If you want to beat the market, then what you’re looking for is “alpha.” And a batch of stock research and analysis software platforms are designed to help you get just that.

Alpha is the measure of your active return on an investment compared to a market index or benchmark designed to represent the market’s movement as a whole. For example, one might compare the performance of an investment to how the S&P 500 performed during the same time. The excess amount: That’s the alpha.

“Capturing alpha” refers to consistently doing better than the average stock trader and making more money in the stock market than statisticians would expect you could achieve. (Note the word “consistently.”)

You might get lucky with one stock performing better than people anticipated, but to do this consistently takes more than luck: It requires extensive knowledge of current stock market trends and a mastery of how to invest money wisely.

That’s exactly what the best stock market research and analysis apps, tools, and software are designed to help you achieve. While each platform differs, they generally provide a mix of data and news on all sorts of asset classes—typically stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but sometimes other investments such as foreign exchange (forex), cryptocurrency, and stock options.

Read on, then, as we shine a light on the best stock research and analysis platforms, including apps, desktop software, and multiplatform tools.

Best Stock Research Apps, Tools, and Software—Our Top Picks

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Best Stock Research Apps, Tools, and Software (Investment Research Software)

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A useful stock market research app will contain statistics and analyses from several reputable sources. You need to be able to quickly see relevant news as well as various stocks’ long-term trends.

Some of the best investment research websites are purely informational, while others both educate you and let you also buy stocks straight from their app. Paired with the best investing apps, these stock market research apps can be useful for building your wealth.

Features of the Best Stock Research App, Tool, and Software

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→ Comes at a Fair Price.

Most stock research apps come with a free trial to demo the product and understand if the service is worth the eventual price you’ll pay. Some services charge on a monthly basis while others charge on an annual basis.

If you choose only to rely on free services, you might get what you pay for. Premium services can quickly justify their price tags if they deliver stock research that allows you to outperform the market consistently.

That alpha is worth its weight in gold if you have money to invest and take advantage.

You should always purchase apps that meet your needs but only pay the minimum price to do so. If you don’t use the fancy add-ons and can’t justify the price, you shouldn’t subscribe to that tier if a lower one will do.

→ Provides Trusted, Transparent Research.

If you want to understand the stocks on the platform, you need to see the details provided by the stock research tools. The best stock research software and websites will provide actionable information for you to evaluate stocks and make an investment decision.

This can include things like real-time data, stock analysis tools and other resources. But a stock research tool doesn’t necessarily need to include such details. Instead, it can perform in-depth analysis and provide an investable narrative for why the stock should be in your portfolio.

Regardless of the details provided, you should be able to trust the stock research and see dependable recommendations or information.

→ Uses Fundamental and Technical Analysis.

The two primary forms of stock research are fundamental and technical analysis. The former relies on the financial performance of a business, including how it manages its assets and liability as well as how it utilizes them for growth.

Technical analysis uses price action as an indicator for when you should buy or sell a stock.

Both of these should combine to understand which stocks make the best choices for your portfolio now and into the future.

1. Seeking Alpha (Best for Investment Research + Stock Recommendations)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Investment research, stock recommendations

Even if you only had access to the free version of Seeking Alpha, you’d be using one of the best stock research and analysis tools on the market. But we want to specifically highlight Seeking Alpha Premium, which caters to intermediate and advanced investors looking for an affordable, all-inclusive, one-stop shop for their investing needs.

Seeking Alpha itself has more than 16,000 active contributors sharing well-written stock analysis. In-house editors vet these pieces before being read and discussed by millions of people. Reading different opinions about the same stock helps investors develop their own informed opinions on the likelihood a stock will rise or fall. I recommend this approach when you begin learning how to research stocks.

In addition to diverse, deep-dive research articles, Seeking Alpha’s website has fundamental analysis tools, a Trending News feed, crowdsourced debates, and market data.

Users can create their own portfolios to follow favorite stocks, see how choices perform and receive email alerts or push notifications. You also have access to podcasts and video content.

