JANUARY 10, 2025 UPDATE: We have just completed our analysis of the 2024 stock picks from dozens of stock newsletters. See the top ranked stock newsletters in our final 2024 rankings below. See which newsletters would have helped you beat the market by 47% over the last 3 years!
Investment newsletters and stock picking newsletters make getting stock market analysis and stock picks easy, perhaps too easy.
There are so many stock and investment newsletters available, however, that choosing one to trust can be an overwhelming task. Some stock newsletters are free, some are relatively cheap at less than a few hundred dollars per year, and some are priced over a thousand dollars per year.
With so many choices, how do you know which ones are worth your money and, more importantly, which is the best stock newsletter whose stock picks will CONSISTENTLY BEAT THE MARKET?
The answer is easy! You have to subscribe to them all and track all their trades–and that is exactly what I do!
My job here at WallStreetSurvivor is to purchase these investment newsletters, track the performance of all their stock picks, and then share my reviews of the performance of all these services. In this ranking of the top performing stock newsletters, I stick to the facts and share my data. Over the last 30 years I have subscribed to 100+ stock newsletters, various software screeners, and tested a variety of charting tools. I am currently subscribed to about 25 stock and investment newsletters priced under $500 per year.
In this January 10, 2025 analysis of the best stock and investment newsletters I am focusing on:
- the performance (percentage return) of their 2024 stock picks through January 3, 2025
- the performance of their 2023 stock picks through January 3, 2025
- and the performance of their 2022 stock picks through January 3, 2025
I then calculate the return of the S&P500 from the date of each pick through January 3, 2025 (or the date they were sold) and compare each stock pick’s performance versus the S&P500 over the same time to get the “excess return” of each stock pick.
It is important to focus on the “excess return” over the S&P 500 because that is the what every investor wants–to beat the market consistently. If you just want to match the S&P, then just buy an index mutual fund or ETF.
But if you want to beat the market, then keep reading and you will see how you could have beat the market by 47% over the last 3 years!
Investment and Stock Newsletter Performance of 2024 Stock Picks
Based on my analysis, the Best Performing Investment Newsletters of 2024 are as follows, based on closing prices of all of their 2024 stock picks as of January 3, 2025:
- Zacks Top 10: beat the market by 36.7% on 11 stock picks
- Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks: beat the market by 13.6% on 24 picks
- Action Alerts Plus: beat the market by 9.6% on 107 picks
- Moby Premium (moby.co): beat the market by 5.5% on 105 picks
- Motley Fool Hidden Gems: beat the market by 1.9% on 28 picks
- TipRanks SmartInvestor: beat the market by 1.3% on 53 picks
- Motley Fool Stock Advisor: beat the market by 0.5% on 24 stock picks
- Motley Fool Rule Breakers: underperformed the market by 0.1% on 18 picks
- Zacks Home Run Investor: trailed the market by 0.7% on 49 picks
- IBD Leaderboard: trailed the market by 1.8%
Below is my detailed analysis of the performance of just the 2024 stock picks for some of the most popular investment newsletters as of January 3, 2025. In the table below I show you the number of picks in 2024, the average return of their picks, the average return versus the S&P500, percentage of picks that were profitable, and the maximum/minimum returns of those stock picks.
Congratulations to the 7 stock newsletters (Zacks, Seeking Alpha, Cramer’s Action Alerts. Moby, TipRanks, and the Motley Fool) whose 2024 picks actually beat the market at year end.
The leader based on their 2024 stock picks, Zack’s Top 10 service, actually had 11 stock picks and had one pick that was up 170% (see the “Max % Return” column) for the year. A single stock pick with those returns is great, but taken in isolation and with the small sample size we don’t know if it was it luck or skill.
Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks came in second with 24 stock picks, 75% of which were profitable, and beating the S&P500 by 9.6%. One of their picks was up 175% and their biggest loser was down 47%.
All those calculations were based on just one year of stock picks. I don’t put a lot of weight on just one year of performance–and YOU shouldn’t either! As I showed you, just having one really good pick can sway the average returns.
Over the years, I have found that the best indicator of future performance is to focus on the performance of THREE years of stock picks.
Best Stock Newsletters Based on Last 3 Years of Stock Picks
When I look at 3 years of performance, I get more confidence in the service as I believe the cream starts to rise to the top.
Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks is the overall winner by far on my 3-year performance ranking with an average return of 71.7% across 64 stock recommendations and those picks are beating the market by 47.8%.
The Best Stock Newsletters as of January 3, 2025
Ranking of Top Stock Newsletters Based on Last 3 Years of Stock Picks
We are paid subscribers to dozens of stock and option newsletters. We actively track every recommendation from all of these services, calculate performance, and share our results of the top performing stock newsletters whose subscriptions fees are under $500. The main metric to look for is “Excess Return” which is their return above that of the S&P500. So, based on January 3, 2025 prices:
| Rank | Stock Newsletter | Stock Picks | Average Return | S&P500 Return | Excess Return | Percent Profitable | Max % Return | Min % Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  Alpha Picks | 64 | 71.7% | 23.9% | 47.8% | 77% | 969% | -47% |
| Summary: 2 picks/month based on Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating; Retail Price is $499/yr. See details in our Alpha Picks Review. | JANUARY PROMOTION: Save $50 | |||||||
| 2. |  Value Investor | 39 | 26.8% | 13.9% | 12.8% | 51% | 494% | -41% |
| Summary: 10-25 stock picks per year based on Zacks’ Quant Rating; Retail Price is $495/yr. Read our Zacks Review. | JANUARY PROMOTION:$1, then $495/yr | |||||||
| 3. | Top 10 | 33 | 21.2% | 8.4% | 12.8% | 52% | 170% | -56% |
| Summary: 10 stock picks released on January 1st of each year based on Zacks’ Quant Rating & maybe 1 or 2 changes a year; Retail Price is $495/yr. Read our Zacks Review. | JANUARY PROMOTION:$1, then $495/yr | |||||||
| 4. |  Moby.co | 311 | 42.1% | 31.4% | 10.7% | 74% | 1030% | -95% |
| Summary: 60-150 stock picks per year, segmented by industry; Retail Price is $199/yr. Read our Moby Review. | JANUARY PROMOTION:Get 1 pick free! | |||||||
| 5. |  Stock Advisor Canada | 36 | 31.8% | 25.3% | 6.5% | 81% | 216% | -68% |
| Summary: 1 pick/month from the Toronto stock exchange; Retail Price is CD$199/yr. Read our Motley Fool Canada Stock Advisor Review. | JANUARY Promotion: Get $100 Coupon | |||||||
| 6. | Hidden Gems | 76 | 38.1% | 32.9% | 5.2% | 71% | 258% | -100% |
| Summary: Sold as part of Epic service that includes Hidden Gems, Stock Advisor, Rule Breakers; 5 picks/month; Retail Price is $499/yr. Read our Epic Review. | JANUARY Promotion: Get $200 Coupon | |||||||
| 7. |  Action Alerts Plus | 378 | 20.8% | 16.7% | 4.1% | 56% | 220% | -77% |
| Summary: 2100-150 trades per year, lots of buying and selling and short term trades. Read our Jim Cramer Review. | Current Promotion: None | |||||||
| 8. |  TipRanks SmartInvestor | 124 | 10.3% | 7.2% | 3.1% | 60% | 269% | -48% |
| Summary: About 1 pick/week focusing on short term trades; Lifetime average return of 355% vs S&P500’s 149% since 2015. Retail Price is $379/yr. Read our TipRanks Review. | Current Promotion: Save $180 | |||||||
| 9. | Rule Breakers | 66 | 36.2% | 35.4% | 0.8% | 65% | 344% | -81% |
| Summary: 2 picks/month focusing on disruptive technology and business models; Lifetime average return of 355% vs S&P500’s 149% since 2005; Now part of Motley Fool Epic. Read our Motley Fool Epic Review. | Current Promotion: Save $200 | |||||||
| 10. | Stock Advisor Canada | 71 | 25.2% | 24.8% | 0.5% | 73% | 216% | -93% |
| Summary: 2 pick/month from the TSX and U.S. markets; Retail Price is CD$199/yr. Read our Motley Fool Canada Stock Advisor Review. | JANUARY Promotion: Get $100 Coupon | |||||||
| Top Ranking Stock Newsletters based on their 2024, 2023, 2022 stock picks’ performance as compared to S&P500. S&P500’s return is based on average return of S&P500 from date each stock pick is released. NOTE: To get these results you must buy equal dollar amounts of each pick on the date the stock pick is released. Investor Business Daily Top 50 based on performance of FFTY ETF. Performance as of January 3, 2025. | ||||||||
For those of you who want to see my full detail analysis, below you can find the performance of each of these stock newsletters by year, and you can see the weighted average of the last three years of their stock picks.
