CNBC Pro Review: Is It Worth It? (CNBC Pro Vs Benzinga Vs Motley Fool)

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So, what is CNBC Pro?

How is CNBC Pro different from CNBC’s free version?

Is it worth it to subscribe to CNBC Pro?

Lastly, how does it compare with Bloomberg and Benzinga, and Motley Fool?

After trying out CNBC Pro, I will share everything you need to know to make an informed decision.

What Is CNBC Pro?

So, what is CNBC Pro?

It’s a paid subscription service on CNBC.com and CNBC apps.

Inside CNBC Pro, you will get access to the following:

• Live CNBC TV from U.S., Europe, and Asia
• CNBC PRO News
• Street Calls (i.e. Wall Street’s analyst calls interpreted for you before the market opens)
• CNBC Pro Uncut (i.e. Interviews with fund managers, company CEOs, and market experts)
• Follow the Pros (i.e. what top fund managers are buying or selling)
• Pros Talk (i.e. interviews with fund managers and prominent investors)
• A View From Top (i.e. interviews with company CEOs)
• Mike Santoli’s Notes on Stocks (i.e. daily notebook of Mike Santoli, CNBC’s senior markets commentator, with ideas about trends, stocks, and market statistics)
• Stock Deep Dive (i.e. in-depth analysis of specific stocks)

Now, the next question becomes, how useful is it to help you invest better?

First of all, let’s look at Live CNBC TV.

Live CNBC TV basically covers all the latest market news from around the world.

As a CNBC Pro subscriber, you can access Live CNBC TV using any web browser on any device from anywhere, as long as you have good internet connection.

But, if you already have cable TV that includes CNBC channel, then you can watch CNBC TV live from there without subscribing to CNBC Pro.

So, do you really need Live CNBC TV to help you make your investment decisions?

Personally, I think that if you are actively day trading and are trading the news, then you will probably need a live audio news feed to help you keep updated on the stock market in real-time.

This is because any breaking news (e.g. economic news or stock-specific news) might cause huge swings in the stocks that you are trading and you don’t want to get caught off-handed.

I would recommend Benzinga Pro’s Squawk because it delivers only the most critical market-moving news so you can focus on what matters most.

On the other hand, if you are a long-term investor, I don’t see a lot of value in getting Live CNBC TV.

Why?

There is too much noise and distraction from Live CNBC TV with most of the news stories being not actionable.

Do you think Warren Buffet watches live market news all day in his office?

I doubt so.

As for CNBC Pro News, if you are an active trader, you probably get all the latest market news feed on your trading platform or the stock trading software you are using.

Moving on, let’s take a look at Wall Street’s analyst calls interpreted for you before the market opens.

It’s basically a quick summary of a few biggest analyst calls with a short excerpt of an analyst’s report.

Take note that this is NOT a summary of ALL the analyst calls.

So, you might NOT see the stocks that you are holding or are currently on your watch list right now.

If you want to stay informed of any change in analyst ratings on the stocks that you are watching, then there are good stock research and analysis platforms such as Stock Rover and Seeking Alpha, where you get ALL the financial data and ratings in one place.

In addition to analyst calls, you also get investment recommendations from CNBC’s “Follow the Pro”.

These are stock recommendations by various investment banks and their analysts.

By the way, most of these articles have attention-grabbing headlines such as this one “Buy these global clean energy stocks, UBS says, forecasting one to rise 50%”.

The nice thing about “Follow the Pro” is that you get quite a lot of stock ideas from them.

The downside is that you might get overwhelmed with all the stock ideas thrown at you.

Are you going to follow their recommendation and buy all of them?

Because there is no in-depth analysis and explanation for their stock recommendations.

To make a good investment decision, you still need to do your own research and analysis.

Another key offering of CNBC Pro is its interviews with company CEOs and fund managers called “Pro Talk”.

So, can you get any useful and actionable information from these interviews?

The thing with the interviews with company CEOs is that they would mostly paint a very rosy picture of their companies.

That’s why I prefer annual reports because numbers are unbiased.

As for fund manager interviews, I quite like them because it’s useful to know the top players’ views on the market and also their investment ideas.

Next, you also get access to Mike Santoni’s notes.

It is basically a daily notebook of Mike Santoli, CNBC’s senior markets commentator, with ideas about trends, stocks, and market statistics.

There’s nothing too special about this.

I believe you could get this kind of information from other major financial news outlets as well.

Lastly, let’s look at the CNBC Pro Stock Deep Dive.

The articles give you an in-depth analysis of an individual stock.

For example, the most recent article is on Walmart after its latest earnings report and released investment plans.

The style of writing is very similar to the free articles you read on CNBC.