While the website has a significant amount of information, some features remain reserved for the Premium Plan and Pro Plan members.

Seeking Alpha Premium

With a Seeking Alpha Premium subscription, you will enjoy unparalleled access with an ad-lite interface across your user experience.

SA Premium can help you manage your portfolio by putting you in contact with a large investing community—one that can help you research stocks and understand the financial world and provide you with ideas for your next great investment.

Premium plan members can see the ratings of authors whose articles they read. (After all, it’s useful to know whether you’re reading the opinion of someone with a top record, or someone who’s whiffing a lot.) And Premium subscribers unlock analyses from SA-designated “experts.”

“Expert” analyses are reserved for Premium members as well. This plan includes a stock screener letting you filter by average analyst rating and gain access to listen to conference calls and other presentations. Premium costs $119 for the first year (or $349 for the first two).

Seeking Alpha Premium caters to the needs of intermediate and advanced investors looking for an affordable, all-inclusive, one-stop shop for their investing needs.

Seeking Alpha Premium acts as an all-in-one investing research and recommendation service that offers insightful analysis of financial news, stocks, and more—all designed to help you make better investing decisions.

Whether you’re looking to invest on the go or dedicate time for more in-depth research and analysis, Seeking Alpha Premium provides features that meet your needs, including:

• Earnings calls transcripts
• Seeking Alpha Author Ratings and Author Performance metrics
• 10 years’ worth of financial statements
• Ability to compare stocks side-by-side with peers
• Access to dividend and earnings forecasts
• Much, much more

How Has Seeking Alpha Premium Performed?

SA’s Premium subscription provides full access to the service’s Stock Quant Ratings. These are collections of the best (to the worst)-rated stocks according to three independent investment resources provided on Seeking Alpha’s website. These cross checks and validations come from: (1) the Seeking Alpha Quant Model, (2) independent SA contributors, and (3) Wall Street analysts. The list of best stock recommendations gets further vetted by quantitative and fundamental analysis.

Look at the dramatic market outperformance seen by these quant-fueled “Strong Buy” stock picks as compared to the S&P 500 (total return with dividends reinvested):

Check out our Seeking Alpha Premium review to learn even more.

Seeking Alpha Pro

A Seeking Alpha Pro subscription comes with all the features of Seeking Alpha Premium, as well as a few additional goodies:

• The Top Ideas recommendation list
• Exclusive newsletter subscriptions and interviews
• VIP Editorial Concierge
• Seeking Alpha Pro screener for investing ideas
• An entirely ad-free experience

The Pro plan, which targets professional investors, is more expensive than Premium, but it does offer many features that advanced users can put to work.

Why Subscribe to Seeking Alpha?

Seeking Alpha distills relevant financial information for you so you don’t have to—making it easy for anyone interested in self-directed investing to have a chance at outperforming the market.

Consider starting a subscription to take advantage of SA’s Premium services and see if they make sense for your needs.

Related: Best Seeking Alpha Alternatives to Consider

2. Motley Fool Rule Breakers: Best for Long-Term Investors Looking for Growth Stocks

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Buy-and-hold growth investors

Motley Fool Rule Breakers focuses on stocks that have massive growth potential in emerging industries. This service isn’t fixating on what’s currently popular, but rather always looking for the next big stock.

The service has six rules they follow before making stock recommendations to subscribers:

1. Only invest in “top dog” companies in an emerging industry – As Motley Fool puts it: “It doesn’t matter if you’re the big player in floppy drives—the industry is falling apart.”
2. The company must have a sustainable advantage
3. Company must have strong past price appreciation
4. Company needs to have strong and competent management
5. There must be strong consumer appeal
6. Financial media must overvalue the company

In short, the service mainly looks for well-run companies in emerging industries with a sustainable advantage over competitors, among other factors.

And their rules seem to pay off, if their results are any indication.

Over the past 15 years, Rule Breakers has almost doubled the S&P 500, beating many leading money managers on Wall Street. Their results speak for themselves and easily justify the affordable price tag of $99 for the first year.

