What are the Best Stocks to Buy Now?
As a site that helps 200,000 beginner investors learn how to buy and sell stocks, WallStreetSurvivor gets asked that one question the most.
We can teach you what a stock is. We can show you why you should buy stocks. And, we can even give you $100,000 in virtual cash so you can practice trading stocks. Click here if you want a $100k to practice investing.
But there is one question we get asked all the time…
“What are the best stocks to buy now?”
The management team here at WallStreetSurvivor has over 100 years of investing experience. And we can honestly tell you that nobody knows for sure what the stock market will do tomorrow.
However, based on our experience, we can tell you where to find the best SOURCES for the best stocks to buy now.
Our favorite source to use to find the top stocks to buy now for the last 7 years has been the Motley Fool Stock Advisor service. Look at the chart below and you will see why…
Take a look at their recent performance…..
and you will get their next 2 stock picks.
How to Find the Best Stocks to Buy Now
There are probably 10,000 websites out there that will tell you what stocks they think you should buy now and how much those stocks will go up.
Sorry, but after my 35 years of investing, I have learned to look at data and not sales pitches to figure out the best stocks to invest in.
For my 200,000 readers and users of my WallStreetSurvivor blog, I am going to condense the facts and my experiences down into a few steps.
Here are the facts you should know when you are looking for the best stocks to buy.
1. Buy an SP500 Index ETF like SPY, IVV and VOO.
The goal of every stock investor is to make money. More specifically, the goal is to try and outperform the market overall.
The first stock everyone should buy is an ETF that tries to replicate the market overall. An ETF is an “exchange traded fund” that trades like a stock but actually represents a basket or group of stocks. Don’t get bogged down here, keep reading.
If you are paying attention, you are probably wondering why I said to buy an ETF that replicates the market when the goal is to outperform the market. The answer is that you need a solid base in your portfolio to get you started. Then as you start investing and finding what works for you, you slowly shift money out of those ETFs and into specific stocks.
The point is to just get you invested in the market quickly because over the long term, the stock market is the best place to invest!
We like to use the SP500 Index as the benchmark for the market. So the most popular SP500 ETFs are SPY, IVV and VOO. If you are just getting started in the market, you should start buying one of these. We like the IVV slightly better. Here is an article to read more about investing in SP500 ETFs.
Let’s say you can save $1,000 a month. And that you don’t plan on needing that money for at least the next 5 years. The way to get started is to buy $1000 of the IVV the first month. Then the next month divide it among 2 stocks, then the next month buy $1000 of the IVV, etc.
2. Subscribe to the Top Performing Stock Newsletter to Get the Best Stocks To Buy
Over the years, we have subscribed to dozens of stock newsletters and purchased many software tools that all promised to help us find the best stocks to buy today.
Our experience was that most of them were just OK. After all, the stock market tends to go up over time, so randomly picking stocks should go up over time too.
But our experience also taught something that is very important. There are very few stock recommendation newsletters that consistently were able to pick stocks that year over year went up. And most importantly, went up more than the markets did overall.
Our favorite (ie, BEST PERFORMING) stock newsletter for finding good stocks to buy is called the Motley Fool Stock Advisor. They typically release about 2 new stock recommendations each month, so that is about 24 a year.
It is our favorite because (All calculations below are based on Friday, December 30, 2023 closing prices.):
- Over the last year 83% of their stock picks have gone up and the average return of ALL of their stock picks is 19.9% which is 6% BETTER THAN the market over the same time period.
- There is one thing YOU MUST KNOW about their service. There is definitely a “Fool Effect” when they release a new stock recommendations, which makes them some of the best shares to buy now. Within the first 2 hours of them releasing a recommendation, the stock typically goes up $2 or $3. So if you want to get the best returns possible, you should subscribe and be ready to buy the recommended stocks as soon as you get the alert.
- The Motley Fool just lowered the price of this newsletter and released their Top 10 Stocks To Buy Right Now.
- You can …
- Normally it is $199 a year to get 24 new real-time stocks picks and access to their research of ALL OF THEIR picks.
- They have a 30 day, money back guarantee. So if you are happy, you can get your money back. This is real company that really So if you want to get the BEST STOCK PICKS NOW, you should consider subscribing to this newsletter.
3. Make Sure You Trade Commission Free
If you know you are going to be making at least 2 stock trades a month, then make sure you are trading commission free.
The brokerage industry is so competitive these days that the brokers always have offers to trade commission free or get cash bonuses. Look, it will take you 10 minutes to open a new brokerage account and if you can save a few hundred dollars in commission, it is well worth it.
Here is a site that has the best review of stock brokers and their commission free offers. Visit this site and open a new brokerage account.
