Best finance blogs at the top: According to popular website ranking site Alexa, there are over 6,000 dedicated news websites in existence today, and a crucial subset of this group is the top names in finance.
Like any list-happy journalist, we’re going to chronicle the 100 best finance blogs, beginning with No. 100. The rankings are based on a combination of factors, including: quality, value, originality, accuracy, and popularity. We expect you to disagree with some of these entries, but do us a favor: if there’s a site you haven’t heard of, give it a test run before passing it by.
The second criteria listed above–value–is something that we take very seriously here at Insider Monkey. We believe the best way to become one of the top 100 finance blogs is by helping our subscribers outperform the market by investing in the best ideas of the best hedge fund managers.
Headed by a former hedge fund manager and honed in on the best market-beating strategy, Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy’s stock picks have returned 100.4% (as of August 31, 2014) since they were first shared with subscribers at the end of August 2012. The S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY), by comparison, gained 48.2% including dividend payments during the same period. This is a low frequency strategy that invests in 15 best small-cap ideas of best hedge fund managers and it is updated quarterly. Download a free copy of our 70+ page premium newsletter, in case you’re interested. We think we are the best finance blog because, forget about finance blogs, there aren’t a lot of professional money managers who outperformed the market by more than 52 percentage points over the last two years. To be fair, we’re going to hold ourselves at Insider Monkey out of the top 100 list.
Let’s take a look at the 100 best finance blogs:
100. Quintessential
Description: “A blog about finance and healthcare”
99. SINLetter
Description: “Suria Investment Newsletter (SINLetter) is a free stock investment newsletter that explores various ideas and opportunities ranging from the importance of asset allocation to investing in water each month.”
98. Newfination
Description: “Discover the best new finance services to manage your money! We find and explain great online financial services and provide a space for you and providers to find each other.”
97. IntelligentHQ
Description: “IntelligentHQ.com is a business digital platform that inspires and supports social change, innovation, trust and growth. An online 360º production house of premium, thought leadership and business news related content.”
96. Kerrisdale Capital Management
Description: “A private investment manager that focuses on value and special situations investments.” Kerrisdale Capital has nearly $270 million under management (August 2014). You can see their stock holdings on our website.
95. Bespoke Investment Group
Description: “Money management and research firm that provides regular insights (often with a quantitative bent) into financial markets.”
94. Institutional Investor’s Alpha
Description: “Institutional Investor’s Alpha, a thought leader for the hedge fund industry, delivers the most insightful, entertaining, and authoritative published content online about the fast-paced and rapidly evolving world of hedge funds.” Most of the content isn’t free.
93. Bronte Capital
Description: “It’s a small world but I wouldn’t want to paint it”. Bronte Capital is a small hedge fund that is known for its long bets on Herbalife after Ackman revealed his short bet.
92. The Intelligent REIT Investor
Description: “The Margin of Safety Means Sleeping Well At Night”
91. AlphaTrends
Description: “Objective & Unbiased Technical Analysis”
90. Above The Market
Description: “Perspectives on capital markets and personal finance”
89. A Dash of Insight
Description: “Finding and analyzing data to improve investment returns.”
88. Testosterone Pit
Description: “Entrepreneur based in San Francisco with over twenty years of C-level operations experience, including turnarounds and startups. This website, Testosterone Pit, “where the truth comes home to roost,” is a cynical, tongue-in-cheek perspective on economic and political entanglements in the US, the EU, Japan, and occasionally elsewhere.”
87. The Mess That Greenspan Made
Description: “This endeavor was originally referred to (only partly jokingly) as a “vain attempt to stave off a mid-life crisis that I really hoped was going to work”. But, after more than half a decade, it’s turned into much more – something fun to do that generates a little retirement income and helps to let people know about my investment website which, otherwise, is not promoted at all.”
86. The Circle Bastiat
Description: “You have found the world center of the Austrian School of economics and libertarian political and social theory.”
85. The Research Puzzle
Description: “On the table these days are major principles that ought to make investors rethink (and either reconfirm or redo) their beliefs.”