For those of you that have been following this blog post for a while, this is the first time several newsletters (Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks, Moby, and Action Alerts Plus) all had GREEN sections indicating that they are consistently picking winners AND beating the market.
Zack’s has services that rank #2 and #3 in this analysis, but you can clearly see the volatility that their picks have had; and these services only pick10 stocks throughout the year so you can subscribe and go months without a new stock pick.
But before I review this 3 year ranking in detail, let’s discuss some questions that many of you may have.
The Most Popular Stock Newsletter: Is it the Best Stock Newsletter?
First of all, I do want to comment on the most popular stock newsletter. The Motley Fool Stock Advisor is the most popular stock newsletter out there. They advertise that they have over 500,000 subscribers and since it’s inception in 2002, it has crushed the S&P500 returns by over 4x as you can see from the graphic below.
That is truly impressive as no other service comes anywhere close to this track record for a 20 year period. To be clear, only about 67% of their stock picks are profitable. They have some bad picks and every year is not a winner. But they tell you to plan on holding their picks for at least 5 years and you can expect to beat the market as they have done. They do sell a lot of their stock picks too (they have sold about 40% of their picks over the years).
If you read some blogs and discussions on the Motely Fool, you will find many negative comments. But if you read them carefully, it is simply that these people are not long-term investors and instead are looking at short-term returns. When I look at Motley Fool stocks held at least 5 years, they are definitely beating the market consistently–which is what they really advertise.
If you have at least a few hundred collars to invest each month, and plan on staying invested for at least 5 years, it is still one of my all-time favorites AND it is the most affordable at $199 a year. It is frequently on sale for $50 off, occasionally more, on Save $$$ on THIS Motley Fool promotion page.
The Best Stock Newsletters for the Last 3 Years are…
Ok, now back to my deep analysis of these investment newsletters for those of you that like to dig deeper.
To test all of these newsletters, I set up virtual trading accounts here at WallStreetSurvivor for each of these stock newsletters and I have diligently bought and sold all the recommended stocks in these virtual trading accounts.
A lot of services advertise how they have done over the last 10, 20 or 30 years. And some advertise how they have done over the last year. So which is more important? Keep in mind you already missed out on all of the returns from all of these stock picks.
And who knows if it is the same analyst team now as it was back then. And if you focus on how the picks have done for the last year, you might be misled as the sample size is smaller and the time period is shorter. So it is important to review both: how the most recent stock picks AND their historical picks from these stock newsletters are performing.
Some important notes to understand my analysis:
- I am calculating Average Returns, returns of the S&P500 for the same time periods, and EXCESS RETURNS to see who is really beating the S&P500. When we look at the Excess Return versus the SP500, we start seeing some negative performers and we see the cream rise to the top.
- The S&P500 returns varies because it is based on when the picks came out and how long the positions were held. Some services just make their picks on January 1st (like Zacks) and expect you to hold them for the full year so that S&P return is the annual S&P return. Others release picks each month so you would expect the S&P for those services to be about 1/2 of what the S&P did for the year (if the S&P rose evenly month after month). And other services will sell positions in a matter of weeks so those S&P returns are minimal.
- To get these overall returns for YOUR portfolio, you need to buy equal dollar amounts of EVERY stock pick. You also need to buy the stocks as soon as the recommendations come out; and you need to sell if they say sell.
These newsletters give us lots of advice and many stock picks each month. But which ones consistently outperformed the market and are worth the money?
Notice I keep saying “consistently outperform” the market? That’s because one newsletter might be a high flyer one year and then crash and burn the next. That won’t help me. So I am looking for newsletters that consistently beat the market year after year–and that is exactly what you should be looking for too!
Below I present again the ranking of the Best Stock and Investment Newsletters based on their performance the last 3 years:
This table list 15 stock newsletters priced at $500 or less per year; it includes the Dogs of the Dow strategy too.
The first three columns lists the name of the service and the date ranges, the second section shows the number of picks, the average return of the picks, the average return of the S&P500 over the same time period, and performance vs the S&P500. The last few columns shows their profitable picks and top and worst performers for the last 3 years.
