Finviz is a popular free stock screener tool that helps traders and investors quickly find stocks to buy and sell. The basic version offers a few key tools to get an idea what is going on in the stock market, and you can get started using the software online right away for free.
But first, it’s important to learn the basics of stock screeners and how to use Finviz. In addition, we’ve also included information on how to get the most out of FINVIZ and shared a review of the free stock screener software.
- Check out the free Finviz stock screener.
What is a stock screener?
Stock screeners are what many investors and traders use to evaluate large groups of stocks that share common characteristics.
Stock screens are an easy way to find stocks that meet certain criteria using filters that can sort market cap, P/E ratio, dividend yield, average volume, price, average ROI, and many other financial ratios or customized criteria.
How do stock screeners work?
Stock screeners track the most current stock prices and financial ratios by communicating with market exchanges and updating the information in real time based on changes in the market.
Why use a stock screener?
Stock screeners are an incredible tool that help you make better investment decisions faster. They help save you time by quickly going through thousands and thousands of stocks in a short amount of time.
Depending on the criteria you set, you can view data sets that include hundreds or thousands of stocks and analyze them very quickly.
Finviz Platform
Finvis is a free online stock screener. You can access the information from a desktop, tablet, or on your mobile phone.
The Finviz platform offers three different membership programs that each have a different set of tools, with the main platform being absolutely free for anyone to use.
The free version of Finviz includes the latest financial updates and news, market maps, charts, tools, and portfolio tracking. In addition to equity markets, you can also access data for the futures, forex, and crypto markets.
How to use Finviz for beginners
Here’s a quick guide on how to start out and use the free version of Finviz.
- Visit Finviz.
- You have the option to create an account, or you can use it without an account but you’ll have fewer features available.
As a guest, you can explore the site and access most features. Market quotes are available with a 15 minute delay.
By signing up for a free account, you have the ability to save portfolios and filter individual securities utilizing a wide range of financial ratios and company characteristics.
Navigating the Main Features
- Once you’re on the website, you can check out the navigation bar that’s underneath the search bar at the top of the screen. Click on the “Screener” button in the navigation bar to get to the screener page.
- On this page, you will see over 7,000 ticker symbols without any filters set, so you can narrow down this list of tickers by setting filters. For instance, you can look for a price less than $20 a share and an average daily trading volume of greater than 500,000.
- After setting some parameters, you will see fewer ticker symbols in your list. You can check out categories of companies under the Descriptive tab. You can select by Sector and choose an industry such as “Technology” for instance.
- Once you’ve set as many filters you want, you can view the chart views of these stocks by clicking “Charts.” This will help you analyze any patterns in stock prices quickly.
- If you’re looking for any particular patterns in the charts, you can filter for those as well by selecting the “Technical” tab, which will reveal this filter.
Finviz Elite
Finviz Elite includes extra features and real-time market data. Elite offers a completely ad-free experience with premium features for just $24.96 per month.
Notable features included with Elite are highlighted below:
- RealtimeQuotes, Charts, Screening
- RealtimeMaps, Groups
- Intraday Charts
- Advanced Charts, Technical Studies
- Technical Studies Backtests
- Fundamental Charts
- Email Alerts
- Correlations
- 100 Portfolios per User
- 100 Tickers per Portfolio
- 100 Screener Presets
- 100 Screener Rows per Page (table / charts / snapshots)
- Screener Export
- Screener Custom Ranges, Stats View
- Layout Customization
- No Ads
Finviz Basic vs. Elite
You may be wondering if FINVIZ Elite is worth the money. After all, the basic version is completely free! However, these are some of the features that FINVIZ Elite has, in addition to all of the basic version’s features:
- Real-time and Premarket Data: Unlike the basic version, Elite offers real-time data and premarket data, so you can make the best decisions immediately before the rest of the basic users do.
- Advanced Charts: You can get deeper analyses and insight through intraday charts, overlays and indicators, drawing tools, and performance comparison charts that Finviz Elite offers.
- Backtests: You can get more advanced profitability research through 100 technical indicators and 16 years of historical data.
- Correlations: Finviz algorithms help you find correlated or inversely correlated stocks, diversify risk, and alternate your position quickly.
- Advanced Screener: This enhanced product also offers data export, advanced charts, customized filters, and statistics view.
- Notifications: You’ll know immediately through email about changes in news, portfolios, ratings, prices, screener criteria, all according to the notification settings you set.
The Value of a Good Stock Screener
In the past, a quality stock screener required access to a Bloomberg Terminal or access to a quality screener through an online broker.
The biggest issue with the screeners available through an online broker were the tools were more limited and didn’t offer the ability to screen stocks using more customized filtering options.
Finviz offers a really nice screening tool that provides users with an amazing amount of financial ratios and standard financial metrics that can be utilized to save a variety of screening criteria.
The one drawback of the free platform is the ads. The videos and other ads do slow down the website and make the screening process a bit slower.
By using Finviz Elite, you have access to real-time data, premium financial tools, and an add-free user experience.
- Try the Finviz Stock Screener.
