If you’re searching for information about what’s going on in the stock market, chances are you’ll come across the Benzinga brand pretty quickly. Since its foundation in 2010, the platform has grown to become one of the premier sources for information on Wall Street.
The company also offers a service called Benzinga Pro that can help take your market performance to the next level.
Benzinga Pro is a financial news, equities screener, and stock signaling service. It’s a valuable tool for both investors and active traders, whether they’re day trading, swing trading, or options trading.
However, Benzinga’s best tools come with a pretty hefty price tag, especially for beginners who don’t have lots of capital to invest. Is it worth the money?
Benzinga Pro Plans and Pricing
You’ll have four membership options when you sign up for Benzinga Pro. Prices range from free to $347 per month, with each membership tier unlocking new features.
Free
As its name suggests, you won’t pay a dime when you sign up for the Free plan. The plan gives you access to:
- BZ Wire Newsfeeds. Benzinga’s stock market news is second to none, and you’ll have access to all the news on the BZ Newswire. However, you won’t have access to filters that make it easier to find the news you’re looking for.
- Current Session Movers. Quickly spot the biggest gainers and losers in the current trading session.
- Watchlists. Build lists of stocks you’re interested in watching closely.
- Stock Details Tool. Use the Details tool to find conference call and earnings report notifications, interactive trading charts, key stock data, similar stocks, and a dedicated newsfeed for the stocks you follow.
- Delayed Nasdaq Quotes. Get access to Nasdaq stock quotes on a 15-minute delay during market open hours.
Basic
The Basic plan is Benzinga’s lowest-cost paid plan. The plan costs $27 per month, paid monthly — there’s no annual payment option here. It includes all the features of the Free plan, plus:
- Full News Feed. The Basic membership grants you access to analyst ratings, press releases, SEC filings, and all other news sources, though basic members don’t have access to advanced filtering options.
- Benzinga Pro Chat Room. This stock chat room is highly active and exclusive to paying Benzinga Pro members. You can find trading opportunities, engage with other investors and traders, and get a feel for investor sentiment by pursuing through the chat room.
- Movers. You can see the biggest gainers and losers in the current session as well as previous sessions, including premarket and after-hours sessions, with a Basic membership.
- Watchlist Alerts. Get alerted when stocks on your watchlist make big moves or when the companies they represent release news.
- Benzinga Premium Articles. Gain unlimited access to all Benzinga Premium articles.
Essential
The Essential plan costs $177 per month or $1,404 per year. Paying annually saves you $720 per year, which works out to nearly 34% off the monthly price.
The Essential plan includes all the features of the Basic plan, plus:
- Nasdaq Basic Real-Time Quotes. The Essential package unlocks real-time stock quotes from Nasdaq.
- Advanced Newsfeed Filters. Quickly find the news you’re looking for on the types of companies you invest in with Benzinga’s advanced newsfeed filters.
- Squawk Box & Audio Squawk. Benzinga’s Squawk Box features interviews with CEOs, politicians, and other high-power individuals, offering important insights on both market conditions and individual stocks. The audio version allows you to keep your eyes on your trades while ensuring you don’t miss a beat on the news side of the coin.
- Real-Time Scanner. Benzinga’s stock scanner makes it easy to find the types of stocks and crypto trades you’re looking for.
- Stock Signals. Get email, desktop, and audio notifications when the types of opportunities you’re looking for pop up.
- Calendar. You can see when events like press conferences and earnings reports are coming.
- Unusual Options Activity for an Additional Fee. Unusual options activity is generally a precursor to big moves in the market. Quickly pinpoint this type of activity with a $27.97 per month add-on.
Options Mentorship
At $347 per month, the Options Mentorship plan is the most expensive Benzinga Pro membership. You do have the option to pay $3,372 annually, which leads to an annual savings of $792 or 19% off the monthly price.
The Options Mentorship plan comes with everything in the lower-priced plans, plus:
- Mentorship. Get mentorship and options trader training from world-class options trader Nic Chahine.
- Options Inner Circle Chat Room. The Options Inner Circle chat room is highly exclusive and gives you the ability to trade ideas and communicate with highly successful options traders.
- Market Overview. Receive a market overview regularly that’s designed to help you match Chahine’s 60% win rate with a 35.3% average return.
- No Add-On Fee for Unusual Options Activity. Avoid paying $27.97 per month for the Unusual Options Activity add-on. That’s a $335.64 savings annually.
Key Features of Benzinga Pro
Benzinga is a news platform at its core, but it has evolved to offer a wide range of features aimed at helping traders become more successful. Some of the key features of the platform include:
News Feed
Benzinga Pro’s news feed is like nothing else online. Although free users only have access to news from the BZ Newsfeed, all paying members have access to news from all news sources, including SEC filings, press releases, analyst ratings, and several other quality news services.
This is beneficial whether you’re investing or stock trading. As an investor, you pay close attention to the news to determine where the companies you hold in could be headed. As a trader, you rely on breaking news to find opportunities.
As an Essential or Options Mentorship member, you can take Benzinga Pro’s real-time news feed to the next level with a completely customizable interface. Only see the news you’re interested in by customizing the feed based on the following attributes:
- Categories. Dial down the type of stock you’re looking for by categories centered around market capitalization and stock type.
- Sectors. Quickly find the sector-specific news you’re looking for.
- Sources. Only see news from the sources you care most about.
- Watchlists. Automatically add news surrounding stocks on your watchlists to your feed.
For example, if you’re only interested in reading SEC filings from tech stocks with a market cap higher than $100 million, you can easily customize your feed accordingly.
If you’re interested in specific information that filters won’t lead you to, simply use the news feed search function to find news on recent stock splits, retail sales data, or anything else related to the market you can think of.
