous posts, I have mentioned the websites I use for researching companies/Stock. On top of these, many other websites and apps provide company information. You need to select a trustworthy source. You are relying on this information to make investment decisions and money is at stake. In this post, I’ll be covering the other sources which I have come across. I have already covered the topics on what to look for in a company before investing.
Google/Yahoo Finance
These are my favourite go-to place when researching Companies/Stock. Both platforms will let you create your portfolios and track the companies/Stock you own. Although your broker does this for you, if you have many brokerage accounts, this platform can aggregate them. You can create your stock watchlist across different stock exchanges. Both platforms provide you with news about the market. It also shows news relevant to the different stocks in your portfolio/watchlist. Google seem to have lesser information about the stock while yahoo provides a lot more. While Google only lets you adjust the stock price graph, Yahoo finance let you use indicators.
Google’s stock analysis page doesn’t seem to have ads while the Yahoo finance page has them. I guess this is justified by the tools and information available on Yahoo finance pages. Yahoo finance provides a look at the other analyst’s rankings too. Yahoo finance provides all the information you needed to perform the analysis. This means the different numbers you will need to look at. neither of these platforms will provide information about the companies business models. If you are fine with seeing some ads by the side while performing the analysis, Yahoo finance is the way to go here.
Company Website/Investor relations
All the listed companies/Stock will have a website of their company. These websites will also have a section dedicated to the investors. It is usually under a section called investor relations. This section will contain the different financial reports and other relevant documentation. These also include presentations by the company management to investors. This is an easy source of information to study more about the company.
Information you will find in these sections are usually in a PDF or web page form. These will not have a similar view like yahoo finance etc… Companies will list their press releases and investor events on these pages usually. Companies also invite investors to provide the contact information to send documents. Also, to invite for future events which are usually conducted online.
Securities Commission Websites
Companies must publish critical financial information. This is done on a website maintained by the regulators in various jurisdictions. It helps to uphold the interest of the retail investors who do not have all access to information. In the past, before the regulation to publish the documents, retail investors were blindsided. With the published information, everyone has access to the same information. These regulations keep the companies to be accountable. Besides annual and quarterly reports, companies need to publish insider trades. It also requires the companies/Stock to publish stock ownership disclosures.
Singapore
Listed companies documents can be accessed on the SGX website. SGX stands for Singapore stock exchange. SGX website provides the basic analysis of companies and daily price charts. It also has a function to perform stock screening and ETF screening. These screening will help you to narrow down the companies based on conditions like P/E.
India
For securities listed on Indian exchanges, financial reports, related party transactions, and other information can be found on the exchange’s website. This website also provides other information such as pre-market orders, intraday charts etc… NSE stands for national stock exchange and there is BSE which stands for Bombay Stock Exchange.
United States
In the United States, the regulations for securities is the securities exchanges commissions aka SEC. Filings are usually called SEC filings and it’s done in the sec website’s EDGAR section. There are many options to look up for filings.
Annual reports are called 10K and quarterly reports are named 10Q.
Brokerage App
In the past when there was no centralized repository, this info was provided by brokers. Thanks to the information era, now you can access the information from the website/mobile app. Brokers have invested money in responsive and intuitive mobile apps. These apps are capable of doing many things. Apart from performing the functions of buying/selling, they can perform technical analysis.
Brokerage apps even have a desktop application that looks like a Bloomberg terminal. These apps look very professional and offer functions like companies/Stock comparisons. It has financial reports available, other documentation and aggregated data from history. The app does have extensive tools for performing technical analysis on the stocks. You can do all these in 1 app and does not require opening other sites. They even have alerts to give you push notifications when new information is available. One trend I’m seeing nowadays is the availability of forums within brokerage apps. This allows investors to communicate in the news section in the community.
Stock Screening Websites
Market watch and FINVIZ are 2 min stock screening websites in the United States. These websites collect data from other sources and show them on their websites. It also shows the market moves in charts and lists the daily gainers and losers. The screening tool available in FINVIZ helps to filter stocks using fundamentals and technical.
Finviz has the option to create a portfolio and watchlist like Yahoo finance. Marketwatch only has the option to create a watchlist. You need not create an account in all these and create portfolios all over the websites. you can decide on one that fits your needs. If the broker’s app provides all the features you like, that is enough also.
Online Stock Analysts
Zacs and Motley fool is only 2 of the many online advisors out there. They have analysts that follow companies/Stock and perform analyses. If you are their subscriber, they may provide their analysis results and advise on what stocks to buy. These services are paid, if you subscribe – you will be provided with the suggestions.
Some of the analysis details will be published on the websites for free of charge too.
As a beginner investor with smaller amounts to invest, these subscriptions may not be required. With these subscriptions, you will be billed monthly or an annual subscription fee. As I mentioned earlier, these are only some of them… there are many similar ones with similar offerings.
Youtube
Many YouTubers are covering different companies/Stocks and the stock market as a whole. Some of them provide you with free access to their DCF models worksheet for free of charge. Others invite you to join their member’s channel or Patreon. Most of these channels start with a disclaimer that they are not professionals. They are sharing their point of view and analysis on the different stocks they invest in.
Some of the channels uploads videos with links to the different research they have done to come up with the analysis. You may watch the ones you think are credible and have market knowledge. Most of them are of no use as they are trying to pump the stocks they hold. Many channels are operating as a pump and dump scheme. Some of the channels work as an echo chamber with you repeatedly hearing how a company is great. They do not give attention to the negative news available.
If you are watching other people analysing companies/Stock, it’s ok to do so as you can hear them explain some of the concepts. Most of these can be understood by yourself with some google searches too.
It’s always better to hear the bulls and bear’s and you form your thesis too.
Reddit/Forums
This may be the last place you may want to take companies/Stock related info from. If you are familiar with the saga of GME/AMC – it started with the Reddit forum. While some people made millions of dollars overnight. The majority whole followed and jumped on the trade at the later stages are left bag holding. These sorts of activities are called pump and dump.
Reddit is a forum with the ability for its members to publish articles. Some users post quality articles with links and maps to the resources they used in their thesis. Others are posting random stock predictions with no head/tail. Since there are enormous amounts of articles being posted, it’s hard to identify which are true. Only take these posts with moderation and do not come to conclusions based on these.
Conclusions
As a rule of thumb, you may want to check many sources before forming your investment thesis. Selecting paid services is a choice and it’s not a must. It’s always good to learn and understand financial statements and also the finance terms. As data providers change from country to country, check which is the best in your country. Information from the regulator’s websites is the most trustworthy. And companies/Stock are accountable for the information submitted to the regulators.