NT$4,500 a month comes to NT$54,000 a year. If you have a day job and no time to watch the market, whether that's worth it shouldn't come down to gut feel.
But don't measure it by "how much will it make me," either. No one can guarantee returns, and Stock Helper doesn't promise any. There are two more practical ways to do the math: whether it helps you avoid one loss, and how much time it saves you. Below, we lay out both calculations with concrete numbers, then look at whether the math works for your portfolio size.
30-second overview
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Monthly fee | NT$4,500, billed monthly, no contract, AI costs included |
| What not to measure it by | Investment returns; no one can guarantee them |
| Calculation 1: one loss avoided | Illustration: NT$600,000 across 6 stocks, one handled early and spared a further 8% drop, about NT$8,000, close to two months of fees |
| Calculation 2: time | 30–50 minutes of watching the market a day, replaced by about 5 minutes reading the morning briefing |
| Very small portfolios | It may not pay off; start with the free trial version |
| How to verify | Use three months to answer one question: was there a time when, because of it, you lost less, didn't chase, or noticed something early? |
Calculation 1: what one avoided loss is worth
Why measure "losing less" instead of "making more"? Because whether you make or lose money over a year depends heavily on the broader market, so it's hard to credit any tool. But "did you find out early that day, and did you follow your own plan" is something you can point to, one event at a time.
To be clear up front: what follows is an illustrative calculation. The numbers are set to explain the idea. They aren't a guarantee, and real results can go the other way.
Example 1: knowing the day it breaks the prior low
Say you've invested NT$600,000 across 6 stocks, about NT$100,000 each. When you bought one of them, Stock A, you told it on Telegram: "If it breaks the previous low, I'll trim." One morning, it falls below the previous trading day's low and is down more than 3% on the day, which meets the intraday alert's "real breakdown" condition. The 11:00 check sends an alert: current price, the drop, your cost and unrealized loss %, and a one-line assessment that you've hit your original plan to trim.
You see it over lunch and follow your plan. Now suppose it falls another 8% over the next week:
| Scenario | Result for this stretch |
|---|---|
| Got the alert and acted on your plan that day | Avoided the next 8% |
| Didn't notice until a week later | NT$100,000 × 8%, about NT$8,000 more lost |
NT$8,000 is close to two months of fees (NT$9,000). One time covers roughly two months.
This math can also go the other way: right after you sell, it rebounds the next day, and you end up making less. A stop-loss works like insurance; sometimes you pay the premium for nothing. Its value isn't being right every time. It's getting you to decide while the loss is still small, instead of finding out at -30%.
Example 2: not chasing at an RSI of 85
Another stock, Stock B, has been rising for a week, and you want to put NT$100,000 into it. First you ask on Telegram, "Can I buy Stock B now?" It replies that RSI(14) is 85, in the extremely overheated, never-chase zone, and gives you a buy zone to watch and a support zone. You add Stock B to your watchlist with the reason "wait for it to come back to support."
Suppose it then pulls back 10%. Because you didn't chase at the top, you avoided a NT$10,000 paper loss, a bit more than two months of fees. Just as easily, it could keep rising and you'd miss part of the gain. The goal of not chasing isn't to buy at the very bottom every time; it's to avoid betting big at the most expensive price.
The point of both examples: you don't need it to "make you money." If it helps you lose less or chase less a few times a year, what you save has a real chance of exceeding the fee.
Calculation 2: the time you spend watching the market
With 8 holdings, checking technical indicators, finding news and announcements, and reading market sentiment adds up to about 30–50 minutes a day, or 10–17 hours a month (20 trading days). The full breakdown is in Watching Stocks Yourself vs Stock Helper.
With Stock Helper, it's roughly 5 minutes reading the morning briefing before the open, checking alerts only when something triggers, and asking follow-up questions when you want to dig deeper:
| Item | Watching it yourself | With Stock Helper |
|---|---|---|
| Time per day | 30–50 minutes, scattered across the day | About 5 minutes reading the briefing, plus alerts when they come |
| Per month (20 trading days) | 10–17 hours | About 1.7 hours |
| Saved per month | — | About 8–15 hours |
Divide the fee by the time saved: NT$4,500 ÷ 8–15 hours means you're buying back time at about NT$300–540 an hour. If your time is worth more than that, this calculation alone makes it pay off.
If you genuinely enjoy researching stocks, that time is a hobby, not a cost, and you don't need to count it. But what you save isn't just hours. It's also the focus that gets fragmented all day: a quick scroll before a meeting, another at lunch, and each time you have to get back into work mode. That part is hard to put a price on, yet it's often what people feel most.
Your portfolio size decides whether the math works
The fee is fixed, but depending on your portfolio size, the same NT$4,500 means very different things. The table below compares the same illustrative scenario: 6 holdings, one making up about 1/6 of the total, and that one stock spared an 8% drop.
| Total invested | Monthly fee as % of portfolio | A year of fees as % of portfolio | One stock spared an 8% drop equals about |
|---|---|---|---|
| NT$200,000 | 2.25% | 27% | 0.6 months of fees |
| NT$500,000 | 0.9% | 10.8% | 1.5 months of fees |
| NT$1,000,000 | 0.45% | 5.4% | 3 months of fees |
| NT$3,000,000 | 0.15% | 1.8% | 9 months of fees |
How to read this table:
- Around NT$200,000 invested: a year of fees equals 27% of your principal, and you'd need to avoid that much in losses to break even. Honestly, that's hard. At this stage, the better move is to start with the free trial version, which sends a general market morning briefing every trading day and lets you ask questions on Telegram. Build your stop-loss and no-chasing habits first, and consider subscribing once your portfolio grows.
