The Internet made it possible for anyone with an internet connection and some money to invest in the markets. Investment newsletters became popular because they promised high returns on low-risk investments, but there are many things you have to consider before putting your hard-earned cash down!
But finding out where you should put your money can be difficult if there isn’t enough information available. Investment newsletters help fill the gap and provide resources.
I am often asked, “How does one obtain the right information and do the right analysis for the millions of investment options that exist? That too, while doing a day job, because there are so many options and some may be good, but not the right fit for you.
Before making any investment decisions, I would always recommend seeking the investment advice of an investment advisor or experienced investor friend. The financial world is full of investing ideas, but you need to find your investment style.
Are investment newsletters worth it?
Financial newsletters are a great way to keep up with the ever-changing stock market. It’s hard enough that you have time for just one thing, let alone two things! Plus, if your investments change frequently, it can be really frustrating when they don’t go as planned, and you lose money or appreciate at less than expected rates.
Personally, I wouldn’t rely on them 100% for your investment strategy. They should provide you with some stock ideas, stock market news, and general investing advice. Later in this article, we cover the different types.
What is an investment newsletter?
Simply put, the newsletter offers advice on stocks, news, and market studies. These financial news articles eliminate much of the tedious work that comes with investing, making investing simpler for beginners and professionals. Can we use a mutual or exchange-traded fund? Or maybe an index fund should cost a few thousand dollars. How can we get it? Whatever question you asked recently, stock newsletters can be very valuable.
How do investment newsletters work?
Investment newsletters provide investment recommendations, market analysis, and insight into the market performance and trends in the market. These data are meant to give investors the opportunity in the stock market to evaluate trends. The best newsletter offers information that provides real value and insights. These data include: These newsletters are categorized into niches such as dividend investing, blue chip stocks, real estate, commodities, medical, etc.
Different Types of Investment Newsletters For Stock Market Research
I believe there are several different types of “investment newsletters.” Here are my basic categories:
Get Rich Stock Newsletters: These types of newsletters and alerts often tell investors about a specific stock or ETF that will have amazing returns. They often promote penny stocks or pink sheet stocks that are very risky. My personal opinion is to run away from these types of newsletters/software. Stock performance is
Doom and Gloom Investment Newsletters: These types of investment newsletters often pry on people’s emotions and political opinions. They often promote Gold or some other kind of alternative investments, which are often great to supplement a portfolio, just not your whole or even a large portion. Investors that are seriously worried about an economic downturn should just hedge their portfolio by buying gold, consumer staple stocks like Clorox, or blue-chip dividends like Altria.
Personal Finance & General Investing Newsletters: These types of investment newsletters are usually very general and contain more tips on personal finance than investing in the stock market. Investors may find value in them, but most of the information they provide is extremely general and usually available for free on the Internet. You are not likely to beat the market but will get good advice on budgeting.
Specific Niche Investment or Stock Research Newsletters: These types of newsletters analyze a specific stock market sector or markets such as China, steel, dividends, or even real estate. They can provide excellent value to the right investor. Often companies will pay for these to understand their risks and know how to hedge against them. These are one of the best investment newsletters if you are looking to invest in a niche market.
Professional Investment Newsletters: One of the most expensive and best newsletters is professional reports. Banks, investment firms, hedge fund managers and experienced investors spend a lot of money on them. Investors and financial advisors use them to beat the market but usually require time to digest the information and turn it into action.
Stock Pick Investment Newsletters: These types of investment newsletters focus on providing stock picks. These can be your best-investing services if you are looking for growth stocks. However, this type of service and the stock picks are more growth investing and risky. They won’t cover investment portfolio management or a mutual fund but may look at market trends. In recent years we have seen many automated, and even AI-driven stock recommendation newsletters that provide stock picks daily.
How do you pick the best investment newsletter?
Picking the best investment newsletter can be very challenging and potentially cost thousands of dollars. The bigger risk is getting bad investment ideas that could destroy your life savings.
The first thing you need to decide on is the type of investor you are and what kind of market insights you are looking for before you can determine the best investment newsletter for you. A day trader may want stock picks several times per day versus an active investor that may need the newsletter for ideas once weekly or monthly.
