Finding the Best Stocks Made Easy
People keep asking me which tools I use for my research and analysis work on High-Growth-Investing. Today it's time to take up this topic.
Over the past few years, StocksGuide has become my most important stock-picking platform. You've probably never heard of StocksGuide, and with good reason, because it simply wasn't available outside the German-speaking world - until today.
What is StocksGuide?
Since 2018, I have been supporting the multinational European team of aktien.guide in developing the simplest and cleanest possible tools for stock screening and analysis. In 2021, I became co-founder of aktien.guide AG, this is a corporation registered in Switzerland. The platform has grown rapidly since its launch and is now used by over 3 million investors in German-speaking countries (according to Google Analytics).
After almost a year of hard work, today - August 15, 2024 - we proudly present the English-language equivalent StocksGuide for the international investor community. It covers all the world's major stock markets in America, Europe and APAC in its investment universe of around 7,000 stocks.
In this article, I would like to share my experience with StocksGuide and explain what StocksGuide can actually do in practice for medium- to long-term stock investors. And what it can't do.
StocksGuide - Key Facts in a Nutshell
Discover, analyze and compare stocks made easy
Comprehensive stock analysis toolset around 50 fundamental key figures
Nearly 7,000 stocks in the StocksGuide universe
StocksGuide - Feature Overview
The functionalities of StocksGuide are numerous. Like me, you can use the stock screener to constantly generate new investment ideas.
The tool evaluates 7,000 stocks daily according to the High Growth Investing (HGI) metrics that are important to me and generates an HGI score for each stock. I look at the stocks with the highest HGI scores on a weekly basis and some of them make it onto my HGI watchlist, which can also be viewed on StocksGuide (Premium).
Of course, you can also create and monitor your own sample portfolios or watchlists on StocksGuide. In a valuation view, you can see at a glance how cheap or expensive "your" stocks are in a historical comparison. You can see all the important key figures at a glance (even as a chart over time).
StocksGuide summarizes all the news from various online portals, news services and much more on the individual stocks in your sample portfolio and watchlists. And if you like, you can even have all the news on "your" stocks delivered to your email inbox every day. This Morning Briefing is my perfect start to the day.
For each stock, you can see what analysts are currently saying about it and what their price targets are. This gives you a better idea of the current market sentiment for a stock. You can also see the sales and margin forecasts, as well as the forecast earnings per share and P/E ratio. Keep in mind that these are only estimates. Analysts don't have a crystal ball either, but they are a pretty good representation of the market's opinion.
Calendars for quarterly figures and dividends within StocksGuide give you an easy overview of which stocks are about to publish their quarterly results or pay their dividends.
Even more interesting for me as a medium-term growth investor is the presentation of the price reaction to the past quarterly figures in the quarterly figures calendar. This shows you at a glance how the stock reacted to the last quarterly figures. This information gives a pretty good indication of whether or not management is reliably meeting its own forecasts.
Discover the Best Stocks with StocksGuide
If you want to search the entire universe of 7,000 stocks for stocks that meet your personal requirements, the StocksGuide Screener is the tool of your choice:
You can filter by over 40 criteria including region, country or industry, use different valuation ratios such as EV/sales or P/E, or focus your search on specific profitability, growth or dividend ratios.
You can also search for the stocks that have recently performed best or worst. And... And... And... There are virtually no limits to your imagination when searching for the best stocks.
This screener also supports StocksGuide's own scoring systems as well as my own HGI-Score for growth stocks. For example, you can identify specific investment opportunities that are simultaneously attractive according to different ratio strategies.
If you want to be inspired, StocksGuide has some ideas for you! Ready-made filters for Dividend Aristocrats, NASDAQ Growth Stars or Software Ideas etc. offer you an easy entry into the versatile world of the StocksGuide stock screener.
