Finviz Review: A 2024 Walkthrough of Elite and Free Plans

Finviz is a toolbox for investors and traders in the US markets, offering stock screeners, news feeds, portfolio management, stock charts, and more. Our Finviz review below outlines both their free and Elite plans, providing the details you need to decide whether it will help you or not.

What Is Finviz?

Finviz is a comprehensive toolbox for investors and traders with a focus on US markets. This stock market portal offers many features, from stock screeners news feeds, portfolio management, stock charts, and more.

Finviz’s mission is to provide leading financial research, analysis, and visualization to its users.

Given the amount of information available, the website is remarkably easy to use. Although it looks dated from a user interface perspective, it loads quite fast, which is great if you’re constantly trying to find information to act on.

Finviz’s stock screener is one of the most popular screeners available today. In fact, Finviz is used extensively by beginner and professional traders, including investment firms.

Who Uses Finviz?

I know it sounds like a cliche, but Finviz can indeed be used by both beginners and experienced investors and traders. There are several reasons for this.

Finviz’s feature set includes both fundamentals and technical indicators. That means it does cater to a large audience.

It’s screener, for example, allows us to look for companies that meet certain criteria. Experienced traders might use it to search for companies that are about to make a technical move. For example, they could look for oversold stocks based on their RSI.

Experienced investors might also use its insider feature, for example, which tracks stock movements from executives at publicly listed companies. This might give them an indication if they are committed to the business by purchasing more stock or simply dumping their stock allocations and therefore give us a warning signal.

Furthermore, novice investors might use it to track their portfolios and check the news on their favorite stocks.

As per Finviz’s page, the tool is also used by professional investment bankers at reputable institutions such as Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, among others.

What Do I Get With Finviz’s Free Tier?

One thing that’s immediately obvious when browsing the free version of Finviz is that there are ads. That said, there are only a few, and it doesn’t really impact the experience that much.

It’s entirely understandable that they chose to include ads, as it’s hard to monetise such a comprehensive set of free features.

Below, we will go into detail on all the free features available on Finviz for free.

Homepage

The homepage on Finviz, although crowded, gives us a sneak peek of a few very interesting features.

It shows how major indices such as the DOW are performing. Below that, it shows the top gainers and losers of the day.

If you look closely, it shows a list of stocks where Finviz detected a technical signal worth noting. I find this feature fabulous, as it saves lots of time when looking for stocks with the right technical setup for a trade.

There’s a small map to the right with the several industries and sectors in the S&P 500 index. This vizualisation is a great way to assess how the markets are behaving.

There are a few more bits and pieces, but this is really just an entry point to more detailed features in Finviz.

Screener

This is by far one of the best stock screeners out there. It’s incredibly fast and powerful, and the different views over the results make it an invaluable tool for any serious trader or investor.

There are three types of filters: descriptive, fundamental and technical.

Descriptive Filters

The descriptive filters are the basic set of filters around exchanges, market cap, dividend yield, industry, country, etc. They are the first ones we use to narrow down the results page.

Fundamental Filters

The fundamentals’ filters go into detail about financials and derived ratios. It allows investors to filter tickers based on the basic P/E ratio, sales growth, margins, EPS growth and so forth. It also allows us to filter by insider and institutional ownership, and other metrics of importance to those doing fundamental analysis.

Technical Filters

Finally, there are also technical filters available. The majority of these filters are well known and include moving averages, RSI, volatility, and percentage change. However, some other filters are quite unique and powerful.

These include candlesticks and patterns.

It is possible to look for stocks with a known candlestick like a doji and inverted hammer, or even use your own custom candlesticks for Elite users.

Results Visualisation

Once we filter the stocks by any of the filters above, we can decide how we want to visualize the results.

