Finbox Review – Is This the Ultimate Stock Research Toolkit?

About Finbox

Finbox.io is a stock market portfolio research and management platform. It’s designed for traders and investors who are focused on fundamental and quantitative analysis. Finbox offers an intuitive user interface with outstanding visualizations and organizational tools. The dizzying number of analysis tools is a fundamentalist’s dream.

In addition to helping investors parse data, Finbox also creates its own fair value estimates. Plus, the Finbox API lets quants and developers incorporate data into their own models and algorithms.

In our Finbox review, we’ll take a closer look at everything this quantitative and fundamental analysis platform offers.

Finbox Pricing Options

Finbox has two access plans as well as a free plan for new users.

• Free
• Starter – From $10/month
• Professional – From $66/month

The free plan offers unlimited watchlists and access to financial models. You also get charts, spreadsheet add-ons, and access to the Finbox API with 5,000 data points per day. Overall, there are a lot of good free stock research tools.

The Starter plan costs $19/month or $120/year. It adds fair value estimates and unlimited stock screeners. The Starter plan includes data for US and European exchanges. Additional regions can be added starting from $14/month.

The Professional plan costs $199/month or $792/year. It includes data for all regions that Finbox offers as well as the ability to download Finbox’s financial models.

You can try out Finbox Professional for free for 10 days (credit card required).

Finbox Features Breakdown

Here are some of the most notable features:

Charts

Finbox is geared towards fundamental analysis and offers charts for plotting key fundamental stock data. You can plot, for example, sales and earnings growth, discounted cash flow, P/E ratio, dividend yield, and much more. The charts are similar to the fundamental charts in YCharts and are very insightful for analyzing a company’s performance over time.

Note that Finbox offers very limited technical analysis tools and does not have technical price charts. For technical charts, traders should check out TradingView.

Financial Models

Finbox has tons of pre-built financial models that users can select from. Alternatively, traders can create their own valuation models using Finbox’s step-by-step model builder. Finbox does a great job of explaining the pre-built models like the Discounted Cash Flow Model. This is a good start for users that want to delve into the world of financial modeling with stocks. Users can find model templates and then edit, refine, and share them.

Fair Value Tool

The goal of valuation modeling is ultimately to determine what the fair value of a stock should be. For traders who don’t want to bother with the legwork of building financial models, Finbox cuts to the chase by providing its own fair value estimate for every stock it covers. Finbox also explains the metrics that it uses to arrive at that price and newbies can use this price as a starting point.

Newsfeeds

The news in Finbox feels more generic than its other features. News is pulled from free sites including Yahoo! Finance. This is not for active traders that want to be the first to spot a news release to get the jump on price moves. Traders seeking a dedicated news platform can check out Benzinga Pro, TradetheNews, or The Fly.

Stock Screener

Finbox offers a fundamental stock screener that lets users scan the markets for stocks that match specific filters. There’s a huge number of filters available to help users find the needle in the haystack stock they’re looking for.

There are also a few pre-built scans that can be used for idea generation or to help you find inspiration for your own scans. Examples include:

• Ben Graham Formula – Stocks with bullish momentum based on the Ben Graham Formula
• Technology Gems – Tech companies with strong fundamentals
• I Dream of Dividends – Profitable companies with strong dividend yields

Watch Lists and Ideas

Finbox has tons of pre-built watch lists that are based on the portfolios of iconic fund managers and investment themes. For example, there are watch lists based on Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, and Ray Dahlio, as well as lists of founder-led companies and cleantech companies. You can filter the watchlists based on performance or search for watchlists that include a specific company.

You can also create your own watch lists by ‘forking’ one of these pre-built portfolios. From there, you’re free to customize the watch list to your liking. Of course, you can always create watch lists manually from scratch, too.

Alerts

All watch lists support alerts. Alerts can be based on several criteria like price moves, changes in key fundamental metrics, or fundamental catalysts like earnings reports.

Data Explorer

Finbox has some of the most in-depth fundamental data analysis tools of any stock market research platform. The Data Explorer enables users to search for fundamental metrics for any company. It’s an amazing time saver when there’s a specific metric you want to find for a stock, and Finbox offers a seemingly endless number of metrics to search.

API and Export Tools

Professional plan users can export data to Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets for further analysis with tools like MarketXLS. Quants and developers will really enjoy the flexibility and access of the export tools and API since it allows users to create or refine their own models outside of the platform.

Classroom

This section contains easy-to-follow tutorials and videos that users can study at their own pace. I like the step-by-step format demonstrated directly on the platform, which makes it easier for users to duplicate processes. The videos are simple, short, and get the job done by explaining tools leisurely pace.

Platform Differentiators

Finbox is simple to use if you just want basic stock data, but the platform offers so much more than that. It offers a massive database of fundamental metrics for stocks around the world and is built to accommodate hardcore data junkies and financial modelers. The interface is smooth and intuitive and lets even newbies get acclimated rapidly. The platform stands out for its focus on fundamentals, fundamental trends, and long-term investment analysis.

Is Finbox a Good Value?

Finbox’s subscription fees are very cheap for the amount of data this platform provides. It takes a bit of experience with financial modeling and spreadsheet navigation skills to take full advantage of the stock analysis tools. However, the pre-built watch lists and ideas provide plenty of opportunities to hit the ground running. Make sure you run through the tutorial videos to get acclimated to the platform more quickly.

What Type of Trader Finbox Is Best For

Finbox caters to financial analysts, sophisticated investors, portfolio managers, and quants that have an affinity for fundamental analysis. Programming proficiency is not required but can be very helpful if you want to build your own models or use Finbox’s API.

Finbox is user-friendly without sacrificing analysis power or depth. If you are a long-term investor who relies on fundamental analysis, Finbox is definitely worth checking out.

Pros

• Easy-to-use interface lets users create and fork watch lists to prospect opportunities
• In-depth fundamental and quantitative data analytics
• Step-by-step model builder introduces newbies to the world of financial modeling
• API enables quants to integrate data, metrics, and strategies into their own models
• Finbox proprietary valuation tool provides a fair value estimate for every stock
• 10-day trial is a great way to kick the tires

Cons

• Limited technical analysis charting tools
• Limited news sources