In my opinion, stock screeners are the most valuable resources for every long-term investor and short-term trader. Without a stock screener, you would need days to analyze and compare various companies regarding their major key numbers like earnings per share, price, traded volume, value models, scoring models, etc.
With a stock screener, you can do this with a few mouse clicks within minutes. In my comprehensive report about the best stock screener, I have already analyzed over 40 different products.
The Uncle Stock fundamental stock screener. To get in-depth insights into the core functionalities of this screener, I asked the founder, Peter Nees, to explain his product to us.
I am pleased that Peter does not only provide insights into Uncle Stock but also answering some personal questions about his career, investments, and plans.
What is Uncle Stock?
Uncle Stock is a big calculator that starts from the company’s financial and stock price measures, to calculate a lot of indicators that determine how good a company is, what it’s worth and how this value relates to the current stock price.
Uncle Stock is a niche product that differentiates from its bigger competitors by depth of analysis, market coverage, integrated backtest and product price.
The software is completely created by Peter Nees. It started small, and Peter created the software initially to support his own investments. He kept improving the software over the years, letting the software evolve gradually, listening well to user feedback.
Peter always tries to keep the personal touch. Last year, Peter got support from his son, Alexander Nees, who studied economics/finance.
Features
Indicators
Unique about Uncle Stock is that each of its 450 core metrics has also a lot of derived metrics, like averages, growth, CAGRs and statistical indicators, .. which brings the total amount of metrics to over 6,000 per stock – all historical. Uncle Stock provides financial results from 1994 and indicators from 2000.
This makes the amount of data points provided by Uncle Stock immense. Also, most indicators can be benchmarked with the industry median.
Concretely, Uncle Stock has 450 core metrics organized in following groups:
- Scores
- Stock price and technical metrics
- Company value
- Intrinsic value based valuation ratios
- Yield based valuation ratios
- Balance based valuation ratios
- Investment based profitability ratios
- Sales based profitability ratios
- Quality of earnings
- Liquidity ratios
- Solvency ratios
- Shares
- Income, Balance and Cash flow statement
Stock Screener
Uncle Stock allows to screen on most of these metrics. Users can backtest their queries, refine them to optimize their strategy and save them for later usage. They can also share them to the other users.
Users can use or start from screens created by other users or predefined screens inspired by investment gurus like Buffett, Greenblatt, Lynch and Piotroski.
Backtesting
Uncle Stock has a very solid integrated backtest function. Users can backtest their screens from 2008, creating a hypothetical portfolio by taking the best stocks according to the screen. After the backtest, users know the historical yearly return of several trading strategies that are based on the screen.
So it’s a perfect way to know how good your strategy is expected to work. The backtest result also tells the deviation of the result, giving an idea of how predictable the strategy is.The backtest is integrated in the screener and can be done with a single click. This is an incredible important tool for an investor.
Charts
Uncle Stock is not a charting tool. It shows a basic evolution chart of all metrics, and has incorporated external chart tools for technical analysis for US and Canada).
Markets
One of the main goals of Uncle Stock is to allow users to look beyond the classic North American and European markets. Today, the tool has 74.000 stocks, covering 91 markets in 51 countries.
News
Uncle Stock aggregates news and articles from Yahoo Finance and Seeking Alpha at the level of a stock, a watch list or a search result.
Mobile Usability
Uncle Stock is mainly built to be used on a laptop/PC, but can be used as well on tablets and smartphones. There is no App, but the application is responsive (adapts automatically to the used device). However, a powerful device is required as the application has a lot of logic running on the client.
Export to Excel
It is possible to extract all metrics from a stock, a watchlist or a search result to Excel. However, there are some limits here on the number of stocks exported as it is not the intention to export the complete database to Excel.
Plans | Costs | Pricing
Uncle Stock has three possible subscription packages increasing in features and price: Copper, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Without any subscription it is already possible to see financial metrics, price information, news and charts.
Copper gives you a quick check service of some scores, advice and price target. Bronze is the basic screener including a lot of the tool’s strengths like the variety of financial information and global coverage. Bronze it is perfect to find a stock and analyze it deeply.
The largest incentive to take the Silver option is possibility to optimize your strategy using the integrated backtest. Also your user experience improves as saving queries, a personalized view and recalculating scores are possible now.
The Gold package gives no limitations. An important addition is benchmarking the financials with their industry median. Moreover, gold allows an export to Microsoft Excel, has multiple views and watchlists, introduces some lightweight portfolio management.
Click on the picture or check the Uncle Stock website for more information:
Provider Checklist
- Founded: 2011, commercial from 2016.
- Company address check: Della Faillelaan 11, 2290 Vorselaar, Belgium
- Free trial: 14-day free trial
- Free resources: Price information, charts, news and financial results. blog.unclestock.com.
- Price range: $9-$28 per month
Who Is Uncle Stock Best For?
Uncle Stock is a tool for value and growth investors. But there is not such thing as a typical Uncle Stock user.
