RJ Hamster
Part III of Our 2025 Report Card
Delivering World-Class Financial Research Since 1999
Profiting from mumbo jumbo… The next part of our annual Report Card… Our grading criteria… Reviewing our trading services…
‘This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about’…
That was my first thought after meeting Ten Stock Trader Editor Greg Diamond.
In 2017, we were both at Stansberry Research’s annual Spring Editor’s Conference… a special meeting where all our financial experts share ideas and discuss their outlook for the year.
Greg had just started with the company. So he took the stage to walk us through his trading methods.
It was all cycles, technical analysis, and the sort of market “voodoo” that I was positive could never work.
I’m an investor. Give me financial statements and a careful assessment of management’s skill, and I’ll tell you the prospects for a given stock.
Greg is a trader. He draws lines on charts and talks about cycles, support, and breakouts.
It was all mumbo jumbo to me. I didn’t think it was analysis. I thought it was closer to astrology.
But I never should have doubted him.
While I still can’t explain all of Greg’s methods, I can tell you they work. The next installment of our annual Report Card series proves that.
Our annual Report Card is the most important thing we publish all year. It’s how we own up to our wins and losses, and let our readers know that the research they’ve purchased is serving them well. We share the performance of our services and assign them a letter grade.
Not every service gets an A. Not every service has a good year every year. But by sharing the performance and some extra “color commentary” to help explain it, you’ll have a better idea of how these services work and how to use them.
I reviewed our portfolio products in Part I. Then I looked at our general investing services in Part II.
That leaves our more advanced newsletters. These services tend to appeal to more sophisticated investors. They focus on a particular industry or strategy, making them more niche products for investors who know what they’re looking for.
I’m going to break these services into two final installments by separating the traders from the investors.
Today, we’re going to talk trading…
We have five trading services with average holding periods of less than a year.
Since we don’t use fully allocated portfolios in our trading services, we look first at each position’s average gain versus how the benchmark S&P 500 Index (unless otherwise noted) performed during the same holding period.
Next, we average the annualized performance of each individual position – a number that shows what would happen if you were to repeat a trade’s performance for one full year. Because most trades in these services are held for days or weeks rather than years, it allows us to compare expected results over a longer period.
Lastly, we evaluate our services’ win percentages to see how consistently they’re making money for subscribers.
Previously, we’ve shared and graded these services based on their five-year results. But with market volatility and more rapid trading, we’re going to look at a shorter time frame. I’m going to share the one-year performance for each of our trading services and assign them a letter grade based on 2025 performance alone.
Still, while having a hot year is great for a trader, you should also know whether that’s luck or a repeatable performance. So in the bottom table below, we’re also sharing the five-year performance for each service. Even if you are trading short-term, long-term performance matters.
Here’s how they scored…
Again, the grades are entirely mine. But I’d love to hear what you think. Let me know at feedback@stansberryresearch.com. We read every e-mail.
Now, back to Greg…
Ten Stock Trader: A+
Last year, Greg made 46 trades, and 37 of those were winners. That’s an 80% win rate – and it adds up to serious gains.
Since Ten Stock Trader isn’t a full portfolio like you’d get in a mutual fund, there’s not an overall return for the year to compare against the S&P 500.
Instead, we must track the ideas individually. Here’s one example…
On June 23, Greg recommended a trade using call options on quantum-computing stock Quantum Computing (QUBT). On July 7, he recommended closing the calls for a 35% gain.
If you invested in the S&P 500 over the same period, you would have made 3.4%. So Greg outperformed the S&P 500 by 10 times.
If you average out all the gains and losses, Greg posted an average return of 4.2%, versus 1.7% for the S&P 500. In short, he more than doubled the market’s gain.
What’s more, Greg makes gains fast. QUBT was a 14-day trade. Greg’s average holding period is 36 days.
And at the end of a trade, you get your capital back to invest again. That means you can compound your money with another gain.
If you annualize Greg’s gains, he had an average return of 64.7%, versus 26.2% for the benchmark. That’s why Ten Stock Trader earns an A+.
Sometimes, traders rely on annualized gains to boost their numbers. That’s not what we’re doing here. We’re simply giving Greg credit for the rate at which he compounds his gains.
So if technical analysis is mumbo jumbo, how does Greg do it?
No magic indicator will deliver returns like Greg’s. Something special is happening.
During an interview, billionaire hedge-fund manager and macro trader Stanley Druckenmiller once described the role of intuition in markets. To paraphrase, he said that if you watch the markets every day for 10 or 12 years, you get a sense for when something is happening.
