As an investor, you have countless options to assist in your investment research.
The web contains too many websites that provide:
- Stock recommendations
- Market forecasts
- Charting tools
- Investment research; and
- Many other esoteric financial services.
Each of these sources is unique in their own way. But, which source is best for you?
You have come to the right place, my friend!
Here at WallStreetSurvivor, we are committed to giving you the facts and letting you decide.
Today, we will look at 2 of the most popular and affordable stock recommendation services: Motley Fool and Seeking Alpha.
These two platforms speak to investors in different ways.
Motley Fool aims to “make the world smarter, happier and richer.” On Motley Fool, investors can get a combination of Fool analysis and message boards to see what others are thinking.
Seeking Alpha describes themselves as “the world’s largest investing community.” On Seeking Alpha, investors can share their own investing ideas and analysis. And Seeking Alpha provides their own grading and quant ratings of stocks.
They both offer stock recommendation services that are priced less than $200 per year, so let’s see which one is best!
Motley Fool vs. Seeking Alpha
Motley Fool
The brother duos of Tom and David Gardner founded The Motley Fool back in 1993.
Motley Fool is excellent for investors who seek to invest in a fun and honest way.
These guys aim to help subscribers compile a well-rounded investing education.
So, what is the mission of the Motley Fool?
As the company succinctly puts it, “to help the world invest better.”
The company targets every investor with its intuitive and “can-do” resources.
You will enjoy the precise, targeted, and academic content with some humor.
Are you tired of the same ole, same ole investment research?
If so, you will love the fun and honest take on investment research that these “fools” provide.
Swing over to the Motley Fool’s homepage to make our overview come to life.
You can see much of what the company has to offer without looking far.
The homepage includes the following:
- Latest news;
- Investing articles;
- Links to beginner investing;
- Stock ideas;
- Retirement resources;
- Stock tracker;
- Broker locator;
- Podcasts; and
- The Stock Advisor (premium service).
The two primary sources of data and quote information are Factset and Morningstar.
In addition to the above, the Motley Fool is affiliated with several other companies.
These companies include Motley Fool Asset Management, Motley Fool Wealth Management, and Motley Fool Ventures.
Motley Fool makes content on both stocks and investment strategies.
This content can be accessed by paid subscription or entirely free.
If you do not have access to the premium service, the company will select specific parts of the premium newsletters to share on the free version.
Subscription Services
Motley Fool’s subscription service provides a few levels of membership.
These levels are customized based on various types of investing and interest (and here they are):
The Stock Advisor (SA)
Do you need tips on your investments?
Stock Advisor offers stock recommendations from professional analysts and even the Fool founders.
In addition to recommendations, you also receive newsletters and community access.
This service normally costs just 0.55 cents per day (or $199 per year). But it is currently on sale for only $99 a year.
Rule Breakers (RB)
Do you hate following the rules?
Rule Breakers looks at high-growth stocks that could make you rich in the not-so-distant future.
These are the stocks that are poised to become market leaders.
Your membership includes newsletters, recommendations, and community access.
This service costs just 0.82 cents per day (or $299 per year).
Rule Your Retirement (RYR)
Are you ready for retirement (aren’t we all?).
Rule Your Retirement was made for those investors nearing, or already, retired.
Your membership includes model retirement portfolios and tips on Social Security.
This service costs just 0.41 cents per day (or $149 per year).
Options (OPT)
Are you looking for some alternatives?
Options gives you access to Options University, weekly commentary, and investment recommendations.
The Options service offering is tailored to intermediate and advanced traders.
This service costs 2.74 per day (or $999 per year).
In addition to all of its service offerings, the Motley Fool also has more advanced platforms.
However, these platforms are closed to new members.
These custom subscription packages include:
- Market Pass (MP);
- Total Income (TI);
- Supernova (SN);
- Explorer (EXP1);
- Premier Pass (PP); and
- One (more on this below).
A “One” membership includes everything that the Motley Fool has to offer.
The membership begins at $1,499 per year and goes to $8,499 per year.
Disclosures
The company discloses when a writer has an interest in any particular recommended security.
In addition-to staff holding stock, some of the recommended stocks are holdings in the Fool’s portfolio service holdings.
There are articles on the Motley Fool that come from affiliate companies or writers following a different disclosure standard.
Lastly, employees of the Motley Fool have limitations on writing about stocks that they actively hold.
Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha was founded all the way back in 2004.
This company focuses on giving its readers with Wall Street’s perspective on individual investments.
Seeking Alpha provides cutting-edge, crowdsources research content targeted toward individual investments.
But what is crowdsourcing, anyway?
According to investopedia.com:
Crowdsourcing involves obtaining work, information, or opinions from a large group of people who submit their data via the Internet, social media, and smartphone apps.
Accordingly, the content creators are individual, crowdsourced writers, and investors.
Many of them have investment management backgrounds related to buy- and sell-side research.
Seeking Alpha is best for intermediate to advanced investors.
You will appreciate the views of other industry professionals.
On top of that, you will get content for investing recommendations.
Various Seeking Alpha articles provide in-depth insight, including stock valuation derived using investment valuation theory and professional opinion.
Seeking Alpha’s free services provides you access to a range of investing content.
However, the website rarely offers any analysis of trading strategies or securities.
Seeking Alpha offers both free and paid members-only content.
The free content includes investing and financial literacy articles and the latest market news.
One downside is that you have limited access to “old” news.
This access can be limited to as little as ten days from its original published date.
But if you are reading ten days later…
…you are probably too late!
Subscription Services
Seeking Alpha offers two distinct membership options.
Seeking Alpha Essential
Seeking Alpha Essential was previously known as Seeking Alpha Pro (ever heard of it?).
This service is for the individual investor who requires more exclusive access to the daily developments on Wall Street.
Essential also includes:
- Access to new and archival content of articles and news;
- Newsletters;
- Recommendations;
- Alerts;
- Charts; and
- Comparison tools.
For Seeking Alpha Essential, you will pay just 0.65 cents per day (or $239 per year).
Alternatively, you may pay on a per-month basis at $29.99 per month.
Seeking Alpha Pro+
Seeking Alpha Pro+ is the company’s ad-free professional level subscription service.
You can use the service for ideas, charts, research tools, newsletters, and access to everything on the Seeking Alpha website.
You can create on-demand research for specific securities.
Also, you can receive advance notice of the most relevant long and short articles.
The service also includes content exclusively made for institutional-level investors.
This service also provides corporate plans.
For Seeking Alpha Pro+, you will pay just $6.58 per day (or $2,400 per year).
Alternatively, you may choose a per-month payment of $300 per month.
Both Seeking Alpha service offerings offer free and subscription content, so you can choose to pay to receive more (if the free stuff isn’t enough).
Disclosures
Seeking Alpha employs more than 15,000 writers.
These writers get paid varying rates for their content.
Each writer must sign and disclose information about any investments they have before writing about it.
Alpha allows readers to dispute content displayed on the company website.
Lastly, Seeking Alpha tells readers (check the terms of use) that not all investment strategies are suited for every investor.
