TheFly.com Review – News Streaming Platform by The Fly

About The Fly

The Fly is a financial news aggregator. The platform’s main goal is to report and explain news headlines that are impacting stocks.

In our The Fly review, we’ll cover all the features this news feed offers and explain how it stacks up against competitors like Benzinga Pro and Trade The News. Keep reading to find out if The Fly is right for you.

The Fly Pricing Options

The Fly has two membership tiers: Basic and Full Access.

The Basic plan costs $44.99 per month or $449 per year. It offers breaking news headlines, but it doesn’t include audio squawk. If you don’t normally use an audio news feed for trading, the Basic plan covers all the core features of The Fly.

The Full Access plan costs $74.99 per month or $749 per year. It ads audio squawk and additional, less noteworthy features like an events calendar.

You can try out The Fly free for 14 days.

Breaking News

The Breaking News page is the homepage of The Fly’s website and the core feature of this platform. If you have a Basic membership, the Breaking News page is essentially what you’re paying for.

Here’s what it looks like at a glance:

As you can see, The Fly uses visuals effectively to quickly convey information. This is really helpful for interpreting headlines quickly. We also like this design in comparison to the breaking news pages from Trade The News and Benzinga Pro. Those pages can present you with a big wall of text at times.

You can filter headlines into three primary categories: Market Stories, Street Research, and Events. Market Stories and Street Research can both be filtered even further to help you find actionable trade ideas.

Sub-filters like Hot Stocks, General News, Earnings, Tech(nical) Analysis and Options are fairly self-explanatory and standard among trading news feeds. However, the Rumors, Periodicals, and Syndicate sub-filters are worth a closer look. These cover the types of news stories that don’t show up in free news feeds.

Rumors

Rumors stories are all about unconfirmed rumors that traders are buzzing about. The Fly’s reporting team often hears these rumors from trading desks or spots them on social media.

Importantly, rumors are just that – rumors. The Fly’s reporting on them doesn’t mean that they are true. Instead, the point is just to let traders know that there is chat floating around that might impact stock prices.

Here’s an example of a rumor posted by TheFly about a potential takeover of Abercrombie & Fitch:

Periodicals

The Periodicals tag refers to notable stories in mainstream media outlets. These headlines and stories don’t come from The Fly’s staff, and The Fly doesn’t necessarily condone or stand by the reporting in these stories. Once again, the platform’s main goal is to explain and report information that is currently moving stocks.

Here are two examples of Periodicals posted on The Fly:

Syndicate

The Syndicate filter refers to syndicate finance. That’s when a public company goes to a bank to handle a large financial transaction. Initial public offerings, secondary offerings, block trades, and pricings are examples of syndicate finance.

Here are a few examples of this filter in play:

As you can see, syndicate finance headlines can be huge catalysts for stocks. Just consider how much a dilutive secondary offering could affect a stock’s price. Traders are going to want to know about these events right away.

On The Fly

On The Fly is The Fly’s daily market overview, driven by the platform’s exclusive insights and reporting. The goal of the page is to inform traders about what happened in today’s market and prep them for tomorrow’s market opening.

On The Fly displays a list of companies with earnings reports tomorrow, trending stocks, and market movers. There’s also a breaking news feed, a brief market commentary, and discussion of what the next trading day might hold.

Here’s what the On The Fly page looks like:

Fly Cast

Fly Cast is The Fly’s audio squawk box. This is an extremely useful feature for active traders who may be too busy watching charts and stock screeners to spend time looking at news headlines. Having a financial reporter in your ear letting you know about potential market catalysts is a huge value-add for some traders.

Headlines and reporting on Fly Cast are delivered as quickly as possible. Typically, headlines are announced on Fly Cast before they even hit the text-based Breaking News feed. Those precious few seconds can provide a significant edge for the serious trader.

How Does The Fly Compare?

The Fly exists in a competitive trading news service space where it’s difficult for platforms to differentiate themselves from the competition. Traders tend to commoditize these types of services and simply opt for the cheapest one. So, it makes sense to compare the prices of popular services:

• The Fly: Full Access (news feed + squawk box) – $65/month
• Trade The News: PRO Equity Membership (news feed + squawk box) – $350/month
• Benzinga Pro: Essential Membership (news feed + squawk box) – $249/month

As you can see, The Fly is significantly cheaper than Trade The News and Benzinga Pro. Having used all of these services at length, we would say that there isn’t much difference between them other than price.

Some traders might find the Trade The News layout easier to follow, especially for making quick decisions in the middle of the trading day. Trade The News also supports ticker-based alerts, which The Fly doesn’t have. But for most traders, these features won’t be worth the additional $285 per month.

Benzinga Pro’s News Desk feature can be a major value-add for some traders. You can contact the Benzinga news desk with a question about why a stock’s price is moving and financial reporters will try to hunt down an answer.

It’s hard to directly compare the speed of reporting across platforms, but our anecdotal experience is that Trade The News and Benzinga Pro are slightly faster than The Fly. However, the difference is small enough that it will only matter to the most aggressive day traders.

What Type of Trader is The Fly Best For?

The Fly is a great option for any active trader who wants to trade around breaking news. It’s a significant step up from a free market news feed and offers actionable insights into why stock prices are moving throughout the day. The Fly’s breaking news feed can also help you get ahead of potential price movements in response to new offerings, rumors, and major news stories.

In general, day traders will get the most out of The Fly. However, swing traders can also benefit from this service if it helps you stay alert to any breaking developments that could affect a trade you have open.

Conclusion

Pros

• Extremely affordable compared to other trading news feeds
• Visual indicators with every headline
• Reports on rumors
• Includes audio squawk

Cons

• No text-based news screening tools or alerts