Stock Tips: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Seeking Alpha led the Stock Tips benchmark in September 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 18.4%, down from 21.4% at the July 2026 baseline, and held the leader position across all three tracked months. The gap to the second-place brand was 2.3 percentage points, with Morningstar at 16.1% in September 2026, down from 24.0% at baseline.

The largest coverage increase belonged to The Motley Fool, which recorded 15.1% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 versus 0.0% at the July baseline, a significant increase. The largest coverage decline belonged to Motley Fool, whose valid recommendation coverage fell from 18.9% in July 2026 to 0.0% in September 2026; that figure reflects an identity transition rather than a within-name decline, since the equivalent brand is measured under The Motley Fool beginning in September 2026. The series context treats Motley Fool and The Motley Fool as distinct tracked entities.

Separately, Morningstar and Zacks Investment Research posted significant cumulative declines in valid recommendation coverage relative to the July baseline. Morningstar fell from 24.0% to 16.1% (down 7.9 points), and Zacks Investment Research fell from 17.0% to 11.3% (down 5.7 points). Neither decline was large enough month-over-month between August and September to register as significant on its own, indicating the pullback built gradually across the series rather than occurring in September alone.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 504 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the six canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. The benchmark held breadth across all six families in all three months.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Stock Tips

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The funnel below shows how observations moved from collection to the qualified public denominator.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See the AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand was mentioned at all.
• Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand appeared in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate is the share where the brand appeared in the top three recommended positions.
• Rank-one rate is the share where the brand was the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment reflects the balance of positive over negative mentions.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Note: a brand-name identity change occurred across the series. Motley Fool (tracked through August 2026 at 15.0% in August, down from 18.9% in July 2026) is measured under The Motley Fool name in September 2026. The series context treats Motley Fool and The Motley Fool as distinct tracked entities.

Largest Increase: The Motley Fool

The Motley Fool posted the largest coverage increase, rising to 15.1% in September 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026, beyond normal month-to-month variation. Presence rate reached 45.6% in September 2026, with a top-three rate of 11.5% and a rank-one rate of 6.9%. The gain came with 76 valid recommendations on 504 observations in September 2026.

Largest Decline: Morningstar

Morningstar's valid recommendation coverage fell from 24.0% in July 2026 to 16.1% in September 2026, a 7.9-point decline beyond normal variation. Presence rate declined from 57.8% in July 2026 to 45.8% in September 2026, and top-three rate fell from 14.4% to 8.9% over the same period. With 81 valid recommendations on 504 observations in September 2026, the decline reflects a broad pullback across presence and placement.

Significant Decliner: Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research declined from 17.0% in July 2026 to 11.3% in September 2026, beyond normal month-to-month variation. Presence rate held roughly steady at 48.2% in September 2026 versus 45.2% in July 2026, meaning the brand remained visible but was recommended less often. Top-three rate declined from 6.6% to 4.6%, and rank-one rate moved from 0.9% to 0.6%.

Category Leader: Seeking Alpha

Seeking Alpha remained the coverage leader at 18.4% in September 2026, down from 21.4% in July 2026. The leader position held, but a stable rank masked a weakening share of valid recommendations across the three-month series.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leaders, placement patterns differed. The Motley Fool held the highest rank-one rate at 6.9% in September 2026, while Seeking Alpha led top-three placement at 14.3%.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. The Motley Fool converted slightly less coverage into a higher first-position rate than Seeking Alpha, whose first-choice preference weakened in September 2026 compared with July 2026. Morningstar's top-three and rank-one rates both declined alongside its coverage.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

New measurements are added to the same evergreen benchmark report.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or sales attribution
• Every possible AI response to a given query
• Organic search engine ranking
• Social media mention volume
• Private or sponsored channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how frequently and prominently industry brands appear in AI-generated answers across six canonical AI/search surface families. It is a neutral, observation-level benchmark published monthly.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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