December 15, 2023

Seeking Alpha Premium vs Alpha Picks

Read more about Seeking Alpha
Ad Disclosure: This article contains references to products from our partners. We may receive compensation if you apply or shop through links in our content. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site. You help support CreditDonkey by using our links. (read more)

Seeking Alpha Premium or Alpha Picks—which will better suit your investing style? Read on to find out.

Seeking Alpha's subscription plans, Premium and Alpha Picks, both provide stock recommendations for you to invest in. But which plan is better for you?

Read to find out the cost, returns, and the pros and cons of each. Also, see which plan will better suit your investing style.

Who Each is Best For

  • Seeking Alpha Premium ($299/yr) is best for those who like to do their own research. If you're someone who likes to dive deep into the analytics, this plan is for you. Find Out More

  • Alpha Picks ($499/yr) is best for those who don't have time to do their own research. You just want to be told which stocks to invest in. Find Out More

Key Differences

  • Seeking Alpha Premium gives you advanced stock analysis tools to help you make your own investment decisions.

  • Alpha Picks recommends two stocks per month based on their ratings, no research or analysis is needed.

What is Seeking Alpha Premium?

Seeking Alpha is an online investment research platform that offers crowdsourced investment analysis. Seeking Alpha Premium is one of Seeking Alpha's three subscription plans.

The Premium plan ($299/yr) provides unlimited access to Seeking Alpha's content, ratings, screeners, and financial data. It also offers access to investing groups where you get to interact with other investors.

Seeking Alpha has a community of 7,000 contributors publishing thousands of investment ideas each month. It also has a team of editors who curate its crowdsourced content to ensure that every article is high quality.

It is now the largest investing community with over 20 million monthly users.[1]

Pros + Cons:

  • High-quality content
  • High performance of recommended stocks
  • Access to expert analysis

Who is the owner of Seeking Alpha?
Seeking Alpha is founded and owned by David Jackson. He was once an investment researcher who worked at Morgan Stanley. He graduated from Oxford University and the London School of Economics. Jackson started Seeking Alpha in 2004.

What is Alpha Picks?

Alpha Picks ($499/yr) is Seeking Alpha's newest subscription plan. It was launched in July 2022.

This plan provides you with two top stocks each month. These are stocks selected through Seeking Alpha's Quant rating system.

The Quant rating system is Seeking Alpha's data-driven model that analyzes stocks according to five metrics: growth, profitability, valuation, momentum, and earnings per share (EPS) Revisions.[2]

The Premium plan provides thousands of recommended stocks that all have a Quant rating. It can be time-consuming to filter these stocks and just pick one or two. Alpha Picks saves you time by doing the research for you.

Pros + Cons:

  • Competitive pricing
  • One new stock pick every two weeks
  • No monthly subscription option
  • No free trial or refunds

Is Alpha Picks included in Seeking Alpha Premium?
Alpha Picks is not included in Seeking Alpha Premium. They are separate subscriptions. If you're already subscribed to the Premium plan, you'll have to pay separately for the Alpha Picks subscription in order to get the 2 stock picks per month.

Direct Comparison

Now, let's compare the two subscription plans to see which one will best fit your investment style.

Rate of Returns

The Premium plan's top stocks have a higher rate of return compared to Alpha Picks' stock recommendations.

  • The Premium plan's top-rated stocks have a total cumulative return of 1,734% compared to the S&P 500's 369% over a 12-year period (2009-2021).

  • Alpha Picks' stock choices have a total return of 470% compared to the S&P 500's 290% over a 12-year period (2010-2022).

That means, if you had invested in Seeking Alpha Premium's top-rated stocks instead of in the S&P 500, your investment would have grown by over 4 times.

While if you had invested in Alpha Picks' stocks instead of in the S&P 500, your investment would have only grown by 1.6 times.

Subscription Cost

Alpha Picks is more expensive than Seeking Alpha Premium.

Alpha Picks costs $499/yr[3] while the Premium plan costs $299/yr.[4] Seeking Alpha frequently offers promotions and discounts to new members. Keep an eye out for these promotions and check if you qualify for any discounts.

Key Features

Seeking Alpha Premium provides a lot more features than Alpha Picks.

With Seeking Alpha Premium, you have unlimited access to its market news and investment analysis. You also have research and analysis tools like:

  • Stock Ratings

    You get 3 types of stock ratings: Seeking Alpha authors' ratings, Wall Street analysts' ratings, and Quant ratings. Each rating tells you a quick assessment of each stock.

