Third party research subscription

[Massimo]

I think the real question we should all be asking is, which subscription out there will do well
In any market we are in.

We are in a bull market, therefore a lot of these paid services look like superstars.
Once a bear market show it's head.....and it will.....who will stand out from the pack....if any.

I have had a number of subscriptions in the past, only one now.
I feel that I receive more valuable information for free on the internet

All IMHO of course

Cheers!

[Duniyo]

Anyone else with payed service experience to share?

[sixfeetfour]

One of the things I hate about "free" trails is many times cancelling the service is time consuming.

I called to cancel my free trial to IBD. I was a day late. They went ahead and cancelled and didn't charge me anything even though I was a day late. They were quite friendly and it was not time consuming at all, just one phone call.

[Duniyo]

One of the things I hate about "free" trails is many times cancelling the service is time consuming. Riverbabe's experience with Zack's is interesting. I hope these pay services also include tools (charting software, historical data, etc)to help you with your research. Blindly following anyone will not make you money, many times these experts have ulterior motive.

[billyjoe]

Zacks is very good about cancelling. Just let them know before it converts to a paying subscription.

----------------billy

[Duniyo]

One of the things I hate about "free" trails is many times cancelling the service is time consuming. Riverbabe's experience with Zack's is interesting.

[sixfeetfour]

Duniyo -
Thanks for getting this thread started as I am in a similar situation as you. I am interested in the replies that will be made in this thread.

I have not bought a paid subscription but considered subscribing to IBD. I did the 30 day IBD trial and found it to be much like what billy said "bombard you with numbers and top stocks which are too much to digest". The babes trades thread over the last 20 posts has been interesting as she is currently following a 30 day subscription from Zacks and it appears she has had some good success with it. Makes me think of giving that a go? Other members comments on paid subscriptions there so give it a read.

The human desire to get rich quick, just tell me what to buy to become a millionaire! If it was only that easy. My two cents is similar to what you and Billy stated. Do your own due diligence, even if two separate investors do their own due diligence and selected the same stock to invest, their "trading nerves" may be different and their reactions to timing the market in's and out's of that stock may vary greatly producing different results. It appears that sometimes it takes balls of steel to stick to your opinion/decision of the research that you did on a stock. Take MM for instance, he is so confident in his picks that he waits for his 15% becasue he is so confident in his research, who else has balls of steel like that? His average time for a 15% return over his last 32 trades is 22 weeks, others may not have that patience and determination, which may be to their detriment?

Although I have not purchased a paid subscription yet, I value the experience of the investors on this website more than a paid subscription. If you haven't performed the model subscribed by MM, I suggest you do that. The first time I did that, I learned much. Every time he does a data dump, I try to select my 5 before he does and track my top 5 vs his top 5 and see how they perform. IIC website is a great reference. I like following P7 recommendations, it is pretty brave what he is doing with his 5% system he put into place - hopefully you are following that, his first trade was ROIAK and now he is in PRAN. , Lucavia's weekly top 5 and the babes trades are good to follow. I am still tracking Billy Joes top 10 for 2014 vs P7s top 10 for 2014, all fun to track and learn more about stock picking. This is assisting me in performing due diligence to understand stock fundamentals better.

The more arenas you can check a stock against, the better. I still may pursue a subscription but have not done so yet and would appreciate other members feedback here.

[billyjoe]

Duniyo, It's good that you do your due diligence. I've found the most success getting research info then making a decision rather than just buying what is recommended. The services have to crank out so many buys at regular intervals and we know that some are better than others. Many are just quota fillers such as 2 stocks for each month, week, etc. I've tried it both ways. Picking my own always works best for me. Get free or low cost trials from Vectorvest and Zacks. You'd be surprised at the volume of information. Sorting the good from the not so good is the problem. I've tried both IBD and The Street and found they bombard you with numbers and top stocks almost too much to digest. That's why Mr.Market's dumps work so well. He's eliminated 99% of the crap and a good percentage of those in the dump and even more so in the top 5 are the best of the best. I usually don't pick the same #1 as Mr.Market but often it doesn't matter, they are all good picks. Right now I'm paying $59/month for Vectorvest and $199/year for Zacks research. They've paid off well with 11 winners over $1000 last year. You can easily narrow down top stocks by industry group performance then run graphs with any parameters you want ie. earnings, relative strength, sales trends, MACD, moving averages etc. Zacks bases their #1 picks ( around 250 at any one time) on analyst upgrades, earnings projections, sales projections so they are looking at future perfoprmance while VV gives you stats of past performance the thinking being what goes up will continue to go up. Hope this helps. Even if you eliminate 99.9% of all stocks you'll still get a couple to buy each day or week. I've got 33 different stocks in 8 accounts, 4 of them retirement IRA's so it keeps me busy.

-------------------billy

[Duniyo]

Expert advice coupled with due diligence was my recipe for success in 2013. I would like to supplement this forum with a payed research websites like Zacks, the Street, etc. I am cost sensitive since I am small time investor and frugal by nature. In addition, I am looking for both short term and long term investing, hence pure trading websites don't suit my needs. Can you please share your experience in using payed services and any advice you may have for newcomer like myself.


Thanks,
Duniyo