We all want to see our portfolios and wealth grow – be it with buy-and-hold strategies or short-term trade alerts. Stock picking services sound like a great solution to archive that goal.
But our days are packed with multiple other tasks, making it challenging to find the best stock picking service that combines an excellent reputation and a proven track record with high returns and a fair pricing structure by testing and comparing all of them.
To help you get started, I have tested multiple services, and below, you’ll find my ten favorite stock picking services with helpful comparison tables.
Best Stock Picking Services
1. The Motley Fool Stock Advisor
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor is a valuable choice for beginner investors who want to save the time typically needed to analyze hundreds of stocks manually to instead rely on a well-knowledged team that comes up with insightful analysis twice per month.
The Motley Fool combines a fair pricing structure with a high transparency level about the stock picks and additionally provides helpful guidance and valuable insights. Members receive all new stock picks and also get access to the entire database of all previously chosen stocks (including all details such as date, entry price, stock symbol, etc.)
With all that positive aspects in mind, caution is needed since the portfolio is periodically volatile, as you can see on the performance graph, demonstrating that there are better ideas than going all-in with the whole portfolio.
Pros
- Highly transparent service used by over 1 million investors
- Convincing track record since inception in 2002
- 30-day membership fee refund period
Costs
- The Motley Fool Stock Advisor membership costs $199 per year
$89 In the First Year Instead of $199 for New Members
2. Zacks Premium
Zacks stands for a suite of powerful investment research tools and regularly goes head-to-head with Seeking Alpha in the battle for the best annual performance based on algorithm-based stock rankings.
All U.S. listed stocks are scored with a proprietary rating system, and Premium users can sort and filter the list by multiple parameters like ranking and price.
Additional benefits include access to advanced charting and various stock screeners, where you can filter stocks based on fundamental data and earnings surprises, which makes Zacks Premium a good choice for investors who want to save time on fundamental research while still having the flexibility to choose stocks from the Zacks #1 Rank List.
Especially the 30-day free trial is exceptionally helpful since it provides enough time to intensively test the offering in great detail to decide whether to pay for an entire year.
Pros
- An average return of +25.4% per year since inception
- Stock screener access included
- Zacks Premium 30-day free trial available
Costs
- Zacks Premium costs $249 per year. A 30-day free trial is available.
30-Day Free Trial
3. Seeking Alpha Premium
Seeking Alpha is a well-known finance website with stock market news, research capabilities and analysis functionalities used by over 26 million users monthly (according to Similarweb).
The free version is already an excellent choice for research and basic analysis, while the paid Premium version adds more value in terms of research capabilities and analysis tools.
The integrated Quant Ratings categorize each stock (strong buy, buy, hold, sell or strong sell) along with a score based on the value, growth, momentum, EPS revisions and profitability.
In addition, users gain access to all premium articles, analyst ratings, peer comparisons, stock screeners and more. Additional features are the integrated portfolio tracker, the market pulse with critical market updates, and education via webinars and podcasts.
Pros
- Quant-based stock grades
- Reasonable annual subscription fees
Costs
- The subscription to Alpha Picks by Seeking Alpha costs $199 per year. Seeking Alpha Premium costs $239 per year.
20% Discount and 7-Day Free Trial
4. Bullseye Trades
Bullseye Trades is a weekly newsletter issued by Jeff Bishop and the best stock picking service for options traders. The service is intended for investors who want to tie less capital to a trading position, by trading options contracts instead of buying shares.
Jeff combines educational resources on options trading with weekly trade alerts in this service. Every Monday morning, subscribers get a new trade alert with a detailed outline of company insights and the reason for the trade.
In addition, Jeff provides options contract details, profit targets and stop loss price levels. Furthermore, Jeff publishes a new weekly recap video about the trade and how it worked.
The member dashboard grants access to the entire archive of previous newsletters and recommendations and the options trading course with 20 tutorials and video lessons.
