You’ve probably heard of Stockchase if you are an amateur or DIY investor. In this Stockchase review I’ll go over what Stockchase is and the additional paid feature of Stockchase Premium.
What is Stockchase?
Stockchase started off in Ontario, Canada. Stockchase was started by Bill and Chris Bruner in 2000 (a DIY investor himself) and was acquired from the Bruner family in 2017 by Wealthica Financial Technology Inc.
Here’s my review on Wealthica if you’re interested.
Here’s a great interview with the founders of Stockchase, Bill Bruner and Chris Bruner. Bill Bruner kept notes of the commentary from investing professionals and then his son Chris, created an e-commerce website for a project in his computer programming degree. Chris compiled his dad’s notes into what is now called Stockchase. It started as a hobby and grew into something big.
There are over 39,000 Stockchase members and over half a million pageviews a month.
BNN Market Call: Summarized
The mission of Stockchase is to helping investors track what the experts say about stocks that are on their watch list and portfolio, and then getting a sense of how companies are viewed by investing professionals.
Do you watch BNN Market Call? I used to listen and watch intently when viewers would call in with their questions on stocks they are interested in. BNN Market Call is Canada’s main stock market call-in program. Top fund managers and market analysts give their thoughts and top picks on air.
Stockchase reviews the picks of guests who have appeared on the Business News Network’s Market Call and Market Call Tonight programs since 2000. Bill Bruner meticulously dictated this daily to keep the website updated (and still does to a certain degree), and now Wealthica keeps the investing picks updated.
How Do You Use Stockchase?
Stockchase can be used in a number of ways. It’s very helpful especially if you’re trying to review the general sentiment from experts of a particular stock- whether it is a buy, or a hold, or a sell. You won’t have to go digging around Yahoo Finance too much for information.
- Check up recent opinions of a stock that you are interested in
- Get daily Top Picks emailed to your inbox for free
- Create your own portfolio and watchlist for stocks you own so you can keep track of top analysts stock picks
- Sign up for the Watched Stocks newsletter
- Get ideas for more stocks to ass to your portfolio, by looking up a Stockchase recent stock pick
Stockchase is free to join.
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What is Stockchase Premium?
Stockchase Premium is a paid membership and it gives you extra features in addition to what you would get from Stockchase.
The cost is $10 a month or $99/year.
Stockchase Premium has a 60 day money back guarantee, and if you are not happy PAST the 60 day window and ask for a refund, the refund will be pro-rated.
With Stockchase Premium you get:
- Top 25 Experts Ranking
- Access to experts top pick portfolios and their performance
- First dibs on the daily top picks email (it’s emailed at night instead of the morning)
- No ads when using Stockchase
- Included subscription to Monthly Best Stock Ideas newsletter
Stockchase Premium Pros
I like how the Top 25 Experts Ranking is objective and algorithmic. It shows you who the top analyst is (recently) according to their recommendations and whether these recommendations ended up panning out (winner) or losing. It gives a sense of trustworthiness for the analyst, whether they are walking the talk and doing well with their forecasts.
For example, here’s February’s Top Experts, and the top analyst is a woman (yeehaw! They do say that women make better investors 😉 )
You can even go further and click on each analyst’s portfolio and see individual performances of their stock recommendations.
Here is the performance data of this top analyst stock picks and underneath it shows all her recommendations. She recommended Fortis ($FTS.TO), which I am a huge fan of, and has increased by 30% in the past two years.
I like how with Stockchase, you can look up individual stocks and see what the general consensus from analysts are.
I also like to review analyst’s opinions before I make a final decision to click ‘buy’ on a stock purchase, and I like to review opinions before I decide to sell something in my portfolio.
Stockchase Premium Cons
The main ‘con’ that I can say about paying for a premium subscription to Stockchase is that all the recommendations and “noise” might make you tempted to improperly asset allocate your portfolio and buy according to analysts recommendations without doing your own thinking. I learned this from my own experience listening to Jim Cramer with a few stock purchases when I was investing in my 20’s, though Jim Cramer is a far cry from BNN Market Call, haha!
However, this is coming from my hybrid investing lens, where I try to limit individual company purchases and mainly focus on index investing for the majority of my investment portfolio.
I do like the daily email of stock ideas and market opinions. It’s nice to know that you can get it before others get it by being a paid subscriber but sometimes it’s hard to find time to read email and analyze recommended stock picks in the evening.
Genymoney.ca Verdict on Stockchase
Even Bill Bruner himself says to use the information as a tool, and to use your own critical thinking before hitting the ‘buy’ button, after all, the top analysts were recommending Nortel when it went bust.
Here’s my Stockchase review. I think that Stockchase Premium is a great tool for the Canadian Investor to keep abreast of market news and general news and analyst’s opinions on your investment portfolio. If you have a large portfolio and like to invest in individual stocks and also like to keep track of top analysts recommendations, $99 a year subscription isn’t very much if you’re looking to take action on recommendations by top analysts and buy a “winner”.
Of course, if you are an index investor this is probably not relevant, but for those who like to hold individual companies this can be a great tool for your investing toolkit.
Hope you enjoyed this Stockchase review and Stockchase Premium review.
If you’re interested in signing up for Stockchase (it’s free), click here.
Do you use Stockchase?
Do you review analysts stock picks from time to time in your portfolio?
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GYM is a 30 something millennial interested in achieving financial freedom through disciplined saving, dividend and ETF investing, and living a minimalist lifestyle. Before you go, check out my recommendations page of financial tools I use to save and invest money. Don’t forget to subscribe for blog updates, a free dividend yield spreadsheet, and the free Young Money Bootcamp eCourse.
Can’t say I’d pay money for Stockchase. It can be a useful tool to lookup BNN analysts past picks to guess what their “top picks” will be and then profit off the “BNN Effect” if you’re into trading. As a general rule though, I’d advocate people allocate a small percentage of their portfolio (maybe 10% to trading activities or riskier positions). You can scratch that itch while limiting the downside.
@FMS- Yes, I agree. I’m mainly index investing.
Sound like a good tool, GYM I tend to follow a couple of investment newsletters and do my own research. I think it’s important to pick a limited number of sources for input and stick with them over time. Be it Stockchase or something else. Otherwise, it’s easy to chase too many investment ideas and spread yourself too thin. I made that mistake in my earlier days for sure. Tom
@Tom- Another great tip- keep it simple and consistent. Keep the noise to a minimum otherwise you spread yourself too thin.
I started compiling all the analysts previous top picks, and comments, and was working with a buddy to develop an algorithm to score each analyst and determine who knew what they were talking about, and who was completely useless….alas other things came up and we never finished it….
Nice to see the paid version offers something similar (though I wouldn’t pay for it myself).
Cheers.
@Moneymaaster- Wow so cool! Hey it’s never too late to start 🙂