# What do you think about the Motley Fool? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-the-motley-fool/235309 "2004-03-19T23:44:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Carlos619](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Carlos619](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carlos619)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-the-motley-fool/235309/1 "2004-03-19T23:44:19Z")
I think they can be a little bias at times; but then again, aren’t most investment advisors? All in all, I believe them to be a great source of investing knowledge and advice. You? ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-the-motley-fool/235309/2 "2004-03-20T03:47:03Z")
Ok for basic money information. I would be very careful with specific advice from them. They use to have a great message board system (in fact, it is the best message board system I’ve ever used, but content is down), but it hasn’t been the same since they started to charge for access. But it was $30 per year, not $5. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-the-motley-fool/235309/3 "2004-03-20T04:37:20Z")
My husband and I take a good chunk of our investment advice from the Motley Fools. We’re a bit more conservative than they recommend, but we’ve done very well with their advice. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-the-motley-fool/235309/4 "2004-03-20T05:39:40Z")
Read this book: [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393325350/qid=1079761154/sr=1-1/ref=sr\_1\_1/104-4903519-7145525?v=glance&s=books](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393325350/qid=1079761154/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-4903519-7145525?v=glance&s=books) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-the-motley-fool/235309/5 "2004-03-20T15:35:38Z")
I mainly know the fools from the newspaper column and similar venues. A complete waste of newspaper. Utterly useless. They won’t answer the most direct question about “Do you think the market will do up or down in the next 6 months?” or “Is IBM a good investment?” But they will answer questions like “What is a share of stock?” So if you’ve never heard of the stock market and are completely cluesless about investing, it’s a place to start. But for actual investment info, not worth a sou. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-the-motley-fool/235309/6 "2004-03-20T15:38:38Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I mainly know the fools from the newspaper column and similar venues. > > A complete waste of newspaper. Utterly useless. They won’t answer the most direct question about “Do you think the market will do up or down in the next 6 months?” or “Is IBM a good investment?” But they will answer questions like “What is a share of stock?” > > So if you’ve never heard of the stock market and are completely cluesless about investing, it’s a place to start. But for actual investment info, not worth a sou. I disagree to some extent. If you’re looking for free advice, this is not the site to browse, except for the basics. If you are willing to pay for the newsletter, the recommendations are very specific and helpful. ---
**Author:** ![cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-the-motley-fool/235309/7 "2004-03-20T17:25:02Z")
From what I’ve seen, their website offers lots of good basic information on investing/personal finance. Unfortunately, the success of their various portfolio “strategies” appears to be entirely due to _data mining_, as discussed in this article: [_Mining Fool’s Gold_](http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/99033111.pdf?abstractid=158409) If you torture the data enough, they will confess to just about anything.