Investing in single stocks can be a tricky affair especially if you have no prior experience or don't have the time to assess the stocks and pick winners. Fortunately, you can find reprieve in the Gorilla Trade and Motley Fool platforms. Ultimately, they are designed to help you choose winning stocks for your portfolio.
But let’s face it – they are not exactly alike or perfect. A sneak peek at their reviews proves that they typically attract praise and criticism in equal measure.
And since both are popular stock-picking services, why don't we compare them head-to-head? This way, you can have an easier time deciding which one’s perfect for your investment strategy.
Motley Fool
Overall Rating: 4.6/5
Gorilla Trades
Overall Rating: 4.3/5
About Motley Fool
As we have just mentioned, the Gorilla Trades and the Motley Fool are reputed stock-picking services. The Motley Fool features a stock advisor service that is designed to help you buy stocks for long-term investments. The tool looks at a stock's outlook as well as its fundamentals and subsequently recommends purchasing and holding a collection of stocks for ten years or more.
About Gorilla Trades
Gorilla Trades on the other hand is a service that is more suitable for active traders as it depends on technical analysis. That means assessing a stock's price fluctuations to forecast whether the price will rise or fall. This makes it a great tool for investors who want to be actively involved with their portfolios constantly.
How they Work
Simply put, the Motley Fool is a stock-picking tool that provides investors with regular updates about the stocks it feels are worth purchasing.
The flagship stock advisor service from the platform also offers premium subscriptions. According to the founders, Stock Advisor has attained a 544% return since its launch which is quite impressive. The Motley Fool also recommends at least 10 stocks at any given time.
On the other hand, Gorilla Trades is a dynamic stock-picking system that examines 6,000 stocks every day to find those that satisfy the requirements for different technical limits. This makes it possible for the service to forecast buy and sell options.
Subscribers to the tool get emails every day with predictions and updates about trading stocks to different target prices. The Gorilla Trades has several stocks at any given time with one or two picks per day. This will vary though because the platform will not recommend stocks that don't meet its standards.
Unique Features
The Motley Fool takes a jokey approach to investing but you don't need to be concerned that it is not a serious stock-picking tool. The approach is supposed to make its newsletters informative but funny. The platform recognizes that there are winners and losers but emphasizes the need to pick stocks well that will continually overtake the markets.
Gorilla Trades is more of a mechanical service as it picks stocks through the computer only that a human helps to deliver information regarding what to sell or buy. In short, it offers advice daily in an active trading style about buying and selling.
Historical Performance
It is not easy to directly compare the two platforms when it comes to historical performance and this is because they use different trading systems and also because Gorilla Trades does not record its performance.
This then automatically makes the Motley Fool one of the most successful stock picking services available. Since its inception in 2002, the platform has produced returns of 504% which we think is quite commendable.
Investing Style
As far as the investing style, Gorilla Trades can be termed as an active investing service that uses technical signals. It scrutinizes all sectors in the market to find price patterns. Stock picks are placed on subscriber radars after each trading day and triggered when stocks get to a particular price. You may also want to note that the platform has no consideration for fundamentals at all as all positions are usually open for a maximum of several months.
Conversely, the Motley Fool employs a fundamental approach to investing and overlooks technical analysis. Instead, the platform picks stocks based on their ability to grow over time. That said; the service does not use conventional fundamental analysis in most cases. Rather, it finds factors that differentiate companies such as new technology and visionary leadership.
Most of the picks by the platform are new industries and companies that are yet to mature even though it sometimes features established giants. As for Stock Advisor positions, they are usually open for a year to three years.
Stock Pick Frequency and Format
It should not surprise you that the Motley Fool and Gorilla Trades offer their picks differently. By that, we mean that the Motley Fool's system is quite simple and employs a hands-off approach. Its subscribers get a newsletter that contains two stock picks through their emails once a month.
Other than that, you get a clear explanation about why the stocks were picked. All you are required to do is invest them in the next trading day. Another thing about the platform is that it offers a list of "Starter Stocks" which comprises stocks that the founders believe every investor needs in their portfolio. Thus, this tool can be extremely useful if it is your first time building an investment portfolio.
On the other hand, Gorilla Trades sends daily emails after market close with an update on the current portfolio and one new stock pick. Now, each stock comes with an annotated chart that outlines the confirmation volume, two price targets, a stop-loss price, and the trigger price.
Stocks usually trigger once they reach their trigger price although the position is not confirmed. If you want to be notified when a stock pick triggers, you can opt to have notifications sent to you through text message.
Pricing Comparison
Gorilla Trades will cost you $495 annually, while The Motley Fool goes for $99 for the first year and $199 annually after that. In our view, that is a massive difference that in a way reflects that Gorilla Trades is an all-inclusive service that comes with daily stock picks. That said; the Motley Fool is surprisingly inexpensive given the long-term benefits.
Who Are They Best For?
Both the Motley Fool and Gorilla Trades are first-rated services in their areas of specialization. Nevertheless, their differing focuses make them ideal for different kinds of investors.
Motley Fool is ideal for long-term passive traders. Although there are always new and occasional recommendations, Motley Fool investors can count on not spending too much time trading. All you are required to do is read the emails sent to you and choose the stocks to retain in your portfolio.
Gorilla Trades is suitable for investors who prefer an active approach in terms of logging in to enter orders as often as they want. Although it will cost you a bit more, you get five times more the number of emails and twice as many stocks for trading.
This is simply to say that you should go for the Motley Fool if you focus on a company's fundamentals when looking to invest. It is a lower-risk investment plan.
Gorilla Trade is for investors who want to trade actively and are focused on a short time horizon. It can be risky, but it is also exciting.
Finial Verdict
Both the Motley Fool and Gorilla Trades are high-quality stock-picking tools. Whichever you pick will largely depend on the approach you prefer when it comes to investing as well as your budget.
However, we would recommend subscribing to both services if your budget allows. You can use the Motley Fool for your long-term goals and Gorilla trades for the short-term. That would be a winning recipe, don't you think?
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