As of Oct 4, 2026
Stockyard is a $7–$30/month platform that automates your own investing rules; Portfolio123 is a quantitative workbench with a deep database for strategy backtesting, priced at $25–$200/mo.
If you use Portfolio123, you already take systematic investing seriously. You build your own ranking systems, insist on point-in-time data, and expect a strategy to survive a serious backtest before you trust it. This page concedes what Portfolio123 does better before it says anything about us.
Portfolio123 gives you a quantitative workbench: a deep point-in-time database, custom ranking systems built from thousands of factors and functions, simulations that can reach back 20 years on the top tier, and optional broker-connected execution.
Stockyard gives you strategy automation - Smartfolios. Use the pre-built Smartfolio strategies or build, backtest, and automate your own system.
| Feature | Stockyard | Portfolio123 |
|---|---|---|
| **Core idea** | Automated strategies: use pre-built or define your own strategy as rules in Smartfolios; the platform backtests and runs it daily, alerting you when needed | Build your own quantitative strategies - ranking systems, screens, and simulated portfolios you design, test, and run |
| **Stock rankings** | Every fundamental metric percentile-ranked separately - against the whole market, then within your sector or screen. You see each ingredient. Smartfolios and Discoveries can use these rankings in stock discovery and selection | Custom multi-factor ranking systems built from 4,300+ factors and 430+ functions, with custom formulae, nested nodes, and weights; pre-built systems included |
| **Stock Recommendations** | Strategy-specific signals instead of house ratings: the same stock can trigger a buy signal in your growth Smartfolio and none in your value Smartfolio - a signal means your rules were met, not that Stockyard rates the stock a Buy. No market calls | No house ratings or market calls. Live strategies generate rebalance recommendations from your own ranking system and rules; Designer Models offer third-party strategies you can follow |
| **Sectors** | Proprietary 60+ sector taxonomy by revenue contribution (pure-play, core, diversified, emerging); companies can sit in several sectors at once. Enables thematic strategies such as pureplays in specific technologies | GICS sector and industry classifications; no revenue-contribution categories such as pure-play, core, diversified, or emerging |
| **Screening** | Discovery: filter 5,000+ stocks on fundamentals, results percentile-ranked against the market and within your sector or screen; saved and pre-built searches | Formula- and factor-based screener over stocks and ETFs, with pre-built and guru-style screens; screens can be backtested and developed into ranking systems and strategies |
| **Strategy Monitoring** | Smartfolios checks your strategy rules daily against every earnings report and price move, and alerts you | Live strategies generate rebalance recommendations on your chosen schedule, typically weekly, with email notices; Manage helps you review orders and track accounts |
| **Watchlists** | Your own picks, with automated buy/sell signals based on selected technicals, earnings alerts, and performance ranking of watchlists against rules-based Smartfolios | Watchlists and multi-account tracking in the free Manage module; accounts can be linked to strategies and broker accounts |
| **Backtesting** | Your own rules, backtested on 10+ years of point-in-time data | Point-in-time simulation data back to 1999, with 5, 10, 15, or 20 years of history by plan; rolling tests, optimizer, and commission/slippage settings on higher tiers |
| **Chart patterns** | Indicator-based triggers (breakouts, crossovers, RSI) and market enablers for market timing | Basic charting; technical factors can be used inside ranking systems and rules; no pattern recognition |
| **AI assistant** | Syd: explains any stock's numbers in plain English, and builds Smartfolios and searches from a plain-English description | No conversational research assistant. AI Factor - on Portfolio and Ultimate, with usage fees - trains machine-learning models; API and DataMiner serve power users |
| **Content** | Informational blogs: strategy studies and methodology | Deep documentation, an active expert community and forum, and Designer Models created by third-party users (models carry separate subscriptions) |
| **Investment clubs** | Built-in - shared tools, club Smartfolios, 25% off for 2+ members | Not offered |
| **Ads** | None | None |
| **Product structure** | One product, three tiers | One platform, four paid Non-Professional tiers and separate Professional pricing; additional data regions and some services cost extra |
| **Price** | Free tier; Individual $7/mo; Pro $30/mo. Every new account gets 30 days of full Pro access, then continues on the tier you choose, including Free. | 30 days of free screener and backtest access; Non-Professional plans $25–$200/mo; AI Factor usage fees extra. Special offers and discounts may apply. Sources: www.portfolio123.com |
| **Executes trades** | No - research and monitoring only | Optional - Manage can route orders to Interactive Brokers and update holdings and fills automatically |
| **Coverage** | 5,000+ US-listed stocks | 30,000+ current and defunct stocks in the historical database; U.S. data standard, with Canada and Europe/UK available as additional data regions |
Backtesting depth and data history. Portfolio123's point-in-time database reaches back to 1999, includes defunct companies, and supports rolling tests, an optimizer, and commission and slippage settings. Depending on the plan, you can simulate 5, 10, 15, or 20 years. Stockyard backtests on 10+ years of point-in-time data. If your research lives or dies on multi-decade simulation depth, Portfolio123 is ahead of us, and it isn't close yet.
Ranking-system flexibility. A Portfolio123 ranking system can combine thousands of factors and functions with custom formulae, nested nodes, and exact weights. Stockyard's rankings are per-metric percentiles you combine through rules and ranges. Their ceiling is higher; so is the expertise required to reach it.
