Seeking Alpha Review – Something for All Investors
Joy Wallet is advertiser-supported: we may earn compensation from the products and offers mentioned in this article. However, any expressed opinions are our own and aren't influenced by compensation. To read our full disclosure, click here.
Seeking Alpha does a great job with its quant ratings performance chart and shows at a glance how well the stocks it has rated as strong buys have performed since 2010.
9/10
Cost
8/10
Ease of Use
9/10
Features
8/10
Add ons
9/10
One of my favorite charts to look at when doing stock research is a timeline chart showing how the stock has performed for the past decade compared to an index such as the S&P 500. It shows how much a $10,000 investment, for example, has grown or fallen compared to the index.
It’s easy to see if a stock has outperformed the market. A green line moving upward is a great indicator.
The investment research company Seeking Alpha does a great job with its quant rating performance chart and shows how well the stocks it has rated as strong buys have performed since 2010.
As of mid-May 2024, stocks with the highest stock ratings that Seeking Alpha has made turned a $10,000 initial investment in 2010 into a total return of $248,178, a 25% average annualized return. The S&P 500 return was $51,156 on that same investment amount. An investor would have made $197,022 more with the Seeking Alpha recommendations.
That’s an eye-catching return, and that may be all I need to be a Seeking Alpha customer. Our Seeking Alpha review will give you all the details you need.
Jump To
What is Seeking Alpha?
Seekingalpha.com is an investment research website started in 2004 by financial analyst David Jackson. It is headquartered in New York City. Alpha refers to excess returns earned on investment above the benchmark return.
The company says it’s the world’s largest investing community, powered by the crowdsourcing of millions of passionate investors. Seeking Alpha says 20 million people use its services monthly, providing research and investing ideas. According to the company, more than 200,000 people are subscribers.
The site publishes monthly stock analyses and ideas from more than 17,000 active authors. In-house editors check the information before it’s reviewed and discussed by readers. Not many research platforms offer this level of crowdsourcing.
Related: Motley Fool versus Seeking Alpha
Use Motley Fool's Stock Advisor To Invest
- Over 100 Stock Picks with 100%+ Returns
- Averaged Stock Pick Return over 593% (vs. 165% for the S&P)
- 2 New Stock Picks Every Month
- Investment Community With 700,000+ Loyal Members
- 30-Day Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee
- Joy Wallet Reader Deal: The Motley Fool is offering 50% off its top stock-picking service for new members (Limited Time)
How does Seeking Alpha work?
Seeking Alpha’s free content is fairly robust and may be enough for beginning investors and even mid-level traders to be satisfied with. We’ll go over it soon when we explain the site’s costs, but the free content is a good way to check out the site and see if you need more in a Premium plan or Seeking Alpha Pro subscription.
After reviewing the free offerings, you can become a subscriber or register as a free user to access more features by clicking the orange “Subscribe” button in the upper right corner of the home page.
This takes you to a screen where you can either start a free trial or register for a Basic account, which is free but requires registering to unlock a few extra features.
Signing up for the paid plans can be done through the center or right box, and the Basic plan with limited free access is listed on the left.
I clicked on “Register” for the free plan and was taken to a signup box where I could sign in with Google or Apple or with my email address and password that I created. I signed in with my Google account and was immediately given free access to the site and the Basic extras.
To start a free Premium subscription or Pro plan trial, click “Start Free Trial.” You’ll be taken to a secure checkout that requires a credit card or PayPal.
The free trial lasts 14 days, and the chosen subscription will auto-renew until you cancel. You can cancel anytime before the 14-day free trial ends to avoid being charged.
How much does Seeking Alpha cost?
Seeking Alphas has three membership levels. A 14-day free trial is available for the paid plans.
Plan Name | Monthly Cost | 1 year |
Basic | Free | Free |
Premium | $30 | $239 |
Pro | $300 | $2,400 |
Basic
The basic plan is free and requires registering with your email address. It offers limited access to the site’s investment research, including:
- Stock analysis email alerts
- Real-time news updates
- Investing newsletters
- Access to stock prices and charts
- Wall Street ratings for every stock
- Limited access to in-depth news and analysis
Seeking Alpha Premium
A premium subscription is relatively cheap if you want to try it for a month, at $4.95. It will automatically renew for a year after the end of the month. If you like it and expect to use the Premium plan for a few years, the best deal is to pay upfront for a year, which works out to $239 per year.