What to Expect from Motley Fool’s Rule Breakers:

When you sign up, you can expect to receive three primary items:

1. A listing of Starter Stocks to begin your Rule Breakers journey with their “essential Rule Breakers”
2. 5 “Best Buys Now” opportunities each month
3. Two new stock picks each month

You’ll receive regular communications from the stock picking service with their analysis and rationales for buying stocks meeting their investment criteria.

If you’re unhappy with the service within the first 30 days, you can receive a full refund.

Related: Best Stock Picking Services

3. Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks (Best Data-Driven Stock Recommendation Service)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Buy-and-holders looking for stock recommendations

Are you looking for a way to beat the market consistently? Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks might be a great option to consider.

Alpha Picks is a stock selection service that provides you with two of the best stock picks each month that SA determines have the greatest chance for price upside. They base their selections on fundamentals such as valuation, growth, profitability, and momentum—not hype.

The stock selection process relies on Seeking Alpha’s proprietary, data-driven computer scoring system to screen and recommend stocks for more conservative “buy-and-hold” investors.

And if results from their backtest (run from 2010 to 2022) are any indication, historical simulations of the methodology behind their strategy prove it has worked: Alpha Picks’ recommendations outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 180 percentage points (+470% for SA vs. +290% for the S&P 500).

A bit more detail about how this works: Alpha Picks relies on the existing Seeking Alpha Quant model available to Seeking Alpha Premium and Pro users, but with a bit of modification. Namely, all recommendations must meet the following criteria:

• Hold a Strong Buy Quant rating for a minimum of 75 days
• Market cap greater than $500 million
• Stock price greater than $10
• Is a publicly traded common stock (no American Depository Receipts [ADRs])
• Be the highest-rated stock at the time of selection that has not been previously recommended within the past year (Alpha Picks releases one pick at the start of the month, another in the middle).

If you sign up for the service, you can expect the following:

• Two long-term stock picks to buy and hold for at least two years, delivered every month
• Detailed explanations from Seeking Alpha behind why they rate each stock pick so highly
• Notifications when a recommendation changes
• Regular updates on current Buy recommendations

The service, designed for busy professionals interested in building a portfolio that outpaces the market but without the time to commit to finding these opportunities, is worth considering. If you’re interested, you can sign up for a discounted first-year price of $99.

Related: Best Stock Investment Newsletters

4. Motley Fool Stock Advisor (Best for Buy-and-Hold Investors)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Buy-and-hold growth investors

The main difference between Motley Fool’s services is the type of stock pick recommendations they provide.

Stock Advisor primarily recommends well-established companies. Over a decade ago, they advised subscribers to buy companies such as Netflix and Disney, and those picks have been extremely successful since then.

As a subscriber, you’re granted access to their history of recommendations and can see for yourself how they have done over the years.

According to their website, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor stock subscription service has returned 356% since its inception in February 2002 when you calculate the average return of all their stock recommendations over the last 17 years.

Comparatively, the S&P 500 only had a 117% return during that same timeframe.

What to Expect from Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor:

The Stock Advisor service provides a lot of worthwhile resources to subscribers.

1. “Starter Stocks” recommendations to serve as a foundation to your portfolio, whether you’re a new investor or experienced
2. Two new stock picks each month
3. 10 “Best Buys Now” chosen from more than 300 stocks the service watches
4. Investing resources with the stock picking service’s library of stock recommendations
5. Access to community of investors engaged in outperforming the market and talking shop

The service charges a discounted rate for the first year and has a 30-day membership-fee refund period. Consider signing up for Stock Advisor today.

Related: Best Brokerage Account Sign-Up Bonuses, Promotions and Deals

5. Benzinga Pro (Best for Fast, Actionable Market News and Research)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Fast market news and research

Benzinga Pro provides fast, actionable market news and stock research to investors of all kinds, from buy-and-holders to swing and day traders.

The service specializes in providing breaking news on publicly traded companies. Benzinga’s Newsfeed covers all sectors, analyst ratings changes and SEC filings from companies. You can customize these news feeds based on watchlists you create within the platform.

