There are a growing number of financial websites offering a plethora of expert advice on investing. Although there are many common characteristics, each website has its unique appeal. Two websites that have particularly high visibility are The Motley Fool and TheStreet.
Key Takeaways
- Among the growing number of financial websites offering expert advice on investing, two websites with particularly high visibility are The Motley Fool and TheStreet.
- The Motley Fool offers a premium option that provides subscribers with investing recommendations, stock research, and analysis.
- The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor service—another paid program—claims to have beaten the S&P 500 by a factor of three over the last 20 years.
- Jim Cramer is sometimes considered to be synonymous with TheStreet; Cramer is a media personality, an expert on the stock market, and one of the co-founders of TheStreet.
- TheStreet offers specialized resources related to investing, personal finance, retirement, technology, and markets.
The Motley Fool
The Motley Fool is a private financial and investing advice company that is based in Alexandria, Virginia. It employs analysts and experts across the country who are constantly combing the market for the best stock picks and investment ideas. The name the Motley Fool comes from the Shakespeare comedy As You Like It. The play references only one character that can speak the truth to the Duke without having his head lopped off—the court jester.
The company employs over 625 people worldwide and was founded in 1993 by co-chairmen and brothers David Gardner and Tom Gardner, and Erik Rydholm (who has since left the company). The website also has operations in the U.K., Australia, Canada, and Germany.
The website offers many features, including trending stories. You can also search the content of the website using certain filters, such as “Latest Stock Picks,” “Investing Basics,” “Stock Market,” “Retirement,” and “Personal Finance.”
The section “Investing Basics” is an extremely useful page for novice investors. It contains information related to finding a broker and The Motley Fools’ 13 Steps to Investing.
The site also offers a premium option that provides subscribers with investing recommendations, stock research, and analysis. For an additional fee, investors can access additional research and participate in investment games. The Motley Fool’s subscription service began in 2002. They also offer a service called The Stock Advisor. This program offers monthly stock picks and premium investment education to its subscribers. The service claims to have beaten the S&P 500 by a factor of three over the last 20 years. The Motley Fool Stock Advisor service costs $99 for the first year ($199 per year after the first year). The Stock Advisor service is well-respected in the investment community.
Followers of the Motley Fool may also be interested in its sister companies: The Ascent, which provides personal finance product reviews and free educational resources and Millionacres, which provides subscription-based real estate investing advice and real estate resources.
TheStreet
TheStreet is a financial news and financial literacy website. It was co-founded in 1996 by Jim Cramer and Marty Peretz and it became a public company in 1999. In 2019, the company was acquired by TheMaven for $16.5 million.
TheStreet offers specialized resources related to investing, personal finance, retirement, technology, and markets. Jim Cramer is sometimes considered to be synonymous with TheStreet. Cramer is a media personality and an expert on the stock market. He is also a former hedge fund manager, columnist, and the author of many books and articles.
Jim Cramer has a dedicated section on TheStreet that focuses on his investment advice, including his 25 rules for investing and his recommendations for best stocks.
Investors can also find information on investing market segments, as well as personal finance and retirement concerns. The website’s “Markets” page provides daily details on the U.S. market indexes and stock performance.
The website also contains many stock screeners, research reports, and lists of recommendations, some only available through its subscription service. As of 2018, the website has a subscription service specifically for retirees, called Retirement Daily.
The company has also partnered with Sports Illustrated Fantasy to provide a channel—called Bull Market Fantasy—that offers insights, analysis, and tips for fantasy sports leagues.
Bottom Line
These are two of many financial websites, and they offer a comprehensive suite of products and information. Each has its own proprietary commentary and offers investment products like mutual funds or stock research that make it more valuable to the individual investor who does not have access to the same Wall Street data and commentary as professional investors.