Frequently Asked Questions

A U.S. stock research platform for long-term investors. It combines fundamental analysis, valuation, data-driven investment ratings, a learning blog, and a Smart Money tracker for every S&P 500 stock.

Yes. You can research stocks, use the full S&P 500 screener, read the blog, and view every investment rating for free. Paid plans add 5-year projection models, comparison, and the 13F Smart Money tracker.

It shows what the biggest U.S. fund managers actually own, sourced from their official SEC 13F filings, plus real insider buying from SEC Form 4 — so you can follow institutional 'smart money' moves.

Live prices from market-data providers, plus real fundamentals and 5-year financials pulled directly from companies' SEC filings — refreshed automatically. Every rating is generated by a transparent model, not hand-picked.

No. Everything on The Stocks School is educational research to help you make your own decisions — it is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always do your own research and consider a licensed professional.

A tool that filters a large list of stocks down to the ones matching your criteria — by sector, valuation, profitability, growth, debt, and our overall rating — so you can find ideas worth a closer look.

Search a ticker or company, or filter by sector, maximum P/E, and minimum ROE, then sort any column. Click any stock to open its full analysis page.

Each is a transparent 0–100 score our model computes from real fundamentals — growth, profitability, financial health, and valuation. Higher is better, but it's a research starting point, not a buy signal.

Prices update through each trading day; fundamentals and 5-year financials refresh on a regular schedule directly from company filings.

Yes — the full S&P 500 screener, every metric, sorting and filters, and all ratings are free to use.

No. Everything on The Stocks School is educational research to help you make your own decisions — it is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always do your own research and consider a licensed professional.

Over the long run the S&P 500 has returned about 10% a year (roughly 7% after inflation). Matching the market over decades is genuinely excellent — chasing far more usually means taking risks that end in a big loss.

P/E is the price you pay for each dollar of a company's yearly profit. A 'reasonable' P/E depends on growth: a fast grower can justify a high P/E, while the same number is expensive for a slow one.

Use a funnel: filter the whole market down fast, then deeply understand the few businesses that survive, then judge whether the price is fair. The goal of all that reading is to confidently say 'no' to almost everything.

Usually no. Sell when the reason you bought it breaks, when it becomes wildly overvalued, or when the position is too large — not simply because the number got big. By default, let your winners run.

A durable advantage that keeps competitors from copying a business and competing its profits away — usually a strong brand, network effects, a scale/cost edge, or high switching costs.

Enough that no single mistake can sink you, but few enough to follow — often a dozen to a couple dozen quality names across different sectors, each sized by conviction. Diversification lowers risk without necessarily lowering long-term return.

Yes. The free plan includes the full S&P 500 screener, every stock's fundamentals and rating, charts, and the learning blog — no card required.

Premium unlocks 5-year projection models, side-by-side comparison, and advanced analytics. Pro adds the full 13F Smart Money portfolio tracker and everything in Premium.

Paid plans are launching soon. Until checkout goes live the plans are a preview, and the features are open to everyone — we'll announce when subscriptions open.

Yes. When billing launches, plans will be month-to-month or yearly and cancellable anytime from your account — you keep access through the end of the period you paid for.

Payments will be handled by Stripe, an industry-standard processor. We never see or store your card details.