Seeking Alpha Worth It? - The Latest Alpha Picks
Michael H. Hewitt
Growth @ Moby | Consumer Marketing & Partnerships | FinTech + Crypto
Known for its extensive market analysis and insights from numerous contributors, Seeking Alpha prides itself as having a legacy platform in the world of community based investment research.
Since its inception in 2004, it has rapidly grown to become one of the most frequented stock research websites, boasting over 20 million visits per month. Such significant traffic growth and user engagement indicate they must be doing something right.
Seeking Alpha offers a range of community led quant analysis, touching across the spectrum of quantifiable insights for picking the right type of companies to be investing into, all accessible through their subscriptions services of either Seeking Alpha Premium or Alpha Picks.
We'll review whether Seeking Alpha Premium is worth it when it comes to entire features, pricing, and benefit of staying up to date on the market, and simultaneously, reviewing how Alpha Picks is worth it with the large price associated on the minimal amount of stock picks provided?
“The world’s largest investing community powered by the wisdom and diversity of crowdsourcing.”
With so many subscription options available today, let's explore if Seeking Alpha Premium and Alpha Picks are worth considering and if they are the best choices for you. How do these services compare to other investment subscription offerings?
Let's dive in!
What is Seeking Alpha Premium?
Seeking Alpha Premium is designed for investors who want comprehensive access to all features, including the proprietary Quant Rating on any stock.
This service allows users to link their brokerage accounts, enabling real-time Quant Ratings and alerts on their holdings. This feature is particularly valuable for identifying when to exit positions before they decline in value.
As a result, you'll get full access to all their research; link your brokerage account to get Quant Ratings on all your stocks and alerts of when to sell, and like we've already mentioned briefly, a Quant Rating that is now endorsed by academic study.
Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating
The Quant Rating is a cornerstone feature of Seeking Alpha Premium. This rating system uses quantitative analysis to predict stock performance.
On April 19, 2024, an independent study by professors at the University of Kentucky confirmed that Seeking Alpha’s proprietary rating system, Quant Ratings, and the outcome affect it created for investors who subscribed.
"'Strongly predicts' future returns and offers 'pronounced benefits'"
This study was conducted by Dr. Jame and Ph.D. Candidate Yuling Guo from the Gatton College of Business and Economics, and truly showcases a look into the unbiased assessments that were based on over variety of +100 unique metrics.
This study with conducted in a format to help remove human bias and emotion, and aiming for purely analytical predictions of future stock performance.
Rating and Scoring System
Stocks receive ratings from 'Strong Buy' to 'Strong Sell' with a numerical score from 1.0 to 5.0. These ratings are updated daily, ensuring investors have current information.
Rating Factors
It's essential to understand how key metrics (Rating Factors) that Seeking Alpha uses to evaluate stocks, help investors make informed decisions by providing a comprehensive and more analytical perspective to a company's performance and potential.
Here's a breakdown of these crucial factors:
Seeking Alpha Premium Review
As this service is tailored towards investors who want to research their own stocks, check on the rating of their stocks, and have access to ALL of the research and reports on the Seeking Alpha platform, it comes all at a retail price of $239 a year.
Price: $239/yr
Quant Ratings and Stock Screeners
The Quant Rating system evaluates stocks based on hundreds of metrics, updated daily, with a track record of identifying stocks likely to outperform the market.
Stock Screeners
These tools allow customization according to different investing strategies, helping investors find top-rated stocks, ETFs, and dividend stocks.
Effectiveness & Results
Stocks rated 'Strong Buy' by Seeking Alpha outperformed the S&P 500 by 14.95% in 2022. However, it’s always important to review for yourself, and be aware that past results do not guarantee future success.
Additional Premium Features
Is Alpha Picks Worth It?
Alpha Picks is one of the newer products and services to be rolled out from Seeking Alpha. Launching originally in July 2022, it provides high-quality stock recommendations based on a proprietary, data-driven model.
Since its inception, Alpha Picks has delivered impressive returns, generating 67.29% compared to the S&P 500's 17.58% as of March 22, 2024.
Key features of Alpha Picks include its stock strategy, track record, and delivering of quality research to investors.
The service does use Quant Ratings, their model that ranks stocks on value, growth, profitability, EPS revisions, and momentum, each month, and a result, Alpha Picks selects two "Strong Buy" rated stocks, excluding REITs and ADRs.
