Benzinga Pro Real-Time Trading News Review 2024

Benzinga Pro offers a premium news service while beating its competitors on price. Compared to competitors, MetaStock, Bloomberg, and Refinitiv, Benzinga Pro offers a compelling service at a significant price discount.

My extensive testing of Benzinga Pro review reveals a trustworthy real-time news screening and charting service for day traders. It includes alerts, insider block trades scanning, and unusual options activity signals for US markets. 

I have been using Benzinga Pro for over six years, so prepare for an extremely in-depth evaluation of the service.

Test Results & Ratings

Benzinga Pro Rating	4.6/5.0
💸 Pricing	★★★★★
💻 Software	★★★★★
🚦 Trading Signals	★★★★✩
📰 Real-time News	★★★★★
👯 Social Community	★★★✩✩
📡 Screening	★★★★✩
📈 Charts	★★★★✩
🖱 Usability	★★★★★

My Verdict

My testing shows Benzinga Pro is best for US traders who want a high-speed, actionable, real-time news feed at 1/10^th of the price of a Bloomberg terminal. I recommended Benzinga Pro for active day traders and investors who trade news events.

Benzinga Pro includes charts, financials, screening, options mentoring, and a powerful calendar suite. It has unique features like news sentiment indicators, newsdesk access, a squawk box, and market-moving news alerts.

Key Features

⚡ Features	Real-time News, Calendar, Charts
🏆 Unique Features	Audio Squawk Box, News Sentiment, News Rating
🎯 Best for	Stock, Fx & Crypto Traders
♲ Subscription	Monthly, Yearly
💰 Price	$197/m or $166/m annually
💻 OS	Web
🎮 Trial	Yes 14-Day
🌎 Region	North America

What is Benzinga Pro?

Benzinga Pro is a real-time news service designed for day traders and is a fraction of the cost of a Bloomberg Terminal. Benzinga delivers value with fast, real-time market-moving news to give you a trading edge. Additionally, a squawk box, direct access to the news desk, and original reporting give you a significant advantage.

Pros

• The Fastest Real-time News Feed
• Live Audio News Squawk Box
• Options Alerts
• Analyst Rating Calendar
• Price Change Since News
• Sentiment Indicators
• News Rated for Impact
• 1/10th Price of Bloomberg

Cons

• No Broker Integration
• No Backtesting

We all see the news on TV and the web, but how much of this news can you use to help you make trading profits? Benzinga specializes in its dedication to real-time actionable news for traders and investors. I have been actively using Benzinga as an investor for many years, so I hope my review is useful.

Try Benzinga Pro 

Compare to Similar Products

Comparing Benzinga Pro’s news service versus MetaStock, Bloomberg, TrendSpider, and TradingView, our tests show it wins on real-time news and value for money.

Benzinga Pro’s key competitors are MetaStock, Reuters Eikon, and Bloomberg. Benzinga delivers newsfeeds as fast as its rivals but beats them on price. Benzinga Pro costs $166 monthly, compared to MetaStock Xenith, $265, or Bloomberg, $2,000.

While Benzinga Pro beats the competition on price, it focuses specifically on actionable US news for traders. Meanwhile, Refinitiv, Eikon, and Bloomberg provide global financial newsfeeds. Additionally, Bloomberg requires a dedicated hardware terminal.

Finally, while TrendSpider does not deliver real-time news, its news service is so well-integrated that traders can scan and even backtest news events and analyst rating changes.

Features	Benzinga Pro	MetaStock R/T Xenith	TrendSpider	Bloomberg
Awards
Rating	4.6	4.5	4.4	4.3
Pricing	$197/m or $166/m annually	MetaStock R/T $100/m, Xenith $265/m	$107/m or $48/m annually	$2,000/m
Global Market Data	USA	✅	USA	✅
Powerful Charts	✅	✅	✅	✅
Stocks	✅	✅	✅	✅
Futures	✅	✅	✅	✅
Forex	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cryptocurrency	✅	❌	✅	✅
Social Community	✅	❌	❌	❌
Real-time News	✅	✅	❌	✅
Screeners	✅	✅	✅	✅
News Backtesting	❌	❌	✅	❌
Backtesting	❌	✅	✅	✅
Code-Free Backtesting	❌	❌	✅	❌
Automated Chart Analysis	❌	✅	✅	❌

