The following list of sites are what I have found to be some of the best free resources for disecting the market. Feel free to contact with your favorites and I’ll add them here.
Finding the Hottest Industries
Prophet.net
- Probably the best resource around for locating the best performing industries on various time frames (anywhere from 2days to 5 years)
- Quickly scan the charts of each company from 214 industry groups
- Top 10 best and worst performing industries, including the top 10 best and worst performing stocks in those groups
- Track performcance from 1 week to 5 year
EquityTrader.com
- Very interesting and unique site – ranks current performance and "potential" performance based on fuzzy logic using 54 different criteria
- Not only ranks industries, but the stocks in those industries as well as the overall market
- Developed by the guy who invented Bollinger Bands (John Bollinger)
- Ranks sectors and industries based on 1 day, 5 day or 13 week performance as well as relative strength (to the S&P)
- Provides number of new highs and new lows in each group (good way to confirm strength)
Fundamental Analysis
Real Time Traders – Earnings Estimates Revisions
- Tracks analyst earnings estimates revisions for all stocks
- Buying stock in companies that have upward earnings revisions has been shown to a successful investing strategy
Real Time Traders – Positive Pre Announcements
- List of companies who have revised earnings estimates upward before their earnings date
- Again, this is very positive for a company’s stock price
Yahoo – Finance Analyst Estimates (link uses Google (GOOG) as example)(using Google (GOOG) as example)
- Revenue and earnings estimates for current quarter and year and for the following year
- Earnings history: see if the company has beat analyst expectations in the past
- Earnings revision: see if analysts are revising their estimates upward
Morningstar – Company Snapshot (link uses Google (GOOG) as example)
- The best site around for fundamental analysis
- Grades each stock on Growth, Profitability and Financial Health
- Financial data for the last 10 years
Technical Analysis
- The best site around for creating and annotating charts with various technical indicators
Insider Activity
- Buying by several company insiders could be a sign of good things to come
Real Time Traders Company Buybacks
- Up to date information on company buybacks
- Companies who buy back their own stocks feel their stock is undervalued so it’s important to keep an eye on
Institutions
Morningstar Fund Ownership (again, using Google (GOOG) as an example)
- Lists the funds with the largest positions in the stock and their performance ranking
Quote.com Institutional Activity (Google (GOOG) as the example here)
- Offers individual investors a window into the previously closed world of institutional trading. Before completing large block trades, "big money" traders express their interest by posting "advertising" buy or sell messages, revealing the short -term supply and demand picture for a particular stock
Tools
- A great set of predefined screens are available but you can customize and add your own filters
- It is the best free stock screener that I’m aware of
- The best free portfolio manager available.. nothing compares in my opinion
CBS Market Watch Virtual Stock Exchange
- One of the best "paper trading" free services around letting you trade a virtual portfolio of 1,000,000
- Allows trades on the Nasdaq, Dow and AMEX with stop and limit orders
- Create private competitions or join public competitions
- Just remember: paper trading is not the same as trading with real money – emotions play a big role!
FolioFn – Creating Your Own Mutual Fund
- For a low monthly fee you get a few hundred commission free trades – they only catch is that they are not instant trades (you can get instant trades but they are pricey at 14.95 per trade)
- Allows up to 50 securities in a portfolio
- Great way to create your own diversified portfolio for a low cost
Investing Education
Clearstation Technical Tutorial
- A nice tutorial covering the technical side (available in interactive, html and pdf format)
- Can be separated by beginner, intermediate and advanced
- 6000 financial definitions
- A top – down tutorial guiding you through the details of gauging the health of the overall market, to finding the best performing industries/sectors, to locating the best stock plays
- Highly detailed with specific examples
Stock Market Breaking News
- Many sites charge for this kind of breaking news
- Many news alerts on IPO’s, analyst comments, insider trades, economic data and more available as RSS feeds or email alerts
- I highly recommend it