Choosing investments can feel overwhelming when you are new. This article explains what Alinea’s Investing Playlists are, how they work, and what to understand before investing in one. All investing involves risk, including loss of principal.

What Are Investing Playlists?

Playlists are collections of stocks and ETFs organized around themes, interests, or values, such as clean energy or technology. They are meant to make it easier to find investments that match what you care about. They do not remove the need to understand what you are investing in, and a Playlist can lose value.

Why Choosing Investments Is Hard

The number of available stocks and ETFs can be daunting, and connecting your interests to specific investments can take time and research. This can lead people to delay investing or to build a portfolio around limited information.

How Playlists Work on Alinea

• Following Playlists. You can browse Playlists in the app and invest in them. Playlists you invest in appear under My Playlists.
• Playlists Pro. Alinea-created Playlists in two types. Copy-traded Playlists follow publicly disclosed holdings, using estimated holdings that a third-party data provider compiles from public filings, and are rebalanced every other week. No AI is used to set their weights. Researcher Playlists are built around themes and market events, and an AI model sets and updates their weights each week with no human review. You can’t change the weights of Playlists Pro portfolios.
• Vibe Investing. You can create your own Playlist by chatting with Allie. You choose a theme, any stocks you want included, and your risk preference, and an AI model picks stocks that fit. An AI model then updates the Playlist’s weights monthly with no human review of the changes, and you can edit it at any time.

AI-selected stocks and AI-set weights can be wrong, and the information AI uses can be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date [2]. Playlists are not matched to your questionnaire answers, and Alinea does not provide advice or recommendations about individual stocks.

Allie

Allie, Alinea’s AI assistant, has its own tab in the app. It can explain what a Playlist holds, answer questions about the companies in it, and explain financial terms in plain language. At your request, Allie can also start a buy or sell, and you confirm every transaction before it runs. Allie provides educational research and feedback only, does not provide investment advice or recommendations, and can make mistakes.

Risks to Understand

• Concentration. A themed Playlist holds fewer types of companies than the broad market, so it can be less diversified and more volatile.
• Diversification. Spreading your money across different investments can reduce the impact of any one falling, but diversification can’t guarantee against loss [1].
• AI and third-party data. AI-set weights can be wrong, and copy-traded Playlists use estimated holdings from public filings, which may be out of date.

Recurring Investing

You can set a fixed amount to invest on a schedule, an approach known as dollar cost averaging. It does not assure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets.

Security and Regulation

Alinea Invest, Inc. offers a mobile investing app. Investment advisory services are provided by Alinea Advisory Services LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser and a wholly owned subsidiary of Alinea Invest, Inc. SEC registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training.

Brokerage accounts are held at DriveWealth LLC, member FINRA/SIPC, which is not affiliated with Alinea. SIPC protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash) if the brokerage firm fails financially. It does not protect against a decline in the market value of your securities [3]. Bank accounts are linked through Plaid, Inc., a third party not affiliated with Alinea, and we do not store your online banking credentials. SSL and 256-bit encryption help protect your data.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Investing Playlists, and how does Alinea use them?

Playlists are collections of stocks and ETFs organized around themes or interests. You can follow Alinea-created Playlists, or create your own with Vibe Investing.

Where can I find Investing Playlists?

You can browse Playlists on the Playlists screen in the Alinea app, and your own appear under My Playlists.

Where do I find Allie?

Allie has its own tab in the app. You can also ask Allie to create a Vibe Investing Playlist.

How secure is Alinea?

SSL and 256-bit encryption help protect your data. Bank accounts are linked through Plaid, Inc., and we do not store your online banking credentials. Alinea Advisory Services LLC is an SEC-registered investment adviser, and SEC registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training.

Disclosure

Advisory services are provided by Alinea Advisory Services LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser and a wholly owned subsidiary of Alinea Invest, Inc. SEC registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Brokerage and custody services are provided by DriveWealth LLC, an unaffiliated registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA/SIPC.

This content is for informational purposes only and is not an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell any security. All investing involves risk, including loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Allie is educational only, does not provide investment advice, and can make mistakes. Some Playlists have their weights set by AI on a schedule, with no human review of the changes, and can be wrong. Alinea oversees the algorithm and monitors it for anomalies. Themed portfolios may be less diversified and more volatile. Playlists Pro copy-traded portfolios use estimated holdings compiled by a third party from public filings, which may be out of date. Alinea is not affiliated with the sources listed below, and their inclusion is not an endorsement. Alinea charges a subscription fee for its advisory services; see Item 5 of Form ADV Part 2A. Alinea’s support team handles questions about using the service only and does not provide investment advice.

See our Form ADV Part 2A, Wrap Program Brochure, and Form CRS at www.alinea-invest.com/legal/home. For more on Allie, see AI Allie – Disclosures & Terms of Use at www.alinea-invest.com/legal/ai-allie-disclosures-terms-of-use.

Sources

[1] U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Investor.gov, “Diversify Your Investments.”

[2] SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, NASAA, and FINRA, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Investment Fraud,” investor alert, January 25, 2024 (finra.org, investor.gov).

[3] Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), What SIPC Protects (sipc.org).

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