Do you need to be licensed to give stock/investment advice?

There are millions of "stock advice" websites out there that charge $15-$200 per month for advice on short and long term stock picks. Can anyone write an article and give their own advice or do you need to be licensed (series 7? 13?) Any help would be appreciated.

You should be very careful.

In Australia, any individual who provides financial advice or deals in a financial product is required under the Financial Services Reform Act to hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) or be an Authorised Representative of an entity which does hold an AFSL.

In order to be an authorised representative or obtain an AFSL, there are minimum competency standards which are required. The minimum standards cover things such as education, industry experience, integrity and solvency.

If you are not in Australia and simply use a disclaimer (as suggested in another answer), then you should probably ensure that your disclaimer tells visitors that they should only use your advice if it is legal in their own country (just to cover yourself).

It might be better for you to post a question in an internet/website category and see if you can find some answers which relate more to internet laws.

I'm not exactly sure what the implications would be if an Australian used your advice if you were not an Australian and your website was hosted outside Australia.

I would even go as far as to recommend visiting lawyer to help prepare your disclaimer.

You should also consider that different countries can have different economic and financial structures. Any advice that might work in one particular market may have different results if applied in another market. The person reading your advice may not be aware of this.

Cheers

All you need is a disclaimer.