Benzinga’s Newsfeed covers all sectors, analyst ratings changes and SEC filings from companies. You can customize these news feeds based on watchlists you create within the platform.

Other notable Benzinga Pro features include:

• Audio Squawk: A team calls out actionable news during premarket all the way through after-hours trading.
• Insider Trading Tracker: What are corporate insiders (company officers, big stakeholders and other important people) doing? Are they buying? Are they selling? How much do they own? This tool helps you learn more about insiders’ “skin in the game.”
• Stock Scanner: Get real-time, customized updates on the stock market.
• Charting: You can chart stocks within the Benzinga Pro platform, which uses a TradingView developer API (application programming interface).
• Calendar: Get dates for earnings reports, dividends, economic data releases, initial public offerings (IPOs), SEC filings, and more.

Sign up for Benzinga Pro today and put the fastest real-time news feed, profitable trading ideas, and exclusive content right at your fingertips.

 

6. Trade Ideas (Best for Active, Swing, And Momentum Traders)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Active and swing traders

Trade Ideas employs an artificial intelligence-powered assistant named Holly. This AI becomes your virtual research analyst who never sleeps and instead sifts through technicals, fundamentals, social media, earnings, and more to pick stocks as real-time trade recommendations.

Holly stays busy, too. She runs over 1 million simulated trades each night and morning before the markets open with more than 70 proprietary algorithms to find you the highest-probability, most risk-appropriate opportunities to invest in stocks.

This stock research and analysis tool doesn’t stop there, though. You can test these trade ideas in a live simulated trading room. This allows you to demo the stock picking service’s ideas without risking your own money.

The powerful service allows you to access real-time streaming trading ideas on simultaneous charts to learn how to trade into risk-reward balanced trades. In other words: You can invest and learn at the same time.

Where Trade Ideas Excels

Where Trade Ideas excels is not only giving you the data and ideas you haven’t seen elsewhere, but also how to manage your money. The rules-based virtual trading room on every chart plays for both long-term investors as well as active traders.

As the stock market evolves, Trade Ideas’ software adjusts levels and the trading plan to match. The best part? You can learn how to do all of this without risking your principal through a real-time simulated trading environment.

After you’ve grown comfortable with the service, you can choose to go live with the trade ideas and start investing real money by connecting directly through a brokerage like Interactive Brokers, TD Ameritrade, and E*Trade.

Additionally, the service provides alert services. You can receive price alerts through Trade Ideas’ Standard and Premium services, as well as by subscribing to the company’s Strength Alerts newsletter. This gives you five new trade ideas in your inbox from the company’s model portfolio every Monday. Trade Ideas also has a free Trade of the Week newsletter highlighting a stock pick TI has identified for subscribers.

How Does Trade Ideas Find Stock Picks?

Trade Ideas’ technology uses a different scan each week to find unusual trade activity. For example, they may detect high short interest in a stock or industry, which often leads to short squeezes, such as what happened with GameStop.

Real people curate scan results before any recommendations come available through the service. You’ll also learn how the service picked the trade, why they believe it will perform well, and how to find similar trades on your own.

The service carries a hefty price tag, with the Standard subscription starting at $999 per year. For the full Holly experience, you’ll need to upgrade to their $1,999 Premium plan.

Consider starting your Trade Ideas subscription with no contract involved. Cancel anytime.

 

7. Morningstar (Best Research Tools for Fund Investors)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Fund research, research reports

Morningstar is a popular resource for investors looking to find, evaluate, and monitor investments that best meet their interests and needs.

This investment research site has provided mutual fund, ETF and stock research for almost four decades and prides itself on its independence and reputation for objectivity. Investors seeking out the best funds for their portfolios should be plenty familiar with the site’s Morningstar Star and Medalist ratings.

The paid Morningstar Investor service includes access to its independent analysis, stock screeners, in-depth market observations, and Portfolio X-Ray, which evaluates all your holdings through various lenses: sector weightings, fees, asset allocation, and more.

Morningstar Investor also has a stellar deal for students, offering one year of access for just $25. That’s roughly 90% off the normal price!

