If you want to beat the market, a stock-picking service may help you reach your goals. Of course, no service or advisor can guarantee you’ll beat the market, but you’ll learn new tricks, how to analyze your investments, and make tough investing decisions.
Here’s everything you should know about stock-picking services.
11 Best Stock Picking Services & Advisors
Hundreds of stock-picking services and advisors are available today, but no two are created equal. I’ve chosen the top 11 stock-picking services to help you get started:
- Motley Fool
- Seeking Alpha
- Warrior Trading
- Zacks Investment Research
- Tim Alerts
- Morningstar
- Pilot Trading
- Mindful Trader
- Carnivore Trading
- LevelFields
- Trade Ideas
1. Motley Fool
Motley Fool is one of the best-known stock-picking services. They have two services — Stock Advisors and Rule Breakers.
Motley Fool has been around since 1993, run by two brothers — David and Tom Gardner. They started the newsletter as somewhat of a joke in college, but it instantly took off, and they’ve since provided thousands of newsletters helping investors beat the market, written four books, and had numerous radio segments and news podcasts.
Motley Fool offers free market news and commentary for anyone to read. But they also offer premium memberships for stock recommendations and members-only tools to create your portfolio.
Stock Advisor
The Stock Advisor subscription is for buy-and-hold investors and delivers an average of three times the S&P 500 returns.
The newsletter pertains to investors who can commit to owning at least 15 stocks and keeping them in their portfolio for at least five years.
It arrives every Thursday. The first and third newsletter of the month contains recommendations for new stocks, and the other two weeks recommend five ‘best buy now’ stocks.
Stock Advisor newsletters are also pushed out in real-time when the market takes a turn, and the professionals think it’s time to sell certain stock picks.
Subscribers also learn the top stocks to buy now and the top stocks all investors should have in their portfolios.
Rule Breaker
Rule Breakers is another Motley Fool stock-picking service, but it’s aimed at growth investors. You should still buy and hold your investments, but you should also have a higher risk tolerance as you’ll invest in growth stocks.
Like Stock Advisors, Rule Breakers has consecutively beaten the market. Rule Breakers has had a 224% return versus the S&P 500’s 94% return for the same period.
The returns are lower than Stock Advisors, but Rule Breakers focuses on growth stocks and takes more chances.
Rule Breakers’ subscribers receive newsletters every Thursday. The first and third newsletter of the month contains new stock suggestions; the remaining two include ‘best buy now’ stocks.
Everlasting
Motley Fool’s Everlasting service uses the same expert analysis team as Stock Advisors and Rule Breakers. This program, however, provides more personalized service, guiding investors with their portfolio allocation guidance by asking you pointed questions to create the portfolio that meets your risk tolerance, goals, and timeline.
A subscription to Everlasting includes a list of 15 stock recommendations to buy immediately. It also includes weekly stock recommendations like Stock Advisors and Rule Breakers.
Cost
- Stock Advisors – $199/year
- Rule Breakers – $299/year
- Everlasting – $299/year
What to Expect
Like any stock picking service, don’t assume any of Motley Fool’s services will make you rich or even leave you with capital gains.
However, you can expect regular recommendations for stock picks their analysts feel are a good fit. If you do your due diligence and ensure the picks fit within your timeline, risk tolerance, and goals, you’ll have the support of expert analysts to help you.
2. Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha is a one-stop shop for all the information investors need to make decisions. It’s built for intermediate and advanced investors as it provides in-depth research and recommendations. Investors should be comfortable building their own portfolios based on the information provided.
Seeking Alpha doesn’t have newsletters but provides all its resources for members to use as they need. You can access the content on your mobile phone or computer and get as much or as little information as you want.
Some highlights of what Seeking Alpha offers include access to:
- Articles and other content written by financial experts with author ratings and performance metrics included
- Earnings call transcripts
- Historical financial statements
- Earnings forecasts
Seeking Alpha offers three subscription options, each of which offers different benefits.
Premium
Seeking Alpha Premium provides access to Seeking Alpha’s investment community, premium content, and author ratings so you can determine how literally to take the advice offered in the articles and content.
The premium plan also includes a stock screener and access to conference calls. The plan is ad-lite, so you’ll see some ads, but not as many as the free version.
Pro
Seeking Alpha Pro offers everything in Seeking Alpha premium, plus more features for advanced investors.
The Pro version includes access to exclusive newsletters, an ideas recommendation list, a more advanced screener, and exclusive content.
