In this FinViz review you’re going to find how this screener & scanner tool is a great time saver the next time you’re looking for that special stock that fits specific criteria. Let’s face it. We are living in a unique time. A time in which everything you ever wanted to know is available to you. All it takes is a few simple strokes of the keyboard.
Within 10 seconds you can type in your question. As a result, an answer magically appears on your screen. More often than not, it can feel like you’re drinking from the proverbial fire hose of information with no idea whether or not the water is safe to drink. I can recall in my early days of trading. I had so much information coming at me. As you can imagine, I was almost paralyzed with inaction. How does one go about filtering all the information on a stock? Finviz stock screener is the answer. See for yourself and download the Finviz App.
FinViz, short for financial visualizations, is one of the most popular browser-based stock screener and research site for the stock market. The free version is very useful to both traders and investors alike. For a fee, users can access the elite version of the Finviz app.
It offers a vast array of scanning functionality. There are fundamental filters like EPS growth and insider ownership. There are technical filters like candlestick patterns and distance from moving average. There’s also descriptive filters like short interest and analyst consensus.
How Do You Use Finviz Stock Screener?
- Use it’s custom scanning for day trading or swing trading
- The Heat map is useful for tracking stock sectors and finding a focus
- Use the top Gainers scanner for building daily watch lists
- Fundamental filters for EPS growth and insider ownership
- Utilize all 60 individual criteria filters to narrow it down to the perfect setups
Why Do People Use Scanners?
The job of stock trading scanners is to narrow down the list of stocks that correspond to your exact needs. Maybe you’re only interested in stocks that are up 20% from open. Scanners and watch lists are very helpful for helping you FOCUS on your trade. Do not overlook them, and try it before you knock it.
Maybe it’s stocks under $10 or stocks that are having earnings in the next week. The Finviz app can help you eliminate any unsafe stock options. As a result, you avoid missing out on profitable opportunities that are your style.
However, there are plenty of stock screeners out there. Therefore, knowing which one to choose can be daunting. Because of this, we are going to do a stock screener FinViz review and and show you why the Finviz app rocks.
The Finviz scanner has been attracting a lot of attention lately. We thought it’s only appropriate to explore how it can help you turn down the fire hose of information.
Macro View of the Market
FinViz scanner boasts that their platform is used by a multitude of investment banks. In fact, banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. Hedge funds like SAC Capital also use them.
It has great tools to quickly establish a macro view of the market. FinViz has beautiful charts and advanced technical analysis tools. Keep reading to see how this screener can work for you! Check out a list of the top trading companies.
How Good is Finviz?
Finviz is a good scanner overall. It’s more of a mid-range priced scanner but it does the trick. They have both a free and paid scanner. It offers the necessary customization that’s required for scanning.
60 Individual Criteria
The Finviz scanner feature is where they really shine. What impressed me the most was the sheer number of filters one can apply for FREE! Traders and investors can easily choose from over 60 individual criteria. As a result, you’ll receive every stock that fits their criteria.
You can choose to search based on price, beta, specific candlestick pattern, market cap, RSI, average volume, float short, sector or shares outstanding. The signal drop down includes the patterns as well as Top Gainers/Losers, Insider Buying, Unusual Volume and much more.
The charts show trend channels and 50/200 period simple moving averages. Results can be displayed by symbols, charts or snapshots. These include fundamentals, news, and company summaries along with technical charts.
Save Time
The list goes on and on depending on your specific style of investing. The best part is that you can save your search criteria for later use. Build your custom scans and save them for later or share them with your friends! Here’s one of my favorite settings for what I call “pinch plays”.
This saves traders countless hours they would have spent performing manual chart scans. As such, this is deemed as a very powerful tool for investors looking to buy and sell stocks at optimum times.
Search by Pattern – Float – Sector
The list goes on and on depending on your specific style of investing. The best part is that you can save your search criteria for later use. Build your custom scans and save them for later or share them with your friends! Here’s one of my favorite settings for what I call “pinch plays”.
This saves traders countless hours they would have spent performing manual chart scans. As such, this is deemed as a very powerful tool for investors looking to buy and sell stocks at optimum times.
What Is the Best Stock Screener?
Finviz Heat Map Review
FinViz scanner has a feature known as a heat map.The heat map located on the homepage, you can’t miss it. It gives users a quick, birds-eye view of whats going on in the market. It’s divided into the various sectors from tech, financial, services to healthcare.
If you’re wanting to know how a particular company such as Apple is doing, simply hover over the AAPL ticker in consumer goods. Then double click to get all the stock information. You’re even able to zoom in and out with your mouse too!
