As someone who works in the equity space, seeking alpha is one of the finance sites that I frequent. The good thing about it is that it covers a wide variety of topics, ranging from macro to long-short ideas. However, it's become increasingly clear that seeking alpha has become saturated with too many writers, the vast majority of whom, have questionable credentials and write mediocre articles. There are a few authors who stand out for their sharp analysis, but aside from them, I feel like the site has really gone downhill.
Interested to hear others' thoughts on this.
zerohedge is much better
Second vote to Zerohedge. The quality on SA has been going down for at least two years IMO. However, I need to control my dose of ZH. Too much and you'll want to turn all of your assets into physical silver and move to Western Nebraska.
Zero hedge is interesting to read. But much of the content is verging on hysteria and conspiracy theories, so it's hard to take the site seriously as a source of insightful analysis.
I really like pragcap, credit writedowns, and felix salmon's blog.
Becoming??
I really like how seekingalpha is moving the democratization of investing/trading forward, yet i use it with a few 'rules'.
i find seekingalpha is a helpful starting place to build your own thesis on an idea, but to pull the trigger based on some guy's opinion that you might like is just foolish. I also agree that the quality of the average poster has diminished, but there are some poster's that are far more intelligent and experienced than myself. i'll keep using the site until that's no longer true.
Aggmonkey, I agree 100% with what you wrote. Seekingalpha is great for a general overview but very dangerous to implement trading strategies based on them.
Which authors do you like? I recently discovered James Kostorhyz, and he's quickly become my favorite, although I disagree strongly with his ultra-bearish view on stocks for the year.
The Big Picture (ritholtz.com), and Dealbreaker are also good, although more macro focused with occasional equity analysis.
There are some really good option trade strategists on there.
VIC. But you have to do the work.
Not sure about the other information, but it has always been a joke for my sector. The individual contributors are wrong about 65% of the time, even these "small independent research shops" write misinformed blogs/reports. Straight up wrong facts and information and/or an incomplete understanding of the discussed company and its respective industry.
I'm assuming you're in sell-side research? i appreciate your honesty with how SA is regarded. While i won't disagree with you, i will counter that sell-side research can be a joke and make dismal calls...even if their analysis is 'spot on'.
i guess it depends on the shop and the analyst.
Not talking about calls or analysis. I'm talking about wrong factual information (as in saying 2+2=5), nothing to do with views, opinions, estimates, or recommendations.
Michael Filloon puts some great articles together if you are interested in the E&P space or following different shale plays.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/309117-bakken-update-how-good-is-kodiak…
i've been recruiting some stock authors to syndicate content on wso - please let me know of any specific authors you guys like and I will contact them - thanks (ps thanks Mistabooks I will try contacting Michael Filloon - he looks like a quality writer on s-alpha)
No prob. Rocco Pendola is another author that frequently writes on SA. While I don't follow him as closely as I do MF, I used to. I actually don't follow Rocco at all anymore. I used to follow his articles about shorting RIMM and thought he did a great job analyzing the story from both sides - also made a pretty penny in the process :)
I concur, seeking alpha is worthless to me now. I used to read it daily, now I only check once a week.
I'm sure they're not deliberate.
The homeless guy that hangs out at the 5/53rd Metro Stop (E/M lines) told me last week that "Europe is failing because of what they did in Africa" and "Wo-men will take all of your money." As far as I am concerned, he is a better source of financial advice than Seeking Alpha.
Hah
What happened to Seeking Alpha???? (Originally Posted: 01/04/2016)
It used to be good. I would go on it to check out what others have written about a stock. Read the comments by readers. Now I check a new stock and they want to shove a $2k subscription down my throat. Besides the occaisional top notch article, most of them range from average to lame. I valued the comments by the readers more.
Well they are trying to monetize it. And the comments from readers have always been much better than the articles, although the articles are valuable for a quick synopsis. I am sick of all the dividend growth investing and FAST graph garbage though. Also some of the research subscriptions are hilariously overpriced. Despite all of it, I still think its an incredibly valuable resource and provides a broader perspective than just reading sell side research that tends to focus on the stuff management brings up.
"the articles are valuable for a quick synopsis" I agree. If I am interested in a stock and its come down alot I go to SA to check why. But now all the articles are SA Pro, a $2000 subscription. What a shame. I am starting to use it less and less. The comments were the best. What a terrible way to monetize.
Good thing there's WSO.
Take a crack at value investors club instead.
personally I think some articles are very insightful and well written (I did and am still learning a lot) but they tend to lose track of the general market sentiment and/or broader economic picture which drive a significant part of the risk/return profile even in excellent idiosyncratic plays
what are your thoughts?
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