The Finviz heatmap is a visual market map that groups stocks by sector and industry, sizes many stock tiles by market capitalization, and colors them by the selected performance or data metric. It is useful for answering questions such as: Is today's move broad or concentrated? Which sectors are relatively strong? Which large stocks are dominating the index view?

You do not need Finviz Elite just to use the heatmaps. Finviz says its Heatmaps remain available for free. Elite mainly adds real-time Maps data, intraday timeframes, extended-hours features, and additional customization. A heatmap is best treated as a market-orientation and screening tool—not as a buy or sell signal.

Key takeaways

Finviz Heatmaps are available without an Elite subscription; Elite adds real-time and intraday capabilities.
On the S&P 500 Map, tile size represents market capitalization, so a large tile can visually dominate even when many smaller stocks move differently.
Color tells you the selected metric, not whether a stock is fundamentally attractive or likely to continue moving.
Finviz now offers multiple Map universes, including the S&P 500, Dow 30, Nasdaq 100, Russell 2000, All Stocks, World, ETFs, Crypto, Futures, and Themes.
Use the Map to find where to investigate next, then verify the stock, chart, catalyst, liquidity, and risk before making a trading decision.

What Does the Finviz Heatmap Show?

Finviz calls the product Maps. The familiar red-and-green display is a treemap: a large rectangle is divided into sectors, industries, and individual securities.

The current S&P 500 Map states that stocks are categorized by sectors and industries and that size represents market cap. That creates an important reading rule: the picture is not a one-stock-one-vote view of the market.

If a mega-cap stock occupies a very large green rectangle, it can make a sector look visually powerful even while many smaller companies are flat or down. Conversely, a sector filled with many smaller green tiles may show broad participation even if no single company dominates the image.

Think of the Map as three layers of information:

Visual element	What it usually tells you	What it does not prove
Tile size	Relative size of the security under the selected Map, such as market cap on the S&P 500 view	Trading volume, conviction, or future return
Tile color	The selected performance or data metric and its magnitude	Whether the move will continue
Sector/industry grouping	Where related companies are moving together or diverging	Actual fund flows between sectors

That final distinction matters. A performance heatmap can suggest relative leadership, but it is not a direct measurement of institutional money flows.

How to Read a Finviz Heatmap Step by Step

1. Choose the market universe first

Finviz's current Map menu includes:

S&P 500
Dow Jones 30
Nasdaq 100
Russell 2000
All Stocks
Market Cap
World
ETFs
Crypto
Futures
Themes

Do not compare two screenshots without checking the universe. A Nasdaq 100 Map and an S&P 500 Map can tell very different stories because the index composition and company weights differ.

For a broad US large-cap check, the S&P 500 Map is a practical starting point. If you are specifically trading growth and technology names, the Nasdaq 100 can be more relevant. For smaller companies, Russell 2000 gives a different perspective from mega-cap-heavy indexes.

2. Confirm what the colors represent

The default stock Map commonly displays a performance measure such as 1-day price change. Finviz also provides other Map views and metrics, so never assume every red or green tile represents the same timeframe or variable.

Read the selected metric before interpreting the picture.

A red stock on a one-day performance view only means it is down over that selected period. It does not mean the company is cheap, weak on every timeframe, or suitable for a short trade.

3. Separate breadth from concentration

Ask two questions:

How many stocks are participating?
Are the largest tiles driving most of the visual move?

Suppose Technology is green, but nearly all of the visual intensity comes from two mega-cap companies while most smaller tiles are mixed. That is concentrated leadership.

If most industries and most component stocks are green, the move is broader.

This simple distinction prevents a common mistake: treating an index-weighted visual impression as proof that the whole market is behaving the same way.

4. Compare sectors, then industries

A useful top-down sequence is:

market → sector → industry → stock

Start by scanning which sectors are relatively strong or weak. Then zoom into the sector and see whether the move is concentrated in one industry.

For example, a green Technology block does not automatically mean software, semiconductors, hardware, and IT services are all moving together. Industry-level divergence can be more useful than the sector headline.

If your goal is specifically to study longer-term sector leadership, keep that work separate from a single-session heatmap. The sector rotation guide covers that broader process.

5. Use hover and drill-down information as context

On the current Finviz Map, hovering a ticker can show related competitors and a small historical graph, while double-clicking a ticker opens more detailed information. Zooming and panning help when a dense Map contains many small tiles.

These interactions make the Map useful as a discovery layer: you can move from a broad visual anomaly to the individual company without manually searching through a long table.

6. Move from visualization to verification

The heatmap should generate a question, not answer the entire trade.