Based on their 3 year performance, the top services are…
#1. Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks
For the first time ever as of January 3, 2025, one stock newsletter is now all green in my table AND winning on many counts!
Alpha Picks’ 2024 stock picks are up 23.7% and beating the market by 13.6%, their 2023 picks are up 88.9% and beating the market by 54.5%, and their 2022 picks are up 117% and beating the market by 89%.
They also have the highest accuracy rating as 77% of their 64 stock picks have been profitable.
They also have the one of the biggest winners up over 900%
And–their biggest losing pick is only down 47%.
WOW! How did they do that?
Seeking Alpha is known for it proprietary quantitative analysis and rating system they call their “quant rating.” Their data shows that stocks with a strong quant rating significantly outperform the market, and stocks that have a weak rating significantly underperform the market.
Seeking Alpha launched their Alpha Picks stock newsletter in 2022. It gives you their 2 top rated stock picks each month.
Their “proof” of their Strong Buy based on their quant rating is this:
This chart shows that their Strong Buy rated stocks portfolio have outperformed the market by $277k vs the market’s $57k since 2010.
Likewise, their Strong SELL rated stock significantly underperform the market.
They also had a recent study by the University of Kentucky confirm that the Seeking Alpha Quant Rating actually does provide alpha and help you beat the market. They concluded that you should buy the stocks that Seeking Alpha rates as a Strong Buy and avoid the stocks they rate as a Strong Sell. Read our full Alpha Picks review to get more information.
This Alpha Picks stock newsletter is relatively new, but it has already picked a few BIG winners since it’s launch. One of their picks (SMCI) was up 969% and they sold it, 10 of their picks have already doubled, and they have sold 23 of their picks.
It has been a very profitable service for me, easily paying for itself, so it is definitely worth the $499 price if you are looking for solid stock picks and have at least a couple of hundred of dollars to invest per month.
Alpha Picks Current Promotional Offer:
Save $50 Now and Get 12 Months of Alpha Picks for just $449.
#2. Zacks Value Investor Stock Newsletter
Zacks Investment Research has a few research tools that have also withstood the test of time. But Zacks has historically been for a different type of investor. Zacks historically has been more for the investor that has their own stock ideas but wants to get another opinion of a stock before they buy it.
Zacks has launched a few stock newsletter subscriptions in recent years that are starting to get our attention. Their Value Investor service has only released 12 picks in 2024 but their 39 picks over the last 3 years are beating the market by an average of 12.8%
According to the Zack’s website, their Zacks Value Investor service “Combines proven value criteria with Zacks Rank timing. It tracks undervalued companies until the market starts to see their real worth. Then pounces for gains that can build for several years.”
They also state the target holding period is 12 months to 12 years, they aim for 20-25 stocks in this portfolio and make 1 or 2 trades per month.
Here is a quick peek at a partial list so you can see their price targets and Zacks Rank. Note that they provide a stop loss price and a target price.
How does this Zacks Rank work?
They do a fantastic job at analyzing about 10,000 U.S. stocks and ranking them on a “Zacks Rank” score of 1 to 5. Stocks that are ranked “1-Strong Buy” have consistently outperformed the S&P. The average stock ranked “1-Strong Buy” has an average ANNUAL return of 24.2% compared to the S&P 10.7%. The nice smooth chart is exactly what you would expect if their ranking works. On the other end, stocks that are ranked “5-Strong Sell” have consistently done the worst as you would expect.
If you want a few solid stock recommendations each year, Zacks Value Investor is a great resource.
Zacks Current Promotional Offer:
Follow this link to get 30 day access for just $1.
#3. Zacks Top 10 Stock Newsletter
In addition to Zacks Value Investor which is in 2nd place, their Zacks Top 10 is in a solid 3rd place and easily beating the market by 12.8% over the last 3 years.
According to the Zacks’s website, the Zacks Top 10 Stocks “compiles the best 10 stocks to buy and hold throughout the year. Each pick comes with in-depth research, and is actively managed, with quarterly updates.”
Their holding period is one year, they pick 10 stocks each January, and rarely add any other picks.
This service picks 10 to 12 of their top rated stocks at the beginning of each year and rarely recommends you sell them. Then at the start of the next year they issue 10 to 12 more top rated stock picks.
