Best Stock Picking Services

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if someone could just come up to you, every once in a while, and tell you what to invest in? And, of course, be right? 🧙‍♂️

Unfortunately, that’s still a pipe dream – no one, not even the most brilliant and experienced investors, can accurately tell what’s going to happen 100% of the time. Surprises pop up, like the Omicron variant, throwing markets into a world of confusion. But the stock market isn’t random – it might be complex and hard to grasp, but it isn’t truly random. Research does increase your odds of success.

The only problem is that research isn’t easy. It requires pouring over financial records, looking at various metrics, keeping an eye on the news, price movements, trading volume – and all of those things take time to master. ⏳

The topic that we’ll be covering today isn’t a shortcut – it can’t replace research, but it can give you a glimpse behind the scenes so that you can see how professionals approach this important process. Stock picking services allow you to grow your account, learn from the best, and get hands-on experience.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here – while these services are very useful, finding the right one isn’t easy. First of all, there’s a ton of low-quality stock picking services out there – a veneer of professionalism isn’t enough. 

What you need to do is to find a good, reputable stock picking service – one that has the track record and research chops to justify your subscription. But these things aren’t cheap. And we’re going to help you – by reviewing half a dozen of the best stock picking services on the market and giving a few pointers as to what you should look for. 👇

1. The Trading Analyst – Best Overall

Founded in 2018, The Trading Analyst is a relative newcomer to this ballgame, but the service has already managed to rack up an impressive track record – with an IRR of 141%. Although it was primarily conceived as an options alert trading service, it can still be used for stocks – in fact, on some occasions, the service itself will recommend common trades over options.

First, let’s deal with the track record of this service. The Trading Analyst has a profit factor of 2.05 – meaning that the trades that are profitable are a little more than twice as profitable when compared to how much a losing trade sets you back, on average. 

On top of that, 55% of all trades were profitable (from Jan 2018 – July 2021). In other words, the recommendations that the service gives are mostly in the green – and most of them are quite profitable. It is this track record that has led the service to have almost 12,000 clients.

As far as investment timeframe goes, The Trading Analyst carefully treads a middle ground. This isn’t a service that is focused on day trading – but it isn’t one that is focused on buy-and-hold investing, either. Instead, The Trading Analyst’s recommendations are based on swing trading – meaning that positions are held for anywhere between 3 days and a few months.

To keep pace with that style of trading, this service also sends picks and trading ideas at a relatively brisk pace – clients will usually receive anywhere from 2-5 trade alerts each week. These alerts are delivered in real-time via text message, which is a big bonus, as it allows clients to react instantaneously to changing market conditions. 

The targeted gains for these trades are realistic – 10% to 25% – but seeing as how many of these targets are meant for options trading, your mileage may vary.

However, as we’ve mentioned, The Trading Analyst does recommend purchasing stocks over options from time to time – either because market conditions are unfavorable, option interest is poor, or the stock in question is way too expensive for most members.

The Trading Analyst also gives clients access to a real-time portfolio tracker, as well as a pretty expansive set of educational materials. And, you get a weekly market report via email that will help you keep track of what’s going on in the markets.

Although the service lacks research tools, screeners, it is made to be a time-saving service – so we wouldn’t necessarily call that a huge drawback. On top of that, the methodology that the service uses depends highly on large data-sets, so there are no detailed research reports. This methodology is something that is very hard to translate to plain old English.

The Trading Analyst offers monthly, quarterly, and annual subscriptions. These come in at $147 per month, $357 per quarter, or $787 per year. The annual subscription is by far the most affordable – coming at just a tad over $65 a month. However, there’s no going around the fact that this is still worth it – it just might be out of reach for some.

The only real downside to this service is that it primarily focuses on options – but with an elementary knowledge of the stock market and options trading, that will prove no issue. You can still leverage their picks in order to make winning trades without ever touching a derivative.

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2. Seeking Alpha – Best for In-Depth Research

Founded in 2004 in Israel, Seeking Alpha is a large, crowd-sourced investment community that has more than 10 million users. The quality of the research that it provides is unparalleled – but you’ll need some decent investing chops to put that information to good use.