Premium subscribers get all of the Basic features, plus:
- Unlimited access to Premium content
- Seeking Alpha author ratings
- Seeking Alpha author performance
- Stock quant ratings
- Stock dividend rates
- Ad-lite
Seeking Alpha Pro
The highest tier, Seeking Alpha Pro, costs $2,400 annually. A multi-year discount isn’t offered. Active traders may be most attracted to this service, which provides unlimited access, all of the Premium features, and:
- Top Ideas
- Pro content and newsletters
- Short ideas portal
- Idea screen/filter
- VIP service
- No ads
Use Motley Fool's Stock Advisor To Invest
- Over 100 Stock Picks with 100%+ Returns
- Averaged Stock Pick Return over 593% (vs. 165% for the S&P)
- 2 New Stock Picks Every Month
- Investment Community With 700,000+ Loyal Members
- 30-Day Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee
- Joy Wallet Reader Deal: The Motley Fool is offering 50% off its top stock-picking service for new members (Limited Time)
Seeking Alpha features
Ratings
Seeking Alpha has three stock ratings: Quant ratings, Seeking Alpha Author Ratings, and Wall Street analysts ratings.
Quant ratings
For me, the quant ratings are what make Seeking Alpha stand out. This unique, quantitative analysis is only fully available to paid Pro and Premium members. A limited version is included in the free membership.
Seeking Alpha’s proprietary, quantitative systematic trading algorithm selects its best Strong Buy recommendations. The best stocks it finds have the best attributes of value, growth, profitability, EPS revisions, and stock price momentum. Those metrics are weighed against other stocks in the sector to arrive at a predictive value.
Over the past 10 years, this backtested strategy has yielded impressive returns compared to the S&P 500, beating the market nine out of 10 years, according to Seeking Alpha. It says that stocks rated 4.5 or higher beat the S&P 500 by about four times: 1,754% vs. 385%.
Seeking Alpha Author Ratings
Seeking Alpha Author Ratings requires a paid subscription. The ratings are average ratings from Seeking Alpha authors, showing what the community thinks about specific stock tickers. Paid members can view current author stock ratings and author rating history.
Wall Street ratings
A collection of ratings from Wall Street financial analysts is updated weekly from over 100 Wall Street banks and brokerages.
Stock screener
Seeking Alpha has two main stock screeners, both requiring a paid subscription. One is a stock screener for its top-rated stocks, offered at both paid membership levels to help you find stock ideas. The other is a stock screener for investing ideas only available to Seeking Alpha Pro members.
The top-rated stocks screener lets subscribers screen for the stocks with the best author, quant, and Wall Street ratings, all in the same place. Within seconds, you can find stocks considered “very bullish” and considered strong buys.
Users can also create stock screeners with 100 metrics to filter and find stock market investments.
Earnings calls
Even the most active investors may find this work overwhelming, but if you want to perform technical analysis and analyze a stock’s earnings history or earnings per share revisions, Seeking Alpha offers earnings and conference call recordings to subscribers.
The calls can be listened to whenever you want, or you can read the earnings call transcripts at leisure.
Dividend stocks
Seeking Alpha offers dividend grades with different scores for a company’s dividend safety, growth, yield, and consistency. This makes it easy to find good dividend stocks, such as ones that have steadily increased their dividends over the last few years.
Portfolio management
All three Seeking Alpha plans allow users to sync a stockbroker portfolio with its website. Users can then build and manage their stocks and ETFs, receive alerts, read personalized news and articles, and use the site’s calendar to see when their stocks issue reports.
However, only paid members can see three types of ratings for each stock in their portfolio and get alerts about upgrades and downgrades.
Use Motley Fool's Stock Advisor To Invest
- Over 100 Stock Picks with 100%+ Returns
- Averaged Stock Pick Return over 593% (vs. 165% for the S&P)
- 2 New Stock Picks Every Month
- Investment Community With 700,000+ Loyal Members
- 30-Day Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee
- Joy Wallet Reader Deal: The Motley Fool is offering 50% off its top stock-picking service for new members (Limited Time)
Who is Seeking Alpha best for?
Seeking Alpha has something for every investing strategy, though active investors may get the most out of it.
Beginners. The Basic plan is free, so there’s no risk for new investors to try it out for as long as they’d like. They may quickly see, however, how much they’re missing out by not being a subscriber.
They'll be taken to the subscription page whenever they click on something behind the paywall. Do this a few times, and you may at least try a free 14-day trial for a Premium plan, which will cost $4.95 per month afterward. Trying out the extra features for a few months is still a bargain.
Intermediate-level investors. Investors saving for retirement or other goals may want to jump into the Premium plan. At $4.95 a month or $239 upfront for one year, a Premium subscription is inexpensive and should be more than enough information to help them reach investment decisions. The quant ratings alone can be worth the cost.
Professional investors. Serious investors living at it may benefit from a Seeking Alpha Pro subscription. It costs $99 for one month or $2,400 upfront for a year. Short sales are allowed in the Pro membership, and traders can contribute to the Seeking Alpha community by sharing their investing opinions.
Who shouldn’t use Seeking Alpha?
