How to Use Amazon Alexa to Keep Up-to-Date With Financial Markets
The financial world is much like the world of sports. Every day, new events develop that shape the future direction of a company or financial instrument. Sometimes these pieces of news have substantial effects. Sometimes, their impacts are minuscule. Either way, wouldn’t you want to stay informed?
Well, you can with Alexa. We’re going to show you some great ways to use Alexa to stay up-to-date on the latest financial news.
Use Alexa’s Built-In Price Fetching
Alexa can access a wide range of quotes from the financial markets for an instant snapshot of how your favorite instruments are doing. The personal assistant can provide quotes on:
Where Alexa really shines is with stock prices and indices. Alexa can return prices almost instantly, with quotes delayed by around 15 minutes. Commodities and forex rates are slightly less accurate. Foreign exchange prices are rounded but still give a rough idea of the exchange rate.
Certain commodities, like crude oil or copper, returned the previous day’s closing price, while instruments like gold and silver gave more recent prices. However, cryptocurrency prices were pretty accurate.
you may also ask Alexa for basic information on companies, and it’ll use sites like Crunchbase to find the answer. For example, we were able to find out how many employees Slack has or how much Microsoft earned in profit last year.
We found that asking for quotes was a little temperamental at times, but it comes down to how you ask the question. To save any hassle, we’d recommend you ask Alexa like this:
We wouldn’t advise trading or investing based on the information you receive from Alexa, but it’s still an excellent way to stay updated on your favorite assets without checking your phone or computer.
Ask For a Market Update
A little-known feature of Alexa is its ability to give you a market update, much likeAlexa’s Sports Update feature. In the Alexa app (available foriOSandAndroid), you’re able to pick your favorite stocks, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies and add them to a market update, where you can hear the latest prices with one phrase. You can even set notifications for substantial price changes and headline news if desired.
To get started with the market update, open the Alexa app and navigate to theMoretab. Scroll down and tapFinance. Then, tapAdd a Favoriteand search for the instrument. We’ll use Meta, Silver, FTSE 100, and Bitcoin as examples. Once you’re done, tapSave. If you want to enable notifications, just press the slider next to the item.
Now, you can just ask, “Alexa, what’s my market update?” and Alexa will give you a rundown of how each asset is doing today.
Set Up Flash Briefing for Financial News
Alexa’s Flash Briefing is an excellent feature that lets you hear a customized news roundup from your favorite sources. There’s a plethora of financial news updates to add to your Flash Briefing that can bring you the latest news from the markets and the business world.
To customize your Flash Briefing, open the Alexa app and tap theMoretab. Scroll down and pressNews, thenEditandAdd Content. Here, you can add as many sources as you like. When you find a skill that suits your needs, tapEnable To Use. Once you’re done, tap theback arrowto see your full Flash Briefing lineup. You can pressEditand change the order they’re played in if you wish.
Looking for finance news Flash Briefing skills to add?
Just say, “Alexa, play my Flash Briefing” to hear your Flash Briefing. If you want to skip a certain source, say “Alexa, next.”
Play Finance Podcasts
If you prefer to hear your financial news and analysis in a longer, more in-depth format, then you might want to try playing finance podcasts with Alexa instead. Each podcast below can be played on your Echo device without a subscription through the free Amazon Music integration. You’ll find all of them available on Amazon Music, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
To play a podcast, say, “Alexa, play (podcast name) on (service).” If you don’t have a Spotify or Apple Podcasts account, you can use Amazon Music by saying something like, “Alexa, play The Disciplined Investor on Amazon Music.”
Install Financial Skills
Here is a selection of excellent skills for you to install that can give you a direct insight into the markets using Alexa. Let’s take a look at them.
This skill from Bloomberg is ideal if you have an Echo Show. Even without a Show, you can hear the latest stock prices, get a market update, or listen to Bloomberg’s Market Minute—all in one skill.
If you have an Echo Show, you’ll be able to see stock prices laid out on a chart, watch Bloomberg Live TV, and check out their Market Summary with one sentence. Plus, no subscription is required to access any of these features.
Motley Fool
Like Alexa’s built-in features and the Bloomberg skill, the Motley Fool skill can give you the latest stock prices and an update on the markets. But, the most useful part of this skill is the ability to create a watchlist that you can access in the Motley Fool app, available foriOSandAndroid.
You can just ask Alexa, “Alexa, ask The Fool how my watchlist is doing,” and it’ll tell you the overall movement of your watchlist alongside the day’s most significant move.
StockTrigger
StockTrigger is a handy skill if you’re actively keeping an eye on specific stocks. Its primary function is to notify you via phone/email when a certain threshold has been crossed. For example, you may open StockTrigger and ask it to “Set a notification for Amazon at three percent higher” to be notified when Amazon’s stock moves up three percent from its current price.
You can also hear stock quotes in real time and create a favorites list for quick updates. However, Alexa lacks two features: the ability to compare two stocks and query stocks based on price changes. But with Stock Trigger, you can. For instance, you can ask StockTrigger to “Find stocks that dropped between 15 and 20 percent last week”.
Master the Markets With Amazon Alexa
With so much happening on any given day in the financial world, cutting through the noise and getting to the facts is vital. With the Alexa features above, becoming a market wizard is a bit easier, especially with high-quality reporting from Bloomberg or expert investing advice from The Disciplined Investor.
If you’re wondering where to start, why not try setting up a Flash Briefing? You’ll be surprised at how much you’re able to learn and understand in just a few minutes.
Keep on top of your investments and the markets by downloading one (or all) of these apps.
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