Seeking Alpha offers a wealth of information that investors, particularly those looking to invest for the long term, will find beneficial. Seeking Alpha gives access to everything from earnings forecasts, earnings call transcripts, decades’ worth of financial statements, as well as plenty of high-quality stock analyses written by community members.

But don’t let that fool you – this isn’t just a forum where laymen can discuss stocks. Every stock analysis is carefully checked by in-house editors before it is published – and Seeking Alpha also regularly publishes market analysis done by professionals.

There are two premium plans to choose from – Seeking Alpha Pro and Seeking Alpha Premium. Both offer a lot, but there is a large disparity in price here – a Premium subscription will set you back $19.99 a month, while the Pro subscription costs $199,99 per month.

The premium plan gives you access to a stock screener, the aforementioned expert analysis, removes advertisements from your user experience, and also allows you to see the rating of every stock analysis author you come across.

On top of that, you’ll gain access to powerful fundamental analysis tools, a news section, market data, as well as Seeking Alpha’s unique Stock Quant ratings. And it’s these ratings that truly make Stock Alpha a serious contender – stocks are ranked by three separate groups: by Seeking Alpha’s in-house team of analysts using a proprietary model, independent contributors to the site, and professional analysts from Wall Street.

Once all of those ratings come in, they’re distilled, cross-checked, and compared – and you’re left with the list of Triple Rated Top Stocks. These stocks show fantastic promise in the medium to long term, and are divided into two sections – bullish and very bullish. Looking at the data available from 2010 to 2021, Seeking Alpha’s very bullish recommendations have outpaced the growth of the S&P 500 by a factor of four.

Seeking Alpha’s pro subscription is geared toward serious, seasoned investors. It gives you access to everything the premium plan does, along with a separate Top Idea list, more powerful screeners, and exclusive newsletters.

While the premium plan is relatively affordable, the pro subscription does require a rather large investment. Thankfully, Seeking Alpha does offer a 14-day free trial which allows you to test-run the platform to see if it would be a good fit for you.

Seeking Alpha shines because of its research – and while they do a great job of distilling plenty of information into something actionable, this service is still geared toward investors with experience – there’s not too much in the way of education to be found. 

The platform’s quant ratings are easy to understand, and comparing stocks is simple – the interface is quite user-friendly, and stocks can easily be filtered on the basis of industry, growth, market cap, and other factors.

Seeking Alpha also offers plenty of variety. Although most of the top picks will be mid-cap and large-cap stocks, the service also curates a variety of lists – stocks that have performed best when looking at dividend yield, the best tech stocks, the most promising small-cap stocks… The list goes on, and there’s something for everyone.

If you’ve already got some notches under your belt, and if purchasing a subscription wouldn’t burn a hole in your wallet, you’ll find that Seeking Alpha is a fantastic community that offers unparalleled access to research.

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3. The Motley Fool – Best for Growth Stocks

The Motley Fool is a powerhouse in the financial world – their irreverent, humorous approach to investing is unique. They’ve been in business since the 90s, and they also have a very renowned stock picking service – let’s take a closer look.

Actually, we should clear one thing up before going forward – The Fool actually has several separate stock picking services, and we’re going to cover two of them. The first, and it wouldn’t be unfair to say “flagship product,” is the classic Stock Advisor service.

The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor service is focused on long-term, buy-and-hold investing – and that approach seems to have paid off in a big way. If you look at its track record, the service has managed to provide returns of 373% since 2002 – this is far greater than the S&P 500’s average of 116%.

Some of the more renowned picks through the years include Disney and Amazon in 2002, Netflix in 2004, and Nvidia in 2005. And although not all of the picks that the Fool provides turn out to be winners – the majority do. In 2020, out of 15 stocks that were picked, 10 were profitable. But that isn’t the secret of the Gardner brothers – it’s much simpler. Sometimes, when the Fool wins – it wins big.

