Benzinga Pro Review 2023: Hands-On News & Charts Test

Our Benzinga Pro review reveals trustworthy, dependable, real-time news, alerts, insider block trade, and options activity signals for US stock traders. Benzinga Pro is highly configurable, responsive, and easy to use while beating its competitors on price.

Compared to competitors, MetaStock, Bloomberg, and Refinitiv, Benzinga Pro offers a compelling service at a significant price discount.

I have been using Benzinga Pro for over five years, so get ready for an extremely in-depth evaluation of the service. Is Benzinga Pro changing financial news? Let’s find out as I deep dive to discover the real power of Benzinga.

Benzinga Pro Review Ratings

Benzinga Pro Rating	4.7/5.0
💸 Pricing & Software	★★★★★
🚦 News Alerts	★★★★★
📡 Screening	★★★★✩
📰 News & Social	★★★★★
📈 Charts	★★★★✩
🔍 Analysis	★★★★✩
🖱 Usability	★★★★★

Benzinga Pro Review Summary

Benzinga Pro testing reveals it is best for US traders who want a high-speed, actionable, real-time news feed at 1/10th of the price of a Bloomberg terminal. Benzinga Pro includes charts, financials, screening, options mentoring, and a powerful calendar suite to get a trading edge. I recommended Benzinga Pro for active day traders and investors who want to trade news events with exclusive features like news sentiment indicators, newsdesk access, and market-moving news alerts.

Benzinga Pro Review 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
🆓 Free Version	Yes, Try Benzinga Pro Free
💰 Price	$0-$117/mo
💻 OS	PC, Mac, Web
🎮 Trial	Yes
✂ Discount Code	-37% Code “SMARTER”
🌎 Region	North America

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.

Benzinga Review Video

Get 25% off Benzinga Pro: Code “SMARTER”

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.

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, TD Ameritrade, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, etc.

Is Benzinga Pro the Best Day Trading News Feed?

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

Is Benzinga Reliable?

Yes, Benzinga Pro is a reliable, unbiased producer of real-time news. Having tested 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.

Benzinga Competitors & Alternatives

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 $117 monthly compared to MetaStock Refinitiv at $250 or Bloomberg at $2,000 monthly.

Benzinga Pro vs. Refinitiv vs. Bloomberg vs. MetaStock

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

Table 1: Benzinga vs. Bloomberg vs. MetaStock Price Comparison *North America Data **Global Data § MetaStock + Xenith Add-on.

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.

Benzinga Pro Cost

Benzinga PRO costs $79 per month for the Basic plan, which gives you real-time newsfeeds and watchlist alerts. Benzinga Pro Essential costs $117 monthly, adding the Squawk Box, Calendars, Sentiment Indicators, and the 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 37% off the Benzinga Pro subscription plan with code “SMARTER.” The discount will apply as long as the subscription is active and applies to the Benzinga Options Mentorship add-on.

A standard monthly subscription to Benzinga Pro Essentials costs $157/mo or $2364 per year. But if you opt for an annual subscription, you will save 16%, and add to that the 25% discount code “SMARTER”; the total price is $1497.75. The difference between $2364 and $1497.75 is a 37% discount.

Benzinga Free Plan

Benzinga is one of the major news providers you have probably never heard of. Their website offers a vast amount of free news and thought-provoking original articles aimed at traders and investors.

Benzinga Pro will be an important tool if you are a serious trader or investor utilizing news to inform your decision-making. If you are trading short-term options at quarterly earnings announcements or have a significant stake in a company and need to be the first to know if the stock might tank due to a failed FDA approval, then you will want to upgrade to the Benzinga PRO Service.

Benzinga Pro Basic Features

Benzinga Pro Basic costs $79-/m paid annually or $ 99 /m on a monthly subscription. You get real-time news, trade alerts, watchlist alerts, market-moving news, SEC filings, and the calendar suite of tools for this investment.

I will run through all the features available in the basic package and show how they can help your trading.

Real-Time News BZWire Access

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.

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.

Benzinga Newswire Categories

Analyst Ratings	IPO’s
Bonds	Insider Trades
Commodities	M&A – Mergers & Acquisitions
Dividends	Market Moving Exclusives
ETFs	Market Updates
Earnings & Guidance	Options
Exclusives	Rumors
Forex	Short Sellers
Futures	Trade-Ideas
Hot	SEC
Stock Splits	Tech

Table 3: Benzinga Newswire Categories – My Favorites in Red.

You can also choose to get the news delivered 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 on stock market sectors or categories. You can be alerted via email, desktop pop-up, or a sound if any hot news or market-moving news is announced.

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.

WatchList Trade Alerts

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.

Benzinga 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 market analysts at Benzinga.

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.

Benzinga Pro creates excellent value for the trader.

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 exact 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 that I am sure will be further developed.

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, 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.

So we can see the basic package already unlocks a lot of value, the real-time streaming newsfeed, and the sources of news exclusively from Benzinga and tier 1 partners. The real power is filtering the noise, focusing on the important market-moving news, and getting alerted when the news breaks. You get all this in the basic package.

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.

Benzinga PRO Essential Review

Benzinga Pro Essential costs  $117-/m paid annually, or $ 147 /month paid monthly, and provides real-time quotes, audio squawk box announcements, chat to the newsdesk, plus excellent and unique news sentiment indicators.

Benzinga 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 in real-time to your desktop. I have a column in the image below 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.

Benzinga Pro Squawk Box

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 2 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 came through 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).

Benzinga 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 event itself and getting analyst feedback as it happens; you do not need to wait for the earnings transcript.

Benzinga 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 PRO Essentials Summary

As you can see, the Essential service brings together a host of additional services that will be very valuable to those institutional investors wanting to take advantage of SEC filings or those watching so many stocks they need squawk box functionality.

Benzinga Options Review

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 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 37% off Benzinga Options Mentor: Code “SMARTER”

Benzinga Pro Stock Charts

Benzinga Pro has dramatically improved its technical analysis charting over the past few years by integrating a cut-down version of TradingView (our trading software review winner). The TradingView integration offers 120 indicators, real-time stock charts, and seven chart types, including bars, candles, Heiken Ashi, Line, Area, and Baseline charts. You can now draw on charts and perform solid technical analysis.

How I Configure the Benzinga PRO Real-Time Newsfeed

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 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 in your trading. Audio squawk box, news sentiment indicators, and real-time alerts are powerful features that enable you to act quickly to improve trading profits.

My favorite features are the real-time news and watchlists, but the calendar is excellent and comes with the Benzinga PRO Basic edition package.

The audio news squawk feed, sentiment, and chat with news-desk features are potent upgrades in the Essentials Package. The powerful calendar suit and Benzinga Signals are massive selling points to the service.

Tips for Traders With A Small Portfolio.

If you have only $5,000 or $10,000 to trade or invest, it does not make sense to go for the Essentials Package for $117- per month; this would eat up too much of your investment, so choose the Benzinga Pro Basic Package.

Tips for Traders With Larger Positions

Suppose you have a more substantial portfolio with significant individual short-term trades in specific stocks. In that case, you will want to know the news and sentiment before anyone else and have ringside seats to the corporate earnings announcements and rumors. In this case, you will want to go for the Essentials Package.

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.

In this fast-moving world, this is an effective tool.

So, Benzinga may be a strange name for a business, but they are deadly serious about providing the best, fastest, and most cost-effective real-time news service to give you an edge in the market.

Frequently Asked Question

37% Benzinga Options Mentorship Discount Code – Verified 2023