6 Best Investment Newsletters (Ranked & Reviewed)

Investing is one of the best ways to build and grow wealth in the long term. But there's always a risk involved in investing, and things could go south very quickly as well.

So, how do you know what to invest in? This is a question all new investors ask themselves, and the answer is to learn as much as you can before risking your money and making any costly errors.

Remember: successful investing is about minimizing risk. At low-risk levels, returns take care of themselves.

Luckily, that's where investment newsletters come in. They offer both new and experienced investors advice that will help them achieve lasting wealth. In this post, we'll be reviewing the top investment newsletters to help you choose those that best suit your individual investing needs.

With all of this in mind, here are our top-ranked investment newsletters.

What Is The Best Investment Newsletter?

1. Capitalist Exploits – Best Overall

For the past 5+ years, Capitalist Exploits has outperformed the market by a long shot. It does this by tracking an immense amount of data, identifying unique economic patterns, and determining the best low-risk, high-reward opportunities available in the market.

It offers two main products, Insider and The Insider Newsletter:

• Insider is trading alerts on steroids: rather than just making stock picks, it presents subscribers with full-fledged investment theses that the Capitalist Exploits team has been working on for years. Insider members receive investment alerts via text message or email, as well as regular webinars to stress test the ideas and a community forum where subscribers can talk through their own investment ideas.
• The Insider Newsletter is a weekly newsletter that offers a small slice of what full Insider subscribers get, including the robust macroeconomic analysis Capitalist Exploits has become known for.

Coupled with the right investment platform (like Capital), Capitalist Exploits can make a big difference in your profitability as an investor.

Features

• Run by former hedge fund managers with proven track records for predicting massive macroeconomic shifts
• Focused on emerging markets, alternative investments, and extremely high-reward opportunities
• Target a minimum 300% return on every trade
• They invest their own money in every deal, so the level of due diligence and stock research is second to none
• 30,000+ members around the world
• Provide clear guidance on how to execute investment recommendations, including ways to adapt their suggestions to different scenarios
• Telegram channel where Insider investors can eavesdrop on the principals' chats on global trends, current events, and individual stock picks

Performance

Capitalist Exploits doesn't publicly disclose its entire investment portfolio, but here are some recent stock picks they've made and how those stocks have performed:

Stock Recommendation	Gain
Nel Asa (NEL)	104%
Rex International (5WH.SI)	145%
Avon Products (AVP)	154%
Petropavlovsk (POG)	154%
ITM Power (ITM)	161%
Lynas (LYC)	161%
Ceres Power (CWR)	242%
Powercell Sweden (PCELL)	261%
Gran Columbia (GCM)	313%

These are very impressive numbers, though perhaps more impressive is that the longest of them were held for 2.5 years. Many of the stock picks above achieved triple-digit gains in 24 months or less, living up to Capitalist Exploits' mandate of finding companies with potential for gains of 300% or more.

Cost

Insider costs $2,499/year with a 30-day no-questions-asked refund policy, while The Insider Newsletter costs just $1 for the first month and $35/month thereafter.

2. Zacks – Best Free Newsletter

For serious traders and investors, Zacks offers a wealth of free and paid services, including newsletters, stock research, market analysis, portfolio recommendations, and much more. Many of the more than 800,000 members of the Zacks community, both experienced and new to trading, have portfolios reflecting the impressive performance numbers that Zacks proudly shares on its website. 

Rather than making specific stock picks on a monthly basis—as Stock Advisor does—Zacks analyzes thousands of stocks and gives each of them a “Zacks Rank” score between 1 and 5. 

And if you were to split out every stock into its respective category and track its performance, you’d find that Zacks has been incredibly accurate over time.  

Zacks is currently offering a free report, “5 Stocks Set To Double,” which you can get for free here.

Zacks members capitalize on many benefits, including: 

• Access to exclusive resources that can help anyone become a more successful trader
• A daily investment newsletter, including Zacks’ Bull Stock of the Day
• A suite of invaluable tools and research that can help improve the performance of your portfolio
• Free instant access to “5 Stocks Set To Double”
• +25% annual returns on top-rated stocks
• A robust community of nearly 900,000 subscribers

Zacks’ Unmatched Performance

Over the last 3 decades, the S&P has averaged an 11.2% return for investors. However, the Zacks Rank system has more than doubled the market’s return with an average 25.4% yearly return.