Of course, all of this past performance hinges on buying and selling the aforementioned stocks at just the right time. But the fact remains – if you bought Disney when the Fool suggested, you’d be up an incredible 5,401%. If you bought Netflix and Amazon when the service suggested those stocks, you’d be up 17,849% and 17,718%, respectively. You might be starting to recognize a pattern.

But the Fool does offer more than just stock picks. In fact, the lengths that their research team goes to in order to explain and justify their picks are quite admirable – with the research reports that are enclosed with the stock picks being very in-depth. On top of that, the community board associated with the Fool is quite lively – and a good place to discuss strategies with other investors.

The Fool’s Stock Advisor service costs $99 per year for new members- and after the first year, the price increases to $199 per year. Although that isn’t all too high, the fact still remains that the Fool’s service is lagging behind the competition when it comes to the frequency of stock picks with only two picks per month. The Fools also offers a 30-day membership-fee-back – something that is quite rare in the stock picking service field.

One of the Fool’s other stock picking service is called Rule Breakers. Unlike Stock Advisor service, this is one more geared toward riskier growth stocks with a lot of potential for capital appreciation – and to no one’s surprise, they’re often tech stocks. 

This service costs $99 per year for new members, and also offers clients access to a wider set of recommendations at once. In order to allow clients to construct strong portfolios from the get-go so that they can offset the riskier stock picks.

The Fool’s stock picking service is far from perfect – the track record is there, but it might take a decade or more to replicate the successes that figure into those impressive average return numbers. Couple that with the rather aggressive upselling methods that the Fool uses, and there’s a lot of room for improvement – but underneath it all lies solid research, a good track record, and a good stock picking service overall.

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4. Morningstar – Best Variety of Investments

You’ve probably come across the name Morningstar before – and it’s no wonder. This hugely influential company’s reports inform millions of investors across the globe, but it is also active in retirement planning, software solutions, and investment management.

Morningstar Premium will set you back $199 annually – but if you’d like to try it out before committing, there is a 14-day free trial available. The premium subscription gives you access to stock picks as well as recommendations for mutual funds and ETFs. 

On top of that, being the research powerhouse that it is, Morningstar also offers clients access to a very detailed selection of ratings, ranking, as well as plenty of market analysis pieces and commentary.

And when we say research powerhouse, we’re not exaggerating – Morningstar currently employs more than 150 analysts. If that sounds a little intimidating, don’t worry – Morningstar premium is actually quite user-friendly, and it offers plenty of screening tools that make it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for in that veritable sea of investments.

Morningstar is famous for its fund rating, but that information is available without subscribing, and it evaluates past performance. With a premium subscription, however, the aforementioned army of analysts produces analyses that are forward-looking – the higher the rating, the more they’re certain that a specific investment will outperform the market.

The bevy of research at your disposal is great for giving you trading ideas. But because the picks are so detailed, and the research so exhaustive, it’s also a unique opportunity to learn from the pros and develop a methodology of your own.

However, there is another option – Morningstar Investor Newsletters. Currently divided into four separate newsletters, focusing on stocks, funds, dividends, and ETFs, these newsletters offer a fantastic way to get the lay of the land on a single asset class. They allow you to hone in and focus on what’s a priority for you – meaning that there’s no chaff.

As far as newsletters go, they range in price from $145 for stocks and funds to $199 for dividends and ETFs. That’s not exactly a small sum but it is a yearly subscription, so it adds up to either $12 or $16 per month – which sounds a lot more affordable. Coupled with the fact that these newsletters also come with their own watchlists, additional expert analyses, and email alerts, it becomes quite clear that you’re getting your money’s worth.

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5. Zacks – Best for Long-Term Investing

Zack’s is a company that primarily focuses on long-term, buy-and-hold investing. Their stock analysis relies heavily on fundamentals, and that approach has kept them in business since the 1970s.

Zacks offers tiered membership – with the premium account costing $249 per year, and the ultimate account costing $299 per year. Both of these account types also support 30-day free trials, allowing you to give the platform a test run before committing. However, the results speak for themselves: Zack’s average returns, when looking at their buy recommendations are 25.6% – a good 14% more compared to the average returns of the S&P 500.