Table: Benzinga vs. Bloomberg, MetaStock, and TrendSpider – Price Comparison North America Data

As you can see, in terms of pricing for real-time news, Benzinga Pro is half the price of its nearest competitor, MetaStock R/T. However, MetaStock does come with compelling stock chart analysis, backtesting, and forecasting. Bloomberg is rated lower due to its high cost and limited availability for retail investors.

Pricing

The Benzinga PRO basic plan costs $37 monthly for real-time newsfeeds and watchlist alerts. I do not recommend the basic plan because it lacks advanced filtering, which means you will be overwhelmed with news you cannot take action on.

I recommend the Benzinga Pro Essential plan, which costs $166 monthly and adds advanced filtering, squawk box, calendars, sentiment indicators, and chat with newsdesk functionality.

Table 2: Benzinga Pro Costs. *Cost per month on yearly subscription

Benzinga Pro Discount Code

Our partnership with Benzina means you can get 25% off the Benzinga Pro subscription plan with code “SMARTER.” The discount will apply as long as the subscription is active, and it also applies to the Benzinga Options Mentorship add-on.

BZWire Real-Time Newsfeed

Core to the Benzinga Pro service is access to the real-time newsfeed, which updates quickly and effectively. BZWire includes all Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) news and real-time PR newsfeeds. These can be incredibly important because SEC/FDA announcements can seriously move stocks.

Also, important company PR announcements are timed to coincide with or counteract the news, so receiving these as quickly as possible is a serious bonus.

Please do not underestimate the newsfeed; it is truly enormous. Despite the depth of financial content being released every minute, the Benzinga PRO web-based application is high-speed, responsive, and configurable. The configurable nature of the newsfeed is what makes the service so good.

I personally only want to see market-moving exclusives, hot news, market updates, and technology news, which are readily selectable. There are 20 categories to choose from, and each type of news can be color-coded to match your requirements.

Newswire Categories

Table: Benzinga Newswire Categories – My Favorites in Green.

You can also receive news from Benzinga partners, including many news corporations and online outlets such as the New York Times and Seeking Alpha.

Newsfeed Alerts

Benzinga Pro newsfeed alerts allow you to set specific alarms for stock market sectors or categories. If any hot news or market-moving news is announced, you can be alerted via email, desktop pop-up, or sound.

Alerts hugely benefit the trader, so you do not need to watch the newsfeed continually; you can be trading and hear the alarm as a call to action. Benzinga Pro lets you set up as many watchlists as you wish, and you can receive alerts on specifically those stocks in the watchlist, for example, those that matter to you. You can get real-time alerts and summary emails for your watchlist.

Technical Analysis/Charts

Over the past few years, Benzinga Pro has dramatically improved its technical analysis charting; it officially ranks fourth in charting in our testing.

Benzinga has integrated a cut-down version of TradingView (our trading software review winner). It offers 86 indicators, real-time stock charts, and 12 chart types, including bars, candles, Heiken Ashi, Line, Area, and Baseline charts. You can now draw on charts and perform solid technical analysis.

Benzinga Stock Charts Compared 

Technical Charting	Rank	Chart Types	Indicators
TrendSpider	#1	6	206
TradingView	#1	17	160
MetaStock	#3	10	150
Benzinga Pro	#4	12	86
Finviz	#5	5	22
Trade Ideas	#5	6	16

Table: Benzinga Pro vs. The Competition – Charting. Read the In-depth Best Technical Analysis Charting Software Review

Screening

Benzinga Pro has a market scanner that enables real-time screening of 65 price and volume criteria. This includes price and changes, pre and post-market trading, and chart indicators like VWAP, RSI, ATR, and ADX. There are also 15 fundamental criteria available for scanning, including EPS, dividends, PE ratio, and ROE/ROA.