The content provided in the Pro plan is geared toward professional investors or investors who want to increase their investment game. In addition, the Pro plan is ad-free.
Alpha Picks
Seeking Alpha Picks is a stock-picking service. Members receive two stock picks monthly out of thousands of stocks. Seeking Alpha professionals have a data-driven system to pick stocks that analyzes valuation, profitability, and EPS estimates.
Cost
- Premium – $239/year
- Pro – $499/year
- Picks – $199/year
What to Expect
Seeking Alpha Premium and Pro are as you need services. You won’t receive a newsletter like Motley Fool, but you can access all the information they offer in one place whenever you want.
Seeking Alpha Picks is a newsletter that helps you pick the best stocks at the time for your portfolio.
3. Warrior Trading
Warrior Trading is a day trading educational platform. While it’s not a stock-picking service, you get access to the founder, Ross Cameron, and his expert ideas in audio fees, videos, and even personal online chats.
Warrior Trading is heavy on educational material, giving beginners free educational videos to start the process and ongoing premium videos made exclusively for members.
If you’re just starting, you can use Warrior Trading’s simulator to trade fake money in real-time to see how you’d do.
Warrior Trading offers two options – a starter course for newbies and full access to their website, videos, and personal chats.
Cost
Warrior Trading offers a lot of value and doesn’t come at a low cost.
- Starter (beginner’s course) – $997
- Plus (access to the five most popular courses) – $2,497
- Pro (access to the entire library) – $3,997
What to Expect
You’ll receive daily newsletters regarding which stocks to watch as a subscriber. In addition, they provide a real-time scanner to monitor the suggested stocks and opt-in for text or email alerts for trade information.
You’ll also have access to all videos, podcasts, and other information on the site, but the most exciting, quite possibly, is the chance to watch Ross Cameron grow a $500 account to $1 million. He grew it from $500 to $53,000 in the first month, so it’s awe-inspiring for members to watch from any standpoint.
4. Zacks Investment Research
As the name suggests, Zacks Investment Research provides quality investment research for investors of all levels. However, the focus is on fundamental analysis, so if you are a more technical investor, you may want to look elsewhere.
Zack’s offers free content for everyone but only general information about stocks and the market. Most of the content is on past performance, not current, just to give you enough information to make you want to subscribe.
If you want more in-depth research, including Zacks’s top-ranking list, a list of stocks to hold long-term, financial reports, and a stock screener, you must subscribe to the premium service.
Zack’s Investment Research is best for the research-focused investor who wants ranking systems and access to all the tools and features on demand.
Cost
What to Expect
Zack’s provides picks for two bear and two bull stocks daily. They also offer a top 50 list as selected by Morningstar professionals and style scores to help you choose the right stocks for your portfolio. Investors also get access to a list of the best ‘surprise’ stocks or stocks no one would consider.
However, all the content Zacks provides is on an as-needed basis. You won’t receive emails or text messages. Instead, you must log into the dashboard and pull the data you want.
5. Tim Alerts
Tim is a self-made millionaire who reached this level by investing in penny stocks. His subscription provides access to his tips and tricks to mimic Tim’s success.
Since Tim Alerts focuses on penny stocks, it’s mainly for day traders who want to grow their portfolio as quickly as Tim.
Non-day traders can subscribe too and get access to a daily watchlist of 5 to 10 stocks, as well as real-time push alerts. A subscription also provides a chat room to trade ideas with other investors.
Cost
- Tim’s Alerts (access only to the watchlist, chatroom, and push alerts) – $74.95/month
- Pennystocking Silver (access to everything in Tim’s Alerts plus 7,000+ educational videos and new weekly lessons) – $149.95/month
What to Expect
If you subscribe to the higher tier, you’ll receive new videos weekly to educate yourself on day trading. If not, you’ll still have access to the chatroom, daily watchlist, and push alerts.
6. Morningstar
Morningstar is one of the most popular stock research sites for investors and other financial publications. If you notice, many professional websites source Morningstar for their data.
The good news is that a lot of the data on Morningstar is free, including stock reports, economy data, and various research tools.
Morningstar is heavy on educational material for beginners and experts. They also provide valuable resources, such as company analyses, news feeds, and charts.
Morningstar is mostly a fundamental analysis, so if you’re a technical investor, you may want to look elsewhere.
If you’re happy with fundamental research, Morningstar has plenty of information to digest, including stock screeners, stock ratings, and a Portfolio X-ray that analyzes your portfolio.