Analyze with StocksGuide
Once you have discovered an exciting stock with the screener, the fundamental analysis begins. As a starting point StocksGuide has an overview page for each of the 7,000 stocks, which contains important data as well as the real time quote, a price chart, a brief company profile and news about the stock from various information sources.
These summary pages also contain all the key fundamentals and provide an overview of all the key ratios and most important financial data from the balance sheet, income and cash flow statement.
To compare different stocks, StocksGuide offers a unique charting tool that can do much more than just display share prices. You can directly compare several stocks according to different criteria and thus filter out the strengths and weaknesses of individual companies!
Nearly 50 different ratios are available to compare valuation, growth, profitability, dividends or other fundamental ratios.
So the functionality of the Chart Tool is powerful, yet very simple and intuitive to use. And it's even fun to use on your smartphone!
Monitoring your Stocks with StocksGuide
I use the StocksGuide dashboard every day to get a quick overview of the stock market events that are relevant to me and to monitor my stocks.
On the dashboard you can see the news and special price movements in your portfolios at a glance. The dashboard also shows upcoming dividend dates and quarterly figures for your stocks.
The concept of alerts is very important in StocksGuide: If you feel that the valuation of an interesting stock is currently too high, but you still want to stay on the ball, alerts give you the perfect opportunity to do so.
You may already be familiar with the ability to set price alerts from other stock analysis tools, but StocksGuide goes much further.
You can also use StocksGuide alerts for different valuation ratios such as P/E, EV/Sales or EV/FCF. You can also decide whether the value should be above or below a certain target value and you can further specify your alert by adding a note. You can also view your triggered and active alerts on your StocksGuide dashboard. When an alert is triggered, you can choose to receive an automatic email from StocksGuide.
Is StocksGuide Trustworthy?
Unfortunately, shady financial websites are not isolated cases. Investors are often lured into expensive investment products, stock market newsletters or trading coaches with the promise of high returns. But hoping to get rich quick on the stock market is a mistake.
StocksGuide is an alternative to all this. The platform sees itself as a source of ideas and, thanks to its convenient screener and charting tool, is particularly suitable for initial fundamental analysis "on the fly".
But to be clear, StocksGuide only covers a first - though very important and time consuming - step in my investment process.
Once a company has made it onto my watchlist because of its attractive HGI figures, the real research and analysis begins. I never buy a stock just because it has an attractive HGI score on StocksGuide. Nor do I sell a stock just because its ratios have deteriorated.
This may disappoint some of you and sound more complicated than you had hoped. I am sorry for that! But it would be unrealistic to believe that the combination of a few key figures alone is sufficient for successful stock picking over the long term.
For me, stock screening with StocksGuide is a perfect first step: no more and no less.
The StocksGuide deliberately does not give clear buy or sell recommendations. You still have to think and decide for yourself. But I am convinced that the platform can also help you to become a better investor over time.
Who is StocksGuide for?
For medium- and long-term investors, StocksGuide is a superior alternative to ad-filled stock market portals.
Even beginners interested in the stock market will find StocksGuide easy to use, as all terms and key figures are clearly explained.
The StocksGuide is not suitable for short-term traders, as it does not offer appropriate tools such as candlestick charts or advanced technical indicators. ETF investors are also not yet supported by StocksGuide. Instead, the service is clearly aimed at investors who want to invest over the mid- or longterm in individual stocks.
Using StocksGuide like an App
There is no dedicated StocksGuide app. However, the website is fully optimized for mobile devices, which makes using aktien.guide on a mobile phone a really nice experience.
It is also possible to use StocksGuide like an app for both iPhone and Android smartphones by simply adding StocksGuide to the home screen. You can find a tutorial here.
StocksGuide Plans and Prices
The StocksGuide offers three different plans: a Free version, a Premium version and an Unlimited version.
The free version gives you full access to hundreds of the world's largest stocks, the ability to create two portfolios and a detailed weekly stock analysis. You also have access to quarterly figures and dividend calendars for these stocks. Some features such as the stock screener, chart comparison and dividend history are limited.