Pro Signals
Benzinga makes stock signals available to subscribers with an essential membership or above. If you’re one of these subscribers, you have access to signals based on:
- Price Spikes. Traders often look for stocks that are making big moves in the market.
- Unusual Options Activity. Unusual options activity may suggest a big move is coming around the corner.
- Block Trades. Block trades are large transactions that have the potential to send a stock for the top or the bottom, depending on if the block trade is on the buy or sell side.
- Halt & Resume Signals. Stocks are often halted for various reasons. For example, unusual trading activity or coming news may lead to a halt. When the stocks resume trading, big moves tend to happen.
- Gaps. Gaps are the differences between closing prices and opening prices. When these gaps are large, they suggest an eventful trading session is coming up.
- 52-Week Highs & Lows. Stocks that reach their annual highs or lows have the potential to make big moves, leading to opportunities.
Your signals appear in your inbox on the Benzinga Pro platform. If you enable audio signal functionality, they come through your speakers as well.
Chat With Benzinga’s News Desk
News can be confusing from time to time. Fortunately, you can turn to Benzinga Pro to make sense of it. The team at the Benzinga News Desk is highly knowledgeable about the market and skilled at making market news easier to understand for beginners.
If you’re confused about a particular news item, open a News Desk chat to chat with the Benzinga team in real time and get the answers you’re looking for.
14-Day Free Trial
You won’t need a free trial with the free membership. However, if you’re on the edge about one of the company’s paid plans, you can test drive the service’s functionality with a 14-day free trial. If you’re not happy with the free trial, simply cancel the service before the trial period is up and you won’t pay Benzinga a dime.
Stock Screener
The Benzinga Pro stock screener is one of the most robust screeners online today. The screener is best for investors or swing traders with a longer outlook than active day traders because it gives you the ability to screen stocks by more than 30 fundamental analysis factors and more than 20 technical analysis factors.
The screener also comes with multiple pre-built screens to help new users understand the power of the tool. Some of the best pre-built screens center around valuation, financial, and trend metrics.
Stock Scanner
The stock scanner works like a stock screener, but it’s best used by active day traders as a result of the heavy focus the screener has on short-term time frames and technical data. Scan moves that happen in real-time, over the last 10 seconds, over the last 30 seconds, and over the last minute. If you’re not interested in short-term scans, you can also turn time limits off.
The scanner isn’t just for stocks either. You can also scan the cryptocurrency market for opportunities in the digital realm.
You can design your own scan using the filter options provided or choose from pre-built scans like real-time after-hours gainers, mid-cap movers, and large-cap gainers.
Movers
Quickly spot the biggest gainers and losers in the market with Benzinga Pro’s Movers list. Keep in mind that free users only have access to current session movers. All paid users can look into the biggest movers on previous dates and in premarket and after-hours sessions.
Advantages of Benzinga Pro
Benzinga Pro has become one of the top online services for traders and investors by offering a wide range of features. Some of the biggest advantages to signing up for the platform include:
- Audio Alerts & Audio News. It’s difficult to keep tabs on your email and alert screens while you’re trading, but you’ll never miss a beat thanks to Benzinga’s audio news and alerts.
- Sentiment Indicators. Investor sentiment plays a major role in market movement. Easily gauge current investor sentiment with sentiment indicators.
- Desktop Notifications. If you’re not interested in audio alerts, you can take advantage of desktop notifications so you never miss news or a trading signal.
- Free Services. You can either sign up for the free plan or a 14-day free trial of any of the paid plans to access even the best tools for free for a limited time.
- Options Mentorship. The Options Mentorship program is a bit pricey for newcomers but well worth the money. There’s nothing like having a pro on your team as you learn how to trade options.
- Quality News. News often moves the market, and the speed and quality of the news you access will play a role in your gains or losses. Benzinga is best-known as a news source and has made an art out of curating some of the best market-related news feeds online.
Disadvantages of Benzinga Pro
There are a few disadvantages to consider before signing up for Benzinga Pro. The most significant disadvantages include:
- The Cost. The best tools are only available at price points over $100 per month. Unfortunately, this pricing is often cost-prohibitive for beginner market participants.
- No Forex Tools. Forex trading is a booming market, and Benzinga publishes news about the forex market all the time. Unfortunately, there are no forex features on Benzinga Pro.
- Squawk Box. Squawk Box is a proprietary Benzinga product, but the company licenses it out to other sources. You may be able to find lower-cost access to this news source through Benzinga’s competitors.
How Benzinga Pro Stacks Up
One of Benzinga Pro’s biggest competing platforms is Trade Ideas. Here’s how these two stock market news and research tools compare:
| Benzinga Pro | Trade Ideas | |
| Real-Time News Feeds | Newsfeeds, audio, and alerts. | See breaking news on the stock screener |
| Signals | Yes | Yes |
| Stock Screener | Best for investors and traders | Best for traders |
| Price | Free. $0 Basic. $27 per month Essential. $177 per month or $1,404 per year Options Mentorship. $347 per month or $3,372 per year | Standard. $118 per month or $999 per year Premium. $228 per month or $1,999 per year |
Final Word
Benzinga Pro is a high-quality trading tool that has the potential to bring your trading to the next level. It promises members access to some of the most accurate, high-quality stock market and industry news on the market. And if you have the Essential or Options Mentorship plan, you can filter and sort the news to access the stories you’re interested in quickly.
But the news is just one small piece of Benzinga Pro. As a member, you have unfettered access to a wide range of benefits: market signals, stock screeners and scanners, and the potential to be mentored by a world-class options trader.
Though there are some drawbacks to consider, Benzinga Pro is a great product to consider if you’re interested in upping your game on Wall Street.