Seeking Alpha is one of the most popular stock market research websites in the world. A treasure trove of investment content, it has hundreds of thousands of articles on individual stocks and funds. Is a subscription to Seeking Alpha worth it? Find out in our independent review of the Seeking Alpha platform here.
Customer Reviews
Customer Reviews
Good for US companies
Good for US companies
Brilliant
Brilliant
Useful for US stocks.
Useful for US stocks.
Don’t use it it a…
Don’t use it it a lot
5/5
Good insights
Good insights
looks at opportunities that i…
looks at opportunities that i wouldn’t have thought of
Excellent comprehensive service.
Excellent comprehensive service.
Very good free resource
Very good free resource
Good research
Good research
Seeking Alpha Expert Review
By Ed Sheldon, 31/07/2024
Seeking Alpha Review
Name: Seeking Alpha
Description: Seeking Alpha is an investment analysis platform that was founded in 2004. Accessible via a website and mobile app, it offers stock market news, stock and fund analysis, research tools, and stock tips.
Is a Seeking Alpha subscription worth it?
At $239 per year, a subscription to Premium could be worth it if you manage your own portfolio and you’re looking for access to high-quality stock research and investment tools such as screeners, portfolio trackers, and Quant ratings. For less than $20 a month, you can get access to a lot of content.
At $499 per year, a subscription to Alpha Picks could be worth it if you have a relatively large amount of capital to invest and want to generate strong returns but lack the time to do stock research yourself. With this service, all the hard work is done for you by Seeking Alpha’s quantitative analysis team.
At $2,400 per year, the Pro service could be worth it if you are a professional investor with a very large portfolio. For most investors, it’s probably not worth it though.
With all these services, it’s worth looking at the fee in relation to the size of your portfolio. If you only have a small portfolio, it may not be worth it. For example, if your portfolio is worth $2,000, a $239 fee is going to represent more than 10% of your capital.
Pros
- Seeking Alpha is one of the largest and most respected investment content platforms.
- Its core offering is research on individual stocks and funds from independent contributors, however, it also offers stock recommendations via its Alpha Picks service.
Cons
- A subscription is required to access all of the content on the platform.
- A subscription to Seeking Alpha could be worth it if you have a decent-sized portfolio and are looking to outperform the market.
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Pricing
(4)
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Market Access
(4.5)
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App & Platform
(4.5)
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Customer Service
(4)
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Research & Analysis
(5)
Overall
4.4What is Seeking Alpha?
The core offering of the platform is research on different stocks and funds (you can find articles on just about every US stock and many international stocks too). This is produced by independent contributors, who together publish more than 5,000 articles per month. Some of this content can be accessed for free (two articles per month at present). If you want access to all of the content on the platform, however, you need to pay for a ‘Premium’ or ‘Pro’ subscription.
In addition to its core content offering, Seeking Alpha also offers a stock tipping service called ‘Alpha Picks’. This is designed for investors who don’t want to do their own research and would rather just receive specific stock recommendations on a regular basis. With Alpha Picks, you get two stock recommendations per month. This service is more expensive than the standard Premium subscription.
What is Seeking Alpha Premium?
Premium is Seeking Alpha’s standard subscription service. It’s designed for those who like to do their own stock research.
With a subscription to Premium, you get:
- Unlimited access to Seeking Alpha articles – You can read any article on the platform with this service.
- Quant ratings – Seeking Alpha has its own ratings for stocks, which are based on data and ‘quantamental’ analysis. Its ‘Strong Buy’ ratings have outperformed the S&P 500 over the long term.
- Rankings of top stocks and ETFs – These rankings are designed to help you identify investment opportunities. There are different categories such as Top Tech Stocks and Top Value Stocks.
- Stock and ETF screeners – With these tools, you can find stocks and ETFs that meet certain criteria.
- A portfolio health check – This is designed to help you become a more informed investor.
- Access to earnings call transcripts – You can access earnings call and event transcripts for many stocks.
- Company financials – 10 years of financials is available for many stocks.
