One way to have an easy time in the stock markets is by using stock picking programs. There are many such platforms in the market, and it is easy to end up with something that either disappoints you badly or exceeds your expectations.
In that regard, we’d like to look at the top two leading stock-picking platforms available, i.e., Oxford Club and Motley Fool. Both of these platforms feature numerous stock-picking newsletters targeting different investment styles.
If you are torn between the two, worry not as we shall make a detailed comparison between them so that you can decide which one would work best for you.
Motley Fool
Overall Rating: 4.6/5
Oxford Club
Overall Rating: 4.3/5
About Motley Fool
Motley Fool is a brainchild of the Gardner brothers, i.e., Tom and David, who were keen on ensuring that novice investors had an easy time making a kill just like the established ones. So, they came up with a platform that would impart basic Wall Street knowledge to the investors and help them invest early enough in companies headed towards explosive growth.
And in 2002, the company founded the Stock Advisor newsletter, which has gathered over 700,000 subscribers to date.
About Oxford Club
Next up is the Oxford Club, which was launched in 1991 by William Bonner and is one of the programs offered by Agora Inc. The goal was to provide established investors with a platform where they could share ideas. All the investment advice was published on the company’s flagship newsletter known as the Oxford Communique’.
Over the years, the company has added more experts in different sectors to its team to enable it to expand its offerings. Up to date, the Club still offers monthly newsletters and trading services to its subscribers.
Apples to Apples Motley Fool vs Oxford Club Comparison
At this point, we shall compare different aspects of the two programs so that you can clearly see the distinction between them.
1. The Newsletters
Both platforms lay special emphasis on stock-picking newsletters, and we shall see where the difference arises between the two. The Oxford Club has three monthly newsletters, namely the Oxford Communique, the Oxford Income Letter, and the Strategic Trends Newsletter.
The Communique focuses on a few market-leading stocks while the Strategic Trends looks out for growth stocks taking advantage of emerging business and technological trends. As for the Income Letter, it mainly targets investors approaching retirement and focuses on dividend stocks.
Also worth mentioning is that the Club has 12 trading services that we could consider secondary newsletters. Keep in mind that they tend to be pricier than the main newsletters.
Heading over to Motley Fool, it has two flagship newsletters, which are Rule Breakers and Stock Advisor. The latter is run by both Tom and David, while the former is run by David and a team of analysts that he picked by himself.
The two Motley Fool’s newsletters focus on explosive growth stocks and aim to help you invest in promising companies before Wall Street picks up on them.
Further, Motley Fool also has specialized newsletters such as for real estate, options trading, dividends, etc. They do not have fixed prices and can go up to thousands of dollars per year.
2. The Stock Advisor vs. The Communique’
We thought it wise to compare the platforms’ flagship newsletters, i.e., the Motley Fool Stock Advisor and the Oxford Communique’. Both services are similar in that they are issued twice a month, and feature two stock picks alongside an analysis of the current portfolio.
Let’s now look at the differences, starting with the investment strategies. Stocks Advisor focuses on disruptive mid-and large-cap companies, most of which are in the tech industry. This is after observing a pattern of the tech companies being disruptive in recent times.
Then, most of the newsletter’s recommendations are meant to be held for at least five years.
On the other hand, Oxford Communique deals with large-cap stocks with a time horizon ranging between a few months to several years. The aim is to invest in top companies that are destined to move higher.
Another thing about the service is that it uses stop losses to reduce downside risks.
3. Additional Information
We also noted a difference in the amount of additional information that the two services offer to enable you to build your portfolio. Whereas the Communique’ only provides you with information regarding the current portfolio and new stock picks, the Stock Advisor will give you five ‘best buy now’ picks per month, which focus on stocks already in the portfolio.
4. Performance: Stock Advisor vs. The Communique
On the aspect of performance, it is impossible to make a comparison between the two services. Whereas the Oxford Communique’ has no public records of its historical performance, the Stock Advisor has done quite well and outperformed the market.
From the time it was launched back in 2002, it has returned 551% compared to 129% for the S&P 500.
5. The Pricing
After checking out what the Communique’ and the Stock Advisor have to offer, let’s now look at how much it will cost you to acquire their services. The latter goes for $199 per year, while the new subscribers will get their first year for $99.
Then, the Communique’ will cost you $49 for the first year and then $79 for the years that follow.
Which One Is Better?
Even though the ideal service depends on your investment strategy, we felt that Motley Fool would be a better choice for a stock picking service. First, it offers more investment newsletters than its competitor which we found to be quite remarkable.
Then, we were also impressed by the transparency that the platform offers on its newsletters’ investment strategy and performance. This means that you can view the historical performance and positions of most of the Motley Fool’s services to know what to expect.
Finial Verdict
We hope that our article clarifies what the two stock picking services, Motley Fool and Oxford Club, have to offer. Even though we consider the former to be ideal for most investors, this does not make the Oxford Club useless as there are investors who could find it useful.
With that, we hope you have an easy time choosing between the two services.
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