It ranges from young students or grads in finance to older retirees, from normal people with practically no investing experience to experts and financial advisors. If there is one thing that’s common, it’s their willingness to work thoroughly.
Questions To The Founder, Peter Nees
Please, tell us a bit about yourself
I like to play table tennis! [laughs] I have a background in software engineering. I started developing Uncle Stock not only to support my own investments, but also to learn Java, and because of the fun of the creating something.
At that time, I almost had no knowledge of investing, and knew only about two ratios: Price-earnings and price-book value, of which I read in a book for beginners.
Over the years, I learned a bit more about financial metrics. [smiles] Besides reading on the Internet, I learned most from my users. My users are often a lot more knowledgeable as I am on financials and investing.
You know, it is so true what Bill Gates says: “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” That’s exactly what I did. I listened to their feedback, their ideas and yes, their complaints and I learned and adapted. I still do that.
What is your investment philosophy?
I try to be a long term value investor, mainly following the philosophy of Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, … I look for financially and businesswise healthy companies that are undervalued by the market and hold them over the long term.
I think that it is possible to beat the market by having patience as highly leveraged institutions have to exit great opportunities because they do not want to keep up their short term results. I must say this looks so easy on paper, but is not in reality.
What are your main investments?
My largest current investment in a company is Foot Locker. At the end of 2017, the stock price dropped strongly due to weaker financial results and increasing competition from Amazon. This made Foot Locker extremely cheap.
I think the hype of Amazon lead to the undervaluation of the “boring” Foot Locker. It has a very strong balance sheet with loads of cash and a good management. My second largest position is in Audi and I own some mining stocks, like Centamin Plc and Silvercorp Metals.
If the current stock market dip continues, I will start buying shares of Apple or Facebook at a discount.
What tips do you have for others who want to grow their income?
I would give the following tips to beginning investors:
- Start with readingsome good books. (Lynch, Graham, Greenblatt, …) and keep reading.
- Be wise. Smart asset allocation is the most important. Invest a significant part of your savings into stocks, and, if possible, diversify with physical things as a house, gold, ..If you don’t want to spend effort on stock analysis: buy some ETFs. Nothing wrong with that..
- Be careful. Don’t overestimate yourself, be modest. Realize you can be wrong. Be aware of risks. Avoid testosteron: most returns come from boring stocks. Don’t gamble. Don’t speculate.
- Think for yourself. Ignore social media. They can make you crazy or at least put you on the wrong foot. Be extremely careful with following tips and taking advice from periodicals. Think for yourself. Do your homework. Use a good fundamental stock screener to support you.
- And be strong. Don’t get too disappointed from making mistakes. Believe me, I know. Experience comes only from mistakes. But prevent to lose too much on them.
What are your plans for the future regarding Uncle Stock?
It’s time to grow, get more users. So I need to start investing in marketing. I did not do that up to now, as I counted on organic growth. After significant growth, I can scale-up, diversify and deepen the product.
Uncle Stock Review Summary
First of all I would like to thank Peter, for sharing such extensive information with us. Above all, I am glad that you took the time to answer a few personal questions. I also made a closer look at the Uncle Stock Screener and find it beneficial.
Admittedly, this stock screener is not suitable for day traders. The niche is, as Peter already said, instead meant for fundamentally acting traders.
Moreover, Uncle Stock differs from the competition with an excellent price model and the depth of analysis, market coverage, and the integrated backtest module. I particularly like the fact that there is a 14-day free trial version.
Guide On Fundamental Research
With the recent holidays in mind, let’s start off lightly with a short personal anecdote with which at least some of you will familiarize I’m sure.
Let me take you back to Christmas eve. The leftover turkey is neatly wrapped and stored safely in the refrigerator for tomorrow night’s dinner. The table is almost cleared, and I pour myself some leftover wine before taking a seat to watch a Christmas movie with the family.
And to my reassurance, Home Alone was reprogrammed on most of the television channels. Yet one certainty in these uncertain times! However, almost as certain is the fact that the next day’s Christmas party will be full of eager discussion on numerous topics, varying from light-hearted subjects such as culinary delights and works of art to more serious themes like politics or money matters.
In times of crisis, and certainly in the case of this pandemic, the latter seldom goes unnoticed. A nephew who recently started his finance studies speaks full of admiration about Elon Musk and his colleagues who, despite (or because of) the crisis, have managed to earn a considerable sum of money.
A bit further away, uncles slowly discuss whether they should engage in risky projects, invest in securities or bonds, or, just to be safe, acquire real estate? From the background, grandma reacts somewhat agitatedly that banks and other financial institutions are only embellished alchemy and that it is best to keep your money in a sock under your bed. Doubt strikes, where do I best keep my hard-earned pocket money?
In the next sections, I shall briefly introduce you, first to the concept of investing in general, and secondly, how fundamental stock screeners can help you do it properly. Sporadically, I will include Uncle Stock, an excellent fundamental stock screener I recently had the pleasure of trying out.
Why Should One Invest?