If you already have a brokerage account, then consider switching to save on commissions.
Why pay commission when you don’t have to.
That way, you can find the best stocks to invest in and make trades for free.
BEST STOCKS TO BUY CONCLUSION
Making money in the stock market is easier than most people think. All you have to do is get started the right way.
Open a brokerage account that doesn’t charge commission.
Subscribe to a reputable stock newsletter. Read our review of the Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor and you will see why it is our favorite newsletter to find the best stocks to invest in.
And remember to invest the same amount of cash each month so that you ease into the market. This is called dollar cost averaging.
Start off with a large percentage of your money in an SP500 ETF.
Rank of Top Stock Newsletters Last 3 Years, as of April 5, 2026
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 "Return vs S&P500" which is their return above that of the S&P500. So, based on April 5, 2026 prices:
Best Stock Newsletters Last 3 Years' Performance
| Rank | Stock Newsletter | Picks Return | Return vs S&P500 | Picks w Profit | Max % Return | Current Promotion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  Alpha Picks | +93% | +75% | 72% | 1,571% | April, 2026 Promotion: See all their picks & get $50 off |
| Summary: 2 picks per month based on Seeking Alpha's Quant Rating; consistently beating the market every year since launch; tells you when to sell and they have sold almost half. See complete details in our Alpha Picks Review. Or get their Premium service to get their QUANT RATINGS on your stocks to better manage your current portfolio--read our Is Seeking Alpha Worth It? article to learn more about their Quant Ratings. | ||||||
| 2. |  Zacks Value Investor | +58% | +46% | 53% | 1,134% | April, 2026 Promotion: $1, then $495/yr |
| Summary: 10 stock picks per year on January 1st based on Zacks' Quant Rating; Retail Price is $495/yr and includes 6 different services including those below. Read our Zacks Review. | ||||||
| 3. | Zacks Top 10 | +31% | +19% | 74% | 170% | April, 2026 Promotion: $1, then $495/yr |
| Summary: 10 stock picks per year on January 1st based on Zacks' Quant Rating; Retail Price is $495/yr and includes 6 different services. Read our Zacks Review. | ||||||
| 4. |  Action Alerts Plus | +20% | +6% | 61% | 208% | Current Promotion: None |
| Summary: 100-150 trades per year, lots of buying and selling and short-term trades. Read our Jim Cramer Review. | ||||||
| 5. |  TipRanks SmartInvestor | +13% | +5% | 57% | 266% | Current Promotion: Save $180 |
| 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. | ||||||
| 6. | Zacks Home Run Investor | +7% | +2% | 43% | 337% | April, 2026 Promotion: $1, then $495/yr |
| Summary: 40-50 stock picks per year based on Zacks' Quant Rating; Retail Price is $495/yr. Read our Zacks Review. | ||||||
| 7. |  Moby.co | +19% | 0% | 55% | 797% | April, 2026 Promotion: Get #1 Stock Pick Free |
| Summary: All it requires is an email address to get their #1 stock pick free; 60+ stock picks per year, segmented by industry; consistently beating the market every year; retail price is $365/yr but save try it for $99. Read our Moby Review. | ||||||
| 8. | IBD Leaderboard ETF | 11% | -1.8% | n/a | n/a | April, 2026 Promotion: NONE |
| Summary: Maintains top 50 stocks to invest in based on IBD algorithm; Retail Price is $495/yr. Read our Investors Business Daily Review. | ||||||
| 9. | Zacks Under $10 | +0.4% | -3% | 33% | 263% | April, 2026 Promotion: $1, then $495/yr |
| Summary: 40-50 stock picks per year based on Zacks' Quant Rating; Retail Price is $495/yr. Read our Zacks Review. | ||||||
| 10. | Dogs of the Dow Strategy | +6% | --7% | 50% | 34% | Current Promotion: None |
| Summary: Buy the 10 highest yielding dividends stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on January 1st and sell on Dec 31st each year. | ||||||
| 11. |  Stock Advisor | +7% | -17% | 59% | 141% | April, 2026 Promotion: Get $100 Off |
| Summary: 2 picks/month and 2 Best Buy Stocks lists focusing on high growth potential stocks over 5 years; Retail Price is $199/yr. Read our Motley Fool Review. | ||||||
| 12. | Rule Breakers | +11% | -18% | 51% | 208% | Current Promotion: Save $200 |
| Summary: Rule Breakers is included with the Fool's Epic Service. Get 5 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. | ||||||
| Top Ranking Stock Newsletters based on their last 3 years of stock picks covering 2026, 2025, 2024, and 2023 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 April 5, 2026. | ||||||