- NT$500,000 to NT$1,000,000: one early exit covers roughly 1.5–3 months of fees. If you've often had the experience of "only noticing after it fell" or "buying at the top," this range is worth a three-month test.
- NT$3,000,000 and up: the fee is just 0.15% of your portfolio, and one avoided drop could cover close to 9 months of fees. At this point, the real question isn't whether it pays off, but whether you have the time to watch every stock yourself.
What NT$4,500 includes
| What you get | What it means for your wallet |
|---|---|
| A morning briefing every trading day (08:30 by default, with 10 time slots to choose from between 07:00 and 20:00) | Before the open, you know how US stocks did overnight, the TAIEX futures night session, the broader market, and each holding's P&L % and RSI |
| Intraday monitoring 4 times a day (10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00) | Alerts only when a stock is down -5% on the day, breaks down for real, or hits a stop-loss price you've named; otherwise it stays quiet |
| Ask anytime | Full stock analysis, sector comparisons, market and macro questions, all by sending a Telegram message |
| Candlestick charts | Charts for holdings that moved more than ±2% in the morning briefing; full stock analysis includes a 3-month candlestick chart (with RSI, MACD and Bollinger Bands) |
| P&L calculation | Calculated by code from the cost you entered, never by mental math |
| Trade record sync | Tell it on Telegram about a filled trade, and your holdings list updates automatically in about 10 minutes |
| Follow-up verification | After the close on the next trading day, it checks support, resistance and its direction call against the TWSE closing price |
| AI costs fully included | Multiple AI engines work together behind the scenes, all covered by the monthly fee, so there's never a second bill |
| Family access | Link multiple Telegram accounts to share the same holdings tracking |
It doesn't need your brokerage account, doesn't place trades and never touches your money. The holdings list and watchlist each hold up to 10 stocks.
Verify over three months instead of deciding all at once
Billing is monthly with no contract, and cancellation takes effect at the next billing cycle, so you don't have to decide up front whether it's "worth a whole year." A more practical approach is to use it for three months (NT$13,500) and set up three things in the first week so it has a chance to help you:
- Fill in your holdings list with share counts and your actual average cost, so the P&L % is accurate.
- Tell it your stop-loss prices on Telegram, for example "If Stock A drops below 90, I'm cutting it."
- Write down a reason for each watchlist stock, such as "wait for a pullback to 290," and the morning briefing will review it with you every day.
During those three months, every time a briefing or alert led you to take, or not take, an action, jot down one line:
| What to record | Illustration |
|---|---|
| Date and stock | 10/14, Stock A |
| What it flagged | 11:00 alert: broke below the previous trading day's low, unrealized loss -6% |
| What you did | Trimmed half, as planned |
| What happened next | Fell another 8% over the following week; estimated loss avoided about NT$4,000 |
Also record the times you acted on an alert and ended up making less. That's the only way the math is fair. After three months, add up both sides, put the total next to the NT$13,500 you paid, and answer one question:
Was there a time when, because of it, you lost less, didn't chase, or noticed something early?
If yes, and the total comes close to or exceeds what you paid, keep it. If you can't think of a single time, your existing approach is already enough, so cancel. That's a useful conclusion too.
FAQ
Q: Does the fee go up with more holdings?
No. The fee is a flat NT$4,500 a month. The holdings list holds up to 10 stocks and the watchlist up to 10, and adding or removing stocks within that range doesn't change anything.
Q: Are there any costs besides the monthly fee?
No. AI costs are included in the monthly fee, you don't need to sign up or pay for any AI service, and there's never a second bill.
Q: What if it gets a call wrong and I lose money?
Its output is analysis for reference, not investment advice, and the final decision and position size are yours. To help you judge whether to trust what it says, every full analysis spells out the conditions under which its call would no longer hold, every fact is sourced, anything it can't find is marked "Not found," and it checks its own answers after the close on the next trading day.
Q: Can I try it free before deciding?
Yes. The trial version is shared by multiple trial members and sends a general market morning briefing at 08:30 every trading day, without personal holdings tracking. Questions you ask on Telegram get the same analysis quality as the full version. The "one loss avoided" math in this article mainly comes from the personalized morning briefing, P&L tracking and intraday stop-loss alerts, which require a paid subscription.
Further reading
- Watching Stocks Yourself vs Stock Helper: 5 costly habits
- Stop-loss discipline: how intraday alerts reach you before losses grow
- Don't chase: turn gut feel into price levels with RSI zones and support/resistance
- Read the morning briefing in 5 minutes before the open: US stocks, the SOX, the night session and your holdings
- Stock Helper pre-purchase FAQ
Stock Helper is not a licensed investment advisory service. Its AI analysis is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice of any kind. Investing involves risk; the decisions are yours to make.