The second rule I tell people looking for financial research is to stay away from companies that market stock returns, especially if they are crazy, like 10,000% for a well-known stock like Amazon. Performance is nice to know, but the reality is that most investors can’t duplicate the performance of the advice of the newsletter. Clickbait headlines like “Best Stock” are more concerned about marketing than helping people navigate financial markets. My experience is that these publications are more hype than research because investors are highly unlikely to get in and out at the right time.
The third rule is to try different newsletters. Today’s investment world is very broad; you may need to try different ones before deciding on the one you like. Personally, I try to find the best investment newsletters that offer some kind of specific insight that matches holes to fill in my research. All the newsletters I see are on a subscription basis for their service. If you are unsure if the specific one is the best investment newsletter for you, use a trial service (some don’t require a credit card) or sign up for just a 1-month subscription. This will give you a basic idea of the quality of advice and if you think you can make money with it long term.
A money-back guarantee and free trial is another nice thing to see in an investment newsletter, but not required. I have tried many different financial and stock newsletters in the past 20-plus years of investing. Most were not for me, but I did appreciate being able to get a refund.
Still confused about sorting through the best investment newsletters? General investing newsletters are often a great way for new investors to learn about stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, budgeting, and basic investment ideas. They don’t generally offer stock recommendations, but you may find some ideas for starter stocks or ETFs. Many of these services are free and cheaper than professional reports on the market. I recommend these best financial newsletters as they provide great market insight and basic financial advice.
Lastly, don’t just take the writers of the investment newsletter word for something. I have seen many excellent newsletters get major events wrong, like Brexit or stock rocketing to new highs. Most companies only offer a subscription service and not investing service.
20 Best Investment Newsletters For 2021
Every day I hear about another stock newsletter or author. The most important thing is to find one that matches your investment style and provides investment ideas or strategies to support it.
These could be dividend stocks, trade ideas, monthly stock picks, value stock picks, or index funds.
Below is a list of the 20 best investment newsletters to check out. Some offer free and paid services.
1. ABS Advisor Market Intelligence Report
The ABS Financial Advisor Intelligence Report combines the best economic data and market analysis for financial advisors and investors. The weekly journal is designed to be read quickly to gain insight into what is driving the markets and opportunities. Many readers have economic data, while others love the ETF and stock picks.
In summary, this report is the best bang for the value, considering it is only $19.95 a year with a 100% free first-month trial. (Professional Investment Newsletter)
2. Morningstar Stock Research
Well known for its rating system for Mutual Funds, stocks are not anathema for Morningstar. It also analyses stocks. Like many other publications, it offers a basic membership for free and a premium membership that provides access to company fundamentals. If you are an investor who likes to research and analyze and arrive at the final decision yourself, as should be the case, it is a good option. They don’t provide stock picks but rather research for the stocks. Morningstar also offers a widely acclaimed podcast on investing. (Professional Investment Newsletter)
3. ZeroHedge.com Premium
Love them or hate them, Zerohedge.com is one of the leading financial news websites. It leans right but does have journalistic integrity with articles on the markets and market players. They recently launched a paid version for $85 a month, including access to their daily updated Wall Street research and exclusive content. Investors and traders that are looking for macro-market movements and conservative news will enjoy Zerohedge. (Professional Investment Newsletter)
4. Early Warning Report
Richard Maybury is a personal finance expert for teens and adults of any age. Maybury also uses the pen name of ‘Uncle Eric’ for a series of economics-related paperbacks for young adults. He also makes stock recommendations in each issue for these topics: cybersecurity, national defense, alternative energy, consumer staples, and precious metals. He also has a point of geopolitical analysis with an “Austrian economics” (i.e. laissez-fair economics) perspective. The cost is about $300 a year. (Specific Niche Investment Newsletters)
5. Finimize
Finimize offers a free daily personal finance newsletter. The pitch: “Understand today’s financial news within 3 minutes. For free.” The free edition has a free newsletter that gives you a quick read of the most recent news stories in 3 minutes. Conservative readers may be turned off by the leftist slant on politics. Don’t look at Finimize for your stock recommendations; Finimize provides an added layer of recent information that could help in your decision. You can also get longer news analyses, deeper daily reporting, audio recordings of their content, premium meetups, and other add-ons for an annual fee. You can also get a great free edition. (General Investment Newsletter & News)
6. Finny
Finny Is designed more like a forum where one can ask questions and get a wide variety of responses. Think Quora specific to investing. In some aspects, it also resembles Zack’s or Morningstar, like its sections on in-depth research on companies that provide financial and other facts that you normally do not get from your regular trading partners. It does not offer specific stock picks but takes you pretty close to it.
