Forbes Investor Review – Is This Newsletter Service Worth Using?

About Forbes Investor

Forbes Investor is a stock investing newsletter managed by Taesik Yoon, a stock analyst who has spent more than 20 years at Forbes and served as an advisor to Forbes’ founder. The newsletter focuses on value stocks and offers two stock recommendations per month. 

So, can this stock picking service boost your portfolio? We’ll cover everything you need to know in our Forbes Investor review.

Forbes Investor Pricing Options

Forbes Investor offers a single subscription plan that includes full access to the service. It costs $24 per month, $197 per year, or $379 for 2 years. There is no trial available.

Forbes Investor Performance

Forbes Investor doesn’t offer a look at its long-term performance since Yoon launched the newsletter in 2000. However, it claims to have outperformed the S&P 500 by a factor of three since the portfolio began. As of October 2021, the Forbes Investor portfolio has returned 31.5% year-to-date compared to 14.7% for the S&P 500. In 2020, the Forbes Investor portfolio returned 25.2% compared to 16.3% for the S&P 500.

Investing Style

The overall goal of Forbes Investor is to outperform the S&P 500 over a time horizon of 6-18 months.

The service focuses on undervalued stocks in two categories. The first category is established, large-cap companies that are undervalued as a result of investor overreaction to bad news, such as poor earnings or management changes. The second category is stocks that have a longer history of underperformance, but which are in the midst of a business transformation that Yoon believes will lead to success.

Forbes Investor issues two new stock recommendations per month and aims to keep a total portfolio of 25-30 stocks. New recommendations are issued by email, and there’s a monthly newsletter that provides more in-depth analysis of the new picks. Most stocks are held for one to three years, although some positions have been sold for a profit after just one month.

Forbes Investor Features

New stock recommendations are issued twice per month. Each recommendation includes a target entry price and a forecasted growth rate, as well as background about what a company does and the investment thesis behind the pick. The ‘Why to Buy’ section can be very informative, especially since Forbes Investor targets companies that have recently been underperforming expectations but are now in the beginning stages of a turnaround.

Yoon writes a monthly newsletter for Forbes Investor subscribers that offers a brief analysis of market conditions as well as an update on the current portfolio. It’s fairly easy to read and does a nice job of breaking down how the Forbes Investor portfolio performed relative to the major indices. The newsletter also highlights the biggest winners and losers in the portfolio, and gives a brief analysis of what was driving each stock’s moves.

In addition to the newsletter, Yoon issues updates throughout the month when stocks in the portfolio experience large jumps in value. These updates are brief and typically summarize a piece of news and its effect on a stock’s price. If news or a price drop is significant enough to warrant selling, Yoon will issue a sell notification by email.

Service Differentiators

Forbes Investor differentiates itself from similar stock picking services in the stocks it chooses to focus on. Whereas The Motley Fool focuses on explosive growth stocks and IBD Leaderboard focuses on CANSLIM stocks, Forbes Investor looks for undervalued stocks of all sizes. This strategy has enabled Forbes Investor to beat the market over the past two years (and, according to the service, over the past 20 years).

One small advantage to Forbes Investor is that it’s somewhat less popular than these competing stock picking services. As a result, the price of a newly recommended stock rarely spikes on the day the recommendation is issued. So, there’s less pressure to buy quickly, giving you time to do your own analysis or monitor the market for a cheaper entry point.

That said, Forbes Investor doesn’t offer much else to distinguish itself from other similarly priced stock picking services. There’s no starter portfolio for new subscribers, for example. Yoon instead recommends that you simply start investing in newly recommended stocks and build your portfolio over the course of a year. Forbes Investor also doesn’t issue special reports, and it’s relatively rare to get an in-depth dive – as opposed to short updates explaining a specific price movement – into companies in the portfolio after the initial recommendation.

Check out some of our other stock newsletter reviews to see how Forbes Investor compares:

• Motley Fool Review
• Oxford Club Review
• Gorilla Trades Review
• Fidelity Investor Review
• Nate’s Notes Review
• Action Alerts Plus Review
• Stansberry Research Review

What Type of Trader is Forbes Investor Best For?

Forbes Investor is best-suited for long-term investors who want to focus on value stocks. The service makes it very easy to follow along, with only two new stock recommendations per month. 

While Forbes Investor doesn’t have the same astounding performance record as services like The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor newsletter, it has proven that it can consistently beat the market. In addition, Forbes Investor’s value approach and portfolio diversification can limit risk compared to more growth-oriented investing strategies.

Pros

• Two stock recommendations per month
• Focus on value stocks
• Updates on major price changes
• Consistently outperforms the S&P 500
• Analysis is easy to understand

Cons

• No starter portfolio for new subscribers
• Doesn’t offer special reports