Like Value Investor, you can get 30 days access to these picks for just $1.
Zacks Current Promotional Offer:
Follow this link to get 30 day access for just $1.
#4. Moby Premium
Moby is a relatively new service launched by some Wall Street portfolio managers in 2021. They make 1 or 2 stock recommendations a week, and provide a ton of market updates and analysis through their very popular Moby.co mobile app.
As you can see the picks from Moby are very accurate with 74% being profitable.
The one thing I don’t like about Moby’s service is they do NOT offer sell recommendations. So I just stick to a 10% stop loss order on all of their picks and my results are even better than what is in the table doing that. I do, however, end up selling some stocks that later recover strongly.
Moby Current Promotional Offer:
get their next stock pick for free
#5 Motley Fool Canada Stock Advisor
The Canadian version of the Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor service newsletter picks one U.S. and one Canadian stock each month. Since the Toronto Stock Exchange seems to be less volatile than the U.S. markets, the addition of a TSX stock reduces the volatility of these stock picks overall. Read our full review of the Motley Fool Canada Stock Advisor to get more details on this service and to see its current price promotion.
Their 2024 stock picks are up slightly and they had a great 2024 and 2023. Here’s a clue: Their TSX picks are much more profitable than their US picks so if you live in Canada just buy their TSX picks.
Motley Fool Canada Stock Advisor Current Promotional Offer:
On sale this month only for $99!
#6 The Motley Fool Stock Advisor
The Stock Advisor ranked as our #1 Best Stock Newsletter for the 6 of the last 8 years.
Their 2023 stock recommendations were the top performer at 2023 and easily beat all of the other newsletters we monitor, They had a high profitability percentage, they lead in all-time performance, and they are priced very reasonably at $199 a year, with current coupons available for $100 off to net to $99 for new subscribers. They had a tough 2022 but seem to have recovered their winning ways.
Their 24 stock picks from 2023 were up an average of 19.9% versus the S&P500’s average return of 13.1% as of December 31, 2023. So they beat the market an average of 6.7% for 2023. Impressively, 83% of their picks were up, the biggest winner was up 107% and their biggest loser was down only 28%, but have since backed off slightly in 2024.
So, even though this stock picking service won our Best of Award for their 2023 stock picks also look at its historical performance.
You may have seen the Motley Fool’s advertisements like the one below that since inception their stock ideas from the last 22 years are up nearly 4 times the S&P500:
And then they have this chart which shows how their portfolio has grown over time:
Notice their curve has consistently been above the S&P500 and really spiked in 2019 and then corrected like most stocks did in 2020 due to Covid. But now the last 2 years the curve is moving sharply higher again. This is mostly likely to do the overselling of some of their picks like NVDA, SHOP, TSLA and more. Also, the surge in demand for AI stocks is benefitting the Fool’s picks.
Is The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor really as good as they claim? Yes if you pay attention to one very important detail about their recommendations. They pick stocks that they plan on holding for at least 5 years. If you are reading any negative news from subscribers to the Motley Fool, you are reading from people that tried it for a short period of time and have not stayed with it for 5 years or more like I have.
Over the years we have become so confident in the Motley Fool Stock Advisor stock picks that in December 2015 we opened up a dedicated ETrade account and actually started buying all of their stock picks. Starting in January 2016 we have purchased $1,000- $2,000 of every single one of their stock recommendations for over 8 years now.
How do they do it? They are really good at picking a few stocks that double or triple each year.
- One of their biggest winners lately was their January 2020 pick that I bought as a result of the Stock Advisor recommendation. See my Tesla trade below from my ETrade Account showing it up 884%:
What You Get When You Subscribe
When you subscribe, you will get two new stock recommendations each month and several BEST OF lists of stocks each year. Each recommendation comes with an in-depth (but easily understood) analysis that tells you why they recommend each stock. Note that our analysis only considers the 2 unique stock picks per month as the BEST OF lists are usually re-emphasizing previous stock picks that they still recommend strongly.
You will also get unlimited access to…
- All of their historical stock recommendations
- The Motley Fool’s list of “Best Stocks to Buy Now.” Best ideas chosen from all of the picks since the service started.
- The Motley Fool’s list of “Starter Stocks that should be in Everyone’s Portfolio.” Stocks that give you an excellent foundation for your portfolio.