You don’t trust crowdsourcing. We’re not knocking the crowdsourcing at Seeking Alpha, but some people may not be comfortable getting their investing ideas from an open pool of people on the internet. Trending information can be informative, but much of the site’s research is from individual users, so following what they say should include checking an investment’s fundamentals through financial statements and historical performance.
You don’t want to pay for investment research. Paying for a premium service can seem like it’s not worth it when so much online information is free. If money is tight or you don’t see much benefit from being a paid subscriber at Seeking Alpha, sign up for a Basic membership for free and use it as often as you like. And if you want to check out some of the extras, try a free trial and cancel it within two weeks so your credit card isn’t charged.
Pros and cons
Pros
- The quant ratings are forecasts that can be worth the subscription price alone.
- Earnings calls are a unique service offered to subscribers.
- At $239 annually, the Premium plan is relatively inexpensive for all of the features it has.
- Plans can be canceled at anytime online.
Cons
- The free Basic plan may not be enough for many users, who may quickly run into a paywall.
- Joining an investing community may not be your style.
- The amount of data and articles can be overwhelming.
Seeking Alpha vs. Motley Fool vs. Stock Rover
Here’s how Seeking Alpha stacks up against The Motley Fool Stock Advisor and Stock Rover.
Research site | Starting cost | Best feature |
Seeking Alpha | Free, or $4.95/month, $239/year | Quant ratings |
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor | $199/year | 2 new stock picks monthly |
Stock Rover | $80/year | Active trading tools |
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor has regularly outperformed the market. Beginners and moderate-level traders may benefit the most from its investment advice and educational services. Every month, its two founders share their monthly stock recommendations, which have a record of performing well.
Stock Rover
Stock Rover provides enough real-time information and has active trading tools that users may want to use two computer monitors at home. It has a robust, data-oriented platform should be a good fit for anyone who trades regularly.
Use Motley Fool's Stock Advisor To Invest
- Over 100 Stock Picks with 100%+ Returns
- Averaged Stock Pick Return over 593% (vs. 165% for the S&P)
- 2 New Stock Picks Every Month
- Investment Community With 700,000+ Loyal Members
- 30-Day Membership-Fee-Back Guarantee
- Joy Wallet Reader Deal: The Motley Fool is offering 50% off its top stock-picking service for new members (Limited Time)
FAQs
What’s so unique about Seeking Alpha?
The Seeking Alpha author ratings and its quant ratings are unique. We especially like the quant ratings, which are based on a proprietary, quantitative algorithm. Buying the Strong Buy recommendations over the past 10 years has beaten the S&P 500 by a multiple of four, according to Seeking Alpha.
Do I have to be an active investor to use this site?
No. Active traders may benefit the most, but beginners can pick some Strong Buy stocks based on the quant ratings and hold them for years. They may want to get stock alerts and check regularly to see if their stocks have fallen off the Strong Buy list, but otherwise a passive investor should benefit from Seeking Alpha’s recommendations.
Can I trade stocks through Seeking Alpha?
No. Few investment research websites perform trades unless they’re also a brokerage. Instead, you can sync your portfolio with Seeking Alpha, and then must make trades on your broker’s website. Syncing your portfolio is available at any membership level, even the free, Basic one.
The bottom line
Seeking Alpha is one of those investment expenses you may not need until you come across it. Paying $239 annually can at first look like a waste of money for stock picks, but the Strong Buy stock picks from the site’s quant ratings have earned a 4X return over the S&P 500 over the last decade. That may be reason enough for beginners and moderate traders to pay for at least a few months of service and see if they can beat Wall Street.
Joy Wallet is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor, financial advisor, loan broker, insurance producer, or insurance broker. Its articles, interactive tools and other content are provided to you for free, as self-help tools and for informational purposes only. They are not intended to provide investment advice. Joy Wallet does not and cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information in regard to your individual circumstances. We encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific investment issues. Featured estimates are based on past market performance, and past performance is not a guarantee of future performance.
Our site doesn’t feature every company or financial product available on the market. We are compensated by our partners, which may influence which products we review and write about (and where those products appear on our site), but it in no way affects our recommendations or advice. Our editorials are grounded on independent research. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services.
We value your privacy. We work with trusted partners to provide relevant advertising based on information about your use of Joy Wallet’s and third-party websites and applications. This includes, but is not limited to, sharing information about your web browsing activities with Meta (Facebook) and Google. All of the web browsing information that is shared is anonymized. To learn more, click on our Privacy Policy link.
Images appearing across JoyWallet are courtesy of shutterstock.com.
Writer
Aaron Crowe is a freelance journalist who specializes in personal finance writing and editing. He has worked at newspapers, where he won a Pulitzer Prize, and has written for numerous online publications. These include AOL, US News & World Report, WiseBread, Bankrate, AARP, and many websites focusing on housing, credit and insurance. He lives in California with his wife and daughter.
Share this article