7. Global Changes and Opportunities Report (GCOR)
This is another investing newsletter for the Average Joe. GCOR recommendations are authored by Jim Powell, who analyses ETFs, large-cap stocks, and non-traditional investments to present a wholesome menu for the investor to choose from. He also makes reference to macroeconomic issues and uses them as a background while analyzing and making recommendations. (Specific Niche Investment Newsletters)
8. Cotton’s Technically Speaking
You get close to the basics for investments with Cotton’s Technically Speaking, which publishes a weekly Market Report, as it encourages the habit of making small investments on a regular basis. Joe Cotton, the publisher from whom the publication takes its name, is another known figure in investment circles and has won several contests in investing. The Market Report follows an industry approach and provides a low-down on industries like Energy, Technology, Banking, Biotech, and others. Recommendations are generally on ‘long equity’ buying of common stock rather than dabbling in Options and other derivatives. An understanding of charting and technical analysis is useful if you follow this publication.
9. Stansberry Research
Stansberry Research publishes a bouquet of investment newsletters. For the entry-level investor, the following might be suitable: Stansberry’s Investment Advisory, True Wealth, Retirement Millionaire. While each follows a different strategy, their methods eventually do seem to lead to sound investments. Some of their material is very good, but the doom and gloom marketing is a huge turn-off. True Wealth appears to be veering more towards China investing of the three. They also run the popular Stansberry Investor Hour podcast. Stansberry follows a fairly structured approach in its offerings and has a wide portfolio. All recommendations, regardless of their publications, come with a detailed analysis. (Doom & Gloom)
10. Curzio Research Advisory
Published by the eponymous Frank Curzio, the Curzio Research Advisory has a simple format; it gives you one stock pick a month and could be slotted as a newsletter for the early-stage investor. He also offers more advanced analyses and recommendations in other newsletters for accredited investors and investors with a belief in their investing knowledge and ability.
Curzio is visible in the investment circles through his free videos and podcasts. More recently, he is credited with being one of the first to highlight risks emanating from the Covid-19 pandemic, much before mainstream media picked it up. (General Investment Newsletter)
11. TheStreet Action Alerts Plus
I consider TheStreet Action Alerts Plus a stock advisor or tool to help investors get some ideas about the stock market. In the past, it has provided some excellent trades and ideas for stock research. Since Jim Cramer left, I have been unsure about the stock research’s direction or flavor.
12. The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor
The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor suggestions can be accessed through two of their newsletters. The Motley Fool Stock Advisor is an awarded newsletter; this is the workhorse and perhaps of interest to stock-picking investors. The focus is on growth stocks over a long term, versus value or dividend stocks. Many growth investors (especially tech) like the Motley Fool Stock advisor. The recent tech sector drop may have affected their returns.
The Motley Fool website has published a lot of other literature, mostly in the form of books, on investing. The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor has a published record and claims to be able to beat the market, but I too much gimmicky marketing for me. The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor is normally $199 for a year of unlimited access, but they are now offering it at a discount of just $99 – including a 30-day money-back guarantee.
13. The Motley Fool Rule Breakers
The Motley Fool Rule Breakers service is similar to Motely Fool’s Stock Advisor’s Stock Advisor service with a greater focus on growth. You get two new stocks each month with two new stock recommendations. This might be a better fit for the more aggressive investors, with its focus on high-growth candidates.
You may not have heard of many of the recommended names. One stock from 2017 is up 2,393%, and another from 2016 is up 6,026%. Over the last 5 years, the service has performed better than Stock Advisor but has more volatility and bigger losers.
If you like the Motley Fool Stock Advisor, then you may want to try their other products. Motley Fool newsletters’ cost varies according to the newsletter and time of the year, but expect to pay $99-$200 or more a year. (Stock Picks & Personal Finance Newsletter)
14. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
Kiplinger’s has a wider remit and offers tips on managing money but zeroes in on stock investing in several sections. Wisely investing in stocks, after all, is a part of the larger money management discipline. As so often happens, some sections acquire more of a fan following than others. In Kiplinger’s case, the column by James Glassman is one such.
Kiplinger’s also offers advice on Mutual Funds and ETFs and regularly lists their top few every month. Followers say some of their stock recommendations have yielded over a hundred percent returns. The cost is roughly $30 per year.
