SeekingAlpha.com promotes themselves as “the world’s largest investing community powered by the wisdom and diversity of crowdsourcing.”
Since their launch in 2004 they have become one of the most popular stock research sites, with over 20 million visits per month.
Like most sites, some of their information is available for free; but the valuable information is only available to paid or Premium users. For example, one premium feature is their “Quant Rating” which since 2010 has identified stocks that have returned 4x the SP 500.
So is Seeking Alpha worth it?
If you want to buy stocks that are mostly likely to outperform the market, and avoid those stocks that are likely to underperform, then YES it is definitely worth it. Keep reading and I will tell you what you need to know about Seeking Alpha.
A Quick Intro To SeekingAlpha.com
The Seeking Alpha platform is powered by information, ideas, research, analysis, and opinions crowdsourced from its users.
This means that their users submit their thoughts and research on U.S. stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, commodities and cryptocurrencies. But this is no simple “message board.” Their posts are more like well thought out research reports that are then reviewed by the Seeking Alpha editorial staff to make sure the content passes a quality review.
They have over 7,000 writers and publish 10,000 stock opinions per month. But don’t worry, the Seeking Alpha team scrutinizes its authors carefully to make sure that they are credible and don’t have any conflicts of interest with the stocks they’re discussing.
In addition to all their contributed stock research, Seeking Alpha also provides a variety of stock ratings. These ratings include a Quantitative Analysis Rating, a Seeking Alpha Author Rating, and a Wall Street Rating. These ratings have proven to be valuable at predicting future performance. But here’s the catch. The Wall Street Ratings are available to free members; and the Quant and the Author Ratings are only available to Premium members.
Power of the Seeking Alpha Quant Rating
This one chart says it all. This is a backtest of investing $10,000 in the Very Bullish Quant rated stocks on January 1, 2010 thru 2021. That $10,000 would have grown to $178,592 compared to only $42,345 if $10,000 had been invested in the SP500 in 2010.
Conversely, investing in the Very BEARish stocks would have done this from 2010 to 2021. These stocks would have only returned 120% versus the SP 426%.
So the answer is to only buy VERY BULLISH stocks and avoid stocks rated VERY BEARISH.
It is that simple and takes the stress out of managing your own portfolio.
Membership Levels
You can become a “Basic” user with Seeking Alpha for free, but they also offer a “Premium” subscription for users who want to make the most of the tools and graphics featured on the platform.
The pricing is a bit confusing: Premium is $29.99 a month if you sign up to pay month-to-month. If you prepay the year, which is refundable, you will pay $239.88 a year (so that brings your monthly cost down to $19.99 per month). You can also prepay 3 years at $540 to bring your monthly cost down to $14.99 a month). So prepay at least one year, and if you want to cancel they will refund your pro-rata amount.
So, the question we’re here to answer today is…
…Is Seeking Alpha Premium worth the money?
Here is the quick answer: Stocks rated VERY BULLISH by Seeking Alpha’s “Quant Rating” are up 1,754% compared to the SP500’s 385% over the last 10 years.
Bottom line: Only buy stocks that are rated VERY BULLISH and don’t own any stocks rated VERY BEARISH!
CLICK HERE to try it for two weeks FREE.
Keep reading for more details…
What Is Seeking Alpha Premium?
Seeking Alpha Premium is essentially the “upgraded” version of the platform’s Basic membership.
You get access to lots of features you don’t get with a basic plan, plus extra capabilities on other features.
Let’s go ahead and talk about some of the differences between the Basic membership and the Premium Subscription.
Here are the features included with the Basic plan:
Follow authors and get new articles from them
Receive up to 15 newsletters by email
Read and post Blogs
Read, post, and track comments
See some Quant Ratings and underlying metrics
Review 5 years of financial statements
Compare 5 stocks at once
Sync your stock broker portfolio
Build and manage a portfolio of stocks or ETFs
Receive stock news and analysis email alerts
Receive earnings and transcripts email alerts
Read personalized news and articles
See the earnings calendar to know when your stocks report
The Basic plan is absolutely free. All you have to do is sign up for an account!
