Analyst recommendation Alpaca Trading

Unlike most online brokers, Alpaca Trading unfortunately doesn't have analyst recommendations, so you'll need to look elsewhere for specific trading ideas.

My key findings in a nutshell

My key findings in a nutshell

Adam Nasli

Financial Wizard | Trading • Safety • Market Analysis

I bring extensive financial expertise as one of BrokerChooser's earliest team members. Personally, I tested nearly all 100+ brokers on our site, opening real-money accounts, executing trades, assessing customer services, and providing firsthand assessment. My professional background includes roles in the banking sector and a degree from Central European University, where I teach finance. My passions lies in in-depth research of the financial industry, building trading algorithms, and managing long-term investments.

Learn about our methodology

Adam Nasli

Financial Wizard | Trading • Safety • Market Analysis

I've thoroughly tested Alpaca Trading services with our analyst team by opening a real-money account and these are my most important findings:

• Alpaca Trading doesn't provide trading recommendations by analysts
• Analysts use company data, news or price trends to advise whether to buy/hold/sell an asset
• Use other tools such as news feeds, charts or data to develop your own judgment
• Try not to rely on a single recommendation if possible

If you're a long-term stock investor, it's often difficult to pick the right stocks or choose the right time to invest in a certain stock. Thankfully, you don't need to venture too far from your broker platform for advice, as many brokers provide very exact analyst recommendations or trading ideas.

Analyst recommendations can be found on the broker's website, within your trading platform, or you may receive it in a regular newsletter. In general, an analyst recommendation would advise you to buy, sell or hold a specific stock. In addition, analysts often set a target price for the stock - something like “we expect stock X to rise to $150 in the next 12 months”.

Instead of a buy/sell recommendation, analysts occasionally assign an overweight or underweight rating to a stock. This means that you should give that stock a bigger/smaller weight in your portfolio than what its weight is in major stock indices such as the S&P 500.

The quality of analyst recommendations and other research tools such as news or charts can make a big difference in your trading comfort and confidence. Thankfully, Alpaca Trading offers a user-friendly suite of research tools for investors like you.

How do analysts come up with these recommendations? One approach is fundamental analysis, where analysts would look at the company's recent profitability and make predictions about its future performance, considering also the future prospects of the wider industry or the global economy. By contrast, technical analysis focuses on charts, trying to identify patterns in stock price movements that could hint at future price shifts.

Fundamental analysis is probably more relevant to you if you're a long-term investor looking for the right stocks to buy. However, analyst recommendations based on technical analysis can sometimes help you nail down the best time to buy a specific stock.

Eager to seek out advice or improve your investment skills? Check out our overview of the most popular learning tools for long-term investors.

Since Alpaca Trading doesn't offer analyst recommendations or trading ideas, you're left with the following tools to assist your investment decisions:

• Fundamental data - find out about companies' business performance and valuation
• News feed - stay on top of breaking news about stocks and the general economy
• Charting - spot price patterns using various technical indicators
• Quality educational texts - learn about the basics of trading and investing

If you don't feel like relying on a single piece of advice, or if your broker doesn't offer trading recommendations at all, you may want to check out websites or tools that offer aggregate analyst opinions on a certain stock. These would collect recommendations from all over the market and, for example, display a 'buy'recommendation if the majority of analysts rated the stock a 'buy'.

In addition to outright recommendations, it's a good idea to browse business news sites, watch expert YouTube videos, or take part in free webinars in order to learn more about the stock market or feel out the potential of a specific stock.

Are you the type of stock investor who still needs a bit of help from time to time? We suggest you take a look at our top list of the best brokers for beginners, where we show you brokers with low fees, user-friendly trading platforms, and in-depth yet easy-to-digest educational and research tools.