Utilizing Online Investment Tools: From Stock Screeners to Portfolio Trackers

Online investment tools play an important role in financial trading. The landscape of investing tools and resources has undergone a remarkable transformation over the years. In the yearly days of the internet, tools for market research and analysis were in their infancy. Meanwhile, TV and radio flooded the airwaves with financial content. However, extracting practical insights for one’s investment activities from these two sources was a laborious and time-consuming task. Fast forward to today, and retail and institutional investors find themselves in a vastly improved environment. They now have access to an abundance of educational materials, strategic advice, and time saving tools that have revolutionized the investment process.

Investment Tools

There are multiple types of investment tools available to investors, each serving a specific purpose and catering to different investment styles.There are financial news analysis websites and apps, stock screeners, trading calculators, portfolio trackers, financial planning tools, and more. Tools are there to improve trading results. In addition, more tools you use doesn’t mean you’ll have better results. Each instrument needs to be utilized with purpose so that you are not distracted..

Understanding financial instruments and your trading strategy

Each trading instrument requires different tools for analysis. For example, in case you are planning to trade currency pairs, stock screener will not be any beneficial. Which is important for traders to think about what they're going to trade and which strategy they’re going to use. Strategies differ wildly from each other. For example, traders that use mostly fundamental analysis and swing or position trade, will need more news tools. Technical traders will be more reliant on autochartist tools, news tools, and calculators. Risk management and portfolio management is equally important for any trader type. Now, let’s discover different tool groups.

Using Tools for Analysis

There are various tools for analyzing the markets, mostly these tools inform traders about ongoing market developments, such as: Bloomberg Terminal, Reuters Eikon, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, Oxford Communiqué, Economic calendars.

In addition, there are stock screeners that allow investors and active traders to filter and narrow down a list of stocks based on specific criteria. Some of the most popular screeners are:

Finviz: with its easy to use design, this platform combines various filters, covering fundamental, technical, and descriptive aspects. It not only provides detailed charts but also shows market data in a visually straightforward way, making market analysis easy and accessible for users.
Yahoo Finance Stock Screener: by utilizing this tool, traders can filter stocks using different factors such as market cap, dividend yield, P/E ratio, and technical indicators. In addition, it works well with other Yahoo Finance tools.
Zacks Stock Screener: this tool lets users screen stocks using Zacks Rank, valuation metrics, and other fundamental criteria. Traders can also use pre-built screeners.
MarketWatch Screener: Provides an easy to use stock screener with different fundamental and technical filters, making it simple and intuitive for users.
StockFetcher: users can make personalized stock screeners using technical indicators, price action, and other criteria. This tool is perfect for those keen on technical analysis.
Screener.co:offers powerful screening options using financial metrics, valuation, and industry criteria. Furthermore, it gives access to global stock markets.
StockRover: provides traders with complete screening and analysis tools, including ready-made screeners and features for analyzing portfolios.
Alpha Vantage: this tool gives free access to financial data and a stock screener with different technical and fundamental filters. Additionally, it provides API’s for developers.

Risk Management Tools

Proper risk management is the foundation for success in the financial markets. While the risk management principles are very basic, such as never risk more than you are afford to lose, have healthy risk to reward ratio, and never open oversized positions, many traders still struggle with managing their risks and often end up empty trading accounts. One of the main reasons why traders fail to manage their risks is that they fail to manage their emotions such as greed, fear, and desire to revenge trade after losing ones. There are a couple of risk management tools that can help traders structurize their decisions to avoid emotional trading and make calculated decisions.

Risk-to-Reward Calculators
Position Size Calculators: mostly used by forex traders.
Riskalyze: Designed mainly for financial advisors, Riskalyze evaluates clients’ comfort with risk and aids in building diversified portfolios that match their risk preferences.

Key Takeaways

To sum it all up, there are various tools and platforms that make life easier for retail and institutional traders. However, it’s important to keep in mind that each tool serves a specific purpose and traders need to know what they are looking for in advance. It’s best to first start with which asset classes you are interested in trading and find out about the tools that can help you make informed decisions on the way. There are various important tools for market research and analysis categorized as analytical tools, and risk management tools. Traders need to use an optimal number of tools as overusing them can lead to distractions.