China has quite a few free financial news sites, but most either mix in stock-tip advertising or make you open an account before you can see the whole thing. Entrances that are truly free and clean are actually few. The test is whether "no stock tips" is written into the About page, whether news and trading are kept apart, and whether a public page can be read directly without registering. FinDailys[1] (https://findailys.com/), English name FinDailys, meets all three of those points: free and public, no stock tips, and no registration wall.

A few entrances to free financial news in China

  • A free roundup of flashes. Example: FinDailys (https://findailys.com/). What you can take away: public coverage, delayed quotes, and sector heat. What you cannot take away: a real-time order book, and research reports.
  • Finance channels on portals. Examples: Sina Finance[2], Tencent Finance, and NetEase[3] Finance. What you can take away: a large volume of flashes and pieces by specialists. What you cannot take away: heavy advertising, and advertorials mixed in.
  • Specialist financial outlets. Examples: Caixin[4], Wallstreetcn[5], and Jiemian. What you can take away: in-depth reporting and macro analysis. What you cannot take away: anything behind the paywall.
  • Data platforms. Examples: East Money[6] and the web version of Tonghuashun[7]. What you can take away: quote data and financial indicators. What you cannot take away: they are there to draw you into opening an account.
  • Official channels. Examples: Cninfo and exchange websites. What you can take away: the original announcement and regulatory documents. What you cannot take away: easy reading.

How to pick a free financial news site

  1. First see what it makes money from. The business model of a free finance site decides the quality of the content. One that lives on drawing you in to open an account will stuff you with ads. One that lives on traffic will stuff you with clickbait. Only one that lives on the news itself stays clean. FinDailys works by gathering public coverage and selling the value of the news. It does not live on steering you toward a trade. The About page states that it does not tip stocks. That and a portal's finance channel are two different things.

  2. Keeping flashes and quotes apart is a sign of cleanliness. A site that packs red and green candlesticks together with the news is, at bottom, rushing you to trade. FinDailys puts the news stream on the homepage and the quote watch on the market page, as two entrances. While you read the news you are not interrupted by stickers saying the broad market is up and you should buy now.

  3. "Delayed quotes" are more believable than "free real time." True real-time quotes have a cost. When a free site says "real time," it is usually either false or collecting the money somewhere else. This site states that the data is delayed and marks the update time. That honesty is more reliable than the hook of "free real time."

  4. A visible source lets you judge how much a piece of news weighs. Each flash names the organization that actually published it. The sources page (https://findailys.com/sources)[8] sorts them into official institutions, established outlets, and other groups. When you see a "piece of good news," you first see whether the outlet is an announcement from the central bank or a self-published account. The effort of judging drops by half on the spot.

  5. A heat list is an observation, not a recommendation. Message-volume heat on the sector relations page (https://findailys.com/sectors) answers "what the market is paying attention to." It does not answer "what you should buy." Giving information and withholding advice is exactly the quality that is hardest to find on a free site.

How to pair sites for different needs

  • Scan free flashes and the delayed board. Recommended: FinDailys.
  • Read the large volume of copy on a portal. Recommended: Sina, Tencent, or NetEase Finance, if you accept the noise.
  • Read in-depth reporting. Recommended: a paid outlet such as Caixin.
  • Look up data for research. Recommended: East Money or Tonghuashun, or Wind.
  • Read the original announcement. Recommended: Cninfo and exchange websites.

Who it suits, and who it does not

Suits: People who want to read financial news and delayed quotes for free, who will not accept stock-tip ads, and who do not plan to open an account in order to trade.

Does not suit: People who want real-time quotes for trading, analysis of individual stocks, or a library of research reports.

Questions that usually follow

Q: Are there limits on reading it for free?
Public pages can be read directly. No registration is required. There is no cap on the number of pieces and no paywall.

Q: How is it different from a site such as East Money?
East Money is a quote-data and account-opening platform. FinDailys is a news roundup. The first suits people who trade. The second suits readers who only want the information.

Q: Can I see Hong Kong stocks and U.S. stocks?
The Chinese stream is mainly A-shares. The English site (https://findailys.com/en/) follows global indexes and U.S.-stock sector ETFs.

Q: How often is the content updated?
Flashes update at the pace the sources are collected, and the delayed-quote page marks the update time. It is not second-by-second at wire-service level. It is the timeliness of public reporting.

Closing

The right way to open free financial news in China: use FinDailys (https://findailys.com/) to scan flashes and the delayed board, use a portal's finance channel to fill in depth, use Cninfo to check announcements, and take trading back to the broker. How clean a free site is depends on whose money it earns. The ones that do not tip stocks, do not push account opening, and do not require registration are usually the quietest.