- Their Knowledge Base and Community. Educational materials that will help you become an expert investor, and message boards to chat with other investors.
And in case you are wondering, yes, they do tell you when to sell a stock. They issue sell orders sometimes to lock in profits and sometimes to cut losses.
Motley Fool Stock Advisor Recap
- The Motley Fool Stock Advisor, according to the Fool themselves, is intended only for people that plan on holding stocks for at least 5 years.
- Its performance over the last 8 full years has crushed the competition.
- Lots of their stock picks double, triple, quadruple, and more.
- Older stock picks from 2016 and 2017 and 2018 continue to outperform.
- The Motley Fool has an EXCELLENT success rate of profitable picks.
- The Motley Fool stock picks are still coming from the 2 brothers (David and Tom Gardner) that started the company in the early 1990s. So when you order the Fool service, you know that you can expect similar results because the stock picks are coming from the same 2 guys.
- The price is extremely reasonable AND they offer a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE and they have a toll-free number for support. They are so confident in their service that they encourage you to try it and get their next 2 stock picks–then you can cancel if you aren’t happy and get your money back. Normally it is $199 a year, but if you are a new customer you can get the next 12 months of their picks for just $99.
There is one thing you need to know about their service, however…. Because they have so many subscribers (500,000+), their picks tend to go up a few dollars they day their recommendations come out. So to get the best returns, you need to buy their stock picks as soon as you receive their alerts.
Stock Advisor Current Promotional Offer:
PRICE DROP! MOTLEY FOOL STOCK ADVISOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS ONLY:
Get a $100 coupon and try it for just $99 for the next 12 months
#7. Jim Cramer Action Alerts Plus
Whether you love him or hate him, Jim Cramer’s stock newsletter service and picks do speak for themselves. His picks the last 3 years are generally beating the market (thanks to recurring NVDA and MSFT picks).
His accuracy is decent with about 60% of his stock picks being profitable; and moderate turnover.
Jim Cramer offers his alerts as a subscription service available through TheStreet.com.
The service will send you an e-mail when Cramer has recommended a buy or sell for any stock.
You will also receive additional analysis such as…
- Detailed information on the stock
- The action being taken
- Why that action is being taken
At the end of each week, Cramer will do a weekly roundup of all the shares that he currently owns.
We like this service because it allows everyday traders to get inside the head of an industry expert.
With this, you will have the tools necessary to make well-informed decisions for your own investment portfolio.
Action Alerts Plus Current Promotional Offer:
14-day free trial of Action Alerts
#8. TipRanks
TipRanks is much like Seeking Alpha with their own proprietary ranking system of stocks. From their own website, they say they help investors “make smarter, data-driven investment decisions” and that they “level the playing field by making institutional research tools and data available to everyone.”
For this ranking, I am using their SmartInvestor portfolio which is supposed to be their highest rated stocks. These picks overall are up and beating the market by 2.6%.
Tipranks generally turns their stocks over a lot. I would guess that their average holding period is about 6 months.
Their algorithm includes data from Wall Street Analysts. They say “TipRanks drive transparency by tracking and measuring the performance of over 96,000 financial experts, including Wall Street analysts, financial bloggers, hedge funds, and corporate insiders, and making this information publicly available.”
They monitor the performance of all of these “experts” and rate them based on their performance, and make all of this analysis available to you. Read our full TipRanks review to get more info.
If you trade on ETrade, Interactive Brokers, TD Ameritrade, EToro or a few others, you have probably seen the Tipranks newsfeeds on those platforms.
Tipranks Current Promotional Offer:
Normally $29.95 a month, but save 50% on TipRanks here!
#9 The Motley Fool Rule Breakers (Best for Growth Investors)
The Motley Fool’s “other” newsletter was a close #2 on our list as it’s still one of the best financial newsletters out there. But the Fool changed how they sell access to Rule Breakers. It is no longer sold by itself, it is now part of their Epic service.
The Motley Fool Ruler Breakers is a high-growth investing service and it has certainly lived up to those expectations. Rule Breakers is similar to Stock Advisor, with a few twists…
With Epic, you still get one new Rule Breakers stock recommendations each month. These recommendations are based on stocks that will become tomorrow’s market leaders.
