Behind the Markets Review - Stock Picking Service Pros & Cons (2024)

About Behind the Markets

Behind the Markets is a stock picking newsletter that focuses on undervalued mid-cap stocks – stocks that often get overlooked in favor of their larger peers. The service is very affordable and has a good track record since launching in 2018. Behind the Markets includes one stock pick each month.

So, is this stock picking service right for you? Our Behind the Markets review will help you decide.

Behind the Markets Pricing Options

Behind the Markets offers three pricing tiers: Bronze, Silver, and Platinum. All three tiers include access to the monthly newsletter and weekly trade ideas emails. They mainly differ in how many special reports are included with your membership.

The Bronze plan costs $39 per year and includes just one report, the Editor’s Choice report. The Silver plan costs $79 per year and includes four reports, including two on biotech stocks. The Platinum plan costs $99 per year and comes with seven reports, including one on cannabis stocks.

Behind the Markets Investing Style

Behind the Markets is run by Dylan Jovine, a former stock analyst and founder of Lexington Capital Partners. Jovine also founded Tycoon Publishing, a stock research service that eventually sold to Agora Inc. Jovine launched Behind the Markets in 2018.

Behind the Markets focuses on mid-cap stocks with a market cap of $1-$10 billion. Jovine and his team of analysts look for fundamentally strong companies that have low debt, high return on capital, meaningful business moats, and the ability to raise prices over time.

The team prioritizes quality over quantity, issuing just one pick per month. Each pick is undervalued relative to Behind the Markets’ fair value estimate for the stock.

Behind the Markets Stock Picks

Behind the Markets offers one new stock pick each month. These stock picks are delivered in the form of a detailed report. The report offers background about the company and an explanation of why Jovine and his team think it’s worth buying right now. Then it dives into a series of financial charts and tables outlining the company’s current fundamentals.

The reports are direct and to the point. They skip the common format of starting out with a story in favor of talking about the stock in question from the beginning. However, the financial data isn’t presented in an especially reader-friendly way, and even experienced investors may have a hard time parsing the included financial data.

Weekly Trade Ideas

In addition to the monthly newsletter, Behind the Markets offers three weekly emails, each with three stock ideas. One email highlights three stocks that guru investors like Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn are buying. The second highlights three stocks that Wall Street analysts have rated strong buys. The third highlights three stocks that corporate insiders are buying.

These stock ideas don’t include much original research, and they’re not part of the Behind the Markets portfolio. However, they can be helpful for investors who want to be aggressive or want to diversify their portfolios quickly.

Behind the Markets Performance

Since launching in 2018, closed positions in the Behind the Markets portfolio have generated an average return of 39% per position. Most positions are held for several months, but some are held for up to two years. Over the same timeframe, the S&P 500 has returned 37%.

Many of the open positions in the Behind the Markets portfolio are currently trading at a loss. However, the S&P 500 is also down 22% year-to-date at the time of writing.

How Does This Service Compare?

Behind the Markets is a very affordable stock picking newsletter that offers one stock pick per month. It’s easy to follow the portfolio and the picks are very well-researched. The newsletter’s focus on undervalued mid-cap stocks makes this service somewhat unique, and the portfolio offers exposure to a wide variety of market sectors for diversification.

It’s difficult to judge Behind the Markets’ performance. The service mostly kept pace with the broader market over its first few years, but it remains to be seen whether open stock picks outperform when the market recovers from the current downturn.

What Type of Investor is Behind the Markets Best For?

Behind the Markets is best for investors who want an affordable stock picking service to suggest value stocks to add to their portfolio. Behind the Markets is inexpensive and simple to follow along with, so it’s not a major commitment to try out the service for a year. Behind the Markets’ value stock picks may be especially valuable when purchased in conjunction with growth stock picks from a newsletter like The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor.

Pros

• Focuses on undervalued mid-cap stocks
• One new stock pick per month
• Weekly emails with additional stock ideas
• Very affordable pricing
• Includes access to thematic special reports

Cons

• Performance has matched the S&P 500 since 2018