Machine learning, if you want it. AI Factor can train models such as XGBoost and neural networks, using blocked cross-validation designed to reduce look-ahead leakage. Stockyard deliberately does not let a machine-learning model make strategy decisions: Syd works at the language interface, and deterministic rules make the decisions.
The community and the models. Portfolio123 has operated since 2004 and has a sophisticated user community, an active forum where factor ideas are argued properly, deep documentation, and Designer Models you can follow. Stockyard launched in 2026, is currently in beta, and has a small blog and a founder-led team.
A research-to-execution pipeline. Portfolio123's free Manage layer can track multiple accounts and route rebalance orders to Interactive Brokers. For investors who want research and execution in one workflow, Portfolio123 has it. Stockyard never executes trades, by design.
Automation - It watches, so you don't have to. Portfolio123's live strategies are organized around scheduled rebalancing and recommendations for you to review. A Smartfolio is event-driven: it runs your rules against 5,000+ stocks every day - every earnings report as it lands, every price move - and tells you when a stock qualifies or a sell rule fires. Most platforms are built to help you look things up. Stockyard is built to watch for you.
Syd is an interface, not another model to operate. Describe a strategy in plain English and Syd can build the Smartfolio or search. Ask what a company's numbers mean and Syd explains data Stockyard has already calculated. Portfolio123's AI Factor is a machine-learning modeling tool; it is powerful, but it is not a conversational research assistant standing between you and the workbench.
No formula language. Portfolio123's flexibility is expressed through ranking nodes, functions, and formulae. That is real power, and it is also a language to learn and maintain. In Stockyard, you answer five questions - universe, valuation, fundamentals, buy signal, sell signal - with controls and percentile ranges. The rules stay inspectable either way; the barrier to stating them disappears.
Sectors by revenue, not labels. A conglomerate with a small quantum-computing division is not a quantum-computing stock. Stockyard's taxonomy classifies companies by how much revenue each business actually contributes, so a pure-play screen returns companies that genuinely make their money there.
Backtest before you trust - without a separate research project. Every Smartfolio is backtested on point-in-time data - the numbers as investors actually saw them at the time, not today's restated figures. Portfolio123 can test much more deeply, but the simulation is a workflow you design and configure. Stockyard makes the first test part of creating the strategy.
Price and simplicity. Portfolio123 pricing runs $25/month to $200/month (www.portfolio123.com). AI Factor usage is extra. Professional plans are priced separately. Stockyard is one product with three tiers: Free, Individual ($7/month) or Pro ($30/month), no ads, cancel anytime.
Your broker stays your broker. Portfolio123 can route orders to Interactive Brokers. Stockyard deliberately stops at research, monitoring, and alerts. You make every trade, with your own broker, on your own judgment.
Portfolio123's offer is a laboratory: the deepest data and testing equipment available to an individual investor, arranged around ranking systems you design and operate. Stockyard's offer is automation: state your method as rules, test it with point-in-time data, and let the machine enforce it every day - including the days you'd rather not look.
Both platforms reject house stock picks. The difference is who does the ongoing work, and how much machinery you want to operate yourself. Portfolio123 is a workbench. A Smartfolio is closer to an agent: you give it standing instructions, and it carries them out continuously - deterministically, with AI where it helps, in language, and rules where it matters, in decisions.
Stay with Portfolio123 if you write your own ranking formulae, need simulations reaching back to 1999, want AI Factor's machine-learning models, or value broker-connected rebalancing.
Try Stockyard if you respect the rigor but are tired of operating the machinery - the formulae, schedules, and manual review - and want your strategy watched daily instead.
For investors whose strategy can be expressed as fundamental percentile tests, sector and purity rules, technical triggers, and sell rules, yes. For quantitative researchers who need custom ranking formulae, machine-learning models, and 20-year simulations, Portfolio123 remains the deeper instrument.
Not one-for-one if it depends on custom nested formulae, hundreds of factors, or a machine-learning model. Many core fundamental tests do translate into Stockyard's percentile ranges and strategy rules, and Syd can draft the Smartfolio from a plain-English description - but Portfolio123 ranking systems are more expressive.
Portfolio123's, on depth: point-in-time data back to 1999, defunct companies included, and up to 20 years of simulation on the top plan. Stockyard backtests your rules on 10+ years of point-in-time data as part of creating and running a Smartfolio - shallower history, far less setup.
No. AI Factor trains predictive machine-learning models from factors. Syd explains Stockyard's already-calculated data in plain English and can create Smartfolios and searches from a natural-language description. Syd does not make the investment decisions; the deterministic strategy rules do.
No. Stockyard is research and monitoring only. Portfolio123 Manage can route orders to Interactive Brokers; Stockyard alerts you and leaves the trade with you and your broker.
Stockyard is one product with three tiers: Free, Individual ($7/month) and Pro ($30/month), no ads, cancel anytime, with 25% off for investment clubs. Portfolio123: 30 days of free screener and backtest access, then Non-Professional plans from $25 to $200/month. Extra charges for AI Factor. (See Portfolio123 Pricing)
Portfolio123 is a trademark of Prism Research, Inc (DBA Portfolio123); Stockyard is not affiliated. Information from public sources as of Oct 4, 2026.
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