And if you sign up for a Premium subscription, you get access to the following:
Everything included in the Basic plan
See ALL Quant Ratings and underlying metrics
View Seeking Alpha author stock ratings
View Seeking Alpha author ratings performance
Get alerts on upgrades and downgrades on your portfolio
Less ads
Access all Premium investing ideas
Listen to earnings and conference call recordings
Screen for Top Rated Stocks with ratings screener
Access all stock earnings transcripts
Track each investing idea’s performance
View article sidebar: stock chart, key data, ratings
See stock dividend and earnings forecasts
Access Dividend Grades for each dividend stock
Review 10 years of financial statements
Compare 7 stocks at once
See the EPS Revisions Grade in the earnings calendar
The Premium subscription is an absolute must if you want to maximize the return of your portfolio and beat the SP500. At only $239 a year when you prepay for 12 months (as opposed to paying $30 month by month), the Premium plan is simply the best value for your buck. Plus, you can get a two-week trial of Seeking Alpha Premium, absolutely free! CLICK HERE to try it for two weeks FREE.
You can also get a three-year Premium subscription for $14.99 per month, or pay month-to-month for $29.99 per month.
Is Seeking Alpha Worth the Money?
Seeking Alpha is absolutely worth the money, if you use it the right way. Stocks rated “Very Bullish” on their Quant Rating have outperformed the SP 1,754% to 385%; and stocks rated “Very Bearish” have underperformed miserably. So only buy stocks rated “Very Bullish” and avoid all “Very Bearish” stocks!
So in order to prove to you that Premium is a worthwhile investment, we’re going to give you the top 5 reasons why we think you should go Premium.
#1: Top Rated Stocks Screener
The Top Rated Stocks screener is a special tool for Premium users that automatically finds you the most promising stocks by applying filters for the best quant ratings, Seeking Alpha author ratings, Wall Street analyst ratings, and several factor ratings.
When you use the Top Rated Stocks screener, you’re getting evaluations of a stock from three different perspectives, all with different motives and methods.
Seeking Alpha authors are independent investors who spend hours searching through news and financial statements in order to get a good read on the fundamentals of a stock.
Wall Street analysts are financial professionals who have access to expensive tools and research that help them build thorough financial models such as discounted cash flow (DCF) models that can provide a good estimate on the valuation of a company.
The quant, or quantitative analysis, system is an objective, unemotional stock evaluation system that is executed entirely through computer algorithms.
When you have a stock that is rated highly by all three of these sources, it will appear on the Top Rated Stocks screener, making it easy to know that you can be confident in the stocks on the list!
#2: Earnings Call Transcripts and Audio
With a Premium subscription to Seeking Alpha, you can read transcripts and listen to audio recordings of earnings and conference calls for stocks that aren’t covered anywhere else.
Earnings calls help us see if there were any surprises by comparing the last quarter’s earnings to what they were expected to be.
We can also use information given in earnings forecasts to make educated guesses on whether a stock’s price will rise or fall.
#3: Dividend Grades
Seeking Alpha has its own unique dividend grading system that helps you evaluate the strength, growth, and reliability of a stock’s dividend.
Dividend Grades give you a different score for a company’s dividend safety, growth, yield, and consistency.
If you’re looking to balance your portfolio out with a big-name, dividend producing company, or you want to pursue an income investing strategy, Seeking Alpha’s dividend grades can get you there.
#4: Quant Ratings and Metrics
Seeking Alpha’s quant system has a stellar history of beating the market, making it a valuable tool for deciding which stocks to invest in.
With a Premium subscription, you can see all quant ratings and underlying metrics that determine what quant rating stocks receive.
This level of depth is extremely useful if you have a specific investing strategy in mind and you want to get to the bottom of a stock’s quant rating.
#5: Stock Comparison
Let’s say you want to add an up-and-coming tech stock to your portfolio, but you’re stuck between a few different options.
Seeking Alpha will let you compare stocks side-by-side to help you decide which stock is the best by whatever standard is important to you.
With Seeking Alpha premium, you can compare 7 different stocks at the same time!
Remember: Stocks rated VERY BULLISH by Seeking Alpha’s “Quant Rating” are up 1,754% compared to the SP500’s 385% over the last 10 years.
Bottom line: Only buy stocks that are rated VERY BULLISH and don’t own any stocks rated VERY BEARISH!
CLICK HERE to try it for two weeks FREE.
Final Thoughts
Those are just five of our MANY reasons to sign up for Seeking Alpha Premium. If you’re looking for more, read our full Seeking Alpha review here!
CLICK HERE to try it for two weeks FREE.
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