RJ Hamster
The ‘Shadow Data’ Wall Street Doesn’t Track
Delivering World-Class Financial Research Since 1999
While everyone’s waiting on the next war move… Introducing the ‘Shadow Data Indicator’… More volatility is a good bet… The latest in America’s endless inflation story…
Today was the day…
Over the past few days, we’ve been sharing a special series of essays about the unconventional ways people from various walks of life have made hundreds of millions of dollars during their careers…
We told you about horse-racing bettor Bill Benter, who developed a data-driven system to beat the market odds at the tracks in Hong Kong. He netted a $16 million jackpot after he was booted from Las Vegas casinos for successfully counting cards at the blackjack table.
We also shared how Michael Burry, of The Big Short fame, spent around $100 to get access to the mortgage-bond prospectuses that helped him predict – and successfully bet on – the 2008 great financial crisis by using one of Wall Street’s financial instruments.
And yesterday, we wrote about how Walmart founder Sam Walton flew his own airplane to scout new store locations… and to look at Walmart’s and competitors’ parking lots to gauge performance levels and trends.
In short, we’ve shown how information from overlooked places can provide a substantial market edge. And we’ve told you how one of our own in-house experts has spent years developing a unique alternative method in search of asymmetric returns.
He’s a former hedge-fund manager, notable private investor, and tech insider, and this morning, he stepped forward in public for the first time to offer details about his alternative-data trading strategy.
It’s called the ‘Shadow Data Indicator’…
This indicator analyzes public, overlooked data from the “beating heart of the tech world” to find the biggest, fastest gains available in the market.
Since 2017, this trading strategy has flagged 422 winners and could have turned a $10,000 position in each of them into nearly $620,000.
This hedge-fund-caliber strategy could be the elixir for the volatility we’ve seen so far in 2026, which is likely to continue in the months ahead. As our expert said, “Volatility isn’t a flaw or a bug in the system. It is the system.”
The Shadow Data Indicator system is designed to give everyday investors the type of edge that’s typically reserved for Wall Street… and to spot trading opportunities that can deliver triple-digit gains in 90 trading days, regardless of what happens in the overall market.
If you missed the event this morning, you can watch a replay of it right here, and we urge you to do so. When you tune in, you’ll hear details about this exciting strategy and get two free stock recommendations − one to buy, and one to sell.
Stansberry Alliance members already have access to this new research and strategy right here. But feel free to tune in to the presentation as well.
Turning to Iran…
President Donald Trump’s self-imposed deadline for reaching a “deal” with Iran – to presumably pause or stop the war – is 8 Eastern time tonight, which is fast approaching as we go to press.
If no agreement to allow oil to flow freely through the Strait of Hormuz is reached, Trump has threatened to end the Iranian civilization by bombing every power plant and bridge in the country within four hours.
Meanwhile, the Iranians have threatened to assert more leverage over the Middle East and the global energy supply and may enlist the Houthis to stop shipping through the Red Sea, which would complicate global supply chains even further.
Reflective of the “war is inflationary” idea, oil prices remained elevated today. West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude, the international benchmark, were around $113 and $108 per barrel, respectively, at last check.
The market didn’t appear to be optimistic about a deal. The major U.S. stock indexes were slightly lower for much of the day and finished mixed.
Notably, even with a “relief rally” over the past week, the benchmark S&P 500 Index remains below its 200-day moving average, a simple technical measure of a long-term trend. The index has been below this average for 14 trading days now, reflecting a turn in sentiment.
As Ten Stock Trader editor Greg Diamond wrote in an update to his subscribers today, the S&P 500 is “running into ‘resistance.'” Greg says he’s being cautious about U.S. stocks, even if a rally continues in the short term. But either way, he’s eyeing up new trades…
Assuming you’ve been following the news headlines, there are threats from the U.S. and Iran as well as supposed ceasefire talks. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a direct line to the Pentagon on what’s likely to happen. So I won’t comment. Opinions on what exactly will or won’t happen with the Iran war are as worthless to me as a knife in a gun fight.
But I do know that, based on time and price, volatility isn’t going away anytime soon.
The CBOE Volatility Index (“VIX”), a market measure of implied volatility via bullish and bearish options bets on the S&P 500, remains elevated – around 26 as of today’s close – and has been in an uptrend since late December.
Inflation isn’t going away, either…
As we wrote soon after the breakout of the war in Iran, the inflation dynamic is the market’s next problem to grapple with.