84. Marc to Market
Description: “Breaking Down and Making Sense of the Global Capital Markets with Political Economist Marc Chandler.”
83. The Money Illusion
Description: “A slightly off-center perspective on monetary problems.”
82. Old School Value
Description: “Stock analyzer that saves time and efficiently gathers and analyzes financial data for stock analysis, valuation and calculating intrinsic value.”
81. AllAboutAlpha
Description: “A finance blog about hedge funds, portable alpha and alternative investing.”
80. ValueWalk
Description: “All Breaking News Finance, Politics, Tech”
79. Boom Bust Blog
Description: “High end Financial and Investment Analysis, Forensic Research, Real Estate and Stock Markets trends as well as current affairs.”
78. Curious Cat
Description: “Focused on economics, investing and financial literacy. One aim is to to help regular readers become more knowledgeable about these important areas to aid their ability to manage their personal finances and to better understand the economy.”
77. Kapitall
Description: “Investing for the rest of us.”
76. The Psy-Fi Blog
Description: “A sideways look at psychology and finance.”
75. Financial Samurai
Description: “America’s fastest growing personal finance site. We believe in reaching financial independence sooner, rather than later.”
74. Robert Reich
Description: “ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock” and “The Work of Nations.” His latest, “Beyond Outrage,” is now out in paperback. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause. His new film, “Inequality for All,” will be out September 27.”
73. Alt-Market
Description: “Supporting local economies, barter networks, farmers initiatives, and alternative currencies backed by tangible commodities.”
72. Jeff Matthews Is Not Making This Up
Description: “An insider’s look into The World of Wall Street in all its glory…”
71. VoxEU
Description: “Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists”
70. Kid Dynamite’s World
Description: “Financial Markets Rants and Other Interesting Enunciations.”
69. Dr. Ed’s Blog
Description: “Dr. Ed Yardeni is the President and Chief Investment Strategist of Yardeni Research, Inc., a provider of independent investment strategy and economics research. This blog highlights excerpts from our research service, which is designed for investment and business professionals.”
68. GuruFocus
Description: Gurufocus is similar to Insider Monkey. However, they don’t have a list of hedge funds’ best ideas. Insider Monkey’s 15 quarterly picks outperformed the market by more than 52 percentage points in the past two years. None of the investors tracked by Gurufocus delivered a similar performance.
67. Wall Street Cheat Sheet
Description: “Financial News for Investing, Trading, Stocks, Markets, Economics, Economy, Business, Startups and Entrepreneurs.”
66. HedgeWorld
Description: “HedgeWorld is the hedge fund industry’s leading news, research and analysis source for individual and institutional accredited investors and their professional advisers, fund managers and service providers in the global hedge fund industry.”
65. World Beta
Description: “Investment manager Mebane Faber’s research papers, book and blog dedicated to quantitative investment research and strategies.” We like Meb Faber!
64. Dynamic Hedge
Description: “Real time ideas, trades, charts, and news from real traders and investors.”
63. China Financial Markets
Description: “Michael Pettis is a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a finance professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, where he specializes in Chinese financial markets. He has taught, from 2002 to 2004, at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management and, from 1992 to 2001, at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is also Chief Strategist at Guosen Securities (HK), a Shenzhen-based investment bank.”
62. Crossing Wall Street
Description: “Named by CNN/Money as the best buy-and-hold blogger, Eddy Elfenbein is the editor of Crossing Wall Street. His free Buy List has beaten the S&P 500 for the last six years in a row.”
61. StockSaints
Description: “Buy. Sell. Hold. Win.”
60. The Baseline Scenario
Description: “What happened to the global economy and what we can do about it.”
59. Eurointelligence
Description: “www.eurointelligence.com is a specialist internet-based service for economic news and analysis of the euro area, and a debating platform.”
