Getting real-time stock news is an effective way for traders to stay ahead of the market. Whether the news is good, bad, or uncertain, events outside the market itself can have a significant impact on stock prices.
If you’re looking for the best stock market news platform, we’ve got you covered. This article will explain why stock news should matter to traders and what to look for in a news platform. We’ll also highlight a few of our favorite platforms for staying on top of market news.
Why is News Important to Traders?
The number one reason that stock traders care about the news is that it can affect prices, often in fast and dramatic ways. Stock news is one of the biggest drivers of volatility on an otherwise quiet day. Moreover, different types of news can affect a single stock, an entire sector, or even the whole stock market.
Importantly, news is time-dependent. Traders who get the news first, and act on it first, have the edge over the rest of the market. For example, if a merger announcement is going to drive the price of a particular stock up, traders who hear that announcement first and buy the stock stand to profit more than traders who hear the news 15 minutes later.
What is a News Platform?
Given the importance of timing in getting news, it’s not enough for traders simply to keep an eye on mainstream media outlets that pick up market stories hours later. To get an edge, traders need to have access to a news platform that’s breaking stories rather than following the leads of other news organizations.
In that sense, market news platforms are first and foremost real-time sources of news. Some platforms focus solely on aggregating sources from around the Internet, while others hire reporters and seek out rumors to bring you exclusive news that no one else has.
On top of that, many of the best market news services let you set up alerts around specific companies or sectors. That way, you can be notified as soon as the news that affects the stocks you’re watching breaks. This helps ensure that you don’t miss a headline, only to find out after the price action passes you by that it all started with a news story.
Busy traders will also want to look for a platform that offers audio squawk. This is essentially an audio feed of the headlines. That’s helpful since you can keep it on in the background to listen for relevant headlines, without spending your whole day reading through news stories instead of looking at charts and data.
Notably, few of these features are things you’ll find in free market news platforms like Yahoo! Finance, and CNBC. While those are quality aggregators that cover headline news and market trends, they rarely offer news that’s pertinent to individual stock trading in real-time. You also can’t set up news alerts on these platforms, so it’s easy to miss a news story that could make a difference in your trading.
The Best Stock News Platforms
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of our favorite news platforms for traders.
Benzinga Pro
Benzinga Pro is one of the preeminent market news platforms. This service uses a team of news writers and analysts to bring you real-time headlines from around the market. It covers just about everything you could want to know about, including press releases, analyst upgrades and downgrades, SEC filings, block trades, deal rumors and announcements, and even block trades and options market activity. Subscribers can also open a live chat with the reporters at Benzinga to find out more about a piece of news or its likely impact on a stock’s price.
All of this doesn’t come cheap. A Basic subscription costs $99 per month or $948 per year, and that primarily includes only the news feed itself. If you want audio squawk and live chat with the news desk, an Essential subscription costs $249 per month or $2,388 per year.
Get Two Weeks FREE
Get a 2-week FREE trial of Benzinga Pro!
Scanz
Scanz (previously EquityFeed) is primarily a stock scanner, but this platform includes a pretty impressive news feature as well. The software pulls news from major sources like Benzinga, MarketWatch, the Associated Press, Newswire, and more to bring you real-time headlines. Even better, you have a ton of control over filtering your news. You can limit your feed by company or sector-specific keywords or by a set of fundamental stock parameters. Scanz also allows you to search for news by keyword or company name and has a feed dedicated to news around mergers and acquisitions. The only downside is that there’s no audio squawk included.
🏆 Top Rated Services🏆
Our team has reviewed over 300 services. These are our favorites:
| 📈 Best Day Trading Service Investors Underground 🎯 Best Stock Scanner Trade Ideas 📉 Best Stock Charts TradingView | 💰Best Stock Picking Service Motley Fool 📱Best Mobile Broker Webull 📊 Best for Stock Research Seeking Alpha |
The Scanz news feed starts at $79 per month. You can also pair stock news with the platform’s technical and fundamental scanning capabilities for $149 per month.
Runners Up: Briefing.com and Trade The News
While Benzinga Pro and Scanz are our two favorite stock news platforms, Briefing.com and Trade The News aren’t far behind.
Briefing.com is a close competitor to Benzinga Pro. It doesn’t sport the same depth of original research, though, and the news feed isn’t quite as easy to use. Those shortcomings aside, this stock news platform is extremely useful for finding actionable information. You can easily filter news by ticker symbol, set up alerts based on your stock watchlists, and keep an eye on calendars of financial filings and market-wide reports. Briefing.com is very reasonably priced, with plans starting at $65 per month or $480 per year.
Trade The News is a good choice for traders who need lightning-fast headlines and coverage of more than just stocks. The platform offers news feeds for commodities and currency news, and like Benzinga Pro has options for audio squawk and live chat with the news desk. The news feed in Trade The News isn’t as customizable as what competitors offer, but the short, succinct headlines are a significant plus. Plans start at $150 per month, but you’ll need a $350 per month subscription to get access to audio squawk or live chat.
Conclusion
Keeping tabs on real-time stock news is critical for succeeding as a trader. Market news is an important driver of prices, and it can both create opportunities and dramatically change the situation around your current positions. With platforms like Benzinga Pro, Scanz, Briefing.com, and Trade The News, you can make sure that you have early access to the headlines. That way, you never miss a trade because you didn’t have the latest information.
