In today’s day and age, you can do a lot of research on a stock before buying. This is why the Internet has made it easy for people to trade in a cheaper way with less significant information. A commonplace that you will see this is on Yahoo Finance.
Even though it is common, does that mean that it is good? In this article, we will discuss what you can do and not do on Yahoo finance for trading stocks.
Yahoo Finance- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good: Researching A Stock
One of the first things that I like to look at when doing expensive research is how many people are buying and selling the stock. Knowing this information allows me to make better decisions as to whether or not to buy or sell. You can find out how many shares have been traded over time here.
If there were 10 million shares traded today and 1 million yesterday, this would be very telling (positive) information about what happened during those two days. To see if it’s good or bad, another thing that I like to look at is volume. If there were a lot of volumes, it means that there were more trades made in one day than usual.
If this is the case, then the information becomes more valid because people are excited about what is happening with that company. To see how much volume has been traded overtime at Yahoo Finance, go here.
One thing that I like to do when researching is look for any news about the company by using their search engine and typing in words such as “new,” “recent,” and “breaking.”
The reason why I type in these words is that if something just happened within the past day or two, then there will be an article on Yahoo saying so. If this is true, then you know that it’s valid information. You can also find out if there are any press releases that have been written about the company.
By using their search engine and typing in the name of the company, you will most likely come up with numerous articles on your subject. This is another way for me to validate what I am researching on a stock.
Another thing that I like to do before buying a stock is read analyst reviews. A-L rating scales are used by analysts and fund managers, and they tell you where they think the price will go (up/down) based on how many stars it has accumulated.
If an analyst says that a rating scale consists of 5 stars and one rating scale only has 4, then this gives me information about whether or not it’s worth buying or not. You can read analyst reviews on Yahoo Finance here.
The Bad: Reading Article Titles
On Yahoo, there is something that I like to call “Article Title Shuffle.” Basically, it means that you can click on one article and see five different articles on the same subject.
This is misleading for some people because they think that if they were able to find so many articles on the topic, then this must mean that it’s active somehow. While this might be true, sometimes it isn’t.
One thing to look out for when doing your research is making sure you are clicking on the correct link. On Yahoo, you need to scroll down after clicking on an article to actually get what you want.
There will usually be a link box at the very bottom of the article that will say something like “continue reading” or “learn more.” Clicking on this link takes you to the official page.
Some articles can be misleading and give false information about a stock because they are written for shock value. The title might catch your attention, and then when you read it, it’s not actually what it sounds like.
One way to make sure that you don’t fall for this trap is to never rely on one source of information. Sometimes looking at an article with a different point of view can help you validate what you think is good/bad/ugly about the stock.
The Ugly: Online Stock Trading
Yahoo Finance has an online stock trading section that contains all sorts of information about companies, but I personally don’t think that this is the best place to be finding information.
One reason why this might not be a good idea is because you never know if the articles are fake or not.
The articles could contain false/inaccurate information, and you wouldn’t even know it until it’s too late.
This can lead to losses of money which you definitely don’t want. Another thing to watch out for with online trading is that. There are advertisements everywhere which make me question if the website has ulterior motives (financially speaking).
I feel like ads aren’t as bad on Yahoo as they are on other websites, but still, be careful when doing online trading via their website!
Conclusion: In my opinion, I would say that Yahoo is a good research tool as long as you know what to watch out for.
While reading articles, make sure they are not fake and if it’s an article about trading, try to avoid using their online stock trading section as much as possible.
I feel like most of the information on Yahoo can be trusted, but there is always a chance that something could be misleading. Always keep your guard up and do your own research just in case!
Thank you so much for reading my article! If you have any questions or thoughts, please leave them in the comments below 🙂 You can also follow me on facebook.com/cufflinkcapital/
Thanks again! Have an awesome day! – <3 ^