Zack’s offers plenty of stock picks – each day, two stocks are selected as the bear and the bull of the day – indicating a strong sell and buy signal, respectively. On top of that, clients gain access to mutual fund and ETF picks, as well as a daily newsletter that recaps market conditions and a portfolio tracker.

Now, let’s move on to the benefits of premium membership. Yep, everything that we’ve said up to now is available for free. Premium membership gives you access to 7 highly-curated lists – more than enough stock picks for anyone’s needs. These lists include the best long-term stocks, industry leaders, as well as securities hand-picked by experts.

An ultimate subscription gives you access to everything that a premium subscription does and then some. For those that choose the costlier option, Zacks goes the extra mile – with recommendations for options trades, short selling, and innovators in fields such as blockchain, marijuana, technology, and healthcare.

Both of these account types give you access to several different stock screeners, alerts, watchlists, as well as market analysis, commentary, and plenty of free written content.

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6. Trade Ideas – Best for Day Trading

While most stock picking services rely on professional researchers who do an in-depth analysis, that’s an approach that just doesn’t work with day trading. Then again, most stock picking services aren’t made for day trading – but Trade Ideas is.

Trade Ideas takes a pretty unique approach – this service makes use of an artificial, virtual analyst called Holly. Holly never rests, and she runs over a million simulated trades every day, using more than 70 proprietary algorithms.

In essence, this allows for huge-scale technical analysis. By analyzing price movements, volume, fundamental data, earnings releases, as well as media coverage, Holly gives traders a list of stocks that offer the best ratio of risk and return.

If you’re not familiar with this type of trading, don’t worry – one of the best features of Trade Ideas is that it supports simulated trading. You can try your hand at using the service, test and improve your own strategies, and get a sense for trading – all without actually risking any money. If you’re satisfied with what you get, you can easily switch to live trading, as this service easily connects to some of the more famous brokerages out there, including IBKR and TD Ameritrade.

The biggest downside of this service is the price – it’s expensive, with the standard subscription costing $1,068 annually, and the premium subscription costing $2,268 annually. That’s a lot of cash to spend in any one place, but this is by far the best service of its kind for day traders.

If you’re still on the fence regarding Holly, don’t worry – each pick is reviewed and curated by a team of real, flesh-and-blood analysts, who also include entry and exit points into every stock pick. If you need something even more reactive, the platform also supports watchlists, alerts, as well as a weekly newsletter.

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How Do Stock Picking Services Work, Exactly? 🏗

When it comes to stock picking services, which is a very rare occasion in the world of finance, it does exactly what it says on the tin – these are services that are designed to pick out stocks for you. The goal is to take the legwork out of the researching process, thereby saving you valuable time and effort.

When you purchase a subscription, the service will give you stock picks at regular intervals – and these can vary quite a bit in frequency. It’s up to you to decide if you’ll follow the ideas that have been recommended to you – but they’re generally backed up by sound research.

With stock picking services, an in-house team of professionals that have access to numerous advanced tools takes care of the research. A lot of the best stock picking services will provide that research to clients – both so that they can educate themselves and so that they can get an inside look into the justification for the pick.

Of course, you can do research on your own – but it isn’t a stretch to say that the guys behind the scenes are capable of making a much more detailed and well-thought-out investment thesis than a vast majority of investors. We’re not knocking individual research – but it’s really hard to outdo an entire team of people that do this for a living. 

What Makes a Good Stock Picking Service? 🤔

We’ve covered what are, in our humble opinion, the six best stock picking services currently on the market. But for the purposes of (relative) brevity, we had to keep it at least somewhat short – otherwise, the entire guide would be a mess.

If you feel like you didn’t get all the information on these services, we empathize – it’s because you didn’t. We’ve reviewed some of them in-depth – but you’re certainly going to want to take a closer look at each service yourself.

To help prepare you for that, we’ve prepared a sort of buyers-guide – a smaller section focused on the most important elements that make a good stock picking service. Pay attention to these factors. They’ll give you a good framework that you can use to compare and contrast these services – and ultimately find the one that fits your needs best.

