Alpha Picks by Seeking Alpha: Is It Worth It?
Seeking Alpha is one of the most popular investment research websites for long-term investors.
In July 2022, Seeking Alpha launched a new product: Alpha Picks.
Alpha Picks is a momentum-based stock picking service that blends quantitative analysis with qualitative research.
Having been a member of Seeking Alpha Premium for over six years already, I was excited to hear about the launch of Alpha Picks and joined right away.
I've been tracking the performance of each of its stock picks ever since.
After being a member of Alpha Picks for almost three years now, here's my experience with the service, how it works, and what you can expect as a member.
And since the main point of subscribing to any stock recommendation service is to get stock picks that outperform the market, I'm going to share the exact returns of every stock Alpha Picks has recommended since its launch.
Spoiler alert: They're good.
Alpha Picks review summary
- Overall rating:
- Service type: Stock-picking newsletter
- Best for: Medium- to long-term investors
- Cost: $499/year (new members can get their first year for $449 through our link)
- Performance: 2.7x the S&P
Alpha Picks is a stock recommendation service driven by a “proprietary, data-driven computer scoring system.” In other words, quantitative analysis.
You can read more about its stock selection process below, but the most important part of any stock picking service is the performance.
Ultimately, whether Alpha Picks (or any other stock picking service) is worth paying for depends almost entirely on the results of their stock picks.
In the almost three years since its launch, Alpha Picks' stocks have averaged returns 2.7x higher than the S&P 500 (45.62% vs 16.89%).
It's only been three years, but Alpha Picks is off to an excellent start.
Disclaimer: All performance figures listed herein were updated on May 1, 2025. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
What is Seeking Alpha?
Seeking Alpha, the company behind Alpha Picks, was founded in 2004 with the goal of providing diverse, high-quality investment research to retail investors.
The core of Seeking Alpha is its crowdsourced content — more than 18,000 contributors produce 7,000+ stock reports and investment ideas per month.
Seeking Alpha also provides fundamental data, charts, analyst ratings, and a number of quantitative tools like Factor Grades, Dividend Grades, and its proprietary Quant Rankings (the core of Alpha Picks).
Free users have limited access to certain features and a handful of research reports each month, but a Seeking Alpha Premium subscription unlocks everything the site has to offer.
For more information, check out my full Seeking Alpha Review.
But, while hundreds of thousands of investors loved Seeking Alpha, there were many others who didn't want to do all the hard work themselves — they just wanted to know what stocks Seeking Alpha recommended.
And so, Alpha Picks was created.
What is Alpha Picks?
Alpha Picks is a stock picking service that makes 2 new recommendations each month.
Each recommendation comes with a research report that is sent out via email and posted on the Seeking Alpha website. The website also stores all of the previous recommendations and their accompanying reports and the performance details for each pick and the portfolio as a whole.
The Alpha Picks team uses a quantitative trading strategy to pick stocks. Instead of investing based on fundamentals, they use an algorithm that evaluates criteria like momentum, factor grades, growth rates, revisions, and other data.
The algorithm filters and ranks stocks based on those factors and the team evaluates and hand selects their favorite ideas from the remaining list.
Before Alpha Picks, I only invested in stocks based on my own fundamental analysis.
But after being a member for the last three years and seeing the results of their picks alongside the research they provide on the merits of momentum investing, I've learned there's more than one way to invest.
The question you should be asking is, Does it work?
Alpha Picks' performance (as of May 2025)
I've tracked the performance of every stock selected by Alpha Picks since its launch in July 2022.
Its average stock recommendation has returned 45.62% since being added to the portfolio, 2.70x higher than the S&P's average return of 16.89%.
Here's a breakdown of the performance:
- Average return: 2.70x the S&P 500 (45.62% vs 16.89%)
- Max return: 635% (SMCI, selected 11/15/22)
- Percent winners: 64% (46/72)
A few things stand out to me about the results so far.