After a stock or industry attracts your attention, verify:

current liquidity and volume;
the catalyst, if any;
the stock's own chart structure;
whether the move is broad or isolated;
relevant earnings or company news;
your entry, invalidation, and position size if you intend to trade it.

For a full screening workflow, use the guide to finding stocks to trade. For maintaining a smaller list after screening, use the stock watchlist guide.

Finviz Free Heatmap vs Finviz Elite

The biggest misconception around this topic is that the heatmap itself is an Elite-only feature.

Finviz stated in its September 2025 Heatmap update that its Heatmaps remain free, while Elite users can stream real-time data through Maps and use intraday timeframes. Finviz's current Elite materials also list Maps and Groups as real-time for Elite subscribers.

As of August 14, 2026, the practical distinction is:

Capability	Free / non-Elite use	Finviz Elite
Access to Finviz Heatmaps / Maps	Yes	Yes
S&P 500 and other public Map views	Yes	Yes
Real-time Maps data	No	Yes
Intraday Map timeframes	Limited / not the Elite real-time experience	Yes
Real-time stock quotes	No	Yes
Premarket and after-hours stock data	Limited	Yes
Elite homepage Map-layout customization	No	Yes
Two different Maps on the Elite homepage	No	Yes
Advanced screener, export/API, alerts and other Elite tools	No	Yes

The exact plan features can change, so verify them on Finviz before subscribing.

What does Finviz Elite cost in 2026?

Finviz's current FAQ lists:

Monthly: $39.50 per month
Annual: $299.50 per year
Trial: 7-day Elite trial for eligible accounts

The annual price works out to about $24.96 per month when paid for the full year. Pricing, trial eligibility, and renewal terms can change, so treat these as a dated snapshot rather than permanent pricing.

What Changed in Finviz Maps in 2025–2026?

The current product is broader than the older S&P 500 heatmap many users remember.

More index and asset Maps

Finviz added Dow 30, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 Maps in 2025. Its current Map menu also includes All Stocks, World, ETFs, Crypto, Futures, and Themes.

This matters because the best Map depends on the question. A futures trader and a US stock investor should not start from the same universe.

New 52-week, theme, market-cap, and insider views

In January 2026, Finviz announced new Maps for:

market capitalization;
distance from 52-week highs and lows;
structural Themes;
insider trading activity.

It also expanded Group Heatmaps for sectors, industries, countries, and market-cap categories.

These are useful because a heatmap no longer has to answer only "what is up or down today?" It can visualize different dimensions of the market.

More Elite homepage control

In June 2026, Finviz added more Elite homepage customization. Elite users can adjust settings related to sessions, filters, auto-refresh behavior, after-hours pricing, and Map layout. Finviz also says Elite users can display two different Maps at the same time on the homepage.

That is more relevant to an active intraday workflow than simply having access to the basic heatmap.

Four Useful Heatmap Reading Patterns

A heatmap is descriptive. These patterns help organize what you see without pretending the picture predicts the next move.

Broad market participation

Many sectors and industries move in the same direction, and the move is not limited to a few giant companies.

Question to investigate: Is the same breadth visible in the underlying stocks and on the timeframe you trade?

Mega-cap concentration

A small number of very large tiles dominate the color of the Map.

Question to investigate: Is the index move stronger than the average constituent?

Sector divergence

One or two sectors move differently from the rest of the market.

Question to investigate: Is there a sector-specific catalyst, or is the divergence simply short-term noise?

Industry divergence inside a sector

A sector looks mixed because one industry is strong and another is weak.

Question to investigate: Which individual stocks are actually producing the difference, and does the behavior persist beyond one session?

None of these patterns is automatically a trade setup. They are prompts for deeper analysis.

Can a Finviz Heatmap Identify Sector Rotation?

It can help you observe relative sector performance, but a heatmap alone does not establish durable sector rotation.

A one-day performance Map is especially vulnerable to event noise. For a sector-rotation hypothesis, compare longer horizons, industry participation, relative-strength behavior, macro context, and the underlying companies or ETFs.

The safest interpretation is:

A heatmap can show where relative strength or weakness is visible now. It cannot, by itself, prove that capital has permanently rotated from one sector to another.

This boundary matters because the old version of this article treated color changes as direct evidence of money flowing between sectors. The visualization does not provide that level of causal certainty.

Can You Use Finviz Heatmaps to Find Trades?

Yes—as a discovery and prioritization tool.

A practical workflow is:

Open the relevant Finviz Map.
Choose the market universe and timeframe that match your trading job.
Identify unusually strong, weak, broad, or concentrated areas.
Drill down from sector to industry to ticker.
Put only relevant candidates into a screener or watchlist.
Check the individual chart and catalyst.
Define the trade independently of the heatmap.