Pros
- Weekly trading ideas for options traders
- Options trading course included
Costs
- A subscription to Bullseye Trades costs $97 per quarter.
51.5% Off ($47 per quarter)
5. Bear Bull Traders
Bear Bull Traders was founded in 20215 by Andrew Aziz, a best-selling Author of various trading-related books, including How to Day Trading. The trading community quickly became one of the most reputational sources and provided a great mix of education, live trading, trading technologies and mentorship.
Bear Bull Traders does not provide long-term investment advice. Instead, Andrew and his team focus on day trading and partially swing trading. In the morning, Andrew Aziz and his colleague Brian Pezim start analyzing the market about 15 minutes before the market open and then day trade live with screen share once the regular trading session begins.
That makes Bear Bull Traders a great place to learn how to pick the right stocks for day trading and to gather insights on how to day trade picked stocks. In addition, Brian shares his swing trading ideas every weekend with subscribers. Keep in mind that it is always reasonable to start day trading by using a real-time trading simulator first.
Pros
- Live trading with screen share
- Excellent mix of educational and live-trading aspects
Costs
- The Elite plan provides full access to all features and costs $199 per month or $2,399 per year.
30% Off Elite Plans With Coupon Code DAYTRADINGZ
6. Warrior Trading
Warrior Trading belongs to the best stock picking websites. Ross Cameron and his team do an outstanding job at teaching beginners how to trade. They trade every day, live and in real-time.
Ross and his team share their trading screens with subscribers. This way, it’s easy to follow his stock picks and decisions. Their brand new chat room software connects you to the video and audio feed. You can see and hear what they’re trading in real time. When Ross picks a stock or executes trades, you will see and listen to it live on your computer.
Also, Ross publishes follow-up videos every trading day. How much does it cost to watch those daily recap videos? Nothing! They’re available for free on YouTube – alongside other free trading education lessons.
Warrior Trading also provides a daily stock watchlist sent to newsletter subscribers daily.
Pros
- Live day trading alerts
- Proven track record with public account statements
Costs
- All Warrior Trading courses require a one-time fee payment for lifetime access. Warrior Starter costs $997, Warrior Plus is $2,497 and Warrior Pro $3,997. Access to the scanners, chat room, news, live stream, and mentor sessions costs between $97 and $197 per month.
Warrior Pro 14 Days of Access for $19
7. Trade Ideas
Trade Ideas is slightly different from the stock picking services mentioned before because the trade alerts are generated automatically by Trade Ideas’ artificial-intelligence-empowered market scanner.
Users can either rely on the AI-based scans, define their own scanner algorithms, or receive trade alerts automatically from the pre-defined market scans.
The number of trade alerts widely varies depending on the scanner settings, but it is clear that the service is favorable for day traders. So if you want to trade the stock market daily or let the computer execute your trades, Trade Ideas is an excellent choice.
Additional features such as the integrated backtesting module, the traders’ chat room and the newly introduced stock racing make it even more compelling to active traders.
Pros
- Stock scanners for over 8,000 stocks
- A.I. technology backed products and services
- Charting, backtesting, automated trading, education and more included
- TI-Strength alerts are available separately
Costs
- Trade Ideas Standard costs $118 per month or $999 per year. Trade Ideas Premium costs $228 per month or $1,999 per year.
15% Off With Coupon Code DAYTRADINGZ
8. Alpha Picks
Alpha Picks is a quant-based stock picking service issued by Seeking Alpha. The service uses the algorithmic power of the quant system and provides subscribers with two specific stock picks every month.
In the backtest period, the S&P500 grew +290% since 2010, while the Alpha Picks algorithms archived a return of +470%. Since it’s going live in 2022, Alpha Picks performed with +105.6%, while the S&P500 performed with +32.84%.
Every investment newsletter comes with a stock pick, an insightful company description, a detailed reason for the trade and data-driven insights. Seeking Alpha also continues to inform subscribers about updates on previous recommendations.