- Brokerage account integration – Depending on who you trade with, you may be able to link your brokerage account to the platform so that you can see the Quant ratings for your stocks.
The cost of the Premium service is $239 per year. However, there is often a special introductory offer of $4.95 for the first 30 days.
What is Seeking Alpha Pro?
Pro is Seeking Alpha’s top-level subscription service. With a Pro subscription, you get:
- Top analyst insights – You get access to investment ideas from the top 15 analysts on Seeking Alpha.
- Exclusive coverage from analysts – You get ‘Buys’ and ‘Strong Buys’ on stocks that have no Wall Street coverage.
- Upgrades and downgrades – You can view the day’s rating upgrades and downgrades from Quant, Seeking Alpha analysts, and Wall Street.
- Short selling ideas – You get access to the latest short ideas from Seeking Alpha analysts.
The cost of the Pro service is $2,400 per year or $99 for the first month.
What is Alpha Picks?
Alpha Picks is Seeking Alpha’s stock recommendation service. It’s designed for those who want to build a market-beating portfolio but don’t want to do their own stock research. With this service, you get two stock tips per month. You also get ‘Sell’ alerts when ratings shift, and transparent up-to-date performance.
When choosing stocks to recommend for Alpha Picks, Seeking Alpha focuses on its Quant ratings. Quant ratings are based on an algorithm that picks stocks based on value, growth, profitability, EPS revisions, and price momentum metrics versus the peer sector. When a stock no longer scores well in these areas or if it is rated as ‘Hold’ for more than 180 days, it becomes a ‘Sell’ and is removed from the portfolio. Note that with Alpha Picks, performance should be evaluated on the entire portfolio’s performance rather than the performance of single stock picks.
The Alpha Picks service is run by Seeking Alpha’s quantitative analysis team, which conducts in-depth data-driven research and analysis to identify investment opportunities. The team is led by Steven Cress, who has over 30 years of experience in equity research, quantitative strategies, and risk management and previously ran a trading desk at Morgan Stanley.
The cost of this service is currently $499 per year.
How has Alpha Picks performed?
Since its launch in July 2022, Alpha Picks has performed well, beating the S&P 500 by a wide margin. Between 1 July 2022 and mid-July 2024, the service returned 124% versus 43% for the S&P 500.
Note, however, that past performance is not an indicator of future returns. There is no guarantee that the service will continue to perform like this.
How much does a subscription to Seeking Alpha cost?
The costs of Seeking Alpha’s subscription services are shown in the table below.
Service | Annual cost | Trial period cost |
Premium | $239 | $4.95 for 30 days |
Pro | $2,400 | $99 for 1 month |
Alpha Picks | $499 | N/A |
Seeking Alpha Competitors
If you’re looking for alternatives to Seeking Alpha, you may want to check out:
- The Motley Fool – The Motley Fool is a well-known stock tipping company that operates in the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia. Its premium stock tipping service starts at around $199/£149 per year.
- Fat Prophets – Fat Prophets is an Australian company that has been offering stock tipping services for over two decades now. A subscription to its standard package costs £595 per year.
- Morningstar – Morningstar is one of the world’s largest investment research companies. It offers a premium service for £159 per year.
Seeking Alpha FAQs
Seeking Alpha Premium is a service for those who want to research stocks themselves. With this service, you can access all of the content on the Seeking Alpha platform. Alpha Picks, on the other hand, is a service for those who don’t want to do research themselves and would rather just receive stock recommendations. With this service, you get two stock tips per month.
Quant ratings are stock ratings that are based on data and quantamental analysis. The ratings are calculated using an algorithm that analyses stocks based on value, growth, profitability, EPS revisions, and price momentum metrics.
‘Strong Buy’ ratings are awarded to stocks that have the highest Quant ratings.
Yes, it has. Since its launch in July 2022, it has beaten the S&P 500 by a wide margin.
No, it isn’t. You can do this online at the Paid Subscriptions page. Subscriptions will be cancelled at the completion of the current billing period for both monthly and annual subscriptions.