Here, we can choose to see them in a number of ways by choosing one of the following tabs:

• Overview – this displays very basic information about each ticker, such as name, industry, sector and market cap;
• Valuation – this tab displays mostly derived ratios about each ticker, such as P/E and PEG ratios;
• Financial – this tab shows the most important financial indicators for each ticker, if available, such as gross margins, dividend yield, and profit margins;
• Ownership – in this tab, we can look for details on the number of outstanding shares, institutional ownership, and short ratio;
• Performance – it offers a good overview of the past performance of each ticker, together with some volatility and volume information;
• Technical – many of the raw technical indicators are shown on this tab, including 20, 50 and 200-day simple moving averages, 52-week lows/highs and RSI;
• Charts – if you’re looking for technical patterns, then this tab is for you. With it, you can quickly glance over the chats of all the tickers that match your search criteria in order to spot interesting trades. For the trained eye, this is a great way to analyze a large number of tickers and filter down to only a few tradable names;
• Ticker – a visual representation of tickers based on their performance. Hovering over each ticker shows a small chart with more detail;
• Basic – in this view, we see both a technical chart and a small table with fundamentals, both side-by-side, for each ticker;
• TA – similar to the view above, where we see a technical chart and a small table with technicals side-by-side, for each ticker;
• News – this view contains the same information as the Basic tab, plus specific news for each of the tickers;
• Snapshot – besides the information in the News view, this view also includes a description of the ticker and insider trading information;
• Custom – in this view, you can customize what you want to see and save the view for future uses.

As you can see, this is indeed a very powerful screener. The added search based on technical patterns and candles makes it a very valuable tool for traders.

News

The news section is split between news and blog posts. Both are from curated sources, which guarantees a certain degree of quality.

Although in this section you will find news for every company, you can also see news for a specific company when you search for it.

If you search for a stock like Apple (use its ticker AAPL in the search bar), you will see, among other things, news specific to Apple. This is great because you can keep track of what’s happening with the stocks you care about.

Maps

This is a wonderful feature in Finviz. Maps are a high-level visualization that shows the price change of stocks per sector and industry. Furthermore, the size of each box represents the market capitalization of those stocks, sectors, and industries relative to one another.

The image above is a representation of the S&P 500 index. Besides that, we can also see a World map with foreign ADR stocks listed on NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX.

It is also possible to see the same map visualization with ETFs. In this case, instead of market cap, the size represents a 3-month average dollar volume.

Besides the map view, you can also change to a bubbles view, which plots the individual stocks by sector and their change over time. There are many filters on this chart, to narrow down the view.

I use this visualisation to understand how sectors are performing over time. This information is important to understand if markets are displaying weakness or strength as a whole.

Groups

Following on from maps, groups provide another holistic view of stocks by sector, market cap or industry. When looking at individual stocks and ETFs, it’s important to consider how their group is performing. That allows us to understand where assets are positioned in relation to their peers.

This view allows us to compare the valuation, performance and even charts of groups of stocks.

As an example, you can compare P/E ratios of all S&P500 sectors. Furthermore, you can see the performance of the different sectors over different periods of time.

This visualisation is extremely helpful to assess current market conditions across different industries and sectors, in order to understand trends in the markets.

It also allows us to drill down into individual stocks and ETFs by linking directly to the stock screener, activating the relevant filters.

Portfolio

Another interesting feature in Finviz is the Portfolio tool. With this tool, investors can build their portfolio by inserting which stocks and ETFs they bought or sold, when that happened and at what price.

Once we input that data, Finviz will keep track of our overall P&L and also individual changes in every ticker we add to our portfolio.

On top of that, Finviz will also display context-specific news for all tickers in our porfolio, grouped by day. This is a great way to keep track of important news related to the stocks and ETFs we purchase.

Insider

The insider trading feature keeps track of transactions executed by executives and directors at publicly listed companies.

This is a great way to assess how executives perceive their own companies’ stock. If too many executives at a company are selling their own stock in large proportions, that could be interpreted as a negative sign. However, if they are actually purchasing more stock, that could be seen as a bullish indicator.

As you can see above, Finviz uses color-coding to show which transactions are a sell transaction (in red), which ones are a buy transaction (in green), and which ones are an exercise in options (white).