For extended functionality, the Premium subscription is available for $9.90 per month. This gives you access to the entire stock universe of almost 7,000 stocks, makes it easier to search for stocks with the screener and enables detailed chart comparisons. You can create up to three portfolios, track your performance, create up to 10 alerts and view analyst pages with price targets.
I am particularly proud of the fact that this Premium price of less than $10 per month has never increased for years, despite sharply rising costs all round and an ever-increasing range of provided features. This means that StocksGuide is also a viable option for young investors with a small portfolio.
The Unlimited subscription for $24.90 per month offers all the Premium features plus additional benefits such as an unlimited number of portfolios and alerts, as well as unlimited access to analyst estimates and advanced financial ratios. Unlimited subscribers also receive priority support (but no investment advice ;-). The Unlimited package is also suitable for sophisticated semi-professional and professional investors.
StocksGuide Promo Code / Discount
There is currently no discount available for StocksGuide. However, if you would like to try StocksGuide, you can create a free account.
StocksGuide Takeaway: More than just a Stock Screener
The StocksGuide is much more than a simple stock finder. It sees itself as a companion for successful investing in the stock market.
The StocksGuide platform impresses with 7,000 stock analyses, a wide range of key figures, the chart tool, a clean stock screener and a self-explanatory user interface.
The aim of StocksGuide is to provide you with all the support you need to achieve above-average long-term success on the stock market.
Now it’s your turn:
I would like to invite you to take a look at StocksGuide for yourself.
Please feel free to write to me and tell me what you think of StocksGuide and what functionality you might still be missing. It's basically day one, we still have an endless number of ideas for further development and will be happy to be guided by our international users like you in prioritizing them from now on.
P.S. If you're a Substack writer or financial blogger like me and you'd like to use StocksGuide for your publication, you might want to take a look at the StocksGuide affiliate program. Don't hesitate to contact me to discuss a partnership.
FAQ about StocksGuide
What is StocksGuide?
aktien.guide is one of the most popular stock-picking tools in the German-speaking world, while StocksGuide is its new English-language counterpart. With 7,000 stocks, three investment strategies and a variety of key figures, it offers a comprehensive yet easy-to-use platform for analyzing stocks for medium- to long-term equity investors.
The StocksGuide is 100% free of advertising. Instead, the tool is funded through a subscription model. The subscription to StocksGuide is also affordable for small shareholders and you can easily unsubscribe at any time with one click only.
Who is StocksGuide for?
StocksGuide is aimed at all medium- to long-term investors who are looking for a reputable platform for their equity investments that makes it much easier to find and compare shares than stock market portals flooded with advertising.
Where does StocksGuide get its financial data from?
The quality of the data and the reliability of the data sources used are of utmost importance to StocksGuide. The financial data in StocksGuide is sourced from premium provider Factset as well as other data providers and is even manually corrected by the StocksGuide team when necessary.
My tip: Before you decide to use a paid stock analysis tool, make sure you find out about the origin of the data used. Many providers have major deficits in terms of the reliability and legal security of the data sources they use.
Is StocksGuide free?
The free version of StocksGuide gives you access to hundreds of stocks. The full functionality of StocksGuide is freely available to everyone for the standard stocks from the DOW Jones, NASDAQ100, DAX, SMI and ATX.
Is StocksGuide trustworthy?
StocksGuide is entirely financed by its users' subscriptions. It's not dependent on dubious partnerships. The company behind StocksGuide is aktien.guide AG, a corporation registered in Switzerland. The two founders, Tino Wendland and myself (Stefan Waldhauser), form the company's board of directors. And a growing international team is dedicated to helping you achieve superior returns on your equity investments.
*Disclaimer: I do not receive any compensation from StocksGuide for recommending this platform. However, I am invested in aktien.guide AG, the Swiss company behind StocksGuide, and will participate in the company's success.