Even if you were to ignore “Strong Buy” recommendations and concentrate on Zacks’ “Buy” suggestions, you would still consistently do far better than the market. Since 1988, Zacks’ Buy recommendations have averaged a 19.1% return. 

What Does It Cost to Become a Member of Zacks?

For every level of trading, Zacks offers several products and services that can help you become a better investor and, more importantly, improve your portfolio to build wealth or protect your retirement savings. Zacks’s offerings range in price from free to $249/month.

3. Oxford Communiqué – Best For 3x Returns

The Oxford Communiqué has been identifying high-growth stocks for decades. It’s written by Alexander Green, a long-time investor and best-selling author who retired at the age of 43 thanks to the gains he achieved through his highly profitable stock picks.

Alongside the newsletter, Oxford Communiqué subscribers also receive these four bonuses:

• “Ten-Baggers of Tomorrow: The Official Portfolio Guide” ($99 value)
• “The Gone Fishin’ Portfolio” ($99 value)
• “The Oxford Club Guide to Gold: The Owner’s Manual” ($99 value)
• “The ‘All-Star Portfolio’ Strategy” ($99 value)

Features

• New stocks delivered to you every month
• Instant access to all portfolios and research upon joining
• Four distinct model portfolios
• Four additional strategies included alongside the newsletter

Performance

Since the newsletter’s first recommendation in 1999, the average Oxford Communiqué position has returned 23.61%. That’s more than double the S&P 500’s annual return of 10.74%.

Here are some of the specific stocks Oxford Communiqué has recommended over the years, their performance, and the S&P 500 performance over the same timeframe:

Stock & Ticker	Stock Performance	S&P 500 Performance	Hold Time
Amazon (AMZN)	143%	21%	479 days
Paypal (PYPL)	153%	58%	350 days
Kite Realty (KITE)	226%	19%	386 days
Netflix (NFLX)	262%	21%	292 days
MyoKardia (MYOK)	337%	36%	734 days

Cost

The Oxford Communiqué costs $49 per year, with a 100% money-back guarantee.

4. Seeking Alpha – Best For In-Depth Analysis

Seeking Alpha is an investment research platform that allows passionate investors to share their investment strategies and perspectives on a wide array of markets, such as stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, commodities, precious metals, and cryptocurrencies.

It has a huge community of around 10 million users. With a Premium subscription, you’ll be granted access to 1 million different investing ideas and features such as data visualizations, side-by-side stock performance comparisons, Wall Street Ratings for every stock, and more.

Every Idea featured in Seeking Alpha goes through a thorough editorial procedure to ensure the highest quality standard, so you can rest assured that the research you’ll be reading is legitimate and valuable.

Features

• Thorough investment prospect ideas that are curated by an extensive editorial process.
• Top Rated Stocks Screener feature that will tell you a stock's Quant rating, market cap, valuation, growth, profitability, momentum, and more.
• Thorough Education section with detailed articles on investing concepts and topics.
• Simple to understand data visualizations.
• Grants access to transcripts and audio recordings of various companies' earnings calls.
• Has a dividend grading system that will help you visualize a dividend's safety, growth, yield, and consistency easily.
• Has its own Marketplace with communities that revolve around investing experts with exclusive investing styles and insights.

Performance

Here's how Seeking Alpha has performed since 2010:

Seeking Alpha's annualized return has been 27%, which is better than the S&P 500 by a considerable margin.

Cost

• Basic Plan: Free.
• Premium Plan: $19.99/month.
• Pro Plan: $199.99/month.

5. Motley Fool Rule Breakers – Best For Discovering Emerging Stocks

Motley Fool Rule Breakers tries to identify stocks with huge growth potential in fast-growing industries. That's a noble mission, though looking at its performance, t hasn't yet lived up to its name.

While Rule Breakers has outperformed the S&P 500 (and therefore may be a good choice for investors with $2,000 or less to invest), its picks haven't yet moved the needle much for its subscribers. After 15+ years in business, I would have expected much more, especially coming from Motley Fool.