Benzinga’s price and fundamental scanning are not industry-leading; it is still in beta development and ranks seventh in our testing. Here is a list of better market scanners.

Benzinga Pro Screening Compared 

Stock Screeners	Rating	Best for:	Free Version
TrendSpider	4.8	Traders	❌
TradingView	4.5	Traders	✅
Trade Ideas	4.4	Day Traders	❌
Finviz	4.2	Investors	✅
Tickeron	4.2	Investors	✅
MetaStock	4.1	Traders	❌
Benzinga Pro	4.0	Traders	❌

Table: Benzinga Pro vs. The Competition – Screening. Read the In-depth Best Stock Screeners Review

Calendar Suite

Below, we see the Benzinga Calendar. You can instantly see what macroeconomic news is upcoming, but what you also see in the “importance” column on the right is the potential impact of the news as rated by the Benzinga market analysts.

As you open the filter on the right, you can filter on anything from country, time, and especially the importance of the news. The granular level of filtering enables you to extract all of the value out of the news by only seeing the potential market-moving news.

Analyst Rating Calendar

The guidance section of the Benzinga Pro calendar suite is designed to provide real-time alerts on analyst upgrades and downgrades. Traders pay serious money for this data because Wall Street analyst guidance changes move stocks and impact markets.

Imagine having these analyst ratings streamed to your desktop in real-time. In the image below, I have a column highlighting the company symbol, the analysts covering the stock, the analyst’s name, and the action. In this instance, you see there is a downgrade for VNDA.

I dropped down the calendar selection box (on the right) to show you the different types you can choose from. The calendars cover upcoming conference calls, dividends, earnings, economics, earnings guidance, IPOs, retail sales, SEC filings, secondary offerings, and split announcements.

Price Change Since Published

Benzinga prides itself on releasing news in time for you to react to a market move and profit. To prove this point, they have added a feature called Change Since Publish, a straightforward upgrade to the existing newsfeed that demonstrates their continual innovation.

Hover your mouse over any stock ticker in the advanced newsfeed. A mini-chart will appear, indicating if the news positively or negatively impacted the stock price. This is a very nice feature.

In the example above, you can see an announcement that Cronos Group will receive a strategic investment from Altria; the stock moved 21% over the next two trading days.

Here is another example of how real-time news can impact the market. In the example below, President Trump announced that the Farm Bill is in “good shape.” Benzinga has categorized all potential companies that would benefit from a positive farm bill and grouped them into a “Change Since Published” report. Inside the chart, you will see a vertical line or a Change Since Publish label; this vertical line is when the news broke on the Benzinga newswire.

As you can see from the six stocks that Benzinga analysts targeted, four stocks have been gaining since the news was released; that is called an edge in the market.

Security SnapShots

The Security Snapshot View is unique to Benzinga, and it is essentially a summary of all the critical news, fundamentals, and charts. Snapshots are designed to give you a clean, quick view of the whole picture for a given stock, including all the core financial documents like balance sheets and income statement information.

In summary, the Benzinga Basic Package is exceptionally cost-effective. It gives you access to real-time news at a fraction of the cost of other news providers like Bloomberg and Reuters, giving you a professional edge without the expense.

Squawk Box Audio News

Benzinga’s Squawk Box frees you from staring at the on-screen newsfeed by having the newsroom reporters read the latest high-impact news live as it hits the feed. Squawk is one of the biggest benefits of the Benzinga Pro Essentials service.

This is impressive; I have it open while watching the markets, so I do not need to watch the screen constantly. Every two minutes, a real-time audio feed announces the latest hot news via my PC speakers; this service alone is worth the upgrade to Benzinga PRO Essential.

As I wrote this, an audio announcement showed that Novartis got FDA approval for a new drug. I just checked online; this is neither on the web nor announced on Bloomberg TV. Now, that is an advantage worth buying.

Sentiment Indicators

News sentiment indicators are an innovative feature that allows you to see the sentiment of the analyst who submits the news item; you see this in the color of the ticker symbol: red is bearish, green is bullish; this is unique and a great asset.