15. Stock Gumshoe
In one way, Stock Gumshoe operates as an aggregator, as it also provides an analysis of the recommendations that some of the high-end publications provide. What is more, it is a free service in a crowded market of investment newsletters. So, this could be a good place to start if you are a newcomer to the investing world. At least you won’t burn cash just as yet. And it could even provide you some guidance on which paid newsletters to eventually gravitate to. The publication is closely linked with Travis, its founder. It also offers a premium membership which gives you a peek into the investing Travis is doing.
16. Dividend.com
As the name suggests, Dividend.com has focused on dividend growth investing. When one visualizes investing, it is normally seen as a way of corpus growth and wealth creation. To that extent, the dividend growth strategy is different from your regular stock advisor or newsletter. As investors look for yield in times to come, this could become a central strategy many follow. The dividend yield is the basis for its stock recommendations, with substantial information, analysis, and forty years of the company’s history. It offers a Lite plan and a Premium plan with stock picks. The cost is $149 per year. (Niche Investment Newsletter)
17. SwingTrader
Technical investing–when done correctly–can be financially rewarding. A basic understanding of technicals can help you identify uptrends and confirm stock fundamentals to find more potential gains. The main website IBD provides great free-market information and news. SwingTrader from Investor’s Business Daily sends alerts when short-term trades meet their CAN SLIM criteria. To make this investment strategy work, you need basic charting and technical analysis knowledge. This isn’t a “get rich quick investing” newsletter. There will be a few losing picks along the way as it takes longer than anticipated for your investment thesis to materialize. If you are a day trader or looking for growth stock picks, then I recommend you look at
18. Morning Brew
Morning Brew is a free personal finance newsletter covering business and financial news. The Daily Brew is more along the lines of Seeking Alpha’s Wall Street Breakfast which gives you a quick and digestible read. Morning Brew goes out six days a week, Monday through Saturday, with an optional Sunday Light Roast edition. The newsletter ends with interesting facts, tidbits of history, and facts ranging from business, trading, and media.
19. Nate’s Notes
Nate’s Notes is a monthly newsletter that focuses on helping investors grow their wealth in the stock market with a long-term approach to investing. The newsletter is an easy read that can be understood by investors of all levels. He provides new stocks on a regular basis. The bottom line is that investing newsletters can be used to make informed investing decisions. For $289, you can get your 1-year subscription to Nate’s Notes $289.
20. Barrons Daily RoundUp
Barrons is one of the oldest and favorite investment newsletters. They are more of publication vs. newsletters. However, I thought I would include them because they provide great content. The Daily RoundUp is a daily email list of their best articles. I use it as starting point to see what is happening in the markets. The email doesn’t provide insight, but some articles are excellent. The email newsletter is free, but some of the articles are for paid subscribers.
What should you do?
Eventually, it boils down to this simple question. Whether you do it through newsletters, advisors, or on your own, the goal remains the same; to create wealth.
Should you buy everything that is recommended?
Even which newsletters to trust and read?
No, you will go bananas.
If you are investing with your own money, you need to do it responsibly and make decisions so that you can live with their weight on your conscience. A few simple starting suggestions:
Do It Yourself – Collect all the information there is. Listen to all advisors you have access to. But eventually, do your own due diligence to the extent you can. Make it your decision.
Wait a month – Don’t rush in, especially if you are investing or starting with a new newsletter. Give yourself time to get a “sense” of the market, the newsletter, and the stock. It is not the end of the world if you miss one ‘pick.’ It is a continuous business. There will be many more.
No need to buy premium newsletters – Since we are on the subject of investing newsletters, a more expensive newsletter does not translate into a better stock portfolio. Try one per month and get some ideas. If it doesn’t
Understand the business – Invest because you identify with the business and the opportunity it represents. Understanding the business also facilitates an ‘exit’ as and when required.
Why Individual Stocks and ETFs?
While it may not be for everyone, there is an allure of stock investing that is difficult to ignore. And it emanates from the possibility of reaping the rewards over and above the financial markets.
However, the prospect of higher reward carries with it the possibility of higher risk. Stock picking is generally riskier than exchange-traded funds (ETFs), especially with high growth, but the performance over the long term should outperform an ETF.
The question to ask yourself is – Am I in a position to bear the risk of losses while pursuing a strategy of seeking higher returns from my investments?
And if the answer is Yes, do it in an informed, responsible manner.