It’s about understanding how everything fits together and where the money flows. This is why so many traders fail.
Greg has spent two decades watching the markets move. We’re talking every day. Every minute the market is open.
Cycles and technical analysis give him a framework to make sense of the market. But the magic’s not in the numbers. It’s in him. Greg has an incredible intuition for the markets. And he just knows what’s going to happen next.
For example, in June, back when gold was around $3,500 per ounce, Greg predicted – on video – that gold would hit $5,000 per ounce. Gold reached that record high last month.
With Ten Stock Trader, you can get the benefit of Greg’s experience… and have the chance to earn rapid gains in areas like semiconductors, small caps, shorting tech stocks, industrials, and financials.
And here’s the most important thing about Ten Stock Trader… and what you need to know for 2026.
Greg doesn’t need the market to go up to make these kinds of gains. He just needs the market to move.
Greg’s best year on record was 2022… which was a brutal bear market. His worst year was a slight loss in 2024 – when the market was going up but was fairly quiet.
Greg doesn’t need a bull market. He needs a volatile market.
With the way 2026 appears to be shaping up… Greg could have one of his best years yet.
True Wealth Systems: A++
You don’t always need fast trades to make big profits.
True Wealth Systems is proof of that. Its average holding period is nearly nine months… but oh, the gains it can make during that time.
Editor Brett Eversole and the True Wealth Systemsteam had an incredible year. In 2025, the team made 14 picks, and 11 were winners. That’s a nearly 80% win rate. And the returns more than tripled the benchmark, whether you consider standard or annualized gains.
Put simply, Brett is a trend follower. And in True Wealth Systems, he has built an algorithm that helps identify the hottest trends around the globe. Brett simply buys in and rides the wave.
These trends are so big and so powerful that Brett can make huge gains in low-risk, diversified index funds. He doesn’t need to find some hot small-cap stock. When you know where the money is flowing, you don’t need to take those kinds of risks.
Last year, Brett made subscribers 105% in the VanEck Junior Gold Miners Fund (GDXJ) and 94% in the iShares Silver Trust (SLV).
But Brett also takes subscribers to places most would never go on their own.
In October, he recommended the iShares MSCI South Korea Fund (EWY), which any investor can buy in their brokerage account. It’s already up 49%.
In June, Brett recommended ProShares Ultra Semiconductors (USD). It’s up 62% since then.
Brett’s system just works. It finds what’s rising, filters out what will continue to rise, and positions readers ahead of the next big moves.
It’s simply astounding that a newsletter can generate returns like this. And it’s not a fluke.
If you look at the average five-year returns for True Wealth Systems, it has nearly doubled the benchmark, with an average return of 19.9%, compared with 11.1% for the S&P 500.
On an annualized basis, True Wealth Systems has returned 28.3% gains, compared with 15.8% for the benchmark.
In short, True Wealth Systems proves you can make real money in markets without added stress or mountains of analysis.
If there’s one takeaway you should remember from this Report Card, it’s let the trend be your friend. And Brett can show you how. That’s why True Wealth Systems earns an A++.
Retirement Trader: A+
I worked closely with Dr. David “Doc” Eifrig on Retirement Trader for years. So Retirement Traderwill always be close to my heart. And Doc and Senior Analyst Jeff Havenstein’s performance last year was a clear winner.
Retirement Trader‘s 100% win rate and annualized gains of 20.9% easily surpassed its benchmark – the Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund (VWINX). In short, their track record just can’t be beaten. That’s why Retirement Trader gets an A+.
Doc helped investment bank Goldman Sachs set up its derivatives trading desk during his time on Wall Street. With that experience, he’s dedicated to using options to control risk and generate income – not to speculate.
That’s why this service is called Retirement Trader. It’s a method of trading suitable for risk-averse retirees.
Doc sells covered call options on blue-chip stocks to generate income, lower the cost basis on stocks, and tailor the returns to what you want to earn.
The typical goal is for a trade to last two to three months. That generates about 3.4% average gains. If you repeat that four to six times a year, you can earn around a 20% annualized return.
With this strategy, Doc doesn’t have big triple-digit winners, but he has a triple-digit win rate.
It goes without saying: No investor wins on every trade. But if you look at all of Doc’s positions in the 12 years he has run this service, he has won 94.8% of them.
Now, to fairly judge Retirement Trader‘s track record, we don’t count its existing open positions.
