Finviz

What Is Finviz?

Finviz -- short for Financial Visualizations -- is a browser-based stock screener and market research platform that has been a staple of the retail trading community since 2007. Founded by Juraj Duris, Finviz is a bootstrapped, independently operated company with no venture capital funding. That independence shows in the product: no bloat, no social features shoehorned in, no pivot-of-the-month. Finviz does a few things and does them exceptionally well -- screening stocks, visualizing market data, and aggregating financial news.

The platform covers over 8,500 US-listed securities across NYSE, Nasdaq, and AMEX. It also provides overview pages for futures, forex, crypto, and bonds, though the core screener is strictly US equities. Finviz is used by millions of traders monthly, and its heat map has become one of the most recognizable images in financial media -- frequently shared on social platforms and embedded on financial news sites.

The Stock Screener -- Why It Is the Standard

The Finviz screener is arguably the best free stock screener available anywhere. It lets you filter across 67 criteria organized into three tabs: Descriptive, Fundamental, and Technical.

Descriptive filters cover the basics -- exchange, sector, industry, country, market cap, dividend yield, float, shares outstanding, average volume, and relative volume. These are the filters you use to narrow the universe before applying deeper criteria.

Fundamental filters include P/E ratio, forward P/E, PEG, P/S, P/B, P/FCF, EPS growth (current year, next year, past 5 years, next 5 years), sales growth, return on equity, return on assets, debt-to-equity, current ratio, gross margin, operating margin, profit margin, and payout ratio. For value investors and fundamental analysts, this is an enormous amount of data accessible through simple dropdown menus.

Technical filters let you screen by performance period (1 week to 1 year), volatility, RSI, gap percentage, SMA and EMA proximity (20/50/200-day), candlestick patterns, beta, ATR, and chart patterns. The chart pattern filter is particularly notable -- you can scan for double tops, double bottoms, head and shoulders, ascending/descending triangles, wedges, and channels across the entire market in seconds.

The screener is fast. Not "fast for a web tool" -- genuinely fast. Results load in fractions of a second even when combining multiple filters. You can view results as a sortable table with tickers and metrics, as a grid of mini-charts, or as detailed snapshots showing fundamentals, news, and insider activity for each stock. The speed and usability gap between Finviz and most other free screeners is substantial.

Heat Maps -- The Iconic Market Snapshot

Finviz's S&P 500 heat map is probably the platform's most widely recognized feature. Each stock is represented as a rectangle sized by market capitalization and colored by price performance -- green for up, red for down, with color intensity reflecting the magnitude of the move. You can instantly see where money is flowing: which sectors are leading, which mega-caps are dragging the index, and whether breadth is broad or narrow.

The heat map is not limited to the S&P 500. You can view the full US market, individual sectors, ETFs, and world markets. You can also change the metric from daily performance to weekly, monthly, or yearly returns, as well as view by P/E ratio, dividend yield, float short, or analyst recommendations.

Traders use the heat map in several practical ways. At market open, a quick glance tells you whether the session is risk-on or risk-off. Sector rotation traders use it to identify which groups are gaining momentum before it shows up in index-level moves. Portfolio managers use it to check whether their holdings are aligned with or diverging from the broader market.

Charts and Technical Analysis

Free charts show daily candlesticks with 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages, trend channels, and volume bars. They are static -- you cannot draw on them, change timeframes, or overlay custom indicators.

Finviz Elite unlocks interactive charting with intraday timeframes from 1-minute to monthly, drawing tools including trend lines and Fibonacci retracements, and indicator overlays like Bollinger Bands, MACD, and RSI. Elite also adds automatic chart pattern recognition, identifying formations like wedges, triangles, double tops/bottoms, head and shoulders, and channels directly on the chart.

That said, even Elite charting is not in the same league as TradingView or thinkorswim. If advanced charting is your primary need -- custom indicators, scripting, multi-pane layouts -- Finviz is not the right tool. It is a screener first, with charting as a complement.