Features

• Two new stock picks each month, including an in-depth analysis of why the stock is recommended
• Five “Best Buys Now” stock picks each month
• List of “Starter Stocks” when you first subscribe

Performance

Here's how Motley Fool Rule Breakers has performed since its launch back in 2005:

Rule Breakers' annualized return has been 15%, which is certainly better than the S&P 500, though not by a huge margin.

Cost

Motley Fool Rule Breakers costs $99 per year, with a 30-day refund policy.

6. Motley Fool Stock Advisor – Best For Long-Term Growth

Motley Fool Stock Advisor is a low-cost newsletter that offers monthly stock picks, generally of blue chip companies. It's ideal for investors looking for long-term, consistent gains, and it has performed exceptionally well over the years.

Stock Advisor is run by former hedge fund managers with an eye for value. They've proven their ability to pick winning stocks for decades, and for anyone with more than $1,000 to invest, the Stock Advisor newsletter pays for itself.

Features

• Two new stock picks each month, including an in-depth analysis of each stock
• Several “Best Of” stocks lists each year
• Access to all historical stock picks
• Message boards for chatting with other investors

Performance

Here's how Motley Fool Stock Advisor has performed since its launch back in 2002:

This graph shows that Stock Advisor has achieved a 19% annualized return over the past 19 years, which is an incredible return. That's more than double the growth rate of the S&P 500, which is why you'd be 5x richer by investing with Stock Advisor than by putting your money into the S&P 500 on your own.

Cost

Motley Fool Stock Advisor costs $199 per year with a 30-day refund policy.

Financial Newsletters Cost Comparison

Newsletter	Annual Cost
Capitalist Exploits	$0 – $2,499
Zacks	$0 – $2,988
Oxford Communiqué	$49
Seeking Alpha	$0 – $2,400
Motley Fool Rule Breakers	$99
Motley Fool Stock Advisor	$199

What Is An Investment Newsletter?

Investment newsletters are subscription-based services consisting of periodic emails or newsletters in which a well-known investor or a team of investors share investment ideas or recommendations, trading strategies, stock market news and analysis, and other relevant information designed to help investors make better decisions.

It’s a way for weathered investors and traders to capitalize on their deep knowledge and understanding of the financial markets while at the same time helping others learn how to recognize good investment opportunities as they arise. 

How Do Investment Newsletters Work?

Investment newsletters work by providing investing recommendations, financial market analysis, and insights into how the markets are performing. All of this information is meant to give the investor a bigger outlook on what's currently going on in the market and/or industry to better understand the trends that the stock market is following to make a more informed decision when it comes to investing their capital.

In short, the best newsletters offer information, and information is power. This information typically includes:

• Stock picks and the best industries to invest in.
• Insight into shifts within different markets.
• Advice is based on both short-term market trends and long-term macroeconomic indicators.

Some of these newsletters specialize in particular niches such as commodities, artwork, real estate, natural resources, healthcare, etc. They usually have teams of specialists in those particular fields that not only understand the way financial markets work but also how those specific industries work, which makes them better than most at predicting how they will evolve over time.

How To Choose The Best Investment Newsletter

As with choosing any service, there are a couple of key characteristics you want to look out for when choosing an investment newsletter. Here are the most important ones:

Solid Performance

While it’s true that excellent past performance doesn’t ensure a good performance in the future, the first thing you want to look at when choosing an investment newsletter is how their recommendations have performed over time. You wouldn’t invest in a service that has been proven to give bad recommendations in the hopes that they’ll do better next time, would you?

So, make sure to choose one that outperforms similar services over long periods of time. This means that you should choose a newsletter that has chosen investments that earned better returns than the ones other newsletters chose.

Transparency

Another key factor to take into consideration is how transparent a newsletter is about the way they choose its recommendations. A good newsletter should be clear about how and, more importantly, why they choose each individual stock or each sector to invest in. You definitely want to rule out any newsletter that seems to be hiding information or that seems to have secret sponsors, as this shady behaviour could signal that they don’t have your best interest at heart and they’re likely to have a hidden agenda of their own.

Recommendations Tailored To Your Investing Capabilities

There are investment strategies that are highly profitable but that only the big players in the stock market can take advantage of. If a newsletter offers mostly these types of recommendations on which you, as a small investor, can't act upon, then you should look for another newsletter. Else, you'd just be losing your money by subscribing.

