Information-based alerts vs. social investment copying
When it comes to benefiting from politicians' stock trading activities, there are two primary approaches: receiving actionable information (InsiderTrader.pro) or copying successful investor portfolios with minimal effort (Dub). Each serves different investor needs and preferences.
InsiderTrader.pro monitors and reports stock trades made by members of Congress and other government officials. Rather than automating your trades, it provides comprehensive contextual information through email alerts to help you make your own informed trading decisions.
Dub is a mobile app that allows users to copy investment portfolios of various investors including politicians, hedge fund managers, and top traders. It offers a social approach where users can copy portfolios with a tap and can also create and share their own portfolios with others.
| Feature | InsiderTrader.pro | Dub |
|---|---|---|
| Core Function | Information alerts on politician trades with detailed context | Copy portfolios from various investors, including politicians |
| Platform | Email alerts and web interface | Mobile app |
| Cost | $9.99 per year | Typically $9.99+ per month ($120+ per year) |
| Investment Control | Full control - you decide which trades to follow | Partial control - portfolio copying with options to customize |
| Contextual Information | Extensive - price changes, analyst ratings, committee memberships, voting history | Basic portfolio information, possibly some social comments |
| Trade Selectivity | Pick and choose specific trades to follow | Follow entire portfolios with some customization |
| Focus | Exclusively on politician trades | Broader range including politicians, hedge funds, and regular users |
| Implementation Effort | Manual trading required | One-tap portfolio copying |
| Social Aspect | None - purely informational | Strong - follow others, share portfolios |
The substantial price difference between these services can dramatically affect your investment returns:
| Annual Investment | InsiderTrader.pro Fee Impact | Autopilot Fee Impact |
|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | ~1% of portfolio ($9.99) | ~12 of portfolio ($120) |
| $5,000 | ~0.2% of portfolio ($9.99) | ~2.4 of portfolio ($120) |
| $10,000 | ~0.1% of portfolio ($9.99) | ~1.2 of portfolio ($120) |
| $50,000 | ~0.02% of portfolio ($9.99) | ~0.24 of portfolio ($120) |
For investors with smaller portfolios, the fee difference is particularly significant. With a $1,000 investment, Dub's fees would require a 12% return just to break even, while InsiderTrader.pro would require only 1%.
A key difference between these services is the tradeoff between contextual information and convenience:
InsiderTrader.pro provides rich contextual data that helps you evaluate the potential significance of each politician's trade:
This additional context helps you make more informed decisions about which trades may have been based on privileged information and which are worth following.
Dub emphasizes ease of use and social investing:
This convenience comes at the cost of less detailed contextual information about individual trades and their potential significance.