What do Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, and John Templeton all have in common? They were successful investors who never believed in market timing. That fact alone should tell you something about market timing: it isn’t really needed.
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Now, I am not going to declare a moratorium on market timing. But I am also not going to shout its benefits from the rooftops. Neither of these actually paints a full picture.
One thing to note about prognosticators is that they are often wrong. They only highlight their successful predictions, not the ones that were woefully off. Usually, there are a lot more of the latter.
For instance, suppose you told your family and friends that you are amazing at predicting the weather. Every day for the next 15 days, you predicted it was going to rain. But it didn’t. Did you call up all the people and tell them you were wrong on each of those days? More than likely, you only called on the 16th day when you did get it right. It’s no different with the stock market.
If You Believe That Timing Does Work, You’ll Need Data
I said before that I wouldn’t tout the benefits of market timing, but that’s because I can’t definitively say whether it is true. My gut tells me that there isn’t much to it. However, it doesn’t mean I am the authority on the topic, either. If you truly believe that market timing is a thing, I support you. In fact, I have a really good deal on a service that will help you get the data you need for timing. You’ll need plenty of data for predictions. That’s, after all, what a prediction is, to make educated guesses given the data you are working with.
But more about the offer later. If you don’t use market timing, data can still help greatly improve your investments. Because you can learn about what story the company is telling through its financial reports. Data is storytelling. Want to know if a company is profitable? You learn that from data. What about whether a company is spending too much? Guess what? Data can answer that question, too!
Even better, you no longer have to believe them at their word when company spokespeople craft the story for you. They tend to be overly optimistic. By learning the data, you can challenge them on their narrative. That’s rather powerful for investors.
Admittedly, though, without a framework for what the numbers mean, it can be a bit perplexing to read financial reports. That’s a large reason why people don’t do it. It’s one thing to show the numbers, but interpreting them is what separates investors from ETF holders.
There is nothing wrong with investing in ETFs, by the way. Buying ETFs gives you a well-diversified portfolio without having to spend hours combing through financial statements. Still, having a basic understanding of financial statement interpretation can give you an edge, even with ETFs.
I am in the process of creating a series on how to read and interpret financial statements like a pro.
Where to Find Financial Reports
As you can see, data can help with both market timing and fundamental analysis. So, you’re covered whichever path you choose (and even both). But where do you get the data?
SEC.gov
Many people use the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website (sec.gov). Every company in the United States must file quarterly and annual reports.
Company Investor Sections on Their Websites
Most companies also publish financial reports on the investor section of their websites. They are flashier than the reports you’ll find on the sec.gov. But they contain the same information.
Data Aggregation Websites
You can find just about any data point you need from data aggregators. These are sites that subscribe to data providers of financial information. They don’t just publish financial statements, either. They also publish a plethora of financial statistics and prices.
Of course, this data comes at a premium that is out of reach for most retail investors. For instance, when I worked on a few trading desks a few years back, I used a Bloomberg terminal. I wasn’t a trader, but I supported traders by creating financial models and ensuring data from various market services, like Bloomberg, were pulled into the modeling software. What I learned at the time was that the cost of the basic Bloomberg terminal (which I had) was $1,200 per month.
Even today, Bloomberg terminals are the gold standard for which all other services are compared. You’ll see plenty of services with slogans like “Replace Your Bloomberg Terminal with Our Service” or something along those lines.
I’ve used TIKR before. It’s a good service. Does it compete with Bloomberg as they claim? In some instances, yes. They offer several of the services Bloomberg provides. However, it’s not a complete replacement for Bloomberg.
Don’t get me wrong. TIKR offers substantial functionality for its price point. However, when companies compare themselves to Bloomberg, they often conflate the needs of institutional investors with those of individual investors. The functionality of TIKR will likely fall short for institutional investors, while it will more than meet the needs of individual investors (maybe even exceed them).
Pricing for TIKR has several tiers, and you save when you purchase the yearly option instead of the monthly one. At the time of this writing, the Plus Plan was $17.95 per month (paid yearly) and the Pro Plan was $37.95 per month (paid Yearly). They also offer a very limited free plan to try it out to see if it’s a good fit.
Market Beat
I liked the commentary and video reports that Market Beat provided. However, many users felt that the service included too many promotional activities for a paid subscription. I agree to a certain extent. Still, they offer useful features, though the subscription options are confusing.
Seeking Alpha
I really enjoyed Seeking Alpha for several years. I paid for their Pro plan ($299 per year). It had everything I needed, but a lot of things I didn’t. I was paying a lot extra for information that wasn’t really useful to me. It doesn’t mean the data isn’t useful to others, though. Just wanted to clear the air on that one!
I really liked Stock Rover. It had many of the features that an individual would need, and may even have features that institutional investors could use. I think that is really who the service is geared towards, to be perfectly honest.
I signed up initially because I was writing for clients of financial newsletters at the time, and Premium Plus gave me a lot of insight I could use in my writing. I loved the PDF reports that it produced, too. However, lately I’ve found that, for more than half the price, I can have AI produce many of the reports I need for my writing. So I could no longer justify paying the premium plus price.
This one is my personal favorite. Why? Stock Analysis (SA) is straightforward and simple to operate. The simplicity can sometimes mask the service’s power. I thought that way when I first subscribed. But don’t let this simplicity fool you, as it did for me. After I started really digging in, I realized I was working with a true gem of a service. It’s feature-packed, but at a price you are going to love.
SA charges for a full year what some of the higher-end models charge for one month. For mid-tier services, they charge a quarter of what SA charges for a year.
Are the Services Comparable?
Variation in features makes it difficult to truly compare the services. One service may offer 10 years of historical data, while others will offer 10 years. One may be more geared towards technical analysis, while others concentrate solely on fundamentals. And others may cater to both. So listing the services in a chart and stating which services offer which feature is not a productive exercise.
A better use of your time is to truly figure out what you need from a stock market service, then make a list of the services that match your needs the closest. Then determine the price you feel most comfortable with; that will help you make your decision.
Of course, what’s nice about SA is that you can choose to subscribe to a few services (with SA as your core service), since it is offered at such a great price for the value you get.
What About the Deal Mentioned?
The above services are all services I had subscribed to, not just the free tiers. I had a paid plan in all of them. The only one that I still subscribe to and will continue to do so is SA. They provide me with everything I need, and they constantly update the service while keeping the simplicity intact. I love that, and you will too.
Since I want you to benefit from this service and, hopefully, overcome any reservations you may have about subscribing, I worked with the team at SA to secure a 10% discount. They did indicate to me that they cannot guarantee this will last indefinitely. So you’ll want to jump on this opportunity as soon as you can. Use the code FME (which is an abbreviation of Financial Markets Education)
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