Best Stock Advisor Services

It’s super easy to get started with stock trading these days all thanks to the power of modern technology and the ever-aggressive stock brokerages. What you, however, need to keep in mind is that your likelihood of failure as a swing or day trader is quite high if you lack accurate and timely information. This is where the services of a good stock advisor come in handy.

A stock advisor is just that – a service that identifies specific stocks based on their potential and recommends them to you. Of course, you’re free to trade or ignore them as you may deem fit

Top-Rated Stock Advisors For Investors & Traders in 2023

motley fool stock advisor e1588909024527

1. Motley Fool Stock Advisor

Let’s not fool around, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor service is probably the best there is in the game so far. They have been doing this since 2002 and have so far maintained a consistent track-record of beating the market.

The company behind this stock picking service was established in 1993 by Tom Gardner and David Gardner (two brothers).

One distinct characteristic of the Motley Fool Stock Advisor is that it tends to focus on well-known stocks. For some reason, they avoid going for the relatively unknown and potentially undervalued stocks instead choosing to work with the big boys like Netflix, Zoom, NVIDIA, Pinterest, and the likes.

According to data on their official website, the service currently helps over 1.75 million traders and investors “attain financial freedom.” And their performance in the recent past seems to back those claims.

For instance, their stock pick from 2016 through to 2021 averaged 171% in returns which was almost twice as much as the S&P 500 which recorded 92% average returns.

And remember those are just the average figures. The real performance of some of the stocks is a lot higher than that. Of course, they also have a few losing ones too.

The company gives ten stock picks per month after analyzing 300 stocks.

Pros

  • Easy to use
  • Fantastic discount for first-time users
  • Access to educational materials
  • High degree of transparent
  • Consistent track record

Cons

  • Not ideal for aggressive day trading
  • They often get some stocks wrong
trade ideas website 1

2. Trade Ideas

Trade Ideas is not your usual stock advisory service. The company has a fully automated AI market scanner called Holly that automatically generates stock picks for you.

So, just how effective is Holly? Can she be trusted with doing a job that only the best financial analysts are capable of doing?

First off, unlike human traders and portfolio managers, Holly is not capable of engaging in an emotional reaction to different conditions in the market. Data appearing on the Nasdaq website shows that the AI bot has consistently outperformed the SPY sometimes more than by double digits.

Another thing, Trade Ideas’ performance between January 2020 and January 2022 stood at 69% profitability effectively netting a profit of $34,756 from a $50,000 starting equity.

What we like about this kind of AI stock advisory is that it provides you with a consistent stream of alerts on a day-to-day basis. This is unlike manual services like Motley Fool Stock Advisor which only give 2 trade alerts per month.

Therefore, if you are an active day-trader or swing trader, this is definitely something you should keep in mind.

And the best part, it’s now possible to fully automate your trading experience with Trade Ideas. The company’s newly launched Brokerage+ tool enables you to directly link Holly’s analytics to your favorite brokerage. That way, you can focus on other things in life and leave Holly’s expertise to run the show for you.

Pros

  • Can be fully automated
  • Eliminates human emotions
  • Demo version available
  • 30-day guarantee
  • Awesome customer support
  • Consistent track-record

Cons

  • Hefty starting price tag
motley fool rule breakers e1601988907938

3. Motley Fool Rule Breakers

Unlike its sister the Stock Advisor, The Rule Breakers service tends for focus more on the up-and-coming companies as opposed to well-established corporations. This gives you the opportunity to tap into the potential of undervalued stocks something that can help you rope in some decent winnings.

On the flipside, though, some of these so-called small stocks tend to be riskier to trade as compared to those from the mega-corporations.

Fortunately, if done right, an investment in undervalued stocks can significantly transform your investment portfolio once such stocks start to gain the attention of the wider market.

Like with the Stock Advisor service, subscribers to the Rule Breakers service receive stock suggestions at least once per month. In total, one can look forward to receiving 5 stock picks per month chosen from a pool of over 200 stocks. Yup, those are 5 fewer than what you’d get under the Stock Advisor tier.

You have to be deliberate about choosing Rule Breakers over its sibling. Simply put, Rule Breakers is the best stock advisor for those looking to explore new possibilities and embrace a higher degree of risk for potentially better returns over time.

Pros

  • Great track record
  • High-potential undiscovered stocks
  • Beats the S&P 500 year after year
  • Great customer support
  • 30-day guarantee

Cons

  • Fewer stock picks than Stock Advisor
  • Slightly more expensive than Stock Advisor
seeking alpha

4. Seeking Alpha

This is yet another stock picks website whose suggestions consistently beats the S&P 500's. Home to over 16,000 investors, Seeking Alpha is home to veteran editors whose pieces are read and discussed by stock traders even on the Wallstreet. With this level of heightened scrutiny, you can rest assured that they are always under pressure to deliver suggestions that work.

Apart from their in-depth research pieces, the Seeking Alpha platform is home to a variety of analysis tools, market data, and a Trending News feed.

Using this service’s built-in tools, one can decide which stocks to follow and even receive alerts as needed.

What's more, anyone with a thirst for new information can immerse themselves in the numerous videos and podcasts provided here.

At the heart of this platform is the Seeking Alpha Quant which is an AI-powered system that identifies stocks with the strongest potential.