  • Stock Recommendations

    This comes as a list of top-rated stocks. These stocks have the highest rating from Seeking Alpha authors, Wall Street analysts, and Seeking Alpha's objective quant model. You can choose from this list if you're not sure about which stocks to buy.

  • Stocks Screeners

    You get prebuilt screeners as well as screeners that can be customized. This allows you to filter stocks according to various categories. This helps you find stocks that match your investing strategy.

  • Factor Grades

    Factor grades tell you the status of each stock according to its profitability, value, growth, momentum, and earnings per share revisions.

  • Financial Data

    The Premium plan provides you charts, graphs, and trends that help you understand each stock's historical performance. You get access to each stock's 10-year financial data.

  • Personalized Content

    You get a quick view of market news and analysis that may affect your portfolio.

Seeking Alpha Premium also offers access to several investing groups where you get to interact with other investors. But this comes at an additional cost.[5]

The only feature offered by Alpha Picks is 2 recommended stocks each month. These are chosen from Seeking Alpha's analysis of thousands of stocks on the platform.

Essentially, these 2 picks are stocks that have the most likelihood of price appreciation. Here's how Seeking Alpha makes their recommendations:[6]

  • Alpha Picks selects stocks that have a Strong Buy Quant rating for at least 75 days.

  • The stock must have a market cap of above $500 million and a price of over $10.

  • With the previous two criteria in mind, Alpha Picks then chooses the highest-rated stock for that month which hasn't been recommended within the past year.

Bottom Line

Seeking Alpha Premium and Alpha Picks are both excellent subscription plans. Knowing the right plan is a matter of knowing what kind of investor you are.

The Premium plan is best if you like doing your own research. At $299/yr, you'll have all the tools you need to make your own investment decisions.

However, if you like investing purely based on stock recommendations, Alpha Picks may be a better fit. At $499/yr, Alpha Picks will do all the heavy research work for you.

Luckily, since both plans' stock recommendations have a higher rate of return than the S&P 500, whichever plan you choose will be worth the money.

References

  1. ^ Seeking Alpha. About Us, Retrieved 11/11/2023
  2. ^ Seeking Alpha. Quant Ratings and Factor Grades FAQ, Retrieved 11/12/2023
  3. ^ Seeking Alpha. Alpha Picks, Retrieved 2/13/2024
  4. ^ Seeking Alpha. Subscription Plan Pricing, Retrieved 09/16/2024
  5. ^ Seeking Alpha. Investing Groups, Retrieved 11/12/2023
  6. ^ Seeking Alpha. About Alpha Picks: Portfolio Process, Retrieved 11/12/2023
Motley Fool

Stock Advisor - $99/year for New Members

*$99 is an introductory price for new members only. 50% discount based on current list price of Stock Advisor of $199/year. Membership will renew annually at the then-current list price.

Acorns

$20 Investment Bonus

  • Open an Acorns account (new users only)
  • Set up the Recurring Investments feature
  • Have your first investment be made successfully via the Recurring Investments feature

Write to Del Exconde at feedback@creditdonkey.com. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for our latest posts.

Note: This website is made possible through financial relationships with some of the products and services mentioned on this site. We may receive compensation if you shop through links in our content. You do not have to use our links, but you help support CreditDonkey if you do.

Compare:

Invest money and build wealth. Sign up to get our free email newsletter.

Next Page:

About CreditDonkey
CreditDonkey is a personal finance comparison website. We publish data-driven analysis to help you save money & make savvy decisions.

Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed on this page are those of the author's alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer.

†Advertiser Disclosure: Many of the offers that appear on this site are from companies from which CreditDonkey receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). CreditDonkey does not include all companies or all offers that may be available in the marketplace.

*See the card issuer's online application for details about terms and conditions. Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. However, all information is presented without warranty. When you click on the "Apply Now" button you can review the terms and conditions on the card issuer's website.

CreditDonkey does not know your individual circumstances and provides information for general educational purposes only. CreditDonkey is not a substitute for, and should not be used as, professional legal, credit or financial advice. You should consult your own professional advisors for such advice.

About Us | Reviews | Deals | Tips | Privacy | Do Not Sell My Info | Terms | Contact Us
(888) 483-4925 | 680 East Colorado Blvd, 2nd Floor | Pasadena, CA 91101
© 2024 CreditDonkey Inc. All Rights Reserved.