Published October 31, 2026 · by Troels Højbjerg, Founder
A picking service is only as good as its full list of picks. So I started with my own. Every stock page on WallStreetBuys has a technical signal. It checks four things: is the price above its 50-day and its 200-day average, and is the MACD (a trend measure built from two moving averages) above zero on a daily and a weekly basis?
Each yes counts +1, each no −1. I recalculated that for every trading day since January 2023. Stocks switched into a buy signal 3,134 times. This is where they stood sixty trading days later:
| 60 trading days later | After a new buy signal | Any day |
|---|---|---|
| Price change, median | +3.1% | +3.4% |
| Up | 56.2% | 56.4% |
| Down more than 10% | 27.5% | 26.9% |
| Up more than 10% | 38.7% | 38.8% |
| Cases | 3,134 | 144,924 |
Source: own calculation, 191 of the US stocks covered by WallStreetBuys, signals from January 2023 to August 2026, closing prices from our price database. Only stocks that are still listed today. No fees.
The two columns are almost the same. More than one buy signal in four was down over 10% three months later, just as often as on any day.
Take an example: a service that costs $300 a year, and a portfolio of $30,000. The service must make you 1% a year more than you would have made on your own, just to pay for itself. On $100,000 it is 0.3%.
Every trade a service tells you to make also costs you a spread, and in a taxable account a sale can trigger tax. Those come on top of the fee.
Every pick, not just the winners. A page of the best calls tells you nothing. You need each pick with its date and price, including the ones that fell 30%.
A comparison. A 10% gain in a year when the S&P 500 rose 15% is a weak result. Ask for the comparison with an index fund over the same dates.
The drops along the way. A stock that ended up 5% may have been down 25% first. Whether you would have held on is not in any final return.
How to cancel. Check when a trial turns into a paid plan, and how you stop it.
Every US stock we cover has a free page with the signal, three scores for value, quality and momentum, the analysts' price target and red flags. There is no sign-up, no app, no alerts and no advice.
In my data, picking the kind of stock mattered more than the day. When two US stocks were far apart on quality, the higher-quality one had the smaller drop in 68 of 100 pairs. More on that: How do I compare two stocks?
A stock picking service is worth it only if it makes you more than it costs, and it can only show that with its full list of picks. My own buy signal, tested on 191 US stocks since 2023, left the median stock up 3.1% sixty trading days later, against 3.4% on any day. More than one signal in four was down over 10%. A $300 service has to earn 1% a year on a $30,000 portfolio just to break even, less on a bigger one. Whether Motley Fool or another service clears that bar, I do not know, because I have only tested my own signal.
One thing to check: before you pay, ask the service for the complete list of its picks for the last three years, with dates and prices, and compare it with an S&P 500 index fund.
The signal and the scores for every US stock we cover are free and need no sign-up. Stocks with a buy signal right now are listed under Buy signals.
I have not tested Stock Advisor, so I cannot tell you. Motley Fool writes on its own page that its record goes back more than 20 years and has beaten the market. Before you pay, ask to see every pick with its date and price, and compare the result with an index fund over the same years. When I did that test on my own buy signal for 191 US stocks, it did not beat a random day.
I cannot rank them, because I have not tested them. A good one shows all its picks, not just the winners, and compares them with the market over the same period. It also shows how far its picks fell along the way. If a service will not show you that, you have no way to check it.
WallStreetBuys is not an app and sends no alerts. Every US stock we cover has a free page with a technical signal from Strong Buy to Strong Sell, updated after each trading day. In my data, a new buy signal on its own told you little about the next three months, so treat any buy or sell alert as a hint, not a decision.
Many do, and I have not tested them all. WallStreetBuys shows a technical signal for each of the 200 US stocks we cover, free and without sign-up. It counts whether the price is above its 50- and 200-day averages and whether the MACD is above zero on a daily and a weekly basis. It saves you reading the chart. It does not predict where the price goes next.
Read also: When to sell a stock · How to compare two stocks · How the signal works · Buy signals
This is information, not individual investment advice. The numbers are our own calculations on market data and may contain errors. Past results are no guarantee of the future. You decide for yourself — and remember to spread your risk.