Operating on the basis of “Quantamental” analysis, this algorithm has been delivering impressive results since 2009.

Just to give you an idea of just how effective this system is, if you had invested $10,000 in 2010 as per the Quant's suggestions, your investment would have grown to over $160,000 by now. The same investment would have been slightly over $30,000 under the S&P 500.

Pros

  • Unlimited investment ideas
  • Great consistency over time
  • Good customer support
  • Simple enough for newbies to comprehend
  • Proprietary scoring

Cons

  • Quite pricey
  • They don’t make outright buy recommendations
zacks premium

5. Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research has been around since 1978. Within that time, they have constantly improved their stock picks tool making it probably one of the top-rated stock advisor services available out there currently.

The “Strong Buy” and “Buy” alerts have consistently outperformed the S&P 500 since 1988. That said, their “Hold,” “Sell,” and “Strong Sell” signals seem to be doing terribly evidently underperforming when measured against the S&P over a period of 34 years.

Clearly, Zacks is not necessarily a crystal ball. But even then, the service can still help one build their investment portfolio especially when used moderately. For instance, you’d be a lot more likely to succeed with Zacks if you only stick to the stocks that they rate as “Buy” or “Strong Buy.”

There are two things we really love about this stock picking service. First off, we absolutely love their professional stock research tools, these can come in handy when you need to develop your own trading strategy for the long-haul. Besides that, we absolutely love the fact that with this company you enjoy access to verified historical performance.

Pros

  • Access to historical performance
  • Good customer support
  • Regulated by the SEC
  • Long track record
  • Beginner-friendly design

Cons

  • Weak hold & sell signals
  • High account minimum
morningstar dashboard

6. MorningStar

One morning in 1985 (pun intended), Morningstar began providing a rating service for mutual funds. Since then, the company has slowly but surely introduced all manner of enhancements to its tools – and this has led to the birth of the Morningstar Premium.

Morningstar Premium is home to a full suite of services that are specifically meant for savvy traders.

One of those services is the Ratings system which has since become an industry favorite. This system rates stocks on a score of 1 to 5 based on data that is independently analyzed by AI, not humans.

Then there is the “Analyst Insights and Picks” package which as the name suggests is all about giving stock picks based on cutting-edge analysis. Indeed, behind the Morningstar brand are more than 150 independent analysts who provide their insights regarding different picks. This ensures that the final suggestions you get are independent and yet well-thought-out.

And to top it all up is a powerful screener that combs through different stock markets to identify investment opportunities that suit your preferred criteria.

Overall, we think that Morningstar can be a great addition for anyone who has been actively managing their own portfolio. It's a great research and insights platform. Above all, its stock picks can be quite helpful when one needs to zero-in on great but elusive opportunities.

Pros

  • 14-day free trial period
  • Wide market coverage
  • A ton of data available
  • Easy to navigate

Cons

  • Some screener tools are clunky
  • Not as laser-focused as Motley Fool

What Features Set the Best Stock Advisor Apart from the Rest?

In a world full of options, don't be surprised to come across "advisors" who can hardly account for their experience. That's why it's important to be picky before settling for anyone to pick advice from.

Want to know if you're about to work with the best stock advisor or an over-glorified fly-by-night scam artist? These are the key pointers to keep in mind.

Track Record

Even though past results do not necessarily reflect what will happen in the future, looking at a stock advisor’s past performance can give you a rough idea of what to expect. Granted, even the best advisor will often get a couple of calls wrong, but they generally tend to make the right ones more often than the wrong ones.

Experience

It’s not enough to have a few months of track record (short streaks of success often come down to luck). When it comes to finding the right partner for your investment journey you need to work with a stock picker with several years of experience. 

You want to work with a picker who has at the very least 5 years of proven results. Normally, the more the years of experience, the better.

Integrity

In matters finance, integrity is probably the most important attribute to have. You want to work with a stock-picking service that is backed by good ethics and a high degree of transparency. Good service providers are always keen not to mislead their followers and are always quick to take responsibility when things do wrong.

Stock advisors who only report their winning trades and leave out their losing trades are just but an example of folks who lack integrity and should never be trusted.

Free Trial Periods & Money Back Guarantee

Credibility goes hand in hand with the availability of free trial periods and money-back guarantee. With such measures in place, it is possible to test-drive a service before committing to a long-term relationship with them.

It’s during the trial period that you can look out for any indicators of lack of transparency. These may include laying claims of profits for trades never executed or any other acts of conmanship.

Last but not least, the best stock advisor is one who lets you understand their stock-picking strategy. They explain their strategies and also the kind of data they focus on. This gives you an opportunity to do your homework and see to it that you choose a partner whose methods align with your overall goals.

Conclusion

There is nothing like a one-size-fits-all stock advisor service. The truth is, all the stock picking companies in this review use different approaches and excel in different ways.

Overall, the two services from Motley Fool i.e., Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers seem like good choices for long-term traders. They are also beginner-friendly although they require you to be proactive if you want to get the most out of them.

Trade Ideas with its Holly AI and Brokerage+ functionalities is a fantastic choice for those looking to fully automate their trading.

Seeking Alpha can be a great alternative to Motley Fool’s services. Zacks is a wonderful platform for long trading and lastly, Morningstar stands out as a potentially good service for traders looking for complementary alerts in order to perfect their already existing strategies.