StockEdge Review: More than just an Analysis Tool

Trading and Investing have always been daunting tasks for the people of India. The idea of spending any money in shares has been seen as the moral and monetary equivalent of gambling. Due to these implications, both young and old investors are often forced to live on a paycheck-only income. People are stuck in gruelling jobs for too long because they don’t let their money earn them more of it, all out of fear of judgement.

“Shares main paise lagana dil ke kamzor ke liye nahi hai.” “Bade bade log bahot paisa dooba chuke hai isme.” “Thode se paise dekh liye to chaska chadh gaya.” These words sting every wannabe investor and restrict them from entering the stock markets in India.

Yet, India has been gearing up and investing in the stock markets with great enthusiasm. And the need for stock analysis and financial education has become very important. Multiple tools exist today that fulfil these needs. Today, we look at StockEdge, a comprehensive tool that allows investors to do both of these and more.

StockEdge Overview

The Company

StockEdge was founded in 2016 by IIM Indore alumni Vivek Bajaj and Vineet Patawari. The stock analysis tool is a part of the Kredent Infoedge group, the education company that is part of the Kredent group.

The Interface

Today’s review will be centred around the web-based desktop client of the StockEdge platform. The app and desktop versions of the platform are not very different from the web-based client. The interface is similar across all three platforms.

 

Right from the start, the StockEdge home page has the NIFTY and SENSEX indices displayed on the first card visible. The NIFTY 50 and NIFTY 500 indices follow in the second and third cards.

The interface can be divided into three segments. On the left is a menu that consists of different sections named, Equities, Mutual Funds, My StockEdge, Learn and More. The centre of the webpage consists of various aspects relevant to each of the sections mentioned above. The right also has a slide-in menu consisting of Info, Notes and Club sections.

While users can collapse the left and right menus, they come expanded when first loading the page. This expanded view of the menus causes the page's contents to appear rather cluttered and unorganised.

With the website's visuals out of the way, let’s get a deeper analysis of StockEdge’s features.

StockEdge Features

StockEdge is an online analysis tool that focuses on not just equities but also mutual funds. The platform’s unique selling point is its ability to serve as an investor’s “diary”. The platform caters to the needs of both entry-level investors and seasoned investors. Some of the key features of the platform are:

• Equities

Under this section, StockEdge provides information relating to various shares traded on either the NSE or BSE. The Equities section has Explore and Analytics segments.

The Explore segment has information on the more fundamental aspects of the stock market. Information on IPOs, recent bulk deals, active investors and stocks sorted by sectors can be found here. This segment is more beneficial for long term investors who focus more on the intrinsic operations of a stock.

The analytics section has more technically dense information. The analytics section houses features like scans, investment themes, investor portfolios, strategies, etc. Data present under this segment is more focused on price based movement, thus, more lucrative for traders.

• Mutual funds

The mutual funds section, too, has Explore and Analytics segments.

Under the Explore segment, users can see various Asset Management Companies (AMC), fund classes, schemes, etc.

Under the Analytics section, users can see MF Investment Themes and AUM analysis.

• My StockEdge

My StockEdge is the user's custom feed on the app that displays the best and worst performers from the various stocks the users place in their watchlist.

• Learn

Learn, as the name suggests, is StockEdge's learning platform. This section has both text-based and video-based explanations for various stock market subjects.

• Additional Features

The platform also has additional features that allow ease of access and customizability for users.

The "i" button on the right provides information based on the current page the user is on then.

The "Notes" feature allows users to add custom notes to various securities visible in chronological order whenever the concerned security is being viewed. This feature affords users the ability to turn StockEdge into a personal finance "diary".

A button called "Club" also shows recent posts in the StockEdge Premium Paid plan called StockEdge Club.

Speaking of paid plans, let's look at StockEdge's pricing for its memberships. Yes, they have more than one.

StockEdge Pricing

StockEdge has two variants of its paid memberships. The "Premium" variant, which costs ₹399 per month and the "Club" variant, which costs ₹1499 per month.

Both Premium and Club memberships give users unlimited access to Company Filings, Advanced Scans, Interactive Edge Chart, Download to CSV, Investment Ideas, Edge Reports, Business Houses, Combination Scans, Investment Themes, Investor Portfolios, Strategies, MF Investment Themes, Take Notes, Advanced Filters and Remove ads.

Apart from these benefits, Club users also get to attend one webinar and access community features. The community feature means that Club users can interact and discuss their investment habits and themes.

The ₹399 premium membership seems like a more worthwhile spend as the additional ₹1100 for just one additional webinar and community features seems like a way too steep demand.

Benefits and Drawbacks of StockEdge

Benefits:

• StockEdge is not limited to being a screener and a stock analysis tool. The singular platform provides education and relevant updates to cater to inexperienced and seasoned investors alike.

• While most screeners only focus on equities and shares, Stockedge also has a section for mutual funds.

• The "Notes" feature makes using StockEdge a personal experience tailored to every user.

Drawbacks:

• Even though StockEdge has many features, users get limited access to them. StockEdge claims that 80% of the information on its website is free. While this claim might seem very honest, it's downplayed severely by the two paywalls behind which the platform hides its information.

One for All, All for One

Well, playing on the last point you read, what if I told you there exists a collection of platforms that can compete with today's review subject and provide you with a bit more?

Finology One is the name of this collection. Users can access multiple platforms that cater to all your planning, investing, and educational needs with a single subscription plan.

Finology's Ticker provides users with features like; Screeners, Bundles, Investor Portfolios, Sector-wise shares and Markets section to view all the important indices. All this for free too! And with a single monthly charge of ₹589, you get access to Additional Calculators, Premium Bundles, Smart Portfolios, and so much more.

The same payment of ₹589 gives you access to Finology's Quest, Recipe and Select, the learning, planning and broker review & comparison platforms.

So what are you waiting for? You've been armed and informed. All you have to do is choose. 

Conclusion

The stock market has had a bitter-sweet relationship with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The market suffered due to the implications of reduced production and staffing due to lockdown restrictions. These very lockdowns also brought an unlikely but welcome change of the Indian populace towards the stock markets.

Whether it was the free time in the people’s hands or the need for a better income source than whatever could be squeezed out during the pandemic, the Indian population, especially the youth, took a sudden liking for the bourses during the pandemic. And the numbers back the facts, during post-pandemic 2020, India saw a groundbreaking 1.04 crore rise in the number of retail investors.

This trend wasn’t a one and done deal either. The year 2021 saw the number of retail investors increase by another 1.42 crore.

With an Indian populace that is more aware of the stock market, tools like StockEdge could benefit from this incoming trend.

To sum things up, my humble opinion of StockEdge remains positively neutral. While the website's functionality and features are very intuitive, the interface of the website and the pricing leave a bit to be desired.

That's it for today. Ta-ta now.