Can You Trust Investment Newsletters?

Tuesday, March 18th

Can You Trust Investment Newsletters?

Most investors want to learn more about investing and how to build strong portfolios that will provide them with the best returns possible. However, knowing which stocks to pick and when to choose them can be difficult for many investors. Understanding why you buy and sell individual stocks is also important. Novice investors might especially find the learning curve to be too steep and want more information about the markets and how to invest before jumping in.

Researching stocks on your own can seem daunting because of the large amounts of materials involved and the time required. Stock markets release voluminous quantities of data each minute of the day, making it nearly impossible for many people to keep up. One potential solution for investors is to subscribe to one or more investment newsletters.

Since there are many different newsletters available, people might have trouble knowing which ones to choose and wonder whether they can trust the advice they read in them. While investing newsletters might vary in quality, finding a good investment newsletter can help you to quickly increase your knowledge about the stock market and the businesses in which you are interested in investing. Here is some information to consider when you are searching for a reputable and reliable investment newsletter.

How Investment Newsletters Work

Investing newsletters are available by subscription and include newsletters and emails sent at specific intervals, including daily, weekly, or monthly. Teams of investors or well-known investors share trading strategies, stock market analyses and news, investment tips, investment recommendations, and other relevant information to help readers to increase their financial knowledge and make better investing decisions.

Subscribing to a good investment newsletter provides a way for novice and seasoned investors to capitalize on the insights they learn and to recognize good opportunities when they arise. The types of information included in these newsletters are meant to provide a better outlook of what is happening in the financial markets and particular industries that the newsletters might cover. Some also include model portfolios that investors can track over time to see how well they perform. Receiving this type of information can help investors make better decisions when deciding how to invest their capital.

Good investment and financial newsletters are packed with invaluable information about potential stock markets and shifts within different financial markets. They also offer short- and long-term advice about trends and indicators of market changes. Some newsletters specialize in niche areas such as real estate, commodities, cyber currency, health care, natural resources, or others. Newsletters that focus on niche areas generally have teams of specialists from within those fields that know how the market works as well as the specific industries they represent.

Investors can choose how frequently they want to receive their newsletters. While some people prefer receiving them daily, others choose newsletters that are delivered each week, biweekly, or monthly.

What to Look For in a Trustworthy Investment Newsletter

When you are trying to find the right investment newsletter, determining which one to choose might seem overwhelming since there are hundreds of newsletters available. However, there are certain hallmarks of a good investment newsletter that you can watch for when you are searching. Some of the key characteristics of strong investment newsletters are detailed below.

• Strong Performance Over Time
  One of the first things you should look at is a newsletter's performance over time. While the past performance of a model portfolio will not necessarily guarantee that the newsletter will perform well in the future, it can provide you with a picture of the overall performance of the newsletter. Some newsletters have been around for decades, and the fact that many include model portfolios can allow you to easily research how well they have performed over time. Just like when you purchase a different type of service, looking for an investment newsletter that has consistently given good recommendations in the past is a smart choice.
  Compare the performance of the newsletters on your shortlist to see whether one has outperformed the others over long periods. This means that you will be looking for a newsletter that has picked investments that subsequently earned better returns than the ones chosen by others.
• Transparency About Their Recommendations
  The second hallmark of a trustworthy investment newsletter is its transparency about how it chose the stocks it recommends. This includes clarity about both how and why the newsletter chose each stock or sector in which to invest in its recommended portfolio. A newsletter that is less than transparent about its recommendations or that appears to have sponsors for the advice it provides should be avoided. This could indicate that the newsletter's advice might be biased in favor of its sponsors. Looking for a newsletter that is transparent and is not choosing stocks to benefit its sponsors is a better option.
• Strategies That Apply to Your Capabilities
  Some newsletters are geared towards major players in the stock market, placing their recommendations out-of-reach for most individual investors. While the strategies they recommend might be very profitable to the big players, they are unlikely to be useful to you as a small investor. Instead, look for newsletters that are geared to individual investors with similar investing capabilities as what you have. These are likelier to provide recommendations that you can evaluate and act upon if you choose.
• Great Educational Resources
  When you are searching for a great newsletter, you likely want to learn more about why you make decisions about what to buy or sell instead of simply being told which stocks to pick or sell. Strong newsletters offer many educational resources to help investors get up to speed on the markets, investment decisions, and different sectors or industries.
  Even seasoned investors can benefit from the broad educational resources offered by some investment newsletters. Many experienced investors do not have the time necessary to devote to analyzing vast amounts of stock market data throughout each day unless they are employed as stockbrokers or market analysts.
  Providing a variety of different educational information to its readers allows a newsletter to impart additional value and can help you feel more confident about the investment decisions you ultimately make.
• Benefits That Exceed the Costs
  Great stock recommendations that perform well won't mean much if the information provided costs more than the profits you might earn. This makes it important to choose a newsletter that you can afford and that will be worth the price you will pay. In other words, you should take into account the potential returns and the subscription price when making your decision about whether to subscribe.
• Speaks to Your Interests
  While diversification is key to a strong portfolio for most investors, some investors are interested in investing in particular industries or sectors rather than others. Other investors might be more interested in mutual funds or exchange-traded funds to have a large number of stocks in particular sectors, and some people prefer investments in niche areas like cyber currency, commodities, green stocks, precious metals, and others. If you are interested in investing in stocks or funds in a particular industry or sector, it might make sense for you to choose an investment newsletter that similarly focuses on your area or areas of interest. There are many investment newsletters to focus on niche areas and particular markets, so choosing one of those might be the appropriate choice if you do as well.
• Has a Vibrant, Strong Community
  A good way to get a feel for newsletters is to check their forums. Good newsletters often boast strong, vibrant communities of skilled investors and traders that discuss new strategies on their online forums. Participating in these forums helps to generate better recommendations and improve overall performance. A good newsletter will not feel threatened by subscribers learning how to make investment decisions using their judgment and instead should encourage it.

Don't be overwhelmed

Many investors are overwhelmed by the many investment and finance newsletters that are available. However, doing a small amount of research can help you narrow down your list to a few that you can trust. Subscribing to one or more newsletters might help you to increase your knowledge about investments and the financial markets so that you can feel more confident when deciding how to invest your capital. You can supplement what you learn from reading an investment newsletter with independent research to gain a more complete picture of the markets and how they work, enabling you to make better investment decisions.