Due to the options trades Doc makes, his open positions often look like losses until they get closed. That drags down the returns, even when the trades will close for the profits Doc expects. With Doc’s short-term holding period, leaving the open positions aside gives us an accurate assessment of his performance. And Doc’s long-term and short-term track records are phenomenal.
Select Value Opportunities: A
Select Value Opportunities is available to our Alliance Partners – a select group of investors who have invested in the full package of our research.
With this service, Editor Mike Barrett does something no one else in the publishing world does.
He developed a proprietary value monitor to track and evaluate 100 market-leading U.S. stocks. The monitor considers factors like cash flow and growth risk (among others) to create a fair price relative to value. Then it places a grade on each stock – undervalued, overvalued, or fairly valued.
For instance, as I write, software company Adobe (ADBE) is trading for $269. Mike’s monitor thinks it’s worth $575 per share.
Meanwhile, software company Tyler Technologies (TYL) trades for around $341. Mike’s monitor thinks it’s worth $630. (Please note, these aren’t recommendations.)
This isn’t artificial intelligence or some one-size-fits-all method of stock ranking. Mike, a former engineer and valuation expert, sets the criteria for tracking these companies.
You can look up the true value of these stocks anytime you want, but Mike also publishes his insights and uses the system to make recommendations.
Mike had a phenomenal performance in 2025. However, he only made four specific recommendations, so the sample size is small. It was a tough year to find value stocks.
Still, even with a concentrated portfolio and an average holding time of eight months, Mike trounced the market, easily beating his benchmark. That’s why Select Value Opportunities earns an A.
DailyWealth Trader: B
We publish DailyWealth Trader every day the markets are open.
That’s a lot of ideas. Editor Chris Igou made 32 trades in 2025, with a win rate of 72%. That’s impressive. Trading is tough, but if your wins outpace your losses by nearly 3-to-1, you can trade with confidence. And over the life of the service, DailyWealth Trader has delivered more than 1,000 trades, with more than 700 winners.
Chris also employs several strategies… stocks, exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), options, pairs trades, and more.
You learn a lot when you follow all those strategies. The education alone is worth the price of admission.
And Chris covers nearly everything: global markets, currencies, bonds, industry sectors, and individual stocks, as well as various indicators. That means it’s a great way to stay up to date on everything happening in the markets.
For performance alone, DailyWealth Trader gets a B grade this year, with an average gain of 5% in 110 days. That just about matched its benchmark. To earn a higher grade, we’d need to see higher returns.
That’s it for our trading services. I’ll be back next week with the final report on our specialized investing services.
Recommended Links:
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New 52-week highs (as of 2/5/26): Arch Capital (ACGL), Amgen (AMGN), Brady (BRC), British American Tobacco (BTI), CME Group (CME), FirstCash (FCFS), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Hawaiian Electric Industries (HE), Hershey (HSY), Coca-Cola (KO), Lumentum (LITE), LXP Industrial Trust (LXP), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Realty Income (O), Pembina Pipeline (PBA), PepsiCo (PEP), Ryder System (R), RenaissanceRe (RNR), Travelers (TRV), and Telefônica Brasil (VIV).
In today’s mail, another subscriber shares his silver trade strategy… Do you have a comment or question? As always, e-mail us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com.
“As silver was climbing, I sold at $95. I only sold enough to recoup my initial investment which I made years ago when silver was under $15. Now I’ll patiently wait until a time when I need extra money.” – Subscriber D.P.
Good investing,
Matt Weinschenk
Publisher
Baltimore, Maryland
February 6, 2026
P.S. As part of our annual Report Card series, we’re sharing a perspective that doesn’t often make its way outside of one investor list…
Stansberry Asset Management (“SAM”), an SEC-registered investment advisory firm, recently published its 2026 Market Outlook – a forward-looking letter that shares the team’s thoughts about investing this year.
In it, Austin Root and his team lay out what they’re seeing across markets in 2026… how they’re thinking about risk and portfolio construction… and the principles guiding their approach in an evolving market.
The letter was written for SAM’s clients. However, the firm is offering it to you as well.
And along with the letter, you can also receive a copy of SAM’s on-demand January webinar, “The Six Keys to Growing and Protecting Your Wealth,” which expands on the team’s outlook.
You can access the full letter and webinar here.
Disclosure: Stansberry Asset Management (“SAM”) is a Registered Investment Adviser with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. File number: 801-107061. Such registration does not imply any level of skill or training. Under no circumstances should this report or any information herein be construed as investment advice, or as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or other financial instruments. For more information on SAM, please visit here.