FinViz scanner also provides the user with news headlines from industry leading news providers like CNN, Bloomberg, MarketWatch.com, BBC, The New York Times and CNBC. So all the big name news sites will keep you up to date.
On the same page, you have news from industry leading blogs such as ZeroHedge.com, MarketRealist.com and Calculated Risk. These sources can provide some useful information, whether you are a bull or a bear, there’s plenty to sink your teeth into.
Who Uses Finviz?
Both professional traders and investors will not only find FinViz useful for regular information, but also a powerful tool to find stocks. Sometimes it could be stocks that are in the news and sometimes they are stocks seeing increased volume or volatility.
As a stock screener, FinViz scanner is of most value to stock and equity index traders. While it’s of far more value to traders of individual stocks, those who trade index futures, options and ETFs do find it useful. They can see what is driving index price levels.
- Day traders use Finviz to find stocks that other day traders will be focusing on. This could be due to a sudden increase in volume or insider trading activity
- Swing traders can use the FinViz app to find stocks that are oversold, or overbought, but trading within a clearly defined channel. Because of this, the stock market scanner is ideal to identify new trading ideas.
- Momentum traders can find the stocks that have performed best over a predetermined period.
- Technical traders can use the stock finder to find stocks that have crossed moving averages or are setting up classical chart patterns. This is especially helpful for beginners to save time during technical analysis.
Screening Based on Strategy
If you’re a trader that likes to trade based on certain news (think a stock that had a sudden rise in institutional ownership) or likes to find stocks that conform to certain fundamental characteristics (ie. earnings date), FinViz excels. Investors can also use the site to combine technical and fundamental criteria, or to time their entries and exits using price action. Take a look at how FinViz can be used based on your investment style:
Strategy
- Value investors are able to identify undervalued stocks by using price to earnings ratios, price to book ratios, and other similar valuation measures.
- Growth investors can use the stock market trading scanner to find stocks with high earning growth rates, or stocks that have been recently upgraded.
- Momentum investors can use price performance to identify stocks with momentum, and then filter by quality, earnings growth or value. This can be helpful for investors to find new trading ideas.
- Penny stocks investors that focus on small companies can use FinViz as a penny stock screener by filtering by market cap. They can use the stock market scanner to find the best penny stocks on the market.
- Dividend investors can find stocks with high dividend yields, and then filter a list further to weed out low quality stocks. This is ideal for investors who are looking to build a portfolio for passive income.
How Much Does Finviz Cost? (Pricing Review)
Finviz Elite is $24.96 per month. Their yearly pricing is $299.50. Yearly discount available.
There are three types of membership plans: Free, Registered Free and Elite which are outlined in the picture below from their website. The free and registered plan provides 3-5 minute maps with a delay and group screens with no intraday charts or portfolios and screener presets. It’s free to register and you have access to 50 screener presets, portfolio tickers and daily charts.
At the time of this review the prices are as follows, for $39.50 a month or $299.50 for the annual pre-payment plan you can have access to the FINVIZ*Elite Plan.
With this you get real-time and pre-market quotes, advanced charting, screening with intraday charting, technical studies, back tests, correlation tracking stocks, e-mail alerts and up to 100 portfolios, tickers and screener presets. Paying this also hides the pesky advertisements. This is a fantastic stock training tool.1. Areas for Improvement for Finviz
One of the main disadvantages of FinViz is the inability to customize the screening parameters. If you’re wanting to run a scan for stocks that are up a certain percentage in the day, you’re limited to choices such as +5% and +10%. You’re unable to scan for values such as 3% like you can in Trade Ideas.
Finviz Stock Price and Symbol: Are They Publicly Traded?
Investors cannot purchase shares of Finviz because the company is privately held.
Is Finviz Elite Worth It?
Finviz Elite is only $24.95 per month so it’s definitely worth the cost for what it offers. Other scanners cost $150+ per month, so this screener is great for budget conscious traders.
I also wouldn’t mind further drilling down of the elite version. Let me scan just for “potstocks“.
For those of you who are momentum day traders you may find FinViz is limiting due to their data speed. It’s great for nightly scanning but their data feed may keep you out of the quick intraday movers. On a side note, FinViz doesn’t have the ability to run historical scans so you’ll be unable to back test your strategies.2. Final Thoughts: Finviz Review
The Finviz app is a user-friendly stock scanning tool that all traders and investors both new and seasoned should have in their trading toolbox.
As you advance in your trading journey you’ll probably want to consider forking out a bit of cash for access to additional screening parameters and real-time data. In today’s day and age, it’s all about the user interface, and data. And Finviz is a leader in both regards.
