We did a Seeking Alpha review so you know what type of analysis and tools you can get from them. They’re unique in the world, and as traders, we’re always looking for a unique edge. And good quality analysis can provide that. When you have the right tools to pair with that analysis, that helps a lot. However, is SA worth the money? Are there free tools you can use? We’ll give you all the answers you seek as you read on and find out.
Table of Contents
Seeking Alpha Review Introduction
If you’ve done any sort of stock market research on the internet, you’ve no doubt come across those bright orange Seeking Alpha articles with attention grabbing titles on all of the hottest stocks. You’ve also probably been hit with Seeking Alpha’s paywall at some point as well. That’s because Seeking Alpha is a premium financial news site that relies on users to pay a subscription fee to unlock all of the best content. But is that all Seeking Alpha is? Another financial news site? Not exactly. Hence our Seeking Alpha review.
Seeking Alpha is a community based platform that relies on its members to pump out high quality articles for the world to read. Its writers are paid at a set rate; which depends on how many times their articles are read. In this way, Seeking Alpha is similar to sites like the Motley Fool. They generate a ton of articles per day and rely on user subscriptions to read them.
Seeking Alpha aims to be a one stop shop for all of your financial research. As a result, they even offers subscribers features like daily newsletters, earnings call transcripts, and keeping track of your own portfolio within the platform.
So as you can probably tell from the title, there are three different subscription levels for Seeking Alpha users. The first is the Basic Free subscription. Then there’s a Seeking Alpha Premium level. And finally a Seeking Alpha Pro level.
What Does Seeking Alpha Cost? (Pricing Review)
Basic Free Level
- Stock analysis email alerts
- Real-time news updates
- Investing newsletters
- Unlimited access to stock prices and charts
- Wall Street Ratings for every stock
- Limited Access to in-depth news and analysis
So, not a lot more than if you just clicked on a Seeking Alpha article from the internet. If you think you’d like some access to more features and articles, then you may want to check out the Seeking Alpha Premium subscription.
Premium Subscription
We found in our Seeking Alpha review that the premium subscription will cost you $19.99 per month if billed annually. Or you can choose 29.99 per month if billed monthly. With the Premium subscription, you get all of the Basic features as well as:
- Unlimited access to premium content
- Seeking Alpha author ratings
- Seeking Alpha author performance
- Stock Quant ratings
- Stock dividend guides
- Ad-lite settings
Getting unlimited access to premium content alone is well worth the low price of this subscription option. But adding in the additional features is a nice bonus. Now if you really want to make Seeking Alpha your only financial research site, the Seeking Alpha Pro subscription will give you everything you need to be a successful investor.
The Pro Package
Let’s continue on with the Seeking Alpha review of their pro package. The Pro subscription is ten times more expensive than the Premium subscription at $199.99 per month when billed annually and $299.99 per month when billed monthly.
Before you think that these prices are abnormal, take a look at the most popular subscription for the Motley Fool Website: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor. This subscription gets you access to all of the premium Motley Fool content, as well as two stock picks per month from Motley Fool co-founders Tom and David Gardner. The price for the Stock Advisor service is also $199 per month. The Seeking Alpha Pro subscription gets you everything from the Basic and Premium subscriptions as well as the following premium features:
- Top investing ideas
- PRO content and newsletters
- Short ideas portal
- Idea Screener/Filter
- VIP Service
- No ads
All three subscription levels get you something different. But it’s hard for us to really recommend the Seeking Alpha Pro subscription at its price point; unless you really feel that the content can give you an edge in investing.
What Else Does Seeking Alpha Offer?
While Seeking Alpha’s main product is financial news and investment ideas, there are a plethora of different financial tools at the subscriber’s disposal. Hence this Seeking Alpha review. There are daily writeups and deep dives into anything you can think of. For example, IPOs, dividends, ETFs, long stock ideas, short stock ideas, commodities markets, Forex, and even cryptocurrencies.
Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades are a nice feature for Seeking Alpha Pro members. This is an up to date tracker of Wall Street analyst sentiment. Why is this important? While you should never just blindly follow the opinions of a Wall Street analyst, they have been known to move a stock up or down so can be somewhat of a predictor of future price movement.
Linking Your Brokerage
You can actually link your brokerage account so that Seeking Alpha can provide you with real time portfolio analysis. Using Plaid, Seeking Alpha can connect to brokerage accounts at Fidelity, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, E*Trade, Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, Merrill Edge, TradeStation, Vanguard, and Chase.
Why is this important? To be honest, we found in this Seeking Alpha review, it’s not. But Seeking Alpha is ensuring that Pro subscribers make the platform the only site they need during a trading session. Real time portfolio ratings are fun. But if you’re a long term investor it shouldn’t really affect your outlook.
Podcasts and Videos
Seeking Alpha doesn’t just do articles! It offers a daily podcast called Wall Street Breakfast, which gives a daily update on the financial world. There’s a long list of other podcasts available as well including:
- The Alpha Trader
- Cannabis Investing
- Let’s Talk ETFs
- The Investing Edge
- Behind the Idea
Why is this important? Because a lot of people don’t have the chance to just sit in front of a computer all day reading articles. Financial podcasts are a very underrated way to learn while on the go, whether you are stuck in traffic or at the gym working out!
Marketplace
One of the cooler features of Seeking Alpha is that the site really tries to provide a way for talented content creators to make a living. The Seeking Alpha Marketplace allows premium authors to provide a paid subscription service for their content. You may scoff at the idea of paying another subscription service on top of your monthly one, but some of these writers are the best in the business. Here are some of the subscriptions:
- High Dividend Opportunities
- Potential Multibaggers
- Value Investor’s Edge
- Crypto Waves
- The Contrarian
- Beating the Market
- High Yield Investor
Why is this important? Some of this content is incredibly valuable and most of these authors have a proven track record which is why Seeking Alpha features them in the Marketplace. If you like one style of investing, subscribing to a certain newsletter or service could be exactly what you need to meet your investing goals.
My Authors/Top Authors
For the rest of the Seeking Alpha contributors who do not have a subscription service in the Marketplace, you can add them as an author to follow. This means Seeking Alpha will alert you whenever your favorite contributors post a new article, which is helpful for you as the consumer and also helpful to the writers as it will increase their potential pay.
Why is this important? The heart and soul of Seeking Alpha are the contributors and writers that provide their insights for all to learn. Everyone benefits from the articles the more they are read, so don’t be afraid to show your favorite authors some love.
Crypto Waves
Fairly new to the Seeking Alpha lineup, Crypto Waves is the cryptocurrency trading subscription that is offered to users. The site uses technical analysis like Elliot Waves and charting to predict breakouts and corrections in major cryptos like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin, and Cardano.
Why is this important? There’s been a huge influx of crypto investors over the past couple of years, as they continue to make their way into the mainstream financial world. Expect more content surrounding cryptocurrencies to make their way into services like Seeking Alpha, as it broadens the total market of potential subscribers.
Seeking Alpha Stock Price and Symbol: Are They Publicly Traded?
Investors cannot purchase shares of Seeking Alpha because the company is privately held.
Seeking Alpha Review Final Thoughts
Paying for a subscription is always up to your personal preference. Some people believe they can get all of this information for free if they visit various different websites or discussion boards.
The thing about Seeking Alpha is that if you like a particular contributor on the site, the odds are that they primarily write for Seeking Alpha. With a surge in the popularity of investing and people doing stock research, there’s been a noticeable rise in financial news sites putting up paywalls for free content.
Is Seeking Alpha going to replace things like stock screeners or technical analysis charts? Probably not. Are a majority of casual investors going to find value in the Seeking Alpha Pro subscription of $199 per month? Definitely not. But the happy medium is the Seeking Alpha Premium subscription.
This provides unlimited access to premium content for as low as $19.99 per month. If you love doing your own stock research and due diligence, the Seeking Alpha Premium subscription is definitely worth looking into.