Reliability and Track Record 🛡

Investing is always a risk – and if you’re not in a position to do your own research, you have to find a reliable, trustworthy source of information. Sure, every stock picking service on the face of the earth will say the same thing – that they’re run by experts with decades of experience. And while that might be true, that also isn’t a guarantee of success.

The only thing that matters is the stock picking service’s track record – the proof is in the pudding. Thankfully, when you’re dealing with legitimate services, they’ll gladly show proof. 

Now, keep in mind that most of these services show you an idealized picture – what your returns would have looked like if you bought and sold at just the right times. In that regard, mileage always varies – but even if these services aren’t a golden ticket to triple-digit returns, they can still increase your returns by a large margin. 

When looking at a stock picking service’s track record, do keep note of the returns they’ve managed to accomplish – but also take a look at how many recommendations panned out versus how many did not – and when they got it right, how profitable was the stock in question.

Price 💰

There’s no getting around price – and the fact is, most stock picking services cost a lot of money. Now, the good ones, like the ones we’ve covered are worth it – but still, forking over something in the vicinity of $1,000 at once is a large expense – particularly if you’re still a novice investor.

The second thing that has to be considered is the size of your account – different stock picking services offer different average returns, and are made for different investment methods. If your account is worth only a couple of hundred dollars, it makes no sense to subscribe to a stock picking service – you won’t make your money back.

In short – take a look at the service’s track record regarding returns, take note of the trading style, and always factor in fees and commissions in order to find out if a certain service is worth it for your circumstances. Also, there’s no rush – if you can’t afford one of these subscriptions just now, who’s to say that you can’t set aside some money in a month or two? And as always, finding the right discount brokerage can go a long way in reducing fees and costs.

User-Friendliness 🤝

When it comes down to how user-friendly a stock picking service is, there are two main factors that should be considered: how the picks are relayed to you, the customer, and how frequent those picks are.

Although a lot of the most prominent stock picking services send alerts out via e-mail, we’re not exactly fans of this approach. Sure, you’ll get a notification – but we simply prefer the quick and easy approach of a text message.

Be that as it may, you’ll have your own preferences – the best possible scenario is that a stock picking service offers multiple avenues by which it can give you alerts – although even when the investment horizon is long, real-time alerts are always preferable.

The second element to consider is the frequency of the alerts or picks. This largely comes down to your preferred investment method – if you’re in it for the long haul, a couple of well-placed picks per month is all you need. However, if you’re interested in day trading or swing trading, you might very well want to consider a service that offers numerous opportunities.

Educational Content and Research 👨‍🏫

The primary goal of a stock picking service is to give you a reliable, well-researched and curated list of stocks so that you don’t have to spend hours researching stocks and months reading about them. However, some stock picking services do offer plenty of high-quality educational content and research tools.

We have nothing against stock picking services. In fact, we think they’re a great idea, and a fantastic choice when you’re starting out – but being able to conduct research on your own, and being educated on the topic of investing is priceless. 

Some services will offer access to videos, tutorials, webinars, as well as courses and quizzes. This might not be as tempting as a shiny infographic that says 150% returns – but it is just as important. Seeing as how all of the best stock picking services offer detailed explanations of their picks, you’re also in a unique position to see the rationale and methodology of some really amazing investors – it’s a unique learning opportunity, and it’d be a shame to waste it.

At the end of the day, we have to look at both education and research capabilities separately. With education, it boils down to preference. If you’re already familiar with how the stock market operates, this won’t be a big deal to you – but if you’re a beginner, these resources can be invaluable. Research, on the other hand, is non-negotiable – and should be very near the top of your list of priorities.

Style of Investing or Trading 🗃

Not every stock picking service functions the same way – and we’re not just talking about how many recommendations they send you per month and whether they do it via email, text message, or newsletter.

Some stock picking services focus solely on long-term, buy-and-hold opportunities that will take a long time to come to fruition – while others are focused on day trading, swing trading, and other investment methods.

On top of that, some services focus on finding value stocks that will see a correction in price. Others, like Motley Fool’s rulebreakers, focus on high potential growth stocks – and although these are risky propositions, they can be quite profitable.