The Map helps reduce a large market into a smaller research set. It should not replace the actual setup criteria.

Is Finviz Elite Worth It for the Heatmap Alone?

For many users, probably not.

If you mainly want a daily or weekly visual snapshot of US stocks, the free Maps already provide substantial value. Paying only to see a familiar red-and-green market overview is difficult to justify when the core Heatmap remains free.

Elite becomes more relevant when you also need several of these together:

real-time Maps;
intraday Map timeframes;
real-time and extended-hours stock data;
more advanced screener features;
alerts;
export/API access;
advanced charting;
customizable Elite homepage layouts.

In other words, evaluate Elite as a workflow bundle, not as a heatmap unlock.

Finviz Heatmap vs a Stock Screener

The two tools answer different questions.

Tool	Best question	Typical output
Heatmap	"Where is unusual strength, weakness, or concentration visible?"	Visual areas to investigate
Screener	"Which stocks satisfy my explicit rules?"	Filtered list of tickers
Watchlist	"Which candidates do I want to monitor repeatedly?"	Small persistent list
Individual chart	"Does this ticker actually match my setup?"	Trade-specific context

A strong workflow often uses all four in sequence rather than trying to make the heatmap behave like a trading system.

If screening is your primary job, the TradingView screener guide shows a separate rules-based workflow.

Using Finviz Alongside ChartMini

Finviz and ChartMini serve different jobs.

Finviz can help you inspect the current market, narrow a stock universe, and identify areas worth researching. ChartMini is a historical chart-replay environment for practicing decisions without seeing future candles.

ChartMini does not import Finviz Elite heatmaps, synchronize Finviz data, or send alerts based on Finviz sector rotation.

A clean workflow is:

use Finviz to understand a current screening or visualization idea;
translate that idea into explicit chart conditions;
use Market Replay to practice recognizing and acting on those conditions in historical sessions;
review whether your decision rule was actually repeatable.

That keeps current-market visualization separate from historical skill practice.

Common Finviz Heatmap Mistakes

Treating green as a buy signal

Green only describes the selected metric. Strong recent performance can continue, stall, or reverse.

Ignoring tile size

A huge mega-cap tile can distort your visual impression of an entire sector or index.

Assuming a heatmap measures actual fund flows

Price performance and relative strength are not the same thing as measured ETF, institutional, or portfolio capital flows.

Comparing different timeframes without noticing

A stock can be green intraday and weak over a month. Always check the selected horizon.

Paying for Elite without defining the workflow need

If delayed/free Maps already answer your question, real-time data may not change the decision. Pay for Elite when the additional real-time, intraday, screening, alert, or export features solve a specific problem.

FAQ

Is the Finviz heatmap free?

Yes. Finviz has stated that its Heatmaps remain free. Elite adds real-time data through Maps and intraday timeframes, among other platform-wide features.

What does the size of a box mean on the Finviz S&P 500 Map?

Finviz states that size represents market capitalization on the S&P 500 Map. Larger companies therefore occupy more visual space.

What do red and green mean on Finviz?

They represent the selected Map metric and its direction or magnitude. On a performance view, green generally indicates positive performance and red negative performance over the selected period. Always confirm the metric and timeframe first.

Does Finviz Elite have real-time heatmaps?

Yes. Finviz lists Maps and Groups data as real-time for Elite users and says Elite users can stream real-time data through Maps.

Can I view Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 heatmaps on Finviz?

Yes. Finviz added Dow 30, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 Maps, and they appear in the current Map filter menu.

Is the Finviz heatmap a sector-rotation indicator?

It can visualize relative sector and industry performance, but it is not a dedicated fund-flow measurement and does not prove a lasting rotation by itself.

Is Finviz Elite worth paying for?

It depends on whether you need the full Elite workflow. The free heatmap is already useful for broad market orientation. Elite is more compelling when real-time/intraday Maps, extended-hours data, advanced screening, alerts, charts, or export/API access are important to your process.

Practical Next Step

Open the free Finviz Map and answer only three questions before doing anything else:

Is today's move broad or concentrated?
Which sector and industry are most visually different from the rest of the market?
Which individual ticker deserves verification on its own chart?

Then leave the heatmap and verify the candidate. That habit turns the Map into a useful research shortcut without turning color into a trading signal.

Sources and Verification Notes

Product details were rechecked on August 14, 2026. Finviz changes features, pricing, trials, data availability, and account limits over time, so verify current terms before paying.

Finviz Heatmap Guide: How to Read Market Maps and What Elite Adds