Gas prices continue to rise at the pump… And commercial airlines are cutting back on jet fuel and looking for ways (i.e., passing on costs to customers) to keep profit margins where they expected them to be before the war.
This is just the start of a new chapter of America’s endless inflation story.
Later this week, the government will release its latest inflation data. The headline pace of inflation – the consumer price index (“CPI”) – has already been picking up, and inflation could reach at least 4% in relatively short order. We’ll find out more on Friday when the March CPI data comes out. Fed estimates say to expect something around 3.3%. And on Thursday, we’ll see the latest personal consumption expenditures price index data.
Higher inflation obviously means higher costs for consumers and businesses, but it also makes it much more difficult for the Federal Reserve to justify rate cuts – even with Trump’s new handpicked Fed chair.
You see, the central bank has a dual mandate to maintain “stable prices” and “maximum employment.” Keeping rates low – or lowering them further – while inflation is rising would make that difficult.
The bad memories are fresh. Remember the Fed’s “transitory” inflation stance during the pandemic, with rates near zero, followed by a 40-year high in inflation? We don’t want to see that again.
Many have expected a cheaper cost of borrowing during the second Trump administration, but the market is reflecting concern about inflation reigniting over the longer run.
Rate-cut expectations have already waned this year and have ironically declined even more strongly since Trump announced that Kevin Warsh will replace embattled Fed Chair Jerome Powell in May.
Now, federal-funds futures traders don’t expect another Fed rate cut until September 2027.
While folks try to figure out who will be leading Iran next, this shift in interest-rate expectations is a notable “regime change” of its own. The bond market, at least, expects the impacts of the Iran war to last into the second half of next year, even if the immediate conflict ends at 8 p.m. tonight.
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AIRING NOW: Emergency Market Briefing
Our new mystery tech insider – who has operated at the highest levels of tech AND Wall Street for 25 years and even given expert testimony to congressional committees – is airing an urgent 2026 market warning… along with a one-of-a-kind strategy designed to double your money (or more) within 90 trading days using regular stocks. Learn more here.
Elon Musk Just Did Something He Has Never Done Before
This February, Elon Musk spent millions to send a message to 125 million Americans. Most people ignored it. But Wall Street veteran Whitney Tilson couldn’t stop thinking about it, and says that what Elon was really saying explains everything about what’s unfolding in America’s economy right now. He’s sharing his full analysis for free, here
New 52-week highs (as of 4/6/26): BP (BP), Simplify Managed Futures Strategy Fund (CTA), Ecovyst (ECVT), USCF SummerHaven Dynamic Commodity Strategy No K-1 Fund (SDCI), and Tenaris (TS).
In today’s mailbag, feedback on yesterday’s Digest about the late Walmart founder Sam Walton… Wall Street hedge funds… and looking at parking lot data in different ways to get an edge on the competition… Do you have a comment or question? As always, e-mail us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com.
“As far as I can tell the most crowded parking lot is the Costco store. I have been going to Costco since 1990, and I wish that I had put all my money into Costco stock. I started to go to Price Club and then it changed to Costco. I would go to every new store in the vicinity just to get away from the crowds. Each new store would then become crowded so much so that I had to find another new one. You don’t have to have a plane or satellites to analyze parking lot data.” – Subscriber T.W.
All the best,
Corey McLaughlin
Baltimore, Maryland
April 7, 2026
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
Microsoft11/11/101,295.6%Retirement MillionaireMSFT
Microsoft02/10/121,202.9%Stansberry’s Investment AdvisoryADP
Automatic Data Processing10/09/08794.3%Extreme ValueBRK.B
Berkshire Hathaway04/01/09768.9%Retirement MillionaireCIEN
Ciena10/20/22726.0%Stansberry Innovations ReportALS-T
Altius Minerals03/26/09682.1%Extreme ValueSII
Sprott01/11/18677.4%Extreme ValueGOOGL
Alphabet12/15/16639.8%Retirement MillionaireWRB
W.R. Berkley03/15/12614.7%Stansberry’s Investment AdvisoryHSY
Hershey12/07/07537.9%Stansberry’s Investment Advisory
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 DateReturnPublicationWSTETH/USD
Wrapped Staked Ethereum12/07/181,746.0%Crypto CapitalBTC/USD
Bitcoin11/27/181,732.3%Crypto CapitalONE/USD
Harmony12/16/191,008.0%Crypto CapitalPOL/USD
Polygon02/26/21640.6%Crypto CapitalQRL/USD
Quantum Resistant Ledger01/19/21556.5%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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