 

8. Stock Rover

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Proprietary research scoring, read-only data feed of your portfolio holdings

Stock Rover is more appropriate for self-directed investors who want to discover their own opportunities and manage their own portfolios.

The service allows you to create real-time research reports that provide a full fundamental and technical overview of a company’s performance. Stock Rover also provides comprehensive ticker, index, portfolio, and watchlist alerts; a real-time stock screener; and robust charting capabilities.

Stock Rover also is a powerful portfolio tracker, offering brokerage integration, detailed performance information, emailed performance reports, in-depth portfolio analysis tools, correlation tools, trade planning and re-balancing facilities.

This service works as a web-based applet and offers a number of useful services and applications, depending on your research and analysis needs.

One of the best features of the web-based app is Stock Rover’s “Brokerage Connect.” This provides you with a read-only data feed of your portfolio holdings. This shows you a comprehensive view of your portfolios, whether they’re in one brokerage account or spread across numerous investment accounts. This view makes Stock Rover one of the best stock tracking and portfolio management apps.

After syncing your brokerage accounts to Stock Rover, details for each portfolio get populated in your Stock Rover dashboard for in-depth analytics and tracking purposes.

Consider signing up for Stock Rover with a free 14-day trial. From there, you can decide if you’d like to upgrade to the service’s premium plans for more robust tracking and analysis.

 

9. EquitySet (Platform of Stock Market Research Tools)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Visualizations, simple user interface

Investing in stocks can be a daunting task. There are so many different factors to consider, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

EquitySet is here to help! The company provides unbiased stock reports that will help you make the best investment decisions possible.

This platform of stock market research tools also provides simplified data with beautiful UI outputs for your convenience. No credit card required—just sign up for free today!

The platform covers 8,000-plus stocks and ETFs, so it has everything you need to find the perfect investment opportunity. You’ll never have to worry about FOMO again!

Get started now by signing up to a free seven-day trial of EquitySet Premium today!

 

10. MarketXLS

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Excel-based stock analysis and research

MarketXLS helps investors conduct technical and fundamental analysis on exchange-traded securities.

MarketXLS is an Excel-based investment research tool which allows you to look deeper into stocks, ETFs, options, mutual funds, currencies with streaming market data.

The live stock quotes flow through Excel formulas to get the most accurate prices, fundamentals, key ratios, estimates, returns, and custom-calculated data points.

MarketXLS offers more than 120 technical indicators, including:

• Relative Strength Indicators
• Double Exponential Moving Average
• Exponential Moving Average
• Kaufman Adaptive Moving Average
• MESA Adaptive Moving Average
• Average Directional Movement Index
• Absolute Price Oscillator
• Hilbert Transform—Dominant Cycle Period
• Chaikin A/D Line
• Several Pattern Recognitions
• Linear Regression
• Time Series Forecast
• Variance
• Weighted Close Price
• Bollinger Bands

In short, MarketXLS makes it easy to research, track and invest in the stock market using valuable technical and fundamental analysis tools. This brings data and tools into a familiar environment: Excel spreadsheets.

 

Best Stock Analysis Apps, Tools, and Software—Our Top Picks

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Best Stock Analysis Apps, Tools, and Software

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The best stock analysis software can also help improve your success with the stock market. Common features include simulations, backtesting (letting you test trading strategies using historical market data), stock charting software and designing a trading or investment plan.

The best stock analysis app for you will depend on your preferences, needs, and whether or not you have programming experience. Before getting into the best and acclaimed stock analysis software options, let’s review the features you should look for first.

Features of the Best Stock Analysis App and Software

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Many of the same features you should look for in a stock research app will also apply to stock analysis apps. Understandably so, as they should carry the same features in their respective right.

Below, you might see some retreaded features to pick an app based upon, but when they’re right, they’re right.

→ Comes at a Fair Price.

Once again, like stock research apps, you want to get what you need and not pay for what you don’t want. Some stock analysis software comes with a free trial to demo the product and understand if the service is worth the eventual price you’ll pay.