1. Where the outperformance has come from
Alpha Picks deploys a momentum-based strategy, which means they're targeting stocks with the potential to make huge moves.
Momentum strategies don't expect every stock to perform well — they aim to pick a few stocks that perform extremely well and make up for the rest of the portfolio. If just a few stocks turn out to be big winners, the whole portfolio outperforms.
This is exactly what I've seen from Alpha Picks so far. Only 64% of its stock picks are profitable right now (vs 79% for the S&P), but a handful of large winners have led to the portfolio outperforming the S&P by a wide margin.
If you had an invested $1,000 into each new recommendation and bought $1,000 worth of the S&P at the same time, here is what your results would look like:
The outperformance is coming from a handful of big winners, including:
- Ten of the service's stocks have gained more than 100%
- Six have gained more than 200%
- Three have gained more than 300%
- One has gained more than 600%
This — a narrow set of stocks accounting for the bulk of the outperformance — is exactly in line with the objective of the Alpha Picks momentum investing approach.
2. 2022 picks vs 2023 picks vs 2024 picks vs 2025 picks
Here's a look at how each annual cohort of stocks has performed relative to the S&P 500 since the service's launch in 2022:
These results may indicate, somewhat unsurprisingly, the picks outperform by an increasing margin over longer timeframes.
I've noticed similar results in other stock picking services, like Motley Fool's Stock Advisor.
3. Closed positions & average holding period
The Alpha Picks team has closed 32 positions since the service's launch. Of those 32, 20 have been winners:
The team closes positions once they've been determined to have lost their momentum.
There's nothing noteworthy about the win rate or average returns of these closed positions, except that the team has closed 30/48 (62.5%) of the positions that were purchased more than one year ago. This holding period is shorter than the "expected holding period" of two years that the service lists on its website.
There's nothing wrong with this, just something to keep in mind.
How does Alpha Picks work?
Unlike most of its competitors, Alpha Picks is very transparent about its portfolio process, stock selection criteria, and who makes up its management team.
1. Quantitative analysis
At the heart of Alpha Picks is its quantitative analysis, and the main component of this analysis is Seeking Alpha's Quant Ratings.
Since 2010, the Quant Ratings model has had an average annualized return of 26%, outperforming the S&P 500 by more than 5x:
The system ranks stocks based on five factors: value, growth, profitability, EPS revisions, and momentum.
The model was developed by CressCap Investment Research, a quantitative analytics platform, which was acquired by Seeking Alpha in 2018.
As part of the acquisition, Steven Cress, the founder and CEO of CressCap, joined Seeking Alpha as its Head of Quant Strategies. Cress is the leader of Alpha Picks.
Note: Seeking Alpha Premium users can also access Quant Ratings.
2. Investment criteria
Buy criteria
The Alpha Picks team selects two “Strong Buy” rated stocks from the Quant Ratings list each month.
At the time of publication, each pick must meet the following criteria:
- Have a “Strong Buy” quant rating for at least 75 consecutive days
- Be a U.S. common stock (i.e., no ADRs)
- Not be a REIT
- Have a 3-month average market capitalization greater than $500M
- Have a stock price greater than $10
- Have not been recommended in the past year
Sell criteria
Alpha Picks notifies its members when it's time to close or reduce a position in the portfolio.
They sell the entire position if any of the following occur:
- The quant rating falls to “Sell” or “Strong Sell”
- The quant rating falls to “Hold” and remains at “Hold” for 180 consecutive days, as long as the stock is not a “winner” (see below)
- The company is acquired or it announces a merger of equals
Letting winners run
The team's research shows that portfolios perform better when letting winners run.
Alpha Picks does not sell stocks for any reason other than when it loses momentum and its rating falls to “Sell” or “Strong Sell” (or if the company is acquired or merges).
The team will not sell a position as long as their Quant Ratings model shows it still has momentum, regardless of how much its price has risen (or fallen).
3. Investment team
On top of its algorithm, analytical tools, and proprietary models, the Alpha Picks' investment team always makes the final buy/sell/hold decisions.
