Morningstar Review 2022
 | By: Jeremy Biberdorf | February 25, 2022 |
In a Nutshell: Morningstar is an investment firm that provides an excellent investment tool that conducts analyses of funds, stocks, and other relevant market data. Other than being a comprehensive research tool, Morningstar also has insights on mutual funds and ETFs that other platforms such as Motley Fool use as sources for their stock picks.
| Fees | Access | Investment Types |
|---|---|---|
| $249/year or $34.95/month for Premium membership | Get access to analyst reports, top investment picks, portfolio manager and X-ray, screeners and the article archive | Funds, ETFs, Stocks, Bonds |
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Free 14-day trial
- Intuitive interface
- Access to important research, analyses, data, and picks
Cons
- May be a bit confusing to beginners
What is Morningstar?
Morningstar is an ultimate investment research tool that analyzes and researches the market to provide you with important data and recommended stock picks to help you get ahead. Morningstar itself is one of the largest investment firms in the world. They aim to offer valuable insight into the market for investors to take a more active approach to invest.
That being said, it’s not the best for users who want to “set it and forget it”. Morningstar works best for those who want to take more control and manage their own portfolios. Morningstar offers two plans – the free Basic Plan and the Premium Plan.
The Premium Plan will cost you $249 a year and unlocks all the features the platform offers while the Basic Plan offers partial access to certain features while some others are off-limits.
Morningstar Features
Speaking of features, let’s take a deeper dive into what you can get out of Morningstar.
Morningstar Rating
The Morningstar rating system makes picking mutual funds much easier. The platform rates each one with a 1 to 5-star rating based on the risks vs returns. While this is very informative indeed and the ratings are generated by mathematical algorithms rather than human analysts, we must remind our readers that past performance is not indicative of future possibilities.
Investment Tracking
The Portfolio Manager feature in the Premium Plan tracks your investments and helps you diversify and evaluate your portfolio and goals. With the Portfolio Manager also comes the Portfolio X-ray, which peels back the layers of your investments with multiple tools to pinpoint and help build the best profile for you.
Investment Screening
The market is made up of thousands upon thousands of stocks and funds, so it’s a task and a half to find one that matches your criteria. With the investment screening function, you can narrow down the options by filtering down the choices.
Investment screening functions are no strangers to other investment tools, so it may not be the best use of your money if this is all that appeals to you about Morningstar.
Top Picks
Perhaps the most coveted features are the top picks and insights Morningstar offers. In fact, this data is so valuable that Motley Fool also relies on this information for their stock suggestions. Morningstar has many analysts providing their unbiased expertise in the market.
Who is Morningstar for?
To put it simply, Morningstar is for hands-on active traders and ones with some knowledge already about investing. The data, analyses, and research are a little advanced for beginners and the tools will take time to navigate. This is not to say you can’t master it over time.
There is nothing wrong with trying the free Basic Plan first just to get a feel of what the platform can do for you. The free plan is also a great place for beginners to start learning and preparing for the eventual upgrade to Premium.
We do not recommend settling for the basic plan if you are an intermediate or expert active trader looking to make the most use of the insights Morningstar can give.
Should You Get Morningstar Premium?
Again, Morningstar Premium is our recommendation for active traders who manage their own investment profiles. The knowledge the data and research provide is invaluable in picking the right stocks, funds, and ETFs. Not only can you have the information at your fingertips, but you can also learn and grow as an investor from the selection process.
Morningstar Premium opens many doors for an average investor, although it does take a paid subscription to gain access. Is the fee worth it? It really is. Of course, it makes more financial sense to pay annually, but you can also choose to pay monthly.
We don’t want to shut out potential small-time investors as we do believe information from Morningstar can grow your profile, but it may not be as worth it as it is for those who have a larger investment balance. Click here to learn more about what Morningstar can do for you.
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