Finviz Elite -- What $39.50/Month Gets You

Finviz Elite costs $39.50/month or $299.50/year (effectively $24.96/month on annual billing). The key upgrades over the free version:

Real-time data. Free Finviz has a 15-20 minute delay on quotes and a 3-5 minute delay on heat maps. Elite refreshes quotes in real time at intervals of several seconds. For anyone making intraday decisions, this alone justifies the subscription.

Premarket and after-hours data. Elite shows premarket activity from 4:00 AM to 9:30 AM and after-hours from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM. The premarket screener is genuinely useful for gap scanners and traders who prepare watchlists before the opening bell.

Backtesting. Elite includes a backtesting tool that lets you test screener-based strategies against up to 20 years of historical data, measuring average returns, win rates, and drawdowns.

Advanced charts. Interactive charts with multiple timeframes, drawing tools, indicator overlays, and automatic pattern recognition.

Email alerts. Set alerts for price changes, news events, analyst ratings changes, insider transactions, and SEC filings on stocks you follow.

Data export and API access. Export screener results and research data to Excel. API access is available for programmatic use.

Ad-free experience. The free version carries banner ads. Elite removes them entirely.

Finviz offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all paid subscriptions.

News, Insider Trading, and Market Data

Finviz aggregates financial news from Bloomberg, Reuters, CNBC, MarketWatch, and other major outlets. Each stock's detail page shows relevant headlines alongside fundamentals and charts.

The insider trading section tracks SEC Form 4 filings, showing which executives and directors are buying or selling shares. You can filter by transaction type, value, and date -- a solid free resource for monitoring insider activity.

Beyond US equities, Finviz provides overview pages for major futures (indices, energy, metals, grains, softs, meats, currencies), forex pairs, and cryptocurrencies. These pages show prices, performance, and charts but are not full-featured screeners -- you cannot apply filters to futures or forex the way you can with stocks.

Who Finviz Is Best For

Finviz excels for a specific type of trader: someone who needs to scan the US stock market quickly, wants a visual snapshot of market conditions, and values speed and simplicity over feature depth.

Swing traders who build daily watchlists based on fundamental and technical criteria will find the screener indispensable. Value investors can screen by P/E, P/B, debt ratios, and margins to find undervalued candidates. Momentum traders can filter for gap-ups, unusual volume, and technical breakout patterns. Visual learners who want to understand market dynamics at a glance will love the heat maps.

Finviz is also a natural complement to other tools. Many traders use Finviz for idea generation and screening, then switch to TradingView for detailed charting and trade execution through a broker. The two platforms cover different strengths with minimal overlap.

Limitations -- Where Finviz Falls Short

Finviz has clear boundaries that you should understand before committing:

US stocks only. The screener covers NYSE, Nasdaq, and AMEX. There is no international market coverage -- no London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, or European exchanges. If you trade global equities, you need a different tool.

No options data or screening. Despite options being occasionally mentioned, Finviz does not provide meaningful options chain data, implied volatility screening, or options flow. Options traders should look at OptionStrat, Unusual Whales, or their broker platform.

No direct trading. Finviz is a research and screening tool only. You cannot place orders, connect a brokerage account, or execute trades from the platform.

No mobile app. Finviz is browser-only. The website works on mobile browsers but there is no dedicated iOS or Android app, and the mobile experience is not optimized.

No AI or automation. There are no AI-driven signals, automated scanning alerts on the free tier, or predictive features. Finviz provides raw data and filters -- you supply the analysis.

Basic customer support. There is no live chat, phone support, or extensive knowledge base. Documentation is minimal. You learn Finviz by using it.

The Bottom Line

Finviz is one of those tools where the free version is so good that millions of traders use it daily without ever paying. The screener's speed, filter breadth, and visual output are unmatched in the free tier. Elite is a reasonable upgrade at $24.96/month (annual) for traders who need real-time data, premarket scanning, and backtesting -- though it is not a substitute for a dedicated charting platform or trading terminal.

If you trade US stocks and do not already use Finviz, you are almost certainly missing out on the fastest way to scan the market.