Free Resources for Research

Hey Gang,

I saw a post not too long ago talking about articles and information behind paywalls, so it gave me the idea to post a list of all the free resources I use when researching and what I use them for. These are in no particular order, I am just copy/pasting them from my own bookmarked folder, so sorry if it feels like I'm jumping around a bit. Enjoy!

• Yahoo Finance – Basic stock/ETF information, financials going a few years back, historic performance, dividend and split history available on the chart.
• Macrotrends – More in depth financials with many stocks going 10+ years back, can break it down either annually or quarterly. Also hovering over each line item will produce a chart so its easier to comprehend the data. Can also look at historical interest rates, inflation, certain commodities, mortgage rates, etc.
• Seeking Alpha (can't post the link cause the mods got mad at me) – Can be informative to read opinion articles of what others are saying about a stock/fund, especially around earnings time. Obviously use caution because there are a lot of idiots that are allowed to write on this website. Seeking Alpha also usually publishes earnings calls transcripts for most stocks. Emphasis on usually and most lol. I only have a free account but once I run out of free articles I am usually able to put the link to an article through a paywall remover (SEE 12ft Ladder BELOW). I find it beneficial to have the app with at least the stocks I own set as a watchlist so I get price/earnings alerts. For someone who doesn't pay the most attention to the markets on a daily basis it is really helpful.
• Slickcharts – Metrics on certain indices. I don't use this one often but sometimes I like to see where the weights are of different companies in the S&P 500. If you're looking for a certain company on the list you can CTRL + F to search for that stock. Also if you're doing any sort of experiment/backtest and need a random stock you can google a random number generator 1-500 and go to that number in the S&P 500.
• Finviz – Index maps, bubble charts, screeners. Can break it down by sector, industry, certain dividend yield, certain payout ratio, etc. All free. You could upgrade to premium but I don't really see a point tbh. Also if you screen you can sort by custom metrics.
• dqydj.com – Almost any backtesting calculator you could ever want. You can put in starting amount and even recurring contributions if you so choose. I see a lot of people recommending portfoliovisualizer for backtesting. I honestly haven't tried it because I don't do a lot of backtesting (yknow that old saying, something about past performance and future results), but if portfoliovisualizer works better for the crowd then by all means ignore this one.
• Multpl – A lot more index metrics. I use this one more than Slickcharts when looking at historical market metrics. Pick your poison I guess.
• Open Insider – I think a lot of people know about this one. Basically just compiles every Form 4 for every public company. All insider buys/sells as they are reported. I had used a couple different websites prior to hearing about Open Insider, but I exclusively use this one now. It's the best that I've seen for insider trading information.
• Motley Fool – I basically only use them for the occasional earnings call transcript that I can't find elsewhere. I personally think their opinion articles usually suck and don't get me started about “THIS STOCK COULD 10X IN THE NEXT 3 DAYS BUY NOW BEFORE ITS TOO LATE” lol.
• CAGR Calculator – I use this for looking at average historical growth. Could be anything, earnings, dividends, stock price, etc. Just kinda one of those I like to keep open when researching so I don't have to break out the TI84+ lol.
• Dividend Growth Calculator – Got this one from Dividend Athlete on Instagram. Not terrible content (kinda generic at times but what are you gonna do) so give him a follow if you so choose. Regardless, you can put in expected dividend growth, starting yield, and starting amount etc. The output is final portfolio value and dividends received every year, both with and without reinvestment. Kinda neat to see.
• ETF.com – Compiles a bunch information on a bunch of ETFs all in one place. Could be easier to compare between different funds as well.
• ETF Database – ditto
• GuruFocus – Some more basic stock information. I use this one most for looking at ROIC if the company does not mention it in their own releases. I have a free account that only gives you so many tickers per day or however they measure it, but going into an incognito window usually gets rid of the problem fairly easily.
• Dividend Value Builder – A while ago I was doing a lot of research/backtesting on the Dividend Kings. I found this list to be mostly complete and among the most accurate. There are still errors (VFC is still on there, Rest In Peace soldier), but fairly accurate nonetheless. I've also talked to the guy that runs the page before via email. Cool guy, got back to me fairly quickly.
• Dividend Growth Investor – Basically ditto to previous. Some more historical information as well. I believe this page also has a lot of blog posts so feel free to read those at your discretion.
• David Fish Dividends List – For those that really want to go above and beyond, these are the mostly lists of Dividend Kings and more, published by the guy who came up with the term Dividend King in 2007. He died in 2018. This man inspired a generation without knowing it, and yet barely anybody knows him. Next on my to-do list is to find his grave so I can pay my respects /s.
• SEC EDGAR – For those that don't know, every public company must publish basically all official documents to the SEC and they legally have to be publicly available to all investors. Here where those bad boys end up. Punch in a ticker and let your heart run wild.
• alreits – Basic information on a bunch of REITs all in one place. Can be good for sorting/comparison.
• List of Preferred Stocks – ditto, but with preferreds instead of REITs.
• Briclayer – More REIT information/publications. I bookmarked them a long time ago but looks like they haven't published much since October. Could still be interesting to read some of the articles. Looks like they also have a basic list of REITs.
• Bond Lookup – Took this idea straight from Peter Lynch. Sometimes I look at bond prices to judge the credit risk of a company (We got CVNA bonds selling as low as 28 cents on the dollar lol). Maybe it's just me but I couldn't find any normal website like Yahoo Finance to look at prices so I present to you all, Borse Frankfurt. Sometimes it can take a while to load and I think it's technically in euros lol but the concept is still the same. Type in your company of choice, click it, hit Start Search.
• 12ft Ladder – Removes MOST paywalls. If you have a website where there's a paywall to read an article you saw, copy the entire URL and paste it into this website. This website is why I don't pay for stock research.
• Compound Interest Calculator – I'm sure you all have your compound interest calculator of choice. This is mine. Nothing special, just figured I'd throw it in.
• Moody's – A friend tipped me off to this one. If you are a student or know a student, most school emails work to get you basic access to Moody's. I mostly look at present and historical credit ratings. I think you may be able to get some recent rationales on the ratings with the limited student account, but don't quote me on that. I also haven't tried putting Moody's through 12ft Ladder, so feel free to try that if you're feeling adventurous.
• Conference Call Transcripts – This website also seems to have a lot of free earnings call transcripts, and it seems like its kept pretty up to date contrary to some other websites that may only have calls from a year+ ago (looking at you Motley Fool).

That's what I got! Like I said, I've never paid for stock research and quite frankly I don't believe in it. The big analysts with their fancy Bloomberg terminals have no advantage over the little guy as long as you know where to look. Remember, Google is your friend.

Happy Investing!

– Bfish