Seeking Alpha is an investment research platform founded in the U.S. in 2004, which provides investors with research articles and investment strategies on stocks, various asset classes and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). By using the so-called Wisdom of Crowds, all of Seeking Alpha’s analytical and research articles are sourced from public contributors with no special contributors, and public readers can verify investment ideas and get investment strategies by communicating with other users on the platform. At the end of June 2014, Seeking Alpha had a total of 9,000 contributors, 3.5 million registered users, and a monthly average of 5,000 published articles, and 12 million comments on the investment analysis of 7,327 stocks. In this respect, Seeking Alpha can be considered the largest investment research platform in the US. This article studies and discusses the business model, operation, and the controversies as well as the hidden dangers of Seeking Alpha.
