Anybody still using the paid Morningstar site (M* Investor)?

[win1177]

Anybody on here still using the paid Morningstar site- Morningstar Investor? I went ahead a renewed for another year, but wondering if I should just consider dropping it in the future. Have found the new site to NOT be as “user friendly”, difficult to set up portfolio monitor, harder to explore new investment ideas, etc., etc. I’m basically using the site to follow my various portfolios at Vanguard, but wondering if it’s worth continuing.

Win

[racqueteer]

Fwiw, Win, I stopped paying them for aggravating me years ago.  They've made it obvious that they really don't care what we think, and what value they had, they've methodically stopped providing.  I still stop in periodically, but what has happened with the site from an end user's perspective is deplorable.

[steadyeddy]

With all their warts, I still find M* reviews of mutual funds very valuable. But I am not ready to pay $34+ per month for that service.

I do glean the top few lines of their assessment of funds on the free pages..

[bigseal]

Win, I still use the M* service, but get it for free. Wouldn’t buy an actively managed fund, so don’t read their mutual fund analysis.  I do read their stock analysis.  Even though my portfolio has only three holdings (BRK.A, COST, FXAIX/VOO), I closely follow four other stocks that I would buy under the right circumstances.  To be clear, I do my own analysis, but enjoy reading the M* analysis.  

[Mustang]

Nope. I cancelled my membership. I didn't like their changes so I left. I joined when I had a much more complicated portfolio almost 30 years ago. I have simplified my portfolio greatly and no longer need premium service. Their free service is all I need and I can get that information elsewhere if I need to.

[roi2020]

I've never paid for a Morningstar subscription.
However, I could access a lot of M* paid content gratis via my local library system.
The corresponding resource is named M* Investing Center (MIC) and it replaced M* Investment Research Center (MIRC) this past September or October.
I prefer MIC (better layout, additional resources) over MIRC except for one major deficiency.
Portfolio X-Ray was included in MIRC but it was omitted in MIC.

[sgra]

I use it only because my T. Rowe Price account provides it for no cost. I wouldn't pay for it personally. M* has grown increasingly user-unfriendly and out-of-touch with their retail audience. I still use the old Portfolio Manager because it's easier, more compact. But if it went away, it would not be a big loss. So much of their content is robo-AI, I don't put much value on parrot regurgitation.

[roi2020]

Dec 1, 2023 3:05:19 GMT sgra said:

[snip]
M* has grown increasingly user-unfriendly and out-of-touch with their retail audience.
[snip]
So much of their content is robo-AI, I don't put much value on parrot regurgitation.

For years, M* has focused disproportionate time and energy on business/institutional users and neglected retail investors.
I agree that their autogenerated quantitative content is garbage.
I do find value (considerable value if authored by a skilled analyst) in the qualitative M* Analyst Reports for mutual funds. 

[bigseal]

I think M* is far better than posters here think.  Why should M* care about or want a user forum, and managed mutual funds are a fool’s errand. The benefit of M* is stock analysis. M* stock pretty well shows the value of M*. Their stock has gone up nearly 16% annually for fifteen years.  Not too shabby.

[mnfish]

Dec 1, 2023 12:04:14 GMT bigseal said:

I think M* is far better than posters here think.  Why should M* care about or want a user forum, and managed mutual funds are a fool’s errand. The benefit of M* is stock analysis. M* stock pretty well shows the value of M*. Their stock has gone up nearly 16% annually for fifteen years.  Not too shabby.

From MORN earnings release in 2019 - Kunal Kapoor, Morningstar’s chief executive officer. “We experienced some headwinds in asset-based solutions, as the carryover effects from the late 2018 market decline affected investor confidence early in 2019. As a result, flows into Morningstar Managed Portfolios were weaker than we anticipated in the quarter. Despite that, we are pleased with our progress in Investment Management and continue to enhance the solutions we are offering investors, including through our recently launched mutual funds in the U.S. The state of the overall business is strong and gives us confidence to continue investing across our growth areas."

I dare say that the reason they have doubled their revenue since 2019 is because the "fool's errand" you mentioned.

[Capital]

I stopped paying for M* about a decade ago. I will never go back.

[yogibearbull]

I still have M* Premium/Investor.

But I have sort of moved on. I now also subscribe to Stock Rover (SR; Premium level) for portfolio features and use free Portfolio Visualizer (PV) for analytics (its subscriptions are high and only incremental benefits would be the "Save" and "Customization" features that I can do without).

[oldskeet]

I am using M* Legacy to track portfolio valuation and performance along with Yahoo finance. To do research on mutual funds I use Charles Schwab and Fidelity and the respective mutual site information as well. For me, Instant X-ray is available through my advisor's office which they provide me quarterly along with a quarterly review.  I also receive monthly paper statements.  For me, I find value in using a brick and mortar RIA as I can make in person visits as well.  

[bigseal]

Dec 1, 2023 12:35:48 GMT mnfish said:

Dec 1, 2023 12:04:14 GMT bigseal said:

I think M* is far better than posters here think.  Why should M* care about or want a user forum, and managed mutual funds are a fool’s errand. The benefit of M* is stock analysis. M* stock pretty well shows the value of M*. Their stock has gone up nearly 16% annually for fifteen years.  Not too shabby.

From MORN earnings release in 2019 - Kunal Kapoor, Morningstar’s chief executive officer. “We experienced some headwinds in asset-based solutions, as the carryover effects from the late 2018 market decline affected investor confidence early in 2019. As a result, flows into Morningstar Managed Portfolios were weaker than we anticipated in the quarter. Despite that, we are pleased with our progress in Investment Management and continue to enhance the solutions we are offering investors, including through our recently launched mutual funds in the U.S. The state of the overall business is strong and gives us confidence to continue investing across our growth areas."

I dare say that the reason they have doubled their revenue since 2019 is because the "fool's errand" you mentioned.

Certainly a lot of truth in what you’ve stated.  But the company was doing quite well way before 2019 too.  

[bb2]

Stopped M* a couple years ago. I found the analysis/fair price to be unhelpful. (Just go to the SEC filings and earnings call transcripts. Google for competition, biz demographics, whatever.) As for all the free content/analysis/articles: also unhelpful, for my style/biases. (M*: Unwavering adherence to 60/40, which I found irresponsible. "Ballast", they said. Justification for underperformance by the industry, IMO.  I see M* as an arm of the finance industry, which is all about CYA, IMO.) Occasionally I look at a historical P/E chart for a stock, which is free to see and I've not found elsewhere.

Using paid SA now as an experiment. Fair amount of bad analysis there but some is useful. Portfolio design/data is good.

[bizman]

I still subscribe to M* Premium mainly for the old Portfolio Manager that still works at least for now.  Their individual stock, mutual fund, and ETF data and analysis seems at least somewhat worthwhile.

Also, mainly out of inertia, I still subscribe to M* StockInvestor and DividendInvestor.  I find some value in the stock picks and portfolio moves of MSI's "Hare" portfolio.  But I will let DividendInvestor lapse at next renewal as I get zero value from it and so prefer an ETF (like VIG, SCHD, or VYM) or a managed mutual fund to trying to identify and avoid individual stock value traps in the dividend space.  My nostalgia and hope for the product they put out when Josh Peters ran it is exhausted.

[catdog]

I only subscribe to one service. The ideas and research are unequaled. This service is also full of characters which is a bonus. While this service is very expensive, you can't beat Big Bang Investors! Oh wait it's free.

Thanks to all the experts and characters here.

Catdog