Costs vs. Benefits

Getting recommendations that offer great performance doesn’t mean anything if you’re going to have to pay all of your potential profits for the recommendations themselves. In order to choose a newsletter for your particular situation, you need to be sure that it’ll be worth the price. This means analyzing the costs and the potential returns you’re likely to make by paying for the service.

Educational Resources

The best investment newsletters don’t just tell you what to buy or sell, but they also teach you why you’ll want to make those decisions. In this sense, offering a broad range of educational resources is the hallmark of an excellent newsletter.

You see, they understand that even experienced investors still stand to gain from an investing newsletter simply because they don’t have enough time to go over and analyze all the vast amounts of data pumped out of the stock markets every minute of every day.

Strong Community

Having a community of skilled traders discussing new strategies on their forums is likely to generate even better recommendations and improve their overall performance. Therefore, good newsletters don’t feel threatened by their subscribers learning how to use their own judgement to choose how to invest. In fact, they encourage it.

Good investment newsletters prefer a community of active, skilled and successful investors than a group of zombies who blindly follow their every advice and who flip out every time a stock goes down when it’s not supposed to.

In Summary

Whether you're looking for explosive growth or slow, steady gains, these investment newsletters can help you out:

• Capitalist Exploits: Best overall
• Zacks: Best free newsletter
• Seeking Alpha: Best for in-depth analysis
• Oxford Communiqué: Best for 3x returns
• Motley Fool Rule Breakers: Best for discovering emerging stocks
• Motley Fool Stock Advisor: Best for predictably solid returns

Investment Newsletters FAQs

Are investment newsletters worth it?

Some investment newsletters are worth the price, though you need to make sure you choose the right one. High-performing stock newsletters like Capitalist Exploits, Zacks and Seeking Alpha can be a great way to stay ahead of the market and make smart investing decisions, while newsletters with less of a proven track record should be approached cautiously.

How are investment newsletters regulated?

Investment newsletters are not regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), though the SEC does advise that investors search its website and contact the appropriate state securities regulator to check for any previous enforcement actions against a specific company. If the newsletter in question is written by registered investment advisers, you can also check their background on the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure page.

What is the most successful investment newsletter?

The most profitable investment newsletter today is Capitalist Exploits, which has shown impressive returns every year for the past 5+ years. Their returns outpace those other stock newsletters like The Motley Fool Stock Advisor, and that's one of the main reasons they've been gaining such a steady base of subscribers over the past several years.

Is Seeking Alpha any good?

Yes, Seeking Alpha is a respectable newsletter that's achieved an impressive annualized return of 27% since 2010, significantly better than the S&P 500 over the same timeframe. Seeking Alpha is backed by a strong team of investment analysts and advisers, so you can trust what they write in their newsletters.

What is the highest-rated stock newsletter?

The highest-rated stock newsletter is Capitalist Exploits. With a 4.9/5 TrustPilot rating across more than 250 reviews, Capitalist Exploits' small, extremely passionate group of subscribers get real results from the service, which is something that can't be said about every stock newsletter out there.

What is the best penny stock newsletter?

The best penny stock newsletter is difficult to say, since no penny stock newsletters have performed as well as the newsletters I’ve laid out above. Some investors subscribe to newsletters like Penny Stock Prophet ($97 lifetime), Falcon Stocks ($197 annually), Penny Stock Dream ($450 annually), Penny Pro ($999 annually), and Penny Picks (free), but when it comes to maximizing your ROI, you’re better off with a more traditional newsletter.

Where should I get good investment advice?

You want to ensure that you get your investing advice from trusted sources, which generally means investors and financial advisors who are putting their own money into the trades they suggest. Capitalist Exploits and Oxford Communiqué do this, though the other newsletter publishers on this list (or others like Bob Brinker) don't disclose whether they invest their money into the stocks they promote.

What stock newsletters offer contrarian investing advice?

From the list above, the newsletter that offers the most contrarian outlook is certainly Capitalist Exploits since they've built their entire brand around finding value where others aren't looking. If you want to get a feel for the sort of investing perspectives they advocate, sign up for their newsletter for just $1 for your first 30 days.