58. The Economic Populist
Description: “Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time”
57. Roubini Global Economics
Description: “Our dynamic and intuitive research platform keeps clients on top of shifts that transform our global economy. To determine the implications of these movements, our research team incorporates market dynamics into their analysis, generating directional recommendations. It is this approach that makes RGE an invaluable resource for many of the world’s central banks, hedge funds, asset managers, private equity firms, banks and corporations.”
56. Cassandra Does Tokyo
Description: “Mostly original content that examines financial surreality in equity markets in general, and the Japanese Stock Market in particular.”
55. The Epicurean Dealmaker
Description: “An occasional review and commentary on Wall Street, global finance, markets, and their participants, by a pseudonymous investment banker. Sometimes we will venture out into the broader landscape of society, cutler, and politics to poke and peer at their curious denizens and bring back amusing reports.”
54. Marginal Revolution
Description: “Small steps toward a much better world.”
53. The Fly On The Wall
Description: “Live updates of Wall Street analysts recommendations, IPO’s and secondary offerings. Live news feeds covering hot stories, rumors, and after the close events”
52. iMF direct
Description: “The International Monetary Fund’s interactive global economy forum.”
51. The CNBC Stock Blog
Description: “The CNBC Stock Blog is a cross-section of expert opinions and insights from our TV and Web site coverage.”
50. Quartz
Description: “Quartz is a digitally native news outlet for the new global economy.”
49. Econbrowser
Description: “Analysis of current economic conditions and policy”
48. The Aleph Blog
Description: “We all want financial advice. Good advice. And we want it for free. That’s why we come to the Aleph Blog, where advice is regularly dispensed, and at no cost.”
47. Financial Armageddon
Description: “Insights on debt, derivatives, government guarantees, the retirement system, and the coming economic unraveling.”
46. Alhambra Investment Partners
Description: “We Are Different.”
45. Greenbackd
Description: “Deep value, contrarian, and Grahamite investment (by Tobias Carlisle)”
44. Pragmatic Capitalism
Description: “Mr. Roche is the Founder of Orcam Financial Group, LLC a financial services firm offering a broad array of products and services that seek to empower investors.”
43. Infectious Greed
Description: “Finance & the money culture by Paul Kedrosky.”
42. Of Two Minds
Description: “The weblog, feature articles and books of Charles Hugh Smith.”
41. The Big Picture
Description: “Barry Ritholtz’s blog, where he shares his macro perspective on the capital markets and the economy.”
40. Falkenblog
Description: “My economic views are in the vein of Hayek, Stigler, and Friedman, some of my intellectual role models. I like rational expectations and derivatives pricing theory, but hate the CAPM and its derivatives. My Big Idea (one that is new, true and important) is that risk is generally not related to expected return because people are more envious than greedy.”
39. DealBook (New York Times)
Description: “DealBook is a financial news service reporting on mergers, acquisitions, venture capital and hedge funds and is produced by The New York Times.”
38. Economix (New York Times)
Description: “From the business staff of The New York Times, the Economix blog interprets the economy and helps you understand our world.”
37. StreetAuthority
Description: “StreetAuthority provides you with free stock quotes, hot stock tips, unbiased investment strategies and financial analysis for profitable investing.”
36. Benzinga
Description: “Stock Market Quotes, Business News, Financial News, Trading Ideas, and Stock Research by Professionals.”
35. Minyanville
Description: “Your one stop shop for smart market commentary, financial information, entertainment and education.”
34. Wonkblog (The Washington Post)
Description: “Ezra Klein is the editor of Wonkblog and a columnist at the Washington Post, as well as a contributor to MSNBC and Bloomberg. His work focuses on domestic and economic policymaking, as well as the political system that’s constantly screwing it up.”
33. Stocks to Watch (Barron’s)
Description: “News and commentary about the stocks you need to know about today.”
32. Jesse’s Cafe Americain
Description: “”What is truth?” asked Pilate, and then turned and washed his hands of it.”
31. Economist’s View
Description: “Mark Thoma, Professor of Economics, University of Oregon.”
30. Credit Writedowns
Description: “Finance, economics, markets and technology.”
