Tools we actually use
Everything on this site is built from a short list of free sources. Here is each one, what it is good for, what it is not, and how we use it, so you can go to the source yourself.
Nobody paid to be on this page. Each tool is listed because this site or its owner uses it, and each entry says how. If a link ever earns us a referral fee it will say "affiliate link" in the link text and here. Today none does.
Yahoo Finance
Free quotes, company statistics, earnings dates and analyst estimates for almost every listed stock.
How we use it: Every price, market cap, dividend yield, earnings date and analyst target on this site is read from Yahoo Finance, then checked against a plausible range before it is shown.
Good for
- Looking up one company: price, key statistics, the next earnings date and what analysts expect
- A free watchlist that syncs between the phone app and the website
- Historical prices you can download as a spreadsheet
Not good for
- Reading the news there: the feed mixes wire stories with sponsored and syndicated pieces, and the site is heavy with ads
- Understanding why something moved: the numbers are there, the explanation is not
Cost: Free with ads. A paid tier adds research reports and fewer ads; we do not use it.
Open Yahoo Finance →Reddit (r/stocks, r/wallstreetbets, r/investing)
The largest open forums where retail investors discuss individual stocks in public.
How we use it: The "what Reddit is discussing" line in The Market in 5 Minutes counts which tickers are mentioned most across these forums each day. We read attention, not opinions.
Good for
- Seeing which stocks retail investors are talking about right now, before it shows up in the news
- Earnings-day threads, where reactions arrive within minutes of the report
Not good for
- Deciding anything: a loud thread is attention, not information, and the loudest posts are often wrong
- Company fundamentals, which are better read from the filing or a data site
Cost: Free.
Open Reddit (r/stocks, r/wallstreetbets, r/investing) →SEC EDGAR
The US regulator’s free archive of every filing a listed company must make: annual and quarterly reports, insider trades, ownership changes.
How we use it: When a story cites a filing, the filing is the source we check it against. Our guide to reading an earnings report is written from the 10-Q layout.
Good for
- The primary source when a headline says "according to a filing"
- Insider buying and selling (Form 4), which no news site reports completely
- Risk factors and guidance in the company’s own words
Not good for
- Beginners in a hurry: the search is unfriendly and a 10-K runs to a hundred pages
- Anything outside the United States
Cost: Free.
Open SEC EDGAR →Comparing the paid options?
We have not used the paid research sites enough to list them here. These guides compare them honestly from a beginner's point of view:
Nobody paid to be on this page. Each tool is listed because this site or its owner uses it, and each entry says how. If a link ever earns us a referral fee it will say "affiliate link" in the link text and here. Today none does. Our advertising and affiliate rules are on the how it works page.