This is a generic view, though. It includes all transactions regardless of the company. For insider movement on particular stocks, you can see that information when you click or search for a stock and go into the stock page. More details on that below.

Futures, Forex & Crypto

I have grouped these 3 categories because of their similarities in terms of interface. Let’s explore the 3.

The Futures feature shows a number of prices and charts covering futures in indices, energy, bonds, softs, metals, meats, grains and currencies.

For each type of futures contract, we can see quotes, their relative performance, and individual charts, which are static on the free tier, but interactive in the Elite tier.

The same applies to Forex. Finviz tracks the most relevant currency pairs like EUR/USD, GBP/USD and Gold. The functionality available is the same as above: we can see the quotes, relative performance and individual charts.

Finally, Finviz also tracks the most relevant cryptocurrencies available. In this feature, we can follow the price of Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) against USD, EUR and BTC.

Search

We don’t normally go into too much detail as explaining the search functionality of tools. But with Finviz we feel we have to do it for one simple reason: Finviz’s search is incredibly fast. We can search a ticker, company name, or any particular profile and get an instantaneous list of results.

Clicking in a result gets us to the page of the profile we’re looking for instantaneously.

Assets Page

We can get to an asset page by either clicking on tickers throughout Finviz’s website or by searching for a ticker, company, or asset profile.

A profile page for a specific ticker includes a number of important data, which is tailored to the type of ticker you searched for.

Let’s go into detail about each section.

Technical Charts

The technical chart, which is static in the free version, but dynamic in the Elite tier.

For users in the Elite tier, this chart can be customized by type (candle, line, etc), the time frame can be changed and we can create alerts. It is also possible to change settings and publish custom charts.

Fundamentals

Fundamental data, which is a comprehensive table displaying all sorts of fundamentals for the company, some of which are color-coded so quickly glance at the health of certain indicators.

It is also possible to access public financial statements for each ticker, which is a basic link to MarketWatch.

Analysts Rating

Another key piece of information that Finviz displays are a sorted list of analysts’ ratings for the profile page you’re on.

As you can see above, the list is sorted by date and it includes the recommendation of a number of analysts, their name and the price target.

Although the list is static and doesn’t provide any analytics on top, it’s quite useful to determine current market sentiment.

Tailored News and Social Media Sentiment

Furthermore, there’s a list of news specific to the ticker we are on, sorted by date, from reputable news sources.

This is a great way to keep yourself up-to-date with what’s been written about this specific asset without all of the noise of generic news services.

Alongside it, it’s possible to see what other traders and investors are talking about on Stocktwits, which is a twitter-like social media service for markets.

Insider Trading

Finally, if you’re on a stock page, you will be able to see a list of insider trading according to public information available in the SEC filings. This is a good way to assess how top executives think of their stock by monitoring their sales and purchases of stock for the company they run.

What Do I Get With Finviz’s Elite Tier?

By now, you’re familiar with all the free features that Finviz offers. The list is huge, but make no mistake – Finviz’s strength lies with its Elite tier.

Besides a much better ad-free layout, Finviz Elite brings a large number of premium features that are a must for anyone that trades on a daily basis for a living.

Realtime Data and Extended Hours

When you trade for a living, access to real-time data is key. With Finviz Elite, you get access to real-time data for US markets.

That is visible in the homepage, the maps, charts, stock quote and the stock screener.

Besides, there is also access to extended hours sessions from 8:00AM, for those trading during extended hours.

Advanced Charts

In Finviz’s free tier, the charts are not interactive. In fact, they are simple pictures that convey some details, but are unusable for traders.

With Finviz Elite, charts are interactive and provide charting possibilities that are necessary for performing deep technical analysis.

For example, we have access to Intraday charts, indicators, overlays, drawing tools and performance comparison charts.

Backtests

Another important aspect of trading is to create and evaluate trading strategies before applying them with real money.

Finviz Elite allows us to backtest trading strategies that we can build from their 100+ indicators and 15+ years of historical data.

Correlations

One feature that’s not often seen is the ability to search for correlated or inversely correlated stocks.