29. Angry Bear
Description: “Slightly left of center economic commentary on news, politics and the economy.”
28. Next New Deal
Description: “The blog of the Roosevelt Institute”
27. Zacks Investment Research
Description: “Zacks is the leading investment research firm focusing on stock research, analysis and recommendations. At the center of Zack Investment Research is a strong commitment to independent research and sharing its profitable discoveries with investors. This dedication to giving investors a trading advantage led to the creation of the proven Zacks Rank stock-rating system. Since 1986 it has nearly tripled the S&P 500 with an average gain of +26% per year.
Zacks was founded by Len Zacks, whose life’s work has been to help investors find success. In 1978, he hit upon a key discovery:
Earnings estimate revisions are the most powerful force impacting stock prices.
With this crucial finding, he developed the Zacks Rank to harness the power of earnings estimates. Today, Zacks is characterized by a team of experts who are passionate about your investing success. And everyone is focused on sharing the same reliable investment research they would want for themselves.”
26. Planet Money (NPR)
Description: “The economy explained”
25. Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis
Description: “Mike Shedlock/Mish is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction.”
24. Interfluidity
Description: “Steve Randy Waldman”
23. The Market Ticker
Description: “Discussions About Investing.”
22. It’s All Trivial Or Obvious Except (Forbes)
Descriptions: “Tim Worstall’s stories. It’s All Trivial Or Obvious Except: I write about business and technology.”
21. Beat the Press (CEPR)
Descriptions: “Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, his latest being The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive.”
20. Street Sweep (CNN Money)
Description: “Following the money in banking, economics and Washington.”
19. Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone)
Description: “Commentary on national politics, business and the economy.”
18. Abnormal Returns
Description: “A wide-ranging, forecast-free investment blog.”
17. Asymmetrical Information (The Daily Beast)
Description: “Megan McArdle is a special correspondent for Newsweek and The Daily Beast covering business, economics, and public policy. A former senior editor at The Atlantic and writer for The Economist, Megan has a diverse work history including three small startups and a disaster recovery firm at Ground Zero.”
16. Freakonomics
Description: “A movie. Lectures. Even Jon Stewart — and Beauty and the Geek. This is the place where all that stuff continues to happen. Welcome to Freakonomics.com.”
15. Dealbreaker
Description: “Dealbreaker covers the personalities and culture that shape the financial industry, offering original commentary, news and entertainment.”
14. Brad DeLong
Description: “Grasping Reality with Every Possible Tentacle: Brad DeLong’s Semi-Daily Journal–Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based 99.4% of the Time”
13. Greg Mankiw
Description: “A sequence of observations on financial- and macro-economics.”
12. The Tell (MarketWatch)
Description: “The markets news and analysis blog”
11. The Reformed Broker
Description: “Real time ideas, trades, charts, and news from real traders and investors.”
10. Felix Salmon (Reuters)
Description: “Felix Salmon is the finance blogger at Reuters.”
9. Naked Capitalism
Description: “Commentary on current economic and financial news.”
8. Calculated Risk
Description: “A top ranked economics and finance blog with a focus on the housing market.”
7. Buttonwood’s notebook (The Economist)
Description: “Our Buttonwood columnist considers the ever-changing financial markets. Brokerage was once conducted under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street.”
6. FT Alphaville
Description: “About FT Alphaville
FT Alphaville is a free daily news and commentary service giving finance professionals the information they need, when they need it. In a world where market professionals are inundated with information there is a pressing need to edit and filter, and hopefully sow a few ideas along the way.”
5. The Motley Fool Blogging Network
Description: “To Educate, Amuse & Enrich”
4. Clusterstock (Business Insider)
Description: “Finance”
3. The Conscience of a Liberal (Paul Krugman)
Description: “The Nobel Prize-winning Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman comments on economics and politics.”
2. Zero Hedge
Description: “Leading news site for global finance, economics, market, and political analysis.”
1. MoneyBeat (Wall Street Journal)
Best Financial Blog: “Up-to-the-minute news and analysis on deals, markets and finance around the world.”