Stock Picking Service Red Flags 🚩

Unfortunately, the stock picking service world isn’t immune to one of the investment space’s shadiest undersides – fraud. You’ll be safe with the services we’ve reviewed in this guide – but you should still be aware that the possibility of fraud is very real – and hey, who knows, you might find a stock picking service that flew under our radar.

In general, anything that guarantees enormous returns, such as 1,000%, is automatically suspect. A lack of a track record, not being transparent regarding the service’s investment strategy and investment theses, as well as its research methodology – all of these are red flags that signal that you should avoid the service in question.

One particular area that merits mentioning is penny stock fraud. Penny stocks, particularly over-the-counter penny stocks or pink sheets are by themselves, unfortunately, susceptible to fraud – but the crossover between penny stock fraud and stock picking service fraud is noticeable.

Most penny stock frauds that intersect with today’s topic usually function as a pump-and-dump. In short, a service sends out a stock recommendation, which causes a surge in buying, and therefore, an increase in price. 

When that happens, the fraudulent party, which already held large quantities of shares before the recommendation was sent out, sells their stock for a huge profit – and with that done, volume dries up, the price drops back down, and plenty of people are left with sizable losses. In general, we’d stay away from anyone that promises to be a penny-stock guru.

How Useful Are Stock Picking Services, Really? 🏆

Now we come to the most pressing question of the hour – is all of this stuff really worth it? Well, we think so – otherwise, we wouldn’t have prepared this guide. However, we’ll give a few arguments in favor of these services so that you can make up your own mind about them.

Saving Time and Energy ⌚

One of the most difficult things when it comes to investing is the discipline needed to balance the time commitment that is required with the other commitments in our lives. If we had the spare time to read about stock and learn all day, things would be grand – but that’s not the case. Most of us work 9 to 5 jobs – meaning that we don’t exactly have a lot of time for research. This problem is even more pronounced if you’ve found your calling in short-term trading.

A stock picking service takes a lot of the legwork out of the research process. We would never recommend blindly following anyone’s advice – even our own, so do your due diligence. But even with that being said, this is still a huge timesaver.

A stock picking service makes the process of investing a lot more manageable for the average, everyday investor. This, in turn, allows you to focus much more on other topics – suddenly, you’re in a position where you don’t have to choose between opening a good position and taking the time out to further educate yourself on a facet of investing that you haven’t mastered yet.

Fast-forward a bit, and after some time, you’ve managed both to grow your account and clock in extra hours doing the necessary reading. At the end of it all, you’re in a much, much better position to make good investment decisions – either with a stock picking service or without one.

A Learning Experience 📚

Using a stock picking service can be a very helpful learning experience. First of all, it helps you get your foot in the door – if you’re nervous or anxious about starting to invest, doing so with the help of professional advice makes things a little easier. Second of all, using a stock picking service is a hands-on process – you’ll get familiar with placing orders, setting price targets, and a lot of the lingo of the investment world.

On top of that, stock picking services that give clients access to in-depth reports on why they’ve chosen the stocks that they have offer a unique opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at the processes of professionals – which is quite a rare sight. In time, you’ll figure out their methodologies, what they look for, and what they avoid – and in doing so, you’ll become a much better investor.

Increased Returns 📈

At the end of the day, the track record of these services speaks for itself – and if you’re a beginner or intermediate investor, it’s unlikely that your returns can measure up with that of these services.

A stock picking service can be a very good investment – if you play your cards right, you’ll not only get the money you paid for it back, but you’ll also be able to substantially grow your account. Getting the same results without using a service like this is possible, but it’ll require years of practice and trial and error – something that a lot of people simply can’t afford or set aside.

Conclusion 📝

Thank you for taking the time out to go through this guide. Researching stocks and finding opportunities is one of the most engaging, fun, and important parts of the investment process – but there’s nothing wrong with getting a little help from someone every now and then.

A good stock picking service can be a very powerful tool in your arsenal – if you set realistic goals, use a good brokerage, and keep your ear to the ground, you can easily make up for the price tag of these services in a very short span of time.