Please stop inserting random stock tickers in my portfolios as advertisements

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  • updated
  • Under review

It's very annoying. I want to be in total control of what gets listed in my portfolio on the left side of the screen. With the ads, I frequently am distracted from my reading, wondering, "What the heck is that, and why is it listed in my portfolio? Did I add that?"


Since you are inserting random tickers in my portfolios, am I to conclude that you are offering unsolicited investment advice for which SA might bear some fiduciary responsibility? What is driving their placement? Is SA endorsing those stocks, or are those companies simply paying a fee to be included?


Whatever the answer is, please stop. It's a terrible idea and not the least bit appreciated.

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SA Admin Jonathan Liss
  • Under review

Hi Scooter281,


You raise a valid concern. We are an ad-supported business and so we must sell ads to stay afloat. That said, we realize some users prefer to see a clean portfolio view, without ads interspersed. Which is why we created a simple 'turn off' mechanism for these ads.

Simply go to the 'Alerts' tab on your portfolio (http://seekingalpha.com/account/email_preferences). Under your portfolio holdings alerts settings, you will see an item titled 'TickerMatch', which provides an explanation of how the unit works if you mouse over the question mark and a checkbox with the words 'Disable stock and fund recommendations'. Simply check this box and you will no longer be served any ads within your left rail portfolio.

Hope this helps!

Jonathan Liss

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Scooter281

Thank you! I was unaware of that feature.

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IBWO

An extremely bad idea - i have dozens of stocks and now new ones are popping up within my portfolio listing .... thank goodness there's a way to turn it off but it's a terrible idea in the first place

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Adam Jackson

Has the ability to deselect the "ticker match" item disappeared from email settings? Just saw an inserted ticker ad on a portfolio but I thought I had switched them off.

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The checkbox allowing users to turn off ticker match is still in your email alerts settings (https://seekingalpha.com/account/email_preferences) directly below your list of tickers. 

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Adam Jackson

Thanks, Yoni.