Fast Graphs Review

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of using charts and analysis in trading. These are tools that enable you to establish trends and correlations between the different fundamentals in the game. 

Unfortunately, even with the many charting packages available out there, only a few of them really live up to expectations. So, you have really got to be picky before settling for one.

In this article, we shall review the FAST graphs program. It’s one of the most popular charting software tools out there, but just how effective is it? Here’s our unbiased write-up.

What is FAST Graphs? An Unbiased Review

The ‘FAST’ stands for Fundamental Analysis Software Tool, and it is a charting package that enables you to access twenty years of historical financial data for thousands of public companies based in the US and Canada.

Initially, the platform only exploited the relationship between operating earnings and the stock price. However, with time, the service has also started examining valuations by making use of many additional metrics such as price to sales, price to diluted earnings, cash flow and free cash flow, among others.

The service aims to make your research and analyses more actionable, and that is why it offers you a wide range of features that include visualization tools, portfolios and screeners.

About the Creator

Charles Carnevale is the brain behind this program. He attended the University of Tampa (UT) sometime in the 70s. He got the idea from his economics professor when he presented his thesis that flirted with the idea of earnings determining a publicly-traded company’s market price in the long run.

Charles teamed up with Julie Carnevale, whom he married later on, and they invested their time in proving the theory that earnings affect the market price. 

And in 1992, they added an IT specialist by the name of Tim Loudin to their team, who used his programming skills to automate Charles’ fundamental stock analysis research needs into what we currently know as the FAST graphs.

Key Features

So, what’s so good about this software that has got people talking? It’s time to take a closer look at the features that, in our opinion, set this tool apart from the competition.

1. FAST Graphs

These are the primary tools that the program offers, and it comprises charts that display correlations that exist between price and fundamental metrics. These charts can be pretty valuable for analyzing trends over time.

This tool also provides you with a convenient way of looking at forward estimates for the next four years as you can view analysts’ estimates for earnings and EBITDA, in addition to changes in the forecasts over the past two quarters.

You could make use of the customization option to enter your estimates for future earnings and then see how it affects a particular stock’s potential return.

We cannot leave out the Analyst Scorecard, which analyzes earnings for the past decade as well as estimated earnings for the year before as predicted by the analysts. 

2. Portfolios

These portfolios are meant to help you keep track of the stocks you are interested in or may help you monitor the performance of your actual trading portfolio.

If you enter your trades in FAST GRAPHS, your trades will show up whenever you analyze stocks that you have ever owned using this platform.

3. FUN Graphs

FUN is an abbreviation for ‘Financial Underlying Numbers’, and these graphs will give you full charge over manipulating and visualizing fundamental data. Here, you will get access to data for the past 20-years in addition to quarterly data for the past eight years.

They are available in four major styles:

• Per share graphs- they allow you to toggle displays on/off for any balance sheet value that has been calculated on a per-share basis
• Ratios graphs- they include the value ratios, e.g. price-to-sales, P/E.

Others include millions graphs and percentage graphs.

4. Screening

This tool provides you with an easy way to search through the whole database that contains 18,000 stocks. It comes with 99 different filters, some of which are based on future analyst estimates. 

The results that the screener gives you allow you to open up this program for any stock with ease. Additionally, you can also export the whole list of screener results to your custom portfolio.

However, this tool is only available to premium subscribers.

The Pricing and Free Trial

With this program, you have two pricing tiers to choose from, i.e. Basic and Premium.

The Basic tier goes for $15.95 a month or $191.40 annually. As the lower pricing option, you will only access FAST Graphs in addition to being limited to only three custom portfolios.

Let’s now look at the Premium Plan, which costs $48 a month or $480 a year. Here, you will access all the tools that the platform has to offer, and you will get access to unlimited portfolios.

This program’s free trial aims to let you try it out and see if it works for you. You will get limited access to 11 companies, but there will be no portfolios or stock screening.

Who Is This Program Best Suited for?

This service is specially designed to meet the needs of fundamental investors who feel that the publicly available information on specific companies is not enough. Therefore, they have to dig deeper into the firms’ balance sheets and valuations to get a clear picture of their actual value.

It gives you access to datasets worth 20-years and other vast amounts of detail to make it one of the most comprehensive software analysis tools in existence. 

Due to all that the program offers, we believe that it will be worth every cent you spend on it.

Is It Legit?

From what we have seen, this is a legit program that is not out to scam you of your hard-earned cash. All the data that it offers comes from the books that the companies prepared themselves, and therefore, there is no reason why this information could be faulty.

The other bit is that since the idea behind the software is a thesis by an economics professor, it is based on a genuine foundation with any malicious intentions.