Investing in financial assets is an activity that has experienced multiple ebbs and flows since this practice became a possibility, with the US stock market getting considered the best source of returns for investors, outperforming other genres of financial securities like commodities, real estate, and collectibles over the past many decades.
However, various schools of thought exist regarding how one should approach investing. When it comes to passive and active trading, as contrasting strategies for putting money to work in markets, views differ.
Without question, the passive method of investing, meaning buying and holding assets for extended periods, is the most suitable for those with a longer-range goal, like retirement. It is also the far more hands-off approach, involving holding stocks in stable entities.
That is a tactic that, for timeframes of around two decades, consistently shows better results when stacked up against portfolios of active traders. Active trading involves attempting to beat average index returns, which usually requires substantial market expertise and analysis. It is more for those with experience who can assess a wide range of data about every considered investment.
If they fail to keep a close eye on all the market goings-on and their stocks meticulously, that can have disastrous results. Active portfolios are tremendously susceptible to volatile market fluctuations. That can cause dramatic short-term losses that render investors without a chance to come close to reaching their goals without adding new funds for new investments.
Thankfully, that is where handy stock market monitoring software comes into play. Modern technology helps people successfully plan and trade. A popular feature that many of these options have is the ability for users to configure pending stock alerts, which can substantially aid anyone in making less risky decisions, leading to reduce trading risks and improved profits.
Instead of investors continuously tracking charts for market movements, they can get alerted on ones of interest through notifications promptly. What follows is a list of what many consider the five best picks that facilitate this.
Forex Signals
Forex Signals is a subscription-based service that supplies trade suggestions and real-time analysis for primarily currency pairs. It is available as a web platform and a mobile, and it got initially launched in May 2012.
Forex Signals also has an educational component to complement its market analysis tools. And it claims that it can improve users’ trading skills via a vast library of video tutorials, weekly webinars, articles, a list of technical indicators, and more.
There is a free Forex Signals plan giving everyone the possibility to buy and sell signals of crypto and forex for free, based on the daily moving average. The paid plans divide into three categories. These are The Professional ($26 per month, $312 per year), the Apprentice ($58 per month), and The Committed ($37 per month, billed as $222 every six months).
In the first-mentioned paid plan, users get pro trading tools, live interactive workshops, and directions from mentors. In the Apprentice program, they get everything from the Pro scheme without any one-on-one mentorships. That is so because this plan has no annual billing.
The same goes for the Committed option, which has no direct line to a mentor but has all the other Professional features. Note that, on top of covering currency pairs, Forex Signals can also cover commodities or stock prices.
Finimize
In a nutshell, Finimize strives to deliver an ideal balance of legitimate analysis of up-to-date financial news. It is a UK-based financial management/personal finance platform that can aid anyone, from newbies to veteran traders, in making high-quality decisions about what they should do with their money.
It does this by providing budgeting tools, daily newsletters, and expert advice to help users better take control of their financial future.
Naturally, the Finimize app can get used for free, with limited options, but to get the 100% scope of what this service offers, investors must fork over $59.99 annually. They can test to see if this cost is worth it by activating a seven-day trial.
During this period, they can join the Finimize community, participate in various discussion topics, learn the basics of investing, get advice on structuring a sound portfolio, and receive stock alerts.
All the news here gets presented in a short and engaging format, with most of the info available in audio form. The main downside of this app is that it is currently only iPhone-compatible.
StockMarketEye
StockMarketEye continuously gets ranked as one of the better portfolio management software out there. It gets praised for its intuitive nature and the fact that it lets anyone track a wide range of hundreds of securities easily.
The platform also gets touted as a premium stock alert service that has a built-in system that notifies users of crucial events connected to their portfolios and watchlists. There is no need for anyone to manually check a status of an asset when using this app.
They can configure it to receive visual notifications displaying various colored symbols in tables and as pop-ups.
The annual plan here is $74.99 per year, but there is a thirty-day, no-credit-card-required trial version for those curious about StockMarketEye. Android users can sync this software that permits anyone to import their accounts directly from the most famous US brokerages and create a portfolio that gives simple management and tracking options for all investments.
Multiple StockMarketEye tools also help users gauge the performances of invested securities. That delivers a powerful set of reports for detailed analysis of all holdings.
The MarketWatch App
Anyone with so much so as a fleeting interest in the financial information sector has likely heard of MarketWatch, a business news website that got up and running in 1997. It is the property of News Corp, which owns the Barron’s and the Wall Street Journal.
The MarketWatch app is downloadable for Android and iPhone device owners, listed on Google Play and the Apple Store. It centers around news and analysis, giving all the latest sphere happenings on a Top Stories bar that can get configurated. Concerning market data, the prices of stocks, commodities, rates, and currencies get updated in this software in real-time.
And there is a detailed stock quote page with interactive charts from global markets and essential trading data. This free app has approximately 1 million registered users, and one of its most used features is the customizable watchlist that can monitor various securities.
The key cons of this software are that it has an abundance of distracting ads, along with the fact that it is not easy to navigate. It is also an info-only service.
Money Patrol
Money Patrol is one of the hottest personal finance tools in the investment landscape. It comes with a fifteen-day trial that allows everyone interested in using these services to figure out if the $84 per year price tag is worth it.
Money Patrol connects a user’s financial accounts from various institutions, swiftly transferring their info for this software to utilize, one that includes budgeting and planning dashboards.
The company behind this app got founded in Newark, CA, in 2016, as a privately-held entity. The unique thing about it is that those behind it like to keep their identities private. But, they are not shy to boast about their users reporting a positive impact of $5,000+ on their finances thanks to their service.
Money Patrol performs an in-depth analysis of all data pulled and starts to instantly recommend adjustments by category, rattling off trends in multiple timeframes. It has modern budgeting and reporting features, and its alert one is top-shelf.
Yet, it does not offer retirement planning, has no dedicated mobile software, and the Money Patrol web interface is a bit slow. Still, overall it is worth it, and financial professionals can get a plus plan helping them leverage this platform for clients.
To Sum Up
Active traders who do not wish to spend money to get stock alerts should install the MarketWatch app. Nevertheless, those who do not mind spending a bit of dough on premium virtual financial assistance should splurge the annual $74.99 for StockMarketEye or the $59.99 annually on Finimize.
These may not have the mentorship options of Forex Signals. Though, StockMarketEye, in particular, has a wealth of portfolio-tracking features that should assist everyone in improving their annual bottom line. And it has been available to traders for over a decade (since 2008), making it trustworthy software that no one should have a problem using.
