Picking the right investment analysis tools is extremely important to your investing success. FastTrack and Zacks are two well-known financial research and analysis companies that offer a range of services to assist investors in making informed decisions. However, significant differences between the two can affect which one fits your investment needs best.
Overview
FastTrack is a leading provider of investment software, data, portfolio analysis and comparison tools. FastTrack’s products provide extensive coverage on mutual funds, ETFs, closed end funds, stocks, and global indexes and service services individual investors, financial advisors, and institutional investors with rankings, performance data, and comparisons of securities. FastTrack earned its reputation by offering exhaustive coverage of mutual funds and ETFs, first-rate customer support, and exceptional value.
Zacks is known for its stocks coverage, with a focus on earnings estimates and stock ratings. They provide research products and services for individual investors, including stock reports, newsletters, and alerts. They also offer a number of premium services, such as portfolio management tools, access to analysts, and proprietary stock ratings. It has a more stock-specific research focus with a more short term orientation
Data
Both FastTrack and Zacks offer data and analytics tools to help investors and financial professionals make informed decisions. FastTrack is known for its dividend adjusted true total return and accurate data points, while Zacks provides stock focused data and screening tools, largely geared toward frequent trading.
One of the key differences between FastTrack and Zacks is the breadth and depth of their coverage. FastTrack covers a wider range of investments, including stocks, funds, and ETFs, while Zacks’ focus is primarily on individual stocks.
Investing Philosophy
When it comes to the level of analysis, both FastTrack and Zacks provide in-depth research and analysis, but they use different methodologies to evaluate investments. FastTrack uses a quantitative and relative analysis approach to choosing mutual funds and ETFs. FastTrack’s tools emphasize trend following, risk and return calculations, and reducing risk with limited trading of mutual fund, ETFs, and large cap stocks. Zacks, on the other hand,focuses on earnings estimates and stock ratings for short-term stock picking.
Customers and Value
Individual investors, financial advisors, and institutions widely use FastTrack’s services, while Zacks caters more to professional investors and financial advisors.
FastTrack prices its services on a subscription basis with different plans for individual investors (FT Cloud), financial advisors (FT Cloud+), and institutions (Market Data API). Zacks offers both subscription-based and pay-per-use pricing options, with different levels of access to data and analytics tools based on the plan chosen.
Another difference between the two firms is the level of access they provide to their research. FastTrack delivers a transparent and user-friendly website widely recognized for offering a broad range of data and tools at competitive prices and exceptional value. On the other hand, Zacks provides a limited amount of research for free on its website, with the majority of its research products and services being available only to subscribers at premium prices.
FastTrack is a better value for the price, covering more mutual funds and stocks, giving you a better understanding of your investment strategy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, both FastTrack and Zacks are reputable and well-established firms that provide a wide range of information and tools to help investors make informed decisions. However, FastTrack provides a broader coverage of investments, spanning all mutual funds, etfs, stocks and global indexes.
Next Steps
Sign up for a free trial of FastTrack’s web based product FT Cloud: https://fasttrack.net