For those unfamiliar with the financial world, the term “investment” often gets quite a negative connotation. Investing is mainly linked to large companies, financial crises or even fraudulent bankers, but certainly not for the man in the street. However, each of us is an investor in the strict sense of the word.
After all, investing means a sacrifice of money, time or labor for a long-term goal. So whether it be studying, putting time and effort into healthy nutrition or acting within financial markets and intermediaries, they are all investments. However, it is usually the latter when it comes to investments, which is why we will limit ourselves to this category.
The initial function of financial markets is to allocate resources as efficiently as possible, both between people as well as spread across time. From this perspective, investments are undoubtedly interesting to make life easy and even desirable on a social level.
After all, how could people fund their home, start-up or scientific research without loans or investments? In practice, there are various options for making the processes within financial markets and intermediaries run as efficiently as possible, based on the different products that are traded.
The question can now be asked how efficient this constellation really is? Some experts claim on theoretical grounds that markets are always efficient and balanced, that prices are still representative of intrinsic values.
In this case, the profession of investment analyst would soon become obsolete. However, it is not unreasonable to assume that, like all things in life (excluding Christmas programming, of course), financial products are also partly uncertain and inefficient. Just think of certain behavioral factors such as overconfidence, herding, irrational expectations (among other theoretical and regulatory considerations) that lead to prices not being truthful.
This means that there must be opportunities for the investor waiting to be seized (or pitfalls that can be stepped into). Of course, how someone invests depends on his needs, preferences (risk-aversion, for example) and possibilities, and is therefore personal.
How do you get through this financial labyrinth safely and unscathed without extensive training, expensive investment managers or a good dose of luck? Well, that’s where fundamental stock screeners come into play.
Fundamental Stock Screeners
To spot and exploit opportunities in the market, it is necessary to make correct estimates of the value of various products. The best indicators of how financial products, and stocks, in particular, are performing can be found in the company data.
In order to access, aggregate and interpret these large quantities of data, fundamental stock screeners are indispensable. When you start your search for adequate stocks, screeners offer you the opportunity to filter companies based on the criteria you have chosen yourself.
For example, you can compile a query wherein companies must comply with a particular region, industry, market cap, revenue, Price to Earnings ratio, financial health, and many other indicators you want to include. With these results, you immediately get candidates you deem worthy of further inspection.
Of course, it should be noted that the screener is only as efficient as the person who uses it, so it is very important to have confidence in the variables you chose and the preconditions you set for them.
While extensive training is certainly not necessary, it could be useful, especially for the novice investor, to acquire some introductory knowledge on the subject. Given the large variety of accessible information on the internet nowadays, that shouldn’t pose many problems. Furthermore, Uncle Stock offers some key pointers on how to get started within a diverse set of blog posts.
Once you have created order within the large universe of stocks available by isolating your possible candidates according to your chosen criteria, it is time to put together a portfolio. Of course, screening is only the start of the process. It does not necessarily mean that stocks with specific characteristics that once performed the way they did are automatically the best purchase.
To dig in deeper, the analytical tools provided by fundamental stock screeners come in handy. Uncle Stock distinguishes itself by depth of analysis, providing 450 core metrics with additional derived metrics like averages, growth, CAGR’s and statistical indicators to bring the total amount of metrics to over 10,000 per stock! – all historical.
Also, it has international coverage. Now you have taken the time to take a closer look at your possible candidates, and you will be able to assemble a portfolio that suits you.
Now the question remains: will it beat the market? One of the most valuable features of stock screeners is backtesting. This tool consists of testing your personal strategy based on historical data, so you immediately get a good idea of what your strategy would have delivered if it were applied over this period. It is also possible to benchmark your strategy against well-known indices such as the S&P 500, Eurostoxx 600, Dow Jones, Nasdaq or Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Uncle Stock provides an easy to use integrated backtest, where users can create a hypothetical portfolio and backtest based on historical data back to 2008. Several rebalancing strategies can be tried out, which comes in handy to optimize your trading strategy.
The backtest result also shows the deviation of the result. It provides a rough estimate of how predictable your return will be. Once you’ve mastered the basics of financial screening and the investing process in general, it is your turn to get involved!
Getting started
Hopefully, next time you arrive at a Christmas party, or any party for that matter, you will be able to make some good arguments in favor of investing in stocks wisely. As we all are investors in some way, the key is doing it deliberately.
For financial products, this might consist of research conveyed by fundamental screeners to spot opportunities and make intelligent decisions you could not make otherwise. And above all, it is essential to learn more about yourself, your goals, and your preferences in the process.
With its focus on market coverage, depth of analysis and user-friendliness, Uncle Stock serves as an exemplary guide through this exciting journey. I hope you will be as confident picking your stocks as I am convinced with what movie will be programmed next Christmas eve.
Thank’s for providing the insights to fundamental screening to Willem Jan Otten. He studied history and economics at the Catholic University of Leuven and recently started off his professional career as a financial advisor for Beobank.
Rating: ★★★★★