If you want more advanced financial tools, such as tax or retirement planning or access to stock picks, you must subscribe to Morningstar for a fee.
Cost
What to Expect
Morningstar is a website you log into to get the necessary information. So you don’t have to worry about having time to read newsletters or pick through a lot of data to get the information you need.
You can navigate directly to the website, log in and use the features you need to help you choose the right investments for your portfolio.
7. Pilot Trading
Pilot Trading is for active traders. Its algorithm checks other investors’ actions to capitalize on the best trading options. You’ll receive real-time alerts about trading opportunities from any asset, including stocks, crypto, futures, and forex.
Cost
- Live Signals ($19.99/month) – Get real-time alerts on over 60,000 securities
- Live Trading ($29.99/month) – Connect your brokerage account and immediately execute suggested trades in the app
What to Expect
Pilot Trading is a mobile app; download it build your watchlist, and receive real-time alerts. It’s then up to you to make the trades (or not).
8. Mindful Trader
Mindful Trader is a newsletter for swing traders who trade investments often. You can follow along the Mindful Trader’s journey to mimic his trades or learn his strategies and make your own investing decisions.
The Mindful Trader uses:
- Statistical research to find investments with a strong history
- Data-driven decisions based on historical information and price movements
As long as you have a trading account and the will to learn, you can learn new trading techniques and become a swing trader under the Mindful Trader’s guidance. However, the Mindful Trader does warn that there will be downturns, and you must be prepared to handle them if you follow him.
Cost
What to Expect
The Mindful Trader posts all his stock picks and trades in real time. It takes only a few minutes a day to check his trades and decide if you want to follow. The Mindful Trader holds most trades for a week max.
The Mindful Trader posts his watch list daily along with the education to learn the techniques he used to choose it. His goal is to help traders learn the process of swing trades with a statistical twist.
9. Carnivore Trading
Carnivore Trading is another service that allows transparency to their investment strategies and trades. Members can do what the Carnivore Traders do or skip it; the choice is theirs.
Subscribers get access to real-time trades and educational resources from Trader Z and other Wall Street advisors. You are free to do exactly what Trader Z does, customize it, or not make the trades at all; the choice is yours.
In real-time, you’ll receive the following:
- Live trading by professional traders
- All stocks, no confusing options, penny stocks, or other investment strategies
- Access to strategies to help you get Wall Street smart
Cost
- Carnivore Trading’s regular subscription cost is not listed on their website, but they do offer a 14-day free trial.
What to Expect
With your Carnivore Trading subscription, you’ll receive the following:
- Free 14-day trial
- Daily real-time text alerts to mirror Trader Z’s trades
- Daily wrap-up and insights
- Twenty days of free educational emails.
10. LevelFields
LevelFields is an event-tracing app that uses forecast tools to outperform the market. The program is for self-directed investors willing to take chances and track events to make faster and better investments.
You can sort through event types, such as leadership changes, see the performance patterns, and get event alerts when you should buy or sell based on the information.
LevelFields analyzes 6,300+ companies daily and provides automated event alerts so investors can trade instantly.
LevelField is based on facts, not opinions. They use probability strategies and other facts to make important decisions. You don’t have to make trading decisions based on one investor’s opinions; everything is based on facts.
LevelFields is for any type of investor, including:
- Opportunistic – Instead of relying on biased opinions or guesses, LevelField uses real data to help you cut through the media’s noise and know which events affect a company’s stock price and which have no bearing.
- Long-term – Get in on investments when they’re low based on recent events. LevelField provides access to the necessary news, events, and growth metrics to help long-term investors buy low, hold, and sell high.
- Technical – You’ll learn to add events to your technical analysis, so you understand the why behind the changes and not just the technical analysis.
Cost
What to Expect
Members get access to select events with the largest effect on stocks and know when to buy or sell. You’ll also get access to price reaction patterns to know which stocks will have high returns even in down markets. You’ll also get 24/7 real-time alerts to events that could affect the market.
11. Trade Ideas
Trade Ideas is a stock scanner for advanced traders. This isn’t your typical stock scanner, though. Instead, they look for unusual trading activity other platforms don’t consider to help you minimize your risk.
Beginners can use Trade Ideas to get ideas from other investors in the Trading Room Community, simulated trading, and educational courses.
When you’re ready to step it up, you can use their backtesting and custom formulas to test your strategies and develop new trades.
Cost
What to Expect
Features Trade Ideas includes the following:
- Trade simulation
- AI-powered automated trading
- Swing picks (for an extra monthly cost)
- Proposed stock trades for day trading picks
What Are Stock Picking Services and Advisors?