In this way, the service describes its investing approach as “quantamental,” combining both quantitative and fundamental analysis.
Alpha Picks is run by a two-person team:
- Steve Cress is the VP of Quantitative Strategy. Steve has over 30 years of experience in equity research and quantitative strategies. Prior to Alpha Picks, he founded Cress Capital Management (a quant-based hedge fund) and CressCap Investment Research (a quantitative investment research platform) after starting his career running a quant trading desk at Morgan Stanley.
- Joel Hancock is the Senior Director of Product. Prior to joining Seeking Alpha, Joel led product teams at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and E*TRADE.
4. Portfolio process
The Alpha Picks team offers three potential strategies its members can deploy:
- Buy at least 5 “Strong Buy” rated Alpha Picks from the existing portfolio.
- Buy the entire portfolio using the allocations in the “Portfolio” tab.
- Use Alpha Picks as an idea-generation tool. Read the analysis of each pick, and choose the stocks that suit your strategy.
Given the distribution of returns in Alpha Picks so far, in my opinion, buying every stock that the service recommends provides the best chance of capturing the few stocks that drive most of the outperformance.
How much does Alpha Picks cost?
Alpha Picks costs $499/year* and includes 24 stock picks each year (two per month), research reports for every new recommendation, weekly portfolio commentary, and regular performance updates.
*New members can get their first year of Alpha Picks for $449 with our link.
Keep in mind that Seeking Alpha does not currently offer a free trial or a refund policy for Alpha Picks.
That said, I have had good experiences with their customer support in the past — you might be able to talk them into a refund if you have a good reason.
What else is included with Alpha Picks?
After subscribing, you'll be added to the Alpha Picks investing group on the Seeking Alpha website.
The group comes with four tabs:
- Analysis: The Analysis tab (pictured above) shows each of the investment reports and performance summaries in chronological order, as well as the portfolio's total return.
- Portfolio: The Portfolio tab shows the return of each pick, the sectors the stocks are in, their ratings, and the holding percentage.
- Performance: The Performance tab shows the up-to-date total portfolio return and the return data of all the service's picks, which days they were selected, and how they're performing compared to the S&P 500.
- About: The About tab discusses the investing strategy, portfolio process, and strategy characteristics, plus provides some background information on the team.
This hub does a nice job of providing everything you need to know while not overwhelming you with information.
Alpha Picks pro and con summary
| Pros | Cons |
| Outperforming the S&P by 2.70x | No monthly subscription option |
| Backtested, proprietary, quant-driven stock-picking model | No free trial |
| 1 new stock pick every 2 weeks | No refunds |
| An experienced investment team | |
| Simple, beginner-friendly service | |
| Done-for-you investment research | |
| $449 introductory offer |
Alpha Picks vs Motley Fool, and Zacks
Here's how Alpha Picks compares to a few competitors:
| Alpha Picks | Motley Fool Stock Advisor | Zacks Home Run Investor | |
| Service type | Stock picking | Stock picking | Stock picking |
| Investments | Stocks | Stocks | Stocks |
| Investment style | Primarily quantitative | Primarily fundamental | Primarily quantitative |
| Cost | $499/year | $199/year | $59/month |
| Special offer | $449 for new members | $99 for new members | n/a |
| Links | Sign up | Sign up | Sign up |
You can read more about each of these services in my article on the best investing newsletters.
Final verdict
This Alpha Picks review really comes down to a few things:
- The service is outperforming by a factor of 2.70x. Past performance does not guarantee future results, but this is a very strong start for the Alpha Picks team.
- The service is $449 for new members. To make it worth it, you should preferably have a few thousand dollars to invest.
- The service is new. While the results have been great so far, I would like to see a few more years of outperformance, especially in different market conditions, before I can say anything definitive about the investment approach.
While it's still early (three years in), Alpha Picks has been doing exactly what it advertises: outperforming the market.
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