There are a lot of investing and other financial tools available to the individual investor in today's world. Apps shouldn't be ignored. Conveniently sitting at your fingertips ready to provide analysis, ideas, money management and other data, apps are part of today's technology that investors should cherish and utilize.
In this list I've gathered my 10 favorite apps that I use for investing and other financial aspects of my life every day. As always, please share your thoughts and comments below!
Wolfram Alpha
Cost - $2.99 (Best $3 you'll ever spend)
This app is by no means an investment app, at least not at heart. But it's still really, really cool. It's a knowledge bank rolled into an app, and it covers almost every subject imaginable, including finance. You can enter in a stock symbol and find fundamental data, ratios and even financial statements. As well as other information such as price history, market outlook and analyst opinions. But the true beauty of this app is simply the amount of stuff it has in it. You can utilize it to learn about finance, math, physics, anything you'd like. As Benjamin Franklin stated, "Investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
PowerOne Finance Pro Calculator
Cost - $4.99 / Free version available
The name says it all. This is a powerful app that performs any and all financial calculations you would ever need, and that may be an understatement. Before you ask what any of this has to do with investing, let me explain why it's here. For starters, all investors should have goals and be financially sound. This app can help you calculate how to manage debt or mortgage payments as well as plan for your savings or investing accounts. It also has an entire section for investing calculations that ranges from 401k equations to future value estimates to even covered call options. Should be worth much more in my opinion.
Twitter
Cost - Free
Twitter can actually be quite useful for individual investors. Not only can it provide you with investing ideas, but you can follow other investors as well who freely offer up wonderful articles, tips and strategies all the time. Or even better, follow gurus such as Carl Icahn (Trades, Portfolio), David Einhorn (Trades, Portfolio), Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) and several more for their insight. Excellent websites such as GuruFocus, ValueWalk and Morningstar have accounts and post great articles throughout the day and for the best part (shameless plug) you can follow me @yourportfolio1.
Motley Fool
Cost - Free
The recently redesigned (for the better) Motley Fool app is very useful for generating investment ideas as well as reading insightful analysis. The home page of the app has one article after another detailing different companies, industries and stocks that the individual investor would find interesting. While I wouldn't consider Motley Fool a value investing website, it certainly approaches its analysis with a value investing lean and generally offers thorough explanation for its opinions. The app also features a couple of videos a day that focus on different topics related to industries as well as individual companies. Overall, a really nice app.
MSN Money
Cost - Free
The MSN Money app is definitely one of the most well-designed apps on this list. But it also packs a punch with the amount of data it contains. From investing to personal finance to news this app has you covered. Type in a stock symbol and you can research recent news, recommendations and key statistics. An underrated aspect about this app is the growth and profitability trend graphs it displays on individual stocks. The graphs allow you to visually see the performance trend of a company with 10 years' worth of data. The app also has several other tools to utilize as well such as personal finance calculators.
Personal Capital
Cost - Free
Another beautifully designed app that is a perfect fit for individual investors is Personal Capital. It's similar to a juiced up Mint.com, just more geared toward investors. While you can use the free app to increase your investing acumen, I primarily use it as a tool to manage investments, personal accounts and credit cards. I really like how Personal Capital tracks spending and income and gives you a monthly cash flow almost as if you're a business. Another neat aspect regarding this app is how it tracks your net worth, which takes into account your savings, investments, debt and even residence.
Seeking Alpha
Cost - Free
I always head to Seeking Alpha before investing in any stock, primarily because the analysis on any individual stock is just so complete and thorough, and the app is a seamless transition into doing exactly that. I am amazed at the amount of content it has on just about any stock you'd ever want to research. The Seeking Alpha app is also a great place to find investing ideas, specifically long ideas. All in all, it's basically a one-stop shop for investing analysis. The only downside is almost anyone can become a contributor so you have to be careful to not blindly believe everything you read. That said, the good definitely outweighs the bad.
Yahoo! Finance
Cost - Free
Yahoo! recently updated this app and, boy, did it deliver. Yahoo! added just about every feature many investors were clamoring for. Now you can search for a company and see key statistics, analyst summaries, relevant financial statement data, valuation ratios, and much more including financial ratios such as return on equity and return on assets as well as profitability margins. You can also maintain a watchlist in order to keep up to date with your investments. Pretty much everything you love about the website can now be found on the app, a great improvement from a well-respected resource.
GuruFocus
Cost - Free / Membership available for $349/year
For some reason the GuruFocus app doesn't seem to be as well known as some of the others on this list, which is a shame. This app, even the free version, is as close as you can get right now to the individual investor's holy grail. It contains almost everything the other apps on this list do, including news, informative articles, portfolio tracking and stock fundamentals, but there are a few excellent features that set the GuruFocus app apart. One is the ability to monitor gurus and insiders. Not only can you see what Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) and Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio) are into, you can check if company insiders are actively buying shares as well. Secondly, just type in a stock symbol and revel at the abundance of information that pops up. From ratios to intrinsic valuations to 10-year growth trends, the app has it all. It even includes good and bad warning signs as well as financial and profitability rankings. Lastly, the app has a built in Discounted Cash Flow calculator you can customize and play with. If I could build an app, it would look a lot like this one.
Robinhood
Cost - Free
The No. 1 app on this list is actually a broker but not in the traditional sense. And by that I mean there are no commissions and no fees. That's right, all trades are completely free. Throw in an excellent design, a top-flight staff and constant updates, and you have the best investing app available. While some brokers have minimal fees and commissions, they still eat into your returns and increase cost basis. Besides the nonexistent commissions, the app has quite a few exceptional features including scheduled deposits, smart notifications and fast trade executions. Robinhood also plans to add more features as well as expand into options in the near future. Overall, Robinhood has built a fantastic app and should be the go-to broker for the individual investor. You can read why I believe it's the best broker –Â as well as a more detailed review –Â here.
Start a free seven-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus.