Chat with News-Desk

Imagine chatting directly with the analyst or reporter who submitted an article. This feature allows you to do just that by directly questioning the Benzinga news desk to dive deep into your specific questions straight from the news hub. The news team also highlights what they believe to be important news via the sentiment indicators (only for Benzinga Pro Essential users).

Signals

Another example of how Benzinga continually innovates is that Benzinga Signals creates a feed with block trades, options activity, and price spike news that directly impacts a stock’s supply and demand balance at a foundational level.

Let’s take a look at a block trade. A block trade is a massive amount of stock bought or sold. Block trades impact price, and you can take part in that price move or not, depending on the direction of the trade.

Block trades are specific, powerful trading strategies. Watch the block trades roll in, observe the direction, and make your trade. See a colossal block trade sell, buy Put Options, see a block trade buy, buy calls.

Exclusive CEO comments

Benzinga Analysts have frequent exclusive interviews with CEOs and publish exclusively critical comments that may provide key insights into a stock you own.

In-Person Event Coverage

When Benzinga has a reporter at a live earnings announcement event, you can hear directly from them. If you trade earnings, this is your ticket to sitting at the announcement event and getting analyst feedback; you do not need to wait for the earnings transcript.

Options Alerts & Calendar

Benzinga offers Stock Options Alerts that send alarms when anomalies or opportunities arise in options pricing; this is designed to give options traders an edge by highlighting potentially exploitable situations. Options activity is a specific upgrade for all Essential service pricing.

Benzinga’s powerful Unusual Options Activity Signal allows traders to review recent large near-or-in-the-money options trades. This can be incredibly beneficial for traders who want to ride on the coattails of institutional options traders. For $27/mo, this unique and exclusive service, which includes an Options Squawk Box, could make a difference in your options trading success.

Get 25% off Benzinga with Code “SMARTER”

I have been using Benzinga PRO for five years; the news platform is exceptionally configurable and can run in multiple windows on multiple monitors. In the screenshot below, you can see how I have my Benzinga Pro interface configured.

• My Current Trades in the watchlist (middle white box)
• Important news Only – I have configured the top right columns in red to show me the important, potentially market-moving news, which is a great feature.
• Instant Company Details Drill Down – Bottom Right for Financial News, Calendar & Charts
• Quick Access to Powerful Features – Stock Screener, Custom Alerts, Squawk Box, and Chat (Left-hand side)

Benzinga Pro is extremely powerful yet easy to use, which is often a delicate balance to strike, and to top it all off, they have also added real-time price quotes to the service, so you can see when news breaks what the impact is on the stock price.

Is Benzinga Credible?

Yes. Benzinga is a credible news source established in 2010 by Jason Raznik. Benzinga is a major newswire employing 100+ reporters and operating a live newsdesk. Benzinga provides data to brokerages and news outlets such as TradeStation, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, etc.

Is Benzinga Pro the Best Day Trading News Feed?

Benzinga produces a lot of original news reporting, but it also partners with some of the best trading news feeds to provide complete data coverage to its customers. Reuters, FXStreet, Dxfeed, the New York Times, Seeking Alpha, Morningstar, Enin, and StockSnips are current tier-one partners.

Is Benzinga Reliable?

Yes, Benzinga Pro is a reliable, unbiased producer of real-time news. Having tested and used Benzinga Pro for many years, I have never questioned its reliability and availability during market trading hours. News alerts are delivered fast, and my email pre-market briefs always arrive on time.

Is Benzinga Pro Worth It?

Yes, Benzinga Pro is worth it if you are day trading real-time news events because fast access to market-moving news gives you an edge. Audio squawk box, news sentiment indicators, and real-time alerts are powerful features that enable you to act quickly to improve trading profits.

Try the Benzinga Pro Basic plan if you have only $5,000 or $10,000 to trade or invest. You will want to choose the Essentials plan if you have a more substantial portfolio with significant individual short-term trades.

If you are serious about trading in the stock market and need real-time access to the news that moves markets, then Benzinga Pro is a realistically priced and extremely fast news service that is designed by traders for traders.

FAQs

37% Benzinga Options Mentor Discount Code Verified 2024