Seeking Alpha is a crowdsourced content service that will give you access to research analysis and investment strategies for a number of stocks and ETFs.
The company offers to inform its members about the investments they are making.
Overall it delivers on this.
If you use the service, you'll gain access to all the information you need, plus you'll gain recommendations as to what you should buy.
On the downside, the site can be a little overwhelming for newer investors. You will gain a lot of information. Although once you get the hang of how it all works, the process becomes easier to navigate.
Pros
Strong data-driven approach to shares
Takes the hassle out of making stock picks
Can help newer investors learn about trading
All the information you could possibly want
Cons
Anyone can add their opinions to the site
You'll have to pay for most of the premium services
Even signing up to the basic service will mean you get a lot of emails
Key features
Seeking Alpha has 3 different plans and what they offer differs depending on which you choose.
Unsurprisingly, the more you pay, the better the features.
Top-rated stocks
Arguably Seeking Alpha's handiest feature, top-rated stocks allows you to see stock recommendations based on valuation, growth, profitability, momentum and EPS revenue.
The company will give you 3 different recommendations:
Quant
Seeking Alpha's authors
Wall Street analysis
A basic account will not let you see the ratings though, you'll need to at least have a premium level membership.
My portfolio
Another key feature is Seeking Alpha allows you to either import your existing portfolio or create a new portfolio.
Once you have a portfolio, the online platform will send you email alerts, push notifications and at-a-glance data about your portfolio to help keep you informed.
The good thing about my portfolio is that you can actually control alerts. As such, you can get as little or as much information as you want.
Educational resources
In a nice feature for newer investors, Seeking Alpha allows you to read up on a host of educational resources to help you get started.
These range from how to get started to market analysis and everything in between.
Market news
Seeking Alpha states it's the largest online community and that is because everyone that creates an account can share their ideas.
This is broken up into various categories including stock ideas, dividend stocks and ETFs.
But it is not just a community.
The website seeks a bunch of professional analysis and opinions as well to help you become a better investor.
High-end analysis tools
Another cool feature is the analysis that you can gain through Seeking Alpha.
Again, this is not a free feature.
But Seeking Alpha will give you all the features you need to trade. Whether it's idea generation or smart screening and filtering tools, you won't be short of information.
How does it work?
Seeking Alpha is a content-driven service that gives you investment guidance for those looking to grow or expand their portfolio.
Launched in 2004, the company can boast having over 10 million registered users.
Seeking Alpha highlights it will provide the research and guidance for you, although it is not a stock-picking service.
Instead, it will provide you with the information, including recommendations, but the decision as to whether or not you buy is completely up to you.
Who is the service best for?
Given the volume of information that Seeking Alpha provides, pretty much anyone will benefit in some way from the service.
However, its greatest strength is cutting down the time in researching stocks as well as the recommendations it makes.
As such, it would especially appeal to newer investors or those who want a hassle-free approach. After all, you can simply buy its top recommendations.
Performance
Seeking Alpha isn't exactly a portfolio or a fund manager.
But if you follow its top quant picks, those that rate higher than 4.5%, then you would have outperformed the market.
Although it is worth noting that the market has had a pretty respectable run lately, newer investors might not gain the same returns as those that bought during the COVID-19 recovery.
It's also true a lot of the companies that outperform according to the quant are larger, well-established businesses. While this isn't a knock against the service, just that you wouldn't need a third party to come up with these stock ideas.
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Is it legit?
Seeking Alpha is a legitimate source of financial information.
For the most part it delivers strong company analysis, earnings presentations and excellent transcripts of investor presentations.
It also gives quants and Wall Street recommendations meaning you can trust its recommendations.
But given it's crowdsourced it's important to know that not every author will provide a good investment thesis, although the company has a number of experts and professional investors who write newsletters.
Fees
You can sign up to 3 accounts and pay in 2 different ways, each of which will change how much you pay.
If you just want the basic features the service is totally free.
For premium subscribers it's either $119 for the year or $19.90 a month.
For those who choose the pro it's either $199 a year or $24.90 a month.
Is it worth the fees?
For anyone that is trying to take the hassle out of investing or is newer in experience, Seeking Alpha is worth the fees.
This is because you can simply follow its top recommendations and, according to Seeking Alpha, beat the market by doing so.
When it comes to more experienced investors, the service would still appeal due to the sheer information it provides. After all, you should know as much about your investments as possible.
But a lot of its features and offerings can be done without the service. For example if you are buying shares in Apple, you can read company reports and broker analysis without signing up to Seeking Alpha.
What are others saying?
When it comes to market sentiment, Seeking Alpha is generally well respected.
If you take a look at Trustpilot for example, you'll see it has an average rating of 4.2.
Other sites, such as Sitejabber have a slightly lower rating of 3.21 stars. It is worth pointing out Sitejabber had 3 times as many reviews as Trustpilot at the time of writing.
Sign-up process
If you want to sign up it's a straightforward process, especially if you choose the most basic account.
All you have to do is fill out your basic details and Seeking Alpha will send you a confirmation email.
After that you're in.
If you're looking to sign up to its premium or pro service, you'll also have to add a payment method.
Support
Seeking Alpha is lacking here compared with its competitors.
You only have the option of clicking on the knowledge centre and a feedback forum.
Cameron Micallef was a utilities writer for Finder. He previously worked on titles including Smart Property Investment, nestegg and Investor Daily, reporting across superannuation, property and investments. Cameron has a Bachelor of Communication and Media Studies/ Commerce from the University of Wollongong. Outside of work Cameron is passionate about all things sports and travel. See full bio
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Cameron has written 177 Finder guides across topics including:
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