Stansberry & Associates Investment Research, LLC (“Stansberry Research”) is not a current client or investor of SAM. SAM provides cash compensation to Stansberry Research for Stansberry Research’s advisory client solicitation services for the benefit of SAM. Material conflicts of interest may exist due to Stansberry Research’s economic interest in soliciting clients for SAM. Certain Stansberry Research personnel may also have limited rights and interests relating to one or more parent entities of SAM.
Stansberry Research Top 10 Open Recommendations
Top 10 highest-returning open stock positions across all Stansberry Research portfolios. Returns represent the total return from the initial recommendation.InvestmentBuy DateReturnPublicationMSFT
Microsoft11/11/101,332.9%Retirement MillionaireMSFT
Microsoft02/10/121,267.5%Stansberry’s Investment AdvisoryADP
Automatic Data Processing10/09/08885.8%Extreme ValueBRK.B
Berkshire Hathaway04/01/09793.3%Retirement MillionaireGOOGL
Alphabet12/15/16716.0%Retirement MillionaireWRB
W.R. Berkley03/15/12661.3%Stansberry’s Investment AdvisoryHSY
Hershey12/07/07574.8%Stansberry’s Investment AdvisoryALS-T
Altius Minerals03/26/09539.4%Extreme ValueSII
Sprott01/11/18521.3%Extreme ValueCIEN
Ciena10/20/22504.3%Stansberry Innovations Report
Please note: Securities appearing in the Top 10 are not necessarily recommended buys at current prices. The list reflects the best-performing positions currently in the model portfolio of any Stansberry Research publication. The buy date reflects when the editor recommended the investment in the listed publication, and the return shows its performance since that date. To learn if a security is still a recommended buy today, you must be a subscriber to that publication and refer to the most recent portfolio.
Top 10 Totals3Extreme ValueFerris3Retirement MillionaireDoc3Stansberry’s Investment AdvisoryPorter1Stansberry Innovations ReportEngel
Top 5 Crypto Capital Open Recommendations
Top 5 highest-returning open positions in the Crypto Capital model portfolioInvestmentBuy DateReturnPublicationBTC/USD
Bitcoin11/27/181,572.4%Crypto CapitalWSTETH/USD
Wrapped Staked Ethereum12/07/181,558.3%Crypto CapitalONE/USD
Harmony12/16/191,011.4%Crypto CapitalQRL/USD
Quantum Resistant Ledger01/19/21936.3%Crypto CapitalPOL/USD
Polygon02/26/21641.1%Crypto Capital
Please note: Securities appearing in the Top 5 are not necessarily recommended buys at current prices. The list reflects the best-performing positions currently in the Crypto Capital model portfolio. The buy date reflects when the recommendation was made, and the return shows its performance since that date. To learn if it’s still a recommended buy today, you must be a subscriber and refer to the most recent portfolio.
Stansberry Research Hall of Fame
Top 10 all-time, highest-returning closed positions across all Stansberry portfoliosInvestmentDurationGainPublicationNvidia (NVDA)^*5.96 years1,466%Venture Tech.Microsoft (MSFT)^12.74 years1,185%Retirement MillionaireInovio Pharma. (INO)^1.01 years1,139%Venture Tech.Rocket Lab (RKLB)^2.35 years1,034%Venture Tech.Seabridge Gold (SA)^4.20 years995%Sjug Conf.Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B)^16.13 years800%Retirement MillionaireIntellia Therapeutics (NTLA)1.95 years775%Amer. MoonshotsRite Aid 8.5% bond4.97 years773%True IncomePNC Warrants (PNC-WS)6.16 years706%True Wealth SystemsMaxar Technologies (MAXR)^1.90 years691%Venture Tech.
^ These gains occurred with a partial position in the respective stocks.
* Editor Dave Lashmet closed the first leg of this Nvidia position in November 2016 for a gain of about 108%. Then, he closed the second leg in July 2020 for a 777% return. And finally, in May 2022, he booked a 1,466% return on the final leg. Subscribers who followed his advice on Nvidia could’ve recorded a total weighted average gain of more than 600%.
Stansberry Research Crypto Hall of Fame
Top 5 highest-returning closed positions in the Crypto Capital model portfolioInvestmentDurationGainAnalystBand Protocol (BAND)0.31 years1,169%Crypto CapitalTerra (LUNA)0.41 years1,166%Crypto CapitalPolymesh (POLYX)3.84 years1,157%Crypto CapitalFrontier (FRONT)0.09 years979%Crypto CapitalBinance Coin (BNB)1.78 years963%Crypto Capital
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