Investors frequently ask me what tools I use to research stocks, ETFs or mutual funds online. My typical response is to point them to Yahoo Finance and Google Finance and then to drill down to both sites’ screening tools. They are good tools, frequently robust enough for most individual investors. Screening 2.0, an important placeholder in the New Rules of Investing, allows investors to utilize screening technologies previously reserved for only professional investors. What’s more is that investors now have tools to utilize pre-set screens developed professionally to mimic screens of guru investors like Peter Lynch or Ken Fisher. Check out Validea for such screens.
Hats off to Barel Karsan for a nice mini-review of Google Finance’s screening capabilities and for bringing investor attention to another new tool FINVIZ.com, Financial Visualizations. In this post, Karsan recommends Google Finance but also points out some of its shortfalls:
As we’ve discussed before, it contains a great number of errors, some of which (e.g. dividend information) are systematic and therefore not simply specific to a particular stock.
Instead, Karsan points us to a new tools, FINVIZ.com which according to him:
In addition to being able to search across standard screens available on many other sites, investors are offered screening options above and beyond what one would normally expect.
Kasan rightfully says that the tools are just that, utilities that allow us to begin the investment process, not end it. In his words:
While sites such as these can be useful for screening purposes, it can never replace the diligence and careful analysis required to properly value each security in which an individual is interested in investing. The screening tool is the beginning, not the end, of the investment determination process.
Check out the whole post and his site, BarelKarsan.com.
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Additional Resources:
- Check out our interview with leading investment screening 2.0 firm, Validea’s founder, John Reese
- Review of Guru Investing, a book that spells out DIY investment screening
- Google Finance, FINVIZ.com
- Barel Karan’s site
