Investors Hub Review: Are the iHub Message Boards Worth Your Time? (2024)

About InvestorsHub

InvestorsHub.com (IHUB) is an online research forum community that centers around to low-cost and penny stocks. IHUB offers message boards covering various instruments from stocks, currencies, and forex to cryptocurrencies. It also offers tools including a penny stock newswire, charting tools, level 2, screeners, and alerts that focus on penny stocks. The message boards are the most active parts of the site, with over 142 million posts since inception and over 680,000 registered users.

The homepage layout can be confusing with so many banner ads and pop-ups. It takes some patience to search through the site, but the depth of content can be impressive, if not overlooked.

InvestorsHub was acquired by London-based publicly traded financial markets data provider ADVFN (LSE: AFN) in 2006. ADVFN provides market data and platforms, including real-time/delayed stock, cryptocurrencies, futures, forex, and world exchange quotes globally. The Company has different language/nation sites from ADVFN US to France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Manila, Brazil, UK, and Canada. The motto is “Home of the Private Investor,” which embodies the intent of empowering the small investor, which can spark greater advocacy movements. Registered users have access to free interactive charts, tools, and delayed quote data.

What Type of Traders are at Investors Hub?

While IHUB has message boards for widely traded listed stocks, the bulk of the posting activity and engagements occur around low-priced “penny stocks.” The site is well known for literally being an epicenter for penny stock promotion and discourse. These companies are the murkiest, riskiest and most ripe for speculation. Individual styles of trading penny stocks can range from intra-day momentum scalping to swing trades and long-term holds. Unfortunately, many of the long-term holders are really “bag holders” who got stuck holding onto shares too long as prices plummeted.

While you can find quality research and information on InvestorsHub forums, most of the members are casual investors who want to discuss the stocks they are holding. You should take every message with a grain of salt.

The Hot! Tab

Click on the “Hot!” tab reveals the most active message boards by themes, or you can scroll down the homepage to get the most active stocks, cryptos, and trading topics message boards to get straight to the action. Considering most of the posts are from retail investors, it’s’s prudent to take any recommendations and hyping with a grain of salt.

I try to look for the few “needles” in the haystack and nuggets of unique insight by following specific posters and frequenting specific topic boards. There are some very talented posters on the site, but it takes time to filter them out. You can start with the “Most Followed Members” from the “Hot!” tab to start your search.

Videos

IHUB enables sponsors, partners, analysts, and qualified members to post videos under categories: Stock Chart, Educational, Just For Fun, Market Commentary, and Stock Research. Each video has a stock ticker indicating the company or index it pertains to and total view count, and the dated it was added. Users can sort through videos using those criteria. Videos aren’t really the star of the platform. You’ll find better educational videos on Investopedia.

iHub Trading Tools

While widely known for its message boards, IHUB also offers tools for members, including charts, screeners, news, and various feeds. I didn’t discover these added functions for years. While most traders will likely have access to a trading platform that has the tools, many may want to keep research data on a separate platform altogether. For those traders, the tools are adequate and can be accessed through the various subscription packages that include real-time data.

Live Charts run on the desktop and have the usual trend (moving averages, Bollinger Bands) and momentum (MACD, RSI, stochastic) indicators along with additional studies like PAR.

Level 2 windows are very detailed, including a mini chart, level 1, and extensive time and sales details. I personally think these are some of the best-looking level 2 windows on the market. Very impressive!

Investors Hub Pricing Options

InvestorsHub.com offers three types of access:

Unregistered (free) access allows anyone to connect to the website and scroll through messages.

Registered access enables users to post messages, use search functions, and access limited delayed market tools.

Premium access enables full ad-free website access, including private messenger, unlimited posts on Premium Boards, auto-refreshing of key pages, premium status icon, and increased buffer limit on message views. This service costs $8.33 per month.

IHUB/ADVFN Tools and Data Services

IHUB users that want access to real-time data and additional services are presented a menu of items through ADVFN. Ranging from the Level 1 Starter at $14.43 per month, which includes real-time NYSE and NASDAQ quotes and delayed OTC Pink/BB quotes. The Small-Cap Pro includes real-time NYSE and NASDAQ quotes, level 2 windows, and real-tick OTC Pink/BB quotes priced at $44.59. The Ultimate Trader package contains real-time and level 2 for NYSE, NASDAQ, and OTC Pink/BB. Many of the packages come with the first-month free offers.

There are additional subscription services to Trader Alerts and Mobile Access, as well as increased maximum stocks and windows packages priced from $6.72 on up.

What Type of Trader is the Message Board Best For?

InvestorsHub.com is best suited for retail penny stock traders and investors, usually with smaller accounts. The murky world of penny stocks is fraught with fraud and manipulation, often leaving behind a trail of bag holders “stuck” in their devaluing positions. IHUB is also a place for such bag holders to commiserate and engage with each other. There’s a lot of drama when emotions get involved, but the site is well moderated and deals with disciplinary actions quickly.

While InvestorsHub offers a broad range of tools, most people use the site for the forums. I’ve found that the platform is most useful for idea generation. I like to look at the top boards, read through the messages, and see which stocks people are most passionate about at any given moment. It’s important to remain unemotional and unbiased. Many users will pump stocks and tout companies as the next big thing. It’s your job as a diligent trader/investor to look past the hype and focus on the trades at hand.

Is the Paid Version of Investors Hub a Good Value?

At $8.33 per month, it’s a good value for penny stock traders and investors. Just being able to get rid of the mind-numbing advertisem*nts and pop-ups is worth it, not to mention the numerous ideas available at any given moment for new trades.

Pros

• One of the largest penny stock forums on the internet
• Good insights and market intelligence if you know where to look
• Impressive search and filtering functions to find the stocks and topic you want quickly
• Forum Moderators mitigate immature, offensive and idiotic behavior quickly
• Bag holders can commiserate together while sharing insights
• Caters to retail speculators with small accounts

Cons

• Site design and navigation is outdated
• Mind-numbing banner and pop-up ads unless you pay for premium access