Interactive Brokers, one of the world’s largest online trading platforms, has introduced a new service to clients called IBKR GlobalAnalyst, which is designed to aid stock selection and idea generation across a wide range of equity markets.
Read our full Interactive Brokers review here
What is Interactive Brokers’ IBKR GlobalAnalyst?
GlobalAnalayst is a bespoke stock screener that is preloaded with geographic, sector and fundamental filters that allow users to search for stocks and investment opportunities based on specific criteria.
For example, you could search for European mid-cap financial stocks or global large-cap consumer cyclical stocks, and then refine or rank those lists based on say the Return on Equity (ROE), or Price Earnings ratio of the stocks in question.
What can IBKR GlobalAnalyst be used for?
GlobalAnalyst can be used to compile watchlists of stocks or to compare performance between stocks within the same sector domestically, or stocks that are in the same industry or business but which are listed in different geographies.
So for example we could compare Intuit (INTU US) with its UK rival Sage Group (SGE LN ) or Exxon Mobile (XOM US) with say Total Energies (TTE FP) in France.
You can even use the service to take that type of analysis a stage further, and compare say Norweigan equities to those in the rest of mainland Europe or any other of the seven global regions in the screener.
What’s more, you can create your own watchlist of up to 25 tickers and view the results in a currency of your choice.
Can you make money with IBKR GlobalAnalyst?
GlobalAnalyst is probably best used as an idea generation and decision support tool, in that allows users to identify lists of outperforming or underperforming stocks, sectors or geographies.
However, it won’t tell you what to buy or sell, that decision is down to the end-user. Rather it will allow traders to sort through the noise of the wider market and to focus or zoom in on a particular sector or group of stocks.
So for example, if you wanted to create a list of global, large-cap stocks, in the materials sector, and then filter for those stocks with a PE below the sector average you could do so with just a few mouse clicks.
You could use this information to create a watchlist of possible trade and investment ideas, over the short, medium or longer term.
Are there any alternatives to IBKR GlobalAnalyst out there?
There are plenty of alternative stock screeners on the market for example Stockopedia offers a similar product, as does Barchart.com, Trading View. Several direct competitors to Interactive Brokers, such as IG Group also offer a stock screener to clients.
However few of these tools are as user-friendly or intuitive to use as GlobalAnalyst, though on the downside GA doesn’t contain any price performance data
How does IBKR GlobalAnalyst compare to Interactive Brokers existing stock scanner?
Interactive Brokers already offered a stock scanner that allowed clients to search for top-performing instruments across multiple asset classes. See this link
The scanner can search across, stocks, bonds, futures and options markets, looking for instruments that meet preselected criteria such as high dividend yields, large volumes or numbers of trades and even specific levels of volatility. As such it’s a far more sophisticated and in-depth tool than GlobalAnalyst which is much more suited to use “on the fly”.
Overall GlobalAnalyst is a welcome addition to the trader’s arsenal, it’s straightforward to use and has enough filters to be useful, without over-complicating the functionality.
With over 35 years of finance experience, Darren is a highly respected and knowledgeable industry expert. With an extensive career covering trading, sales, analytics and research, he has a vast knowledge covering every aspect of the financial markets.
During his career, Darren has acted for and advised major hedge funds and investment banks such as GLG, Thames River, Ruby Capital and CQS, Dresdner Kleinwort and HSBC.
In addition to the financial analysis and commentary he provides as an editor at GoodMoneyGuide.com, his work has been featured in publications including Fool.co.uk.
As well as extensive experience of writing financial commentary, he previously worked as a Market Research & Client Relationships Manager at Admiral Markets UK Ltd, before providing expert insights as a market analyst at Pepperstone.
Darren is an expert in areas like currency, CFDs, equities and derivatives and has authored over 260 guides on GoodMoneyGuide.com.
He has an aptitude for explaining trading concepts in a way that newcomers can understand, such as this guide to day trading Forex at Pepperstone.com
Darren has done interviews and analysis for companies like Queso, including an interview on technical trading levels.
A well known authority in the industry, he has provided interviews on Bloomberg (UK), CNBC (UK) Reuters (UK), Tiptv (UK), BNN (Canada) and Asharq Bloomberg Arabia.
