A very valid point. 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

Hi Rich,

This is a valid request. We are in the process of rethinking several facets of the chat experience and while this is definitely a longer term project, we plan on offering more individual customization around chat.

Sorry for the inconvenience in the interim.

Hi Mike,

If you mute the chat in the upper right corner it will remember your setting on all future windows/tabs you open. If you are subscribed to multiple services, the mute doesn't carry over from service to service - you have to adjust volume once per service as users may want to get a ping on one service and not another at a given time.

You can also minimize the chat window next to the sound button - though this is required in each window/tab you have open. Many users have indicated that they prefer to have chat open in all their windows by default so 'they don't miss anything'.

Hope this helps.

Jonathan