Are analyst recommendations available at AMP Futures as of October 2023?
Like the majority of online brokers, AMP Futures offers analyst recommendations, giving you regular advice on whether to buy or sell specific stocks/assets.
I've thoroughly tested AMP Futures services with our analyst team by opening a real-money account and these are my most important findings:
- AMP Futures provides trading recommendations by analysts
- Analysts use company data, news or price trends to advise whether to buy/hold/sell an asset
- Use other tools such as news feeds, charts or data to develop your own judgment
- Try not to rely on a single recommendation if possible
How trading recommendations work
If you're a long-term stock investor, it's often difficult to pick the right stocks or choose the right time to invest in a certain stock. Thankfully, you don't need to venture too far from your broker platform for advice, as many brokers provide very exact analyst recommendations or trading ideas.
Analyst recommendations can be found on the broker's website, within your trading platform, or you may receive it in a regular newsletter. In general, an analyst recommendation would advise you to buy, sell or hold a specific stock. In addition, analysts often set a target price for the stock - something like “we expect stock X to rise to $150 in the next 12 months”.
Instead of a buy/sell recommendation, analysts occasionally assign an overweight or underweight rating to a stock. This means that you should give that stock a bigger/smaller weight in your portfolio than what its weight is in major stock indices such as the S&P 500.
The quality of analyst recommendations and other research tools such as news or charts can make a big difference in your trading comfort and confidence. Thankfully, AMP Futures offers a user-friendly suite of research tools for investors like you.
How do analysts come up with these recommendations? One approach is fundamental analysis, where analysts would look at the company's recent profitability and make predictions about its future performance, considering also the future prospects of the wider industry or the global economy. By contrast, technical analysis focuses on charts, trying to identify patterns in stock price movements that could hint at future price shifts.
Fundamental analysis is probably more relevant to you if you're a long-term investor looking for the right stocks to buy. However, analyst recommendations based on technical analysis can sometimes help you nail down the best time to buy a specific stock.
Eager to seek out advice or improve your investment skills? Check out our overview of the most popular learning tools for long-term investors.
Other research tools at AMP Futures
If you feel like digging deeper and need more data to make up your mind about buying or selling a stock, you can use the following tools at AMP Futures:
- News feed - stay on top of breaking news about stocks and the general economy
- Charting - spot price patterns using various technical indicators
- Quality educational texts - learn about the basics of trading and investing
If you don't feel like relying on a single piece of advice, or if your broker doesn't offer trading recommendations at all, you may want to check out websites or tools that offer aggregate analyst opinions on a certain stock. These would collect recommendations from all over the market and, for example, display a 'buy'recommendation if the majority of analysts rated the stock a 'buy'.
In addition to outright recommendations, it's a good idea to browse business news sites, watch expert YouTube videos, or take part in free webinars in order to learn more about the stock market or feel out the potential of a specific stock.
Best brokers if you are new to investing
Are you the type of stock investor who still needs a bit of help from time to time? We suggest you take a look at our top list of the best brokers for beginners, where we show you brokers with low fees, user-friendly trading platforms, and in-depth yet easy-to-digest educational and research tools.
Check out this short video for a behind-the-scenes peek into how our experts personally test and evaluate brokers.