This can be used to diversify risk, buy finding inversely correlated stocks, or alternate your positions within your portfolio.

Finviz features proprietary correlation algorithms optimized for financial markets.

Advanced Screener

On top of the many features available on Finviz’s stock screener, with the Elite plan we have access to even more features.

Some of those include the ability to export data, which is neat. Furthermore, we have access to advanced charts, custom filters and finally a statistics view.

With these features, the screener becomes even more powerful than in the free version.

Alerts and Notifications

Finally, one key feature for traders is the ability to receive alerts and notifications. This feature is included in the Elite plan.

We can get instant e-mail notifications for individual stocks and portfolios. For alerts, they are triggered by a number of events, including price, news, portfolio updates and ratings. 

On top of that, we can receive alerts on new stock tickers that fit in a screener criteria.

This feature is key in keeping on top of important pieces of information.

What Could Be Better in Finviz?

So far, we’ve looked into the many features Finviz includes in their product. But what is missing? And what could be better?

Let’s explore a few areas in which Finviz could improve.

Markets

If you’re looking for extensive market coverage, then you will be disappointed. Finviz only covers US markets, so if you’re looking for European or Asian data, you’re out of luck.

They do cover foreign companies, just as long as they trade in US markets. This might be ok for you, if you’re focused on US stocks, but traders looking for exposure to other markets will have to look for alternatives.

Futures

If you are expecting to trade futures, Finviz might not be the right platform for you. Finviz’s futures data has a 20 minute delay, which means you don’t get real-time information to assist you on your trades.

If you only use futures data to gage market sentiment, this might be enough for you. However, if you expect to make money from trading futures, this platform isn’t ideal.

Historical Data

Although Finviz provides historical data that goes back 16 years, that might not be enough if you’re backtesting a particular trading strategy that needs data from a specific period in time.

That said, for the majority of traders, 16 years of historical data is more than enough. If you’re looking to battle-test a trading strategy during the 2000 dot-comm bubble, you’re out of luck.

ETFs

I found it disappointing that there’s little information on ETFs in Finviz. It’s clearly tailored to stocks and most stock tickers are enhanced with many pieces of valuable information.

However, ETFs have very little details shown. We can’t see their holdings, for example, which is a shame.

Mobile

Finviz has no mobile app. On top of that, the website isn’t mobile friendly. This makes the experience of using Finviz on the go quite poor.

That said, most traders do run their business from desktop or laptop computers. But there’s always that time that we’re on the go and it would be useful to access the platform from a mobile device.

Visuals

Finally, although the looks aren’t everything, it’s quite obvious that Finviz could do with a face lift! The website looks old and dated. 

When compared with websites such as TradingView and TrendSpider, it doesn’t look as good. It’s fast, which is an advantage, but I think this is something Finviz should perhaps invest a little bit more into.

Finviz Pricing

The pricing model used by Finviz is quite simple. There are basically two plans to choose from: a free plan and a paid-for plan called Elite.

Within the paid-for plan Elite, you can choose to either pay monthly or annually. The annual subscription fee costs $299.50 and the monthly fee costs $39.50 per month.

As you can see, the annual subscription fee is much more appealing as it is $174.50 cheaper than the monthly one.

Finviz only accepts payments through Paypal. The reason for that is to make sure our credit card and personal information is as secure as possible.

Finally, there are no trial plans available, but the free version gives you access to most features anyway. The key differences between the plans are analysed in this blog post, but the most significant is to do with access to real-time data.

That means you can take your time analyzing the tool in their free plan until you’re ready to commit to the Elite plan.

Finviz Review – Final Thoughts

Up until now, Finviz has been a critical tool for us at FinMasters. In particular, it’s hard to find a better stock screener out there. Given its relatively cheap price compared to the value it yields, it’s a no brainer, and we recommend going for the Elite plan and unlock those extra features.

FAQs

Here are a number of FAQs that summarize some of the points made throughout this article.

Finviz Review

Our rating: 4.3/5

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