Investing is a journey. A journey from buying your first share to managing a diversified portfolio. A journey from a identifying a goal to achieving your dreams. Morningstar Investor is designed to be your companion along that journey.

The following guide outlines the key features of Morningstar Investor and how you can use your subscription to help you achieve better financial outcomes.  

Track investments

My portfolio

At Morningstar we focus on the investor and not the investment. That is why we are proponents of goals-based investing. Everything starts with your portfolio. Your portfolio is more than a set of financial instruments. It is the means to help you achieve your goals in life. Morningstar Investor is designed to help you build, monitor and analyse your portfolio to achieve your goals—whether that entails financial independence, a fulfilling retirement or giving future generations a leg up on achieve their dreams. To learn how to design a portfolio to achieve your objectives you can refer to the Morningstar Guide to Portfolio Construction.   

The best place to get started with Morningstar Investor is by setting up your portfolio. Morningstar’s My portfolio feature is integrated with Morningstar’s data and research ratings so you can check our analyst ratings on the holdings in your portfolio. The My portfolio feature is integrated with Morningstar’s data and research ratings so you can check how our analyst’s rate the holdings in your portfolio. My portfolio also allows you to track and evaluate your performance against Morningstar indexes.

As part of your Morningstar Investor subscription you have access to Sharesight’s Investor Plan which allows you to establish three separate portfolios with unlimited securities. Sharesight offers an easy sign-up process through automated connections with brokers and auto updates to your portfolios as you trade and collect investment income. Sharesight also offers a full set of performance and tax reports and integrates automatically integrates with your Morningstar Investor account.

Get started now by completing the following steps:

  1. Clicking “Let’s get started” will re-direct you to Sharesight’s website
  2. Sharesight will ask you to enter your email* and password and accept their terms and conditions. Acceptance of Sharesight’s terms and conditions will enable your portfolio data to be displayed within your Morningstar Investor account.
  3. Your first portfolio has now been created with Sharesight which will be displayed within your Morningstar Investor account. 
My Portfolio landing page
  1. To add holdings to your portfolio via Sharesight click on “add portfolio” There are three methods to add holdings to your portfolio:
    1. Manually add in trades
    2. Import trades directly from your broker
    3. Import from a CSV file
image of Sharesight get started
  1. Follow Sharesight’s detailed instructions to add holdings to your portfolio. For assistance refer to the help centre or contact the Sharesight customer service team using their chat functionality
  2. Once you have added holdings to your portfolios, they will be automatically displayed on the “Track investments” tab in your Morningstar Investor account. Simply click “View portfolio” to analyse your portfolio using Morningstar research, data and tools.
image of My Portfolio page
  1. As a Morningstar Investor subscriber, you can create a total of 3 portfolios with unlimited holdings. Simply click on “Add portfolio” to add additional portfolios. 

Setting goals 

As we mentioned, as Morningstar investors we are proponents of the investor and not the investment. For us, that means that the first step to constructing your portfolio is defining your goals. Figuring out what you need to achieve is the starting point to understanding how you can get there. Our goal calculator allows you to create a pathway to this goal, understanding the additional investments that are needed, the timeframe of your course and the impact of inflation. The output of this calculator is your required rate of return. This is the return that you need to achieve to reach your goals. 

You’re able to connect a portfolio to a goal, updating your progress towards your goal at any time.  

If you’d like to instead, project your portfolio value based on your current strategy, our portfolio projection tool allows you to do so, to see if you’re on track. 

Asset allocation models 

Once you have your required rate of return, how do you achieve it? 

Our asset allocation models give investors guidance on the asset allocation targets for different return outcomes, helping investors decipher the balance between risk and return. 

If you’re an investor with an established portfolio, navigate to your portfolio within Track Investments, where you’re able to access the IPS (Investment Policy Statement) tab. This allows you to compare your current holdings to our model allocations, or alternatively, set custom targets.  