You will see some have the option to pay-as-you-go or opt for an annual or bi-annual subscription for cheaper rates than on a monthly plan alone.

→ Provides Relevant Tools, Educational Resources and Customer Support.

Understanding the indicators, tools and horsepower of your stock analysis app will make all the difference. That means you might need to brush up on some of the terminology or concepts covered with an analysis tool.

The best stock analysis app will provide tools and educational resources to learn what you need and room to continue growing.

Additionally, you’ll also want responsive customer support if you have questions you can’t answer by yourself. Having a dependable customer support system will make all the difference when you need help navigating something in the app.

→ Multiple Watchlist and Tracking Tools.

Proper stock analysis requires watching stocks for buy and sell signals. You’ll need powerful watchlist and tracking tools to do this.

The best stock analysis apps allow you to track from a single window and utilize stock screeners, real-time data alerts and notifications and more to inform your decision-making.

→ Powerful Charting Tools.

Stock analysts also rely on charting tools to measure entry and exit points from a stock. You’ll require historical charting capabilities to identify long-term trends as well as intraday charts for second-by-second movements.

Having the ability to overlay stock indicators and utilize drawing tools are of vital importance when performing technical analysis. Make sure your stock analysis tools carry this functionality.

With that said, let’s explore some of the best stock analysis software you’ll find.

11. TradeStation Analytics (Free w/TradeStation Brokerage Account)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Brokerage with stock analysis tools

TradeStation Analytics helps you analyze stocks, options, ETFs, stock futures and cryptocurrency markets. You have access to backtesting, historical intraday data, and extensive charting capabilities.

Users also receive personalized support from their brokerage professionals. The company provides state-of-the-art trading technology which caters to active individual and institutional traders.

TradeStation Analytics helps you to find the right opportunities in real-time, when to get into and out of trades, and discover hidden opportunities with technical and fundamental analysis.

You can monitor and rank up to 1,000 ticker symbols in real-time with access to more than 180 technical and fundamental indicators useful for valuing a stock and identifying likely price action. TradeStation is one of the best trading software platforms on this list.

If you have a TradeStation brokerage account, you can use TradeStation Analytics for free. You can still get the software without a TradeStation brokerage account, for a monthly fee of $99 for non-professionals and $199 for professional subscribers.

 

12. TradingView (Best Free Stock Analysis App)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Charting, data feeds

TradingView is a useful site for traders who rely on technical analysis tools and want to view stock charts with specific indicators (RSI, moving averages, Bollinger Bands, etc.).

This service works well for traders looking to gain an edge on the markets by utilizing the 50-plus data feeds and exchanges offered on the platforms, as well as customized technical analysis, backtesting, and more.

Amplify the usefulness of TradingView’s stock charts by pairing this service with a TradeStation or Webull account.

 

13. Moomoo (Best Free Mobile/Desktop Stock Analysis & Stock Trading Hybrid App)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Investors looking for a little of everything

Moomoo is a commission-free trading platform for stocks, ETFs, and options. Moomoo takes a different approach from platforms favoring simplicity and ease of use. The stock trading platform caters to new and advanced traders by offering an integrated platform rich with powerful tools to enhance your trading insights and abilities.

Moomoo enables easy research and tracking functions with its AI tools. Further, it provides free resources to train your market sensitivity and understanding, including comprehensive dimensions of market data like Depth-of-Market and real-time Level 2 Market Data, and 24/7 financial news handpicked by Moomoo’s editorial team. The trading platform provides these features to empower investors to make better investing decisions.

If this feature set sounds intimidating to start with, the app also offers paper trading functionality with real-time data. This simulates the investment experience before committing any of your real money.

And for making a qualifying deposit, the app pays you to give it a spin by offering free stocks for signing up. Young & the Invested has an exclusive promotion offering an additional five free shares for making qualifying deposits in your new Moomoo accounts. This means by using our link, you can get an extra five stocks above other offers that provide only 10 free stocks.