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Alpha Picks Review
The performance has been outstanding, with an average return of 67.29% and a maximum return of 962.15%.
Notably, 73% of the picks have been winners, with several stocks gaining over 100%, 200%, and even 300%. Their strategy aims to capture significant winners, driving the portfolio's overall success, but the question does stand as to how long they can keep this track record going?
By year, the 2022 picks have averaged a 124.58% return, outperforming the S&P 500 by over six times, and the 2023 picks are also even strong, beating the market by 2.2x times.
Alpha Picks Price
Alpha Picks costs $499 per year, with an introductory offer of $449 for new members. The subscription includes 24 stock picks per year, analysis reports, portfolio commentary, and performance updates. While there is no free trial or refund policy, Seeking Alpha's customer support is noted for being accommodating.
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Are there any Seeking Alpha Alternatives?
Seeking Alpha vs Moby: Which is the Top Stock Screener?
Seeking Alpha has long been a go-to platform for investors seeking in-depth market research, stock analysis, and even some of the latest takes within financial news.
Known for its extensive range of free content and subscription services like Seeking Alpha Premium and Alpha Picks, millions of investors of made well-informed decisions with its data-driven insights and quantitative models.
However, as the investment landscape continues to evolve, year over year, new players arise to the scene of investment research...Moby.
Moby brings an up & coming take on innovative stock research and news, while presenting everything the product has into a single app, designed to cater to investors of all levels.
Moby is creating a name for itself by being a jargon-free market news providers, with concise research and stock picking insights that are readable within 3-5 minutes a day.
It's app provides easier access to daily briefs, while offering fresh perspectives on the latest in market movements, and even consider to be one of the best stock picking services this year.
As its user-friendly interface and comprehensive analysis are noteworthy enough for this space, Moby makes it simple for both novice and experienced investors to make better informed investing decisions with the limited time they may have.
Moby vs. Seeking Alpha: Price & Feature Comparison
While Seeking Alpha continues to be a favored platform among investors who are strictly data driven, Moby offers specific advantages for those aged 30-45, and looking for rich, untapped information in the market:
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Why Moby Stands Out Against Seeking Alpha?
Busy professionals often struggle to keep up with their investments and understand daily market movements due to limited time.
While Seeking Alpha offers extensive market research and analysis, Moby stands out with its comprehensive daily market updates and unique features, such as tracking trades made by notable political figures like Nancy Pelosi.
As Moby services is a investment research app, designed to provide investors with concise, actionable research snippets, the service does focus mainly on simplifying the markets complexities. All done by delivering clear stock picks and daily updates focused on breaking news topics.
This provides a deeper and more informed perspective on investment insights, making it a compelling alternative to Seeking Alpha's offerings, which mainly serves as DIY (Do It Yourself) research, relying heavily on sophisticated algorithms.
It offers extensive market research and analysis, allowing investors to delve deep into data themselves. However, busy professionals may find it time-consuming to sift through the vast amount of information and have to interpret it themselves with the limited amount of hours in the day.
While Seeking Alpha provides a wealth of resources for those who prefer a hands-on approach, Moby caters to investors looking for more streamlined and jargon-free insights.
Thoughts on Seeking Alpha Premium and Alpha Picks?
While Seeking Alpha is highly regarded, it’s not without its drawbacks.
Many users have found the premium service to be overpriced, and some have reported issues with billing and cancellation policies.
These concerns can be frustrating for investors seeking reliable and cost-effective resources. Compared to other platforms, Seeking Alpha Premium stands out with its unique community-driven insights and proprietary tools.
However, its high cost can be a significant barrier, with Seeking Alpha Premium sitting at $239 yearly, and Alpha Picks priced at $499 yearly.
If Alpha Picks is able to continue it's fantastic track record of stock picking (with the months and years ahead) then it'd be worth picking up a subscription, but time will tell if the great picks keep on coming!
For investors who want still want comprehensive market analysis without breaking the bank, that's where I see Moby presenting a compelling alternative, and even worth mentioning legacy services like Motley Fool's Stock Advisor, being a potential fit within a reasonable price range.
While Seeking Alpha is the most valuable resource for a data driven investor, Moby’s focus on time-saving, curated content, and unique insights is perfectly fitted for the busy professional.
Think Seeking Alpha is too confusing? -- Get 50% off Moby Premium and a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee. Try it free and see the difference yourself.
Head of Asset Management at Abra | Columbia Business School.
1moMichael, thanks for sharing!
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