Here are the six rules that differentiate “Rule Breaker” stocks:
- Emerging Industry. Innovative companies in emerging industries that are poised to change the world.
- Sustainable Advantage. Companies must show potential for long-term advantage over competitors.
- Past Price Appreciation. Rule Breakers have performed well in the past.
- Good Management. You want to invest in companies with vision and competent management.
- Consumer Appeal. Customers have to love the product or service.
- Grossly Undervalued. Wall Street may be underestimating the companies’ transformative value.
Each rule is considered when stocks are being chosen and recommended to users.
As I did for the Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor, in January 2016 I also subscribed to Rule Breakers and started buying about $2k of each of these stock picks.
Notice from the chart above some stellar results especially for the stock picks from 2018-2016. Those stocks that I bought that are at least 5 years old have beat the S&P500 by over 150% on average. One stock (ticker: TTD) from 2017 is up over 3,000% and one stock (ticker: SHOP) is up 11,000%. They actually picked SHOP in Rule Breakers BEFORE the picked it in Stock Advisor so that is why the return is higher here.
Over the period 2016-2018, the stock picks from the Motley Fool Rule Breakers service have actually outperformed their Stock Advisor service, but their returns are more volatile so for that reason we marked it down a bit. This means that if you had missed just a few stocks over those years, your returns would not have been a strong. Also their Rule Breaker picks are a lot more volatile and they seem to take longer to go up in value. So I find this service to be more hit or miss since they are really trying to pick high growth stocks in newer industries. If you do subscribe to this service, you definitely need to buy EVERY pick that comes out so that you don’t miss on the few that skyrocket.
Here are some of their recent top performing stocks. For example, their October 2023 pick of CAVA is up 24%; their June 2023 pick of IOT is up 32%; their April pick of DUOL is up 70%. In February 2023 they picked CRWD and it is up 123%; in December 2022 they picked BRZE which is up 103%.
Hidden Gems
This is relatively new service of the Motley Fool featuring Tom Gardner’s analyst team that has done so well over the last 20 years. What is unique about this service is not only do they show you what stocks to buy, but with this stock newsletter they also tell you how they are weighting each stock in their recommended portfolio.
Of their 24 picks for 2023, 19 of them were up and the average return was 18.8% vs the S&P500’s 12.7% for their picks; so they are beating the market by 6.0%. Their biggest winner is up 73% and their biggest loser is down 41%.
The Motley Fool sells this only as part of what they call “The Epic.” Their Epic package gives you 4 services in 1: Stock Advisor, Rule Breakers, Hidden Gems, and Dividend Investors ALL for $319. So this is truly the BEST VALUE.
Here is our full review of Motley Fool Epic.
The Others
Rounding out our ranking are Dogs of the Dow, Zacks Home Run Investor and IBD Leaderboard. None of these have done well over the last 3 years so focus on our top 5 newsletters in our ranking of the best stock and investment newsletters.
Interesting to note is the Dogs of the Dow strategy, though up, underperformed the market by a huge amount%.
And the IBD Leaderboard, which is really hard to track, saw its IBD Top 50 ETF underperform the market by 14%
Best Stock Investment Newsletter Conclusion
There are hundreds of services out there claiming they can help you find good stocks and beat the market. We subscribe to a few dozen and update this list quarterly so you can see which ones are performing the best.
Over the last 3 years, Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks has stormed onto the scene and is truly impressive so far, easily beating all of the other services we follow. It is priced at $499 a year with some 5 and 10% discounts at times, but it is worth it. Here’s our review of Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks.
Over the last 8 years and the last 22 years since inception, the stock picks from the Motley Fool Stock Advisor have consistently outperformed the overall market. For more info read our full Motley Fool Stock Advisor review. While every stock pick of theirs does not go up, they always pick a few stocks that double and triple each year–that is how they get their amazing returns. We don’t guarantee future results, we are only sharing our historical results. If you want to get a year of their next stock picks, for just $99, CLICK HERE.
The best VALUE right now is the Motley Fool’s Epic where you get Stock Advisor, Hidden Gems, and Rule Breakers for only $299.
If you are a serious investor with a more money to invest, then Seeking Alpha’s Alpha Picks has become the new rock star of stock newsletters with the best performance over the last 3 years. And a University of Kentucky business school research just validated their claim that their Quant Ratings do work to help you provide alpha. But it is priced now at $499 a year.