If you want a professional-grade, technical analysis-enabling platform for research and trading, Moomoo would be a solid choice to consider. (Note: Moomoo’s parent company is Nasdaq-listed Futu Holdings Ltd (FUTU). Their subsidiaries are licensed and regulated in the United States, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong.)

 

14. Webull (Free Stock Analysis App)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Free trades, in-app stock analysis tools

Webull is a commission-free stock trading app that focuses on traders who utilize technical analysis.

Webull offers not only commission-free trading to its users, but also a significant number of technical research resources for individuals looking to invest in stocks, bonds, options, and cryptocurrencies.

One such example is a free three-month trial of NASDAQ TotalView Level 2 Advance quotes, which provide a real-time sense of how deep the market for a security is, the pending trade offers at various bids and asks, and whether market momentum might shift in favor of higher or lower stock prices. After three months, users can subscribe to the service for a low monthly fee of $1.99/mo.

You can also tap the app’s built-in community for stock ideas based on recent market developments. Power users who openly post their trading activity on the platform sometimes provide ample ideas for stocks to research further.

You can use the tools on the app to review charts, read news stories, track stocks and review any summary-level research activity published by Wall Street analysts.

For those interested in using this self-directed investing app for market analysis and investing, it offers the following technical indicators:

• Exponential moving averages (several timeframes)
• Bollinger Bands
• Money Flow Index
• MACD
• RSI

For those looking to rely on fundamental analysis to inform their investing strategies, Webull offers the following fundamental research tools:

• Financial and stock news
• Corporate and market press releases
• Analyst recommendations, estimates and price targets
• Historical and projected earnings per share (EPS)
• Revenue and earnings data
• Insider holdings and transactions
• Financial calendars
• Stock screeners
• Watchlist and alerts

Additionally, Webull also offers margin loans to traders, extended-hours trading, customer service through email and chat, as well as the ability to sell stocks short. As a bonus for opening your account, if you deposit a nominal amount of money you can also earn free stocks.

Read more in our Webull review.

 

15. Scanz (formerly EquityFeed Workstation)

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• Available: Sign up for 7-day free trial
• Best for:Stock scanning, real-time data, and news

The most acclaimed feature of Scanz (formerly EquityFeed Workstation) is the “FilterBuilder.” With this tool, you can filter and pick stocks based on your desired criteria, including value, growth, momentum, even penny stocks.

Scanz offers search tools and robust market data. The “pattern recognition” tool sends alerts when stocks are making new highs or lows, breaking volume averages, and more. Unfortunately, this trading software doesn’t offer backtesting or automated trading.

Scanz is a powerful stock trading software platform and is one of the best options on this list. Consider starting a free trial to see how effective the service can be.

 

16. Finviz

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Free stock analysis platform features

Finviz is a stock analysis and stock screener software with both a free version and a paid premium version.

The free version of Finviz, which is ad-supported, is one of the most powerful free stock screeners you’ll find. Investors can screen for metrics broad and narrow, from country, stock exchange and market capitalization to quick ratio, sales growth over the past five years, and insider transactions. You can even screen for various technical indicators, including common simple moving averages, RSI, and even various chart patterns.

Once your stocks are displayed, you can view dozens of data points, including numerous valuation metrics—P/E, P/B, price-to-sales (P/S) and price-to-free-cash-flow (P/FCF), among others—earnings per share (EPS) estimates, short-selling data, and performance figures.

And a tip for investors who simply love watching the market: Finviz’s “heat maps” illustrate performance from the S&P 500, full U.S. stock market, world stocks, even ETFs in an engaging visual format that allows you to drill down into each individual stock or fund.

Simply opening a free registered account with Finviz will also allow you to add 50 screener presets and customize your layout. But if you sign up for the paid Finviz*Elite, you can unlock premium features, including (but not limited to):

• Real-time quotes and data
• Pre-market and after-market stock data
• Backtesting
• Email alerts
• Fundamental charts
• 100 portfolios per user and 100 tickers per portfolio
• 200 screener presets
• Officer information

Consider signing up and starting a subscription. If you’re not satisfied, you can request a full refund within the first 30 days of subscribing. Also, by becoming a Finviz*Elite member, you can remove all ads from your platform.