Investors can also use this as part of their portfolio review process to understand whether they need to rebalance their portfolio. 

Bucket portfolios 

The Track Investments tab also has information on the bucket approach to retirement-portfolio management. This strategy aims to meet the challenge of creating a paycheck from investment assets in a low interest rate environment. Today’s retirees may have a tough time subsisting on yield alone. Some income-focused investors have ventured further onto the risk spectrum to generate a liveable yield; a smaller segment has been sticking with safer sources of income but trying to make do on less. 

The Bucket approach to generating living expenses from a portfolio during retirement aims to meet those challenges head on. The basic strategy is that a retiree holds the bulk of her assets in a long-term portfolio that's diversified between stocks and bonds. She then augments it with a cash bucket that she uses for spending money and periodically refills that cash Bucket with income distributions, rebalancing proceeds, or both. 

You can find three strategies – conservative, moderate and aggressive, depending on the time frame you have left in retirement.

Now that you’ve understood what’s needed to achieve your goals and structure your portfolio, it’s time to discover investments. 

Discover investments

Morningstar provides qualitative research coverage on over 2,000 equities, ETFs, Funds and Hybrids alongside data on over 50,000 global securities. Discover investments is designed to allow you to find the investment opportunities that fit your needs.

Find your next investment idea by security type, active or passive, and then by asset allocation.

Alternatively, find opportunities through our pre-defined filters, where the hard work is done for you. 

If you’re looking for something in particular, you’re also able to create your own investment filter. Find more detailed information below on our pre-defined filters and user-defined filters. 

Stock filter

Morningstar Investor provides access to a vast array of stock data and research that allows subscribers to Discover investments. We provide data on over 43,000 global equities. As a Investor subscriber you can access qualitative research from our team of over 100 equity analysts on more than 1600 companies. For the remainder of our coverage universe we provide our proprietary quantitative ratings which are designed to mimic our analyst-driven ratings.

Our stock filters can be used by Morningstar Investor subscribers to comb through our comprehensive set of data and research to discover new investment opportunities. We have two sets of stock filters available:

  • Pre-defined filters: Our pre-defined filters identify companies that we believe are trading at a significant discount to what they are worth, have a long-term competitive advantage or meet the criteria for a thematic such as inclusion on our Global Equity Best ideas list or securities that generate sustainable income.  
image of the Stock screener landing page
  • User-defined filters: Select your own criteria to filter more than 43,000 global companies. You can select 15 filters across 5 categories including Morningstar analyst ratings, valuation and profitability measures, growth metrics and performance history. Filters can be saved to allow you to periodically check if additional companies meet your criteria. To set up and save a stock filter follow this link, select “Add filter”, select “Stocks”, select “Filters” and select your criteria. Selecting “Apply” will filter through our universe of equity data to identify the results. To save the filter simply select “Save” and add a name and description. Your filter will be available on the “Investment filters” tab

Fund filter

Morningstar Investor provides access to data and research on Australian domiciled funds. As an Investor subscriber you can access qualitative research from our team of over 15 Sydney based manager research analysts on more than 350 managed funds.

Our Fund filters can be used by Morningstar Investor subscribers to comb through our comprehensive set of data and research to discover new investment opportunities. We have two sets of fund filters available:

  • Pre-defined filters: Our pre-defined filters identify funds that our analysts believe have the ability to outperform their peer group and/or relevant benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. We have grouped the pre-defined filters by different asset classes.
image of the Fund screeners landing page
  • User-defined filters: Select your own criteria to filter through our universe of funds. You can select 15 filters across 5 categories including Morningstar analyst ratings, yield and cost and performance. Filters can be saved to allow you to periodically check if additional funds meet your criteria.  To set up and save a stock filter follow this link, select “Add filter”, select “Funds”, select “Filters” and select your criteria. Selecting “Apply” will filter through our universe of fund data to identify the results. To save the filter simply select “Save” and add a name and description. Your filter will be available on the “Investment filters” tab.

