If you do a Google search for stock pick or financial newsletters, you’ll get an endless number of results. How do you choose one that is reliable without paying first?
You could ask around or sign up for a free trial when available. Or you can read our review of several different popular investment newsletters that we believe are reliable and produce results.
Prices for the investment newsletters and subscriptions listed are current as of writing. But subscription costs and promos can change often. Be sure to check each service's website for the latest prices and deals.
Promo: Motley Fool is offering its top stock-picking service for $89* for new members! Check out The Motley Fool Stock Advisor here >>
The Motley Fool
Who is it for? Investors who want specific stock picks with thorough research. You'll also gain access to the huge Motley Fool message board where you can ask investment and personal finance questions and engage with other Fool members.
The Stock Advisor is one of its most popular subscriptions and probably a good place to start if you're new to The Motley Fool. It typically costs $199/yr but we're currently able to offer our readers a subscription for $89* for the first year. Sign up here >>
Moby
Who is it for? Investors who want to have the best stock picks, research, and news, but don't want massive upsells.
Moby is an investment research platform that is working to make investing more accessible to the masses. Unlike other investment research platforms (notably Motley Fool), Moby makes understanding investments very simple without aggressive upsells or paywalls.
Moby is priced at $179 for the first year (College Investor readers can get $99 for the first year), the $199/yr after that - right on par with most investment subscription services. Sign up here >>
Morningstar
Who is it for? Investing nerds who love deep, hands-on research with a focus on stocks, ETFs, and funds.
Morningstar provides the investor with all the research tools. But it is up to the investor to execute and understand what they are looking for. For that reason, it might not be the best starting point for new investors. However, experienced investors should be able to complement their research and save time.
The regular prices of a Morningstar subscription is $249/yr with a 7-day trial. However, our readers can save $50 on an annual Investor subscription with code COLLEGEINVESTOR. Sign up here >>>
Seeking Alpha
Who is it for? Those who want a more technical analysis when it comes to investigating stocks.
Seeking Alpha provides tools to help investors understand the technicals of stocks, as well as a good amount of expert analysis and ratings. They also have a large network of individual investor analysis that you can leverage. Finally, they offer calls and transcripts of earnings calls - which you don't really get on any other platform. This allows you to get the information first hand!
The regular prices of a Seeking Alpha Premium subscription is currently $239 for one year. Plus, you can get a $25 off coupon if you're a new subscriber. Sign up here >>>
Also, Seeking Alpha recently launched their Alpha Picks, which is very similar to The Motley Fool in that you get 2 stock picks a month, as well as portfolio of 20 stocks. Check out Alpha Picks here >>
Benzinga
Who is it for?
Benzinga is a real-time news platform that is best suited to day traders. You can customize which news sources to include in your feed, along with the types of news you’d like to see. Filters are important when it comes to creating an efficient newsfeed. Otherwise, you can become quickly overwhelmed with all the data coming out.
There's also a squawk available. A squawk basically reads out various news events to you. This keeps you from having to constantly scan the newsfeed. The squawk voice is an actual person, so it's always intelligible (unlike some computer-generated voices). One drawback of the squawk is that you can't configure it since it's just a feed made up of someone reading content aloud.
Benzinga has two subscriptions: Basic ($99/mo) and Essential ($177/mo). The Essential includes all of the Basic features plus audio squawk, newsdesk chat, and more. 20% and 35% discounts are available when paying annually.
Plus, you can get a 2 week free trial to see if you like it. Sign up for Benzinga Pro here >>
Kiplinger
Who is it for? Those who are looking for a broad personal finance magazine that offers general personal finance reading and investing tips.
Kiplinger is available in print, digital, and print + digital. They all cost the same, making the print + digital subscription the best value, assuming you have an affinity for print.
Subscriptions are $29.95 for 12 issues and $39.90 for 24 issues. Both are significant savings off the cover price of the magazine.
TheStreet
Who is it for?
TheStreet is a bit of a mix of The Motley Fool and Kiplinger. It has lots of personal finance content available for free. You can also subscribe to one of many stock alert newsletters (such as Action Alerts Plus), including some run by Jim Cramer. The Street is for a broad audience and has something for everyone.
There are a lot of investment newsletters here. They include topics on stocks, retirement, cryptocurrencies, and ratings. At last count, there were 11 subscriptions to choose from. Two of those, however, are bundles — Real Money Pro Portfolio and Chairman’s Club.
We recommend starting with Action Alerts Plus (which starts at $29.99/mo or $199/yr) and seeing if it's your flavor.
Mindful Trader
Who is it for? Mindful Trader sits between day trading and long-term investing which makes it best for swing traders. You receive alerts for specific trades.
Trades are managed and have stop losses. You’ll need about $10,000 to get started. The service uses a data-driven approach to finding trades.
Expect about 1-3 alerts per day from Mindful Trader. However, as mentioned, it isn’t day trading and there may be entire weeks that have no trades. The service cost $47/mo. You can cancel anytime.
SAS Capital
Who is it for? SAS Capital is another trading service suited to swing traders. But, instead of stocks, it focuses on selling far out-of-the-money puts.
This may be a lesser-known technique for many traders. The idea behind selling puts is to collect premium or income.
There are two subscriptions: One is a basic service for beginners and costs $37/mo. It sends out one newsletter per week. The other is called HNI and oriented to those with account sizes of at least $100,000. The HNI subscription costs $499/mo. It sends out more frequent alerts through text and email. You can cancel anytime.
Final Thoughts
Investment newsletters and subscriptions can help decrease the amount of time investors spend researching stocks. Getting an alert to buy a certain stock and another alert to sell it can make things almost seem too easy. That’s why it's important to find newsletters with good track records that don’t take excessive risks.
Disclaimers
*$89 is an introductory price for new members only. 55% discount based on current list price of Stock Advisor of $199/year. Membership will renew annually at the then-current list price.
Robert Farrington is America’s Millennial Money Expert® and America’s Student Loan Debt Expert™, and the founder of The College Investor, a personal finance site dedicated to helping millennials escape student loan debt to start investing and building wealth for the future. You can learn more about him on the About Page or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.
He regularly writes about investing, student loan debt, and general personal finance topics geared toward anyone wanting to earn more, get out of debt, and start building wealth for the future.
He has been quoted in major publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, ABC, NBC, Today, and more. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes.
Editor: Clint Proctor Reviewed by: Colin Graves