Pros
- Objective and unemotional buy recommendations based on Quant algorithms
- Backtests indicate that the stock picks perform better than the broad S&P 500 stock market index
- Reasonable annual subscription fees
Cons
- Alpha Picks is a relatively new investment newsletter
Costs
- The subscription to Alpha Picks by Seeking Alpha costs $499 per year.
Buy for $499
Best Stock Picking Services Summary
The best stock picking service for investors is The Motley Fool Stock Advisor. Traders consider the low-cost offer from Bullseye Trades. All services successfully utilize effective methods on how to pick stocks.
All-in-all, a proven track record, real-time screen sharing for day traders, and a fair pricing structure are important things to consider when signing up for a stock picking service, and all mentioned services greatly deliver in those aspects.
What Makes a Good Stock Picking Service or Stock Advisor?
The challenge is to find a stock picking service that is transparent regarding the entry and exit prices, and investors and traders need to be able to copy those trades to archive similar returns. I found over 30 vendors in this sector, but only ten services made it to this top list.
You know how it is. If something sounds too good, the probability of something being wrong increases. Without a doubt, there are many great investors and traders out there. They may make considerable money by investing in stocks and growing their portfolio constantly in the long run.
However, even institutional investors have to expect market downturns, and a portfolio’s performance will always have ups and down.
All-in-all, for subscribers to such services, it is essential to archive similar results as those lined out by the vendor. Therefore it is crucial to focus on the following key aspects:
Proven Track Record
Excellent stock picking services offer subscribers access to the most recent stock picks or even the entire history with all details about trade entries and exits. A stock advisor has to be transparent, and it should be crystal clear how the service works, how the tradings signals are used, and how a similar performance can be archived by following their signals. It is also important that the performance is steady with proven long-term success.
Similar Performance
It is great to see when a stock rallies, but it is better if you’re on the train once it leaves the railroad station. Therefore, it is crucial for an investor that the stock picks can be to a portfolio for the same price or nearly the same price as the service. Investors are well-advised not to follow an investment advisory service and do their research blindly. Stock trades on individual stocks for the own portfolio have their benefits, but ETFs and mutual funds with low cost ratios can be a clever alternative.
Low Cost and Fees
An investor wants to make money in the financial markets, and the lower the costs associated with the investment process, the higher the overall returns. Stocks can be traded with zero commissions these days. That’s a meaningful benefit for investors and traders. The fixed monthly costs should also be held as low as possible, independently from the trading style. An investor may receive an alert that boosts the stock significantly. But in the end, only the net profit counts.
Educational Components
The stock market is a world of income opportunities. Choosing the right stocks with human advice or using a stock screener tool benefits the investor. But educational aspects provide additional benefits, and you can become your stock advisor with suitable educational material. Stock advisor services provide helpful investment research and fundamental analysis to find undervalued stocks. Penny stock day traders most frequently use technical analysis to trade penny stocks.
Common Sense
As often in life, when something looks too good, it usually is. The same holds true for the financial markets and vendors in this segment. So if someone advertises with +10,000% in 1 month, is it likely that this can be real? No, of course not!
Higher-risk trading strategies come with potentially higher returns but also a higher risk to your account, while more conservative investments typically cause less volatility in the portfolio. And not everything that looks like financial advice is financial advice, since only registered financial advisors can legitimately provide such advice.
FAQs
What is the best stock picking service?
Trade Ideas A.I. and Bullseye Trades are the best stock picking services. A.I.-powered stock analysis and experienced analyst teams, combined with a fair pricing structure, let their services stand out from competitors. In this article, you will find the best stock picking services with in-depth insights and discounts that help you save money.
Are stock picking services worth it?
Yes. Stock picking services are especially worth it for new subscribers: a well-educated team and a strong reputation across the web back a stock advisor service. The value of a stock advisor service differs from case to case, and it is reasonable to start practicing trading the trade alerts in a simulated environment.