ETF filter

Morningstar Investor provides access to data and research on ETFs. As an Investor subscriber you can access qualitative research from our team of over 15 Sydney based manager research analysts on more than 70 ETFs.

Our ETF filters can be used by Morningstar Investor subscribers to comb through our comprehensive set of data and research to discover new investment opportunities. We have two sets of ETF filters available:

  • Pre-defined filters: Our pre-defined filters identify ETFs that our analysts believe have the ability to outperform their peer group and/or relevant benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. We have grouped the pre-defined filters by different asset classes.  
image of the ETF screeners landing page
  • User-defined filters: Select your own criteria to filter through our universe of ETFs. You can select 15 filters across 5 categories including Morningstar analyst ratings, yield and cost and performance. Filters can be saved to allow you to periodically check if additional funds meet your criteria.  To set up and save a stock filter follow this link, select “Add filter”, select “ETFs”, select “Filters” and select your criteria. Selecting “Apply” will filter through our universe of ETF data to identify the results. To save the filter simply select “Save” and add a name and description. Your filter will be available on the “Investment filters” tab.

Compare 

Deciding between two (or a few) stocks? Can’t settle on a fund? See a side-by-side comparison in our Compare tool. In one glance, see price to fair value, ratings and yield. 

Watchlist

The watchlist is a tool that can be used to track stocks, ETFs and funds for further research. The watchlist can be used to observe price movements as you wait for a more compelling buying opportunity or to track Morningstar ratings, company profile information and performance. To add or remove a security from your watchlist, find the security in the discover investment tab or in the search box and click the heart icon.

Alerts

Receive alerts on any security that you are interested in. Receive alerts for price targets, ratings changes and Morningstar Research. Set alerts through the drop down menu of your name in the top right hand corner, and navigating to ‘My Alerts’. 

Monitor markets

Morningstar research is designed to help you cut through the day to day market noise and focus on the long-term investment opportunity. That is why we contextualise day to day market movements with our view of the overall market valuation. You can explore index, commodity and currency changes but also see the current price to fair value of each market we cover along with the valuation from a year ago.

image of the Market Price to Fair Value table

A price to fair value of 1 indicates that our analysts believe the market is fairly value. A price to fair value under 1 means we think that the market is undervalued and a figure over 1 means we think the market is overvalued. If you identify a market that you would like to explore further, simply click on the country name to view our equity research universe from the selected country.

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Stay informed

Stay informed bring you a view on markets and investing that only Morningstar can deliver. We focus on sound analysis rather than snap reactions to market events. Our journalists in Australia, North America and Europe deliver insights from our wide breadth of equity, fund and ETF research, our in-house behavioural science researchers and our investment management team.

A key component of your Morningstar Investor subscription is our weekly newsletter Your Money Weekly. Curated by Peter Warnes, Morningstar's head of equities research, Your Money Weekly is a collection of our research from the week and includes Peter’s popular market commentary.

Our Stay Informed section also includes our latest equity, fund and ETF research. Simply go to the respective security type tab on Stay informed to see research published within the last 30 days. Our equity research is updated when company, market or economic events warrant – at least four times annually. Our fund and ETF research is updated at least once a year when we complete our sector reviews.  .  

Learn to invest

Knowledge is the foundation of independence. We strive to provide detailed explorations of key investing topics. Our investing guides cover a wide range of topics and are designed for novice investors looking to learn and sophisticated investors that are looking to review key foundational topics.

Webinar series 

Our foundational investing webinar series can also be found in the Learn to Invest section. Take a deep dive into topics to gain or strengthen knowledge, and ask any questions you may have. Registration can be found in this section. 

Podcast 

Our podcast, Investing Compass, hosted by Mark LaMonica, CFA and Shani Jayamanne gives you another way to learn about investing. Morningstar’s independence and investor first mindset is at the forefront of this podcast, released weekly.