 

17. TC2000

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Stock charting, technical indicators

TC2000 is an easy-to-install stock screening and scanner software that allows you to build watch lists, follow stock news, receive stock alerts, conduct stock scans, and sort and make personal notes on stock opportunities.

The heart and soul of TC2000 is the service’s Condition Wizard. The tool allows you to build for any condition you might think of on any indicator, step-by-step. The investment software provides more than 70 technical indicators with 10 drawing tools. While this doesn’t require formula writing, you can develop your own and watch “flex” conditions unfold over time.

TC2000 features more than 70 technical indicators with 10 drawing tools. TC2000 does have backtesting, but if especially powerful backtesting is important to you, you might need to look elsewhere.

Please note: The company’s brokerage services are $4.95 per trade, I’d recommend signing up for TradeStation or another free trading app to execute trades.

 

18. E*Trade

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Stock options analysis

E*Trade is another app that lets you trade stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and options, and it will also educate you about the stock market along the way. E*Trade provides access to Bloomberg TV®, breaking news, and third-party research.

The analysis tools are simply designed and allow you to determine the probabilities of an option trade within moments.

Browse interactive charts and streaming quotes, and view stock earnings, dividends, and more.

 

19. Pilot Trading

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: AI-powered market anticipation

Pilot Trading uses psychology-based AI algorithms that monitor market participants for real time trading flows.

The trading platform detects market direction and attempts to anticipate when the market will reverse direction, allowing you to monetize this insight for your stock research.

The app follows more than 60,000 securities and provides active swing trade alerts for them.

You can connect the stock analysis app to your broker for direct in-app trading to see your moves in action. The service integrates with a number of brokers, including TradeStation, featured earlier on this list.

To use the service, download and install the app with your free 14-day trial, create your watchlist to track real-time AI-driven sentiment, then receive opportunities for making emotion-free and data-driven trades.

 

20. Thinkorswim by TD Ameritrade

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• Available: Sign up here
• Best for: Access to asset classes and technical analysis

This trading app for the brokerage TD Ameritrade gives you access to trading stocks, options, futures, and foreign exchange (forex).

All tradable assets have comprehensive charts. You can set views to line charts, Japanese candlesticks, bar charts, and more. You also can easily change time frames to see both short- and longer-term trends.

Thinkorswim has a vast educational section and live chat support. It also allows you to practice trading without risking real money, which is another excellent way to educate yourself and build experience.

Because TD Ameritrade is highly reputable and regulated, it’s an excellent option for traders hesitant about investing.

 

21. eSignal

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• Available: eSignal
• Best for: Traders who want numerous technical indicators

eSignal is comprehensive stock trading software with research capabilities and advanced charting. Users have access to global coverage of stocks, bonds, funds, derivatives, forex, and alert features.

eSignal has different levels of complexity and is available at various price points depending on how many features you want.

Upgraded tiers allow you to download data, see extended histories, and conduct backtesting.

Best Stock Research and Analysis Apps, Tools and Websites

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Now that you know more about these investment research and analysis apps, you can choose the best stock market research app and best stock analysis app for your needs.

Investor Peter Lynch once said, “If you don’t study any companies, you have the same success buying stocks as you do in a poker game if you bet without looking at your cards.” To excel in the stock market, you need to put in some work.

Investing in stock market research and analysis apps and software may seem like an unnecessary expense, but if you play your cards right, they can make you far more money than they cost. If you’re going to play the stock market, look at your cards.

How Do I Find the Best Stocks?

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Finding the best stocks can take work through use of screeners, strict profitability and performance criteria, as well as projections for understanding where a stock might go.

Services mentioned below can help you to uncover the best assets to invest in. Consider using one or two (maybe even three) to find those best stocks to buy.

Of special note are Seeking Alpha Premium and two services from Motley Fool above. All of these have outperformed the S&P 500 significantly, leading them to be great at finding long-term stock buys to hold in your portfolio.