Basically, it lists out a few key points for its reasoning on why Walmart’s sell-off is an opportunity for investors willing to be a little patient:

• Walmart’s latest earnings report and plans to invest $14 billion in its business prompted a sell-off that has wiped $25 billion from the retailer’s stock.
• The big-box retailer said it sees growth opportunities in businesses like advertising and healthcare
• It also is automating its business to allow it to fulfill online orders more efficiently

Later on, the article is going to talk about each of these potential growth areas in detail.

To give you an example of what to expect, below is an excerpt of the article talking about Walmart’s advertising growth opportunities.

So, can you get value from Stock Deep Dive articles?

I think you can at least get some investment ideas, but I don’t find myself go and click “Buy Walmart” straight away.

Why?

I still want to find out more:

• What is the fair value of Walmart?
• What are the risks of investing in Walmart?
• Does it fit into your overall portfolio strategy?
• Are there any other better investment opportunities?
• What’s your plan for this investment if you do decide to buy? (i.e. how much to buy, when to buy, when to sell, etc)

CNBC Pro vs. CNBC

So, what is the difference between CNBC Pro and CNBC?

The key differences between CNBC Pro and CNBC are that you can have exclusive access to the following:

• Live CNBC TV round-the-clock
• Uncut interviews with company CEOs and fund managers
• CNBC Pro premium content such as Stock Deep Dive, Follow The Pros, Street Calls, and Mike Santoni’s Notes on Stocks

How much does a CNBC Pro subscription cost?

It has a monthly plan as well as an annual plan.

Its monthly plan costs $29.99/month while its annual plan costs $299.99.

There is a free 7-day trial for its annual plan only.

So, if you want to test drive CNBC Pro risk-free, you will need to go with the annual plan.

If you don’t think it’s a good fit for you, then you must cancel your annual subscription before the 7-day trial ends.

To cancel it, you just need to go to “my account”.

Then, you click “CNBC Pro”.

Under”Plan”, you can cancel your subscription by turning off the “auto-renewal”.

CNBC Pro Vs Benzinga Pro

So, what’s the difference between CNBC Pro and Benzinga Pro?

Which one is more suitable for you?

Benzinga Pro is specifically designed to help traders trade news events because stocks typically make huge moves during news such as mergers & acquisitions, trial results, earnings results, and product launches.

With Benzinga Pro, you don’t miss out on any of the biggest news.

You can choose whether you want a sound alert or a desktop notification to pop up on your screen or email notification.

There are also many filters that you can mix and match to only get the news on the stocks that you want to trade.

For example, you can choose filters from Sources (i.e. SEC, Press Release, etc.), Categories (i.e. Economics, M&A, Analyst Rating, IPO, FDA, etc.), Screener (i.e. Sector, Market Cap, Price, Volume, etc.), and Watchlists.

Benzinga also lets you color code it, so you can quickly identify which type of news it is.

Furthermore, you would love Benzinga Pro’s Audio Squawk which is a fast, timely audio news broadcast that delivers only the most critical market-moving news, so you can focus on what matters most.

If you are a news trader, you will find this tool called “price sentiment engine” very useful because it tells you how likely news is to move a stock and in which direction.

Also, there are two other very useful tools for traders:

• Signals tool (i.e. it alerts you to price or volume-related events in real-time such as Price Spikes, Block trades, Trading halts, Option activities, Opening gaps,s and High/Low)
• Benzinga Pro Movers tool ( i.e. it brings you an up-to-the-minute feed of the biggest gainers and losers in the stock market.)

Every feature inside Benzinga Pro is designed to help traders profit from news events quickly.

On the other hand, CNBC Pro is more suitable for investors looking for stock ideas and also wanting to keep up to date with the latest market news.

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CNBC Pro Vs Motley Fool Stock Advisor

Now, let’s compare CNBC Pro with Motley Fool.

CNBC Pro is a subscription service that provides Live TV news on the market around the world, interviews with CEOs and fund managers, Wall Street analyst calls, in-depth stock analysis as well as news updates on top fund managers’ positions.

On the other hand, Motley Fool Stock Advisor is a subscription-based service that gives stock recommendations.

Let’s look at what you get from your Motley Fool Stock Advisor subscription:

• You will receive two stock recommendations every month (one stock recommendation on the first Thursday and the other one on the third Thursday of the month). Each new stock recommendation comes with a full analysis of the opportunities and risks
• The current Top 10 Favorite Investment Opportunities are released on the second Thursday of every month
• 10 Foundational Stocks for new investors (regularly updated)
• 5 Exchange-Traded-Funds
• You will receive a real-time email notification when it’s time to sell, so you are never left wondering what to do
• You gain instant access to all past Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor recommendations

Now, when it comes to stock picking services, one of the most important things that I think you should look at is their track record.

First of all, let’s take a look at their track record as of 4th Dec 2024.

Below is the performance comparison between Motley Fool Stock Advisor and S&P 500 between 2002 and 4th Dec 2024.

As of 4th Dec 2024, average Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations have returned over 929% since inception while the S&P 500 has returned 178%.

In short, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor has outperformed the market 5 to 1.