Stock-picking services and advisors do precisely what it sounds like they do; they pick or suggest stocks.
Of course, you’ll have to pay for the advice, and you don’t have to buy the stocks they recommend, but most of the services base their picks on in-depth research, analysis, and expertise.
Stock picking services operate in different manners. Some are a newsletter emailed to you weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Others are less formal and have an app you can log into to see the latest recommendations.
Remember, the advice provided by stock-picking services isn’t personalized. They push the same information out to all subscribers. It’s up to you to take the advice and see how it fits your investment strategies.
How Are They Helpful
I like stock-picking services because they take the hard work out of the equation for me. After choosing a subscription service, you get the information you need for the latest trending or best stocks, given the scenarios of the stock picking service.
These services can save you time, give you more insight, and possibly save you money. If you’re a DIY investor, you don’t have to pay anyone for advice minus the subscription cost of the stock picking service. Then, after deciding what you want, you make the trades.
Of course, you should do your due diligence and ensure the trades make sense for your situation, and always know there’s no foolproof way to determine the best stocks, so even with a stock picking service, there is a gamble.
What Makes a Quality Stock Picking Service or Advisor?
Before signing up for any stock-picking service, consider the features most important to you.
Track Record
The whole point of using stock picking services is to beat the market. So look at a potential services track record over the last few years to see if they held up to what they promised.
Do they promote growth stocks to beat the market, or are their returns in line with the typical market returns?
When using stock picking services, you want one that tells you the reasons behind the stock picks rather than just telling you which stocks to choose. They should provide reasons why they feel they are a growth stock and how they’d be a good addition to any portfolio.
The reasons stock picking services choose their stocks should be based on provable facts or facts you can research to validate for yourself.
Trading Capabilities
The stocks recommended should be something you can buy or sell. For example, investments meant strictly for institutional investors won’t benefit you
The recommendations should also be timely so that you can buy the stocks at around the same price as recommended by the service. If there’s a large gap between choosing the stocks and pushing them out to subscribers, the benefit may be gone.
Worth the Cost or Low Cost
Subscription services cost money, but the cost should be worth it. For example, if you pay $300 a month for a service but don’t recoup the costs in capital gains, it’s not worth the cost.
Do your research to determine the average returns earned by a stock picking service, and compare it to how much you’ll invest and if you’ll come out ahead. Paying for a service that doesn’t increase your earnings doesn’t make sense.
Education Resources
Stock picking services shouldn’t only push stock recommendations out to you. Instead, they should provide educational content and resources to help you learn why and how they chose those stocks.
When you do your own due diligence, you can more confidently invest based on your feelings and not just what a service tells you.
Performing Your Due Diligence
Before signing up for a stock picking service:
- Do your due diligence.
- Decide what type of information you want based on your investing strategies.
- Think about what features you’ll use and which would overwhelm you.
Don’t choose the biggest and best stock picker because it sounds like it will make you money. Instead, choose the one you can understand, will use, and will help you learn the market even further.
Frequently Asked Questions
Stock picking services are a unique way to build your portfolio and make the most of your investments.
Of course, they aren’t for everyone, but if you’re trying to branch out or build a better portfolio, they could be an answer.
Should You Buy Services From a Stock Service or Advisor Company?
Only buy services from a stock service or advisor you know is legit. Do your due diligence, check their ratings on the Better Business Bureau, and read reviews. If something doesn’t seem right, look elsewhere.
Where Should I Invest $1,000 Right Now?
If you already have an emergency fund, consider investing $1,000 in a diversified portfolio. Then, use a Robo-advisor or DIY investing to invest in stocks, bonds, and other commodities to make the most of your funds.
Is Using a Stock Picking Service Worth It?
A stock-picking service may be worth it if you follow their advice. You don’t have to do what they say word for word, but if you’ll take what they offer and educate yourself to make better trades, it can be worth it.
What Are Social Stock Picking Services, and Should I Use One?
Social stock-picking services offer access to expert traders or chatrooms for investors where everyone can trade ideas. Always use caution with this method to ensure you’re getting solid advice and aren’t being taken by a scam. Always do your due diligence before accepting any advice.
The Bottom Line
Before using a stock picking service, determine your goals and set boundaries. It can be easy to get caught up in the hype and make irrational trades that you wouldn’t normally make. So when choosing a stock picking service, do your research, know what you’re getting, and set boundaries, so you don’t make any spontaneous decisions.