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Motley Fool vs. Seeking Alpha: Which Is Right For Your Financial Future?

Decide which resource better suits your particular investment style and needs.


If you’re looking for guidance on your investing endeavors, chances are, you’ll eventually find yourself considering one of these two services. In this article, we’ll be comparing Motley Fool vs Seeking Alpha: which option is right for you? The answer will largely depend on your individual investing experience and goals, although personal preference will play a part as well. Keep these considerations in mind as we compare these two well-known market analysis platforms.

 

Starting from the Source

The capital for investments has to come from somewhere, and—most likely—that source is you! If you’re also the person making financial decisions for your investments, then the success (or failure) of your investments rests entirely on your shoulders. This burden can be a lot to bear, especially for individuals with limited experience investing in the stock market.

Fortunately, both Motley Fool and Seeking Alpha are services designed to help indecisive investors make informed decisions that will likely benefit their portfolios. As mentioned above, investing experience, investment goals, and personal preference are the three main things to consider when selecting a service. If you have less investing experience, prefer easy-to-read content, and can appreciate humor, then Motley Fool might be a good option. If you’ve invested before, prefer analytical content, and find value in the opinions of others, then Seeking Alpha could make more sense for you. However, let’s delve into the details a bit more before you make your decision!

 

Motley Fool

Motley Fool was founded by David Gardner, Tom Gardner, and Erik Rydholm back in 1993. Currently, the Fool offers free financial advice on its website in the form of blog posts and articles. Investors hoping to receive specific stock recommendations or investment advice from the Fool can do so by subscribing to one of Motley Fool’s many premium plans. They have multiple plans, with each one designed to invest towards a certain goal (such as short-term, rapid gains, or retirement). Prices vary widely, from as little as $149 per year up to $13,999 per year.

 

Motley Fool Packages

The Fool offers far too many packages and plans to list here, so we’ll be focusing on what they consider to be their “foundational stock-recommendation services.” This collection of services (Stock Advisor, Rule Breakers, Everlasting Stocks, and Real Estate Winners) can be purchased individually or bundled together as part of the “Epic Bundle.” These services are certainly noteworthy, but we strongly suggest checking out the Fool’s many other offerings as well!

  • Stock Advisor – This service provides you with consistent stock recommendations each month. The Stock Advisor program has had an average return of 356% over the last 20 years, making it a noteworthy service to consider.
  • Rule Breakers – Rule Breakers provides subscribers with volatile (but potentially more profitable) stock recommendations. This service has recommended major industry-leading picks like Tesla and Shopify. However, the overall returns (201%) are slightly lower than the Fool’s flagship “Stock Advisor” service.
  • Everlasting Stocks – Most of the Fool’s recommendations center around the idea of holding onto a stock for at least five years. However, Everlasting Stocks recommends investments that one can theoretically hold onto forever without losing value.
  • Real Estate Winners – Currently only available as part of the “Epic Bundle”, this service centers around providing real estate investment recommendations. You can expect to receive both stock and REIT recommendations while subscribed to this service.

 

Seeking Alpha

Similar to the Fool, Seeking Alpha also provides a wide selection of investment-centric articles for free. However, whereas the Fool’s articles are written by staff, Seeking Alpha hosts articles from a variety of pre-approved writers. This means that you’ll see a mixture of professional and amateur opinions/analyses while pursuing their site. Nonetheless, a variety of opinions can be good when you’re trying to make your own informed decisions, so Seeking Alpha’s diverse content could be helpful to some readers.

  • Premium: Becoming a Premium Seeking Alpha subscriber will give you access to all of their articles (some of which are hidden behind a paywall), stock quant ratings, stock dividend grades, information on the authors of each post, and more. Normally costing $239 per year, Seeking Alpha often offers reduced rates for first-time subscribers.
  • Pro: Pro provides all of the benefits of Premium but also includes VIP service, PRO content/newsletters, access to the “Short ideas portal”, and an ad-free browsing experience. This service costs $2,400 per year, making it best-suited for more high-end investors. However, it does offer a free 14-day trial for you to test out the service.
  • Alpha Picks: This service doesn’t offer a free trial because you instantly receive stock recommendations upon signing up. For $99 for your first year (and $199 each following year), you’ll relieve two stock recommendations each month. Alpha Picks boasts a 470% return since its inception in 2010.

 

Summary

Both of these websites offer more services than mentioned in this short article. You should take a look at their free content to decide which would better suit your particular investment style and needs. Fortunately, both of them have a proven record of making profitable recommendations in the long run. That said, you should remember that past results aren’t indicative of future results. Whether you choose Motley Fool or Seeking Alpha, there is always risk involved, so invest carefully!

Jeremy Biberdorf is a long-time internet marketing pro turned online entrepreneur and blogger. Check out his investing blog at Modest Money.

 

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