The Final Scores in Our 2021 Report Card

Part III of our annual review... The Total Portfolio and more... Lots of 'A' grades to go around... The final scores in our 2021 Report Card... Reviews of 11 publications...

Today, we bring you Part III of our annual review...

Last Friday, we published Part I of our annual Report Card, which looked at The Capital Portfolio and five corresponding publications. Then on Wednesday, we reviewed 10 more publications, kicking things off with The Income Portfolio.

Today, I (Brett Aitken) am ready to hand out grades for everything else... Here in Part III, we cover the final 11 publications – The Total Portfolio, The Defensive Portfolio, Stansberry's Forever Portfolio, Gold Stock Analyst, Silver Stock Analyst, Crypto Capital, Cannabis Capitalist, Stansberry Gold & Silver Investor, Retirement Trader, Advanced Options, and Ten Stock Trader.

As I've explained in Part I and Part II, you should start by reading "Our Grading Criteria" box. And after you've done that, check out the rest of the grades.

Now, let's wrap up this year's Report Card...

The Total Portfolio: A+

This Stansberry Portfolio Solutions product is our "all weather" portfolio...

It combines the approaches from our Capital Portfolio and Income Portfolio... with added protection. In The Total Portfolio, we include short positions and "crisis hedges" to help investors protect their portfolios from any potential disasters.

These hedges can often drag on the portfolio's overall performance – especially as the broad market continues to soar. Some folks might argue that they would rather stick with a "long only" portfolio, like The Capital Portfolio, which is designed to be more aggressive when stocks are soaring higher.

But investors in The Total Portfolio know that volatility can strike even the best businesses in the world. That's why it's critical to be ready for any situation... As my colleague and frequent Digest contributor Dan Ferris often says, "Prepare, don't predict."

Of course, even with hedges, you could still suffer losses across your full portfolio if the market drops... But holding a few non-correlated positions will help offset some of the losses in other areas of your portfolio. Remember, paying a little bit for insurance up front will help you sleep much better at night if disaster strikes.

As you know by now, this year's Report Card covers five years. That roughly coincides with the time frames of our core Portfolio Solutions products, which launched in February 2017.

The Total Portfolio has shined in its structure and management...

For example, it generally holds a large portion of the total allocation – roughly a third – in what the Investment Committee calls "Core Investments."

Without giving too much away, over the past five years, this category has included big names like Apple (AAPL), Coca-Cola (KO), and Intel (INTC). And some of The Total Portfolio's biggest returns have come from these holdings... Apple was up roughly 400% on the position at the end of 2021, for example.

The Investment Committee places another one-third of the total allocation into "Capital Efficient" businesses like chocolate maker Hershey (HSY) and property and casualty (P&C) insurers like W.R. Berkley (WRB).

Like the core positions, these are all great businesses that our research team knows well... And they've performed incredibly over the years, too. Hershey, for example, has been a longtime favorite... And it has produced triple-digit gains since joining The Total Portfolio in 2018.

Some of these companies pay dividends, but the Investment Committee also wants to make sure it's generating income... So they'll always hold a few strategic, specific income-generating securities as well – generally from the recommendations made in Income Intelligence and Stansberry's Credit Opportunities. For example, the 2021 portfolio just released held four core income plays with an average yield of close to 5%.

The remainder of The Total Portfolio is made up of special situations, speculations, crisis hedges, and short positions... They're all designed to maximize opportunities and capitalize on the current market sentiment. Overall, The Total Portfolio typically includes between 30 and 40 investments.

With a five-year total return of 116.2% and average annualized gain of 23.6%, I'm naturally thrilled with the results ‒ up fourfold against its benchmark, Hedge Fund Research's HFRX Equity Hedge Index. For these results, I am giving The Total Portfolio an "A+" grade.

We're excited to see our three core services – The Capital Portfolio, Income Portfolio, and The Total Portfolio – outperform their respective benchmarks so convincingly.

We've always believed our research is among the highest quality you will find anywhere... at any price. And now with a proven five-year track record behind us, you can see in real time how investing alongside the Investment Committee would make the best use of our research... It doesn't get any easier than this.

If you're not already using these products, I hope you will consider joining us for the next five years of continued success.

The Defensive Portfolio: A

We launched this portfolio in May 2019... So unlike the core Portfolio Solutions products, its history only covers just under three years. We'll use its results since inception for this year's Report Card.

As its name suggests, this portfolio is about playing defense.

Just to be clear, that doesn't mean loading up the portfolio with short positions and crisis hedges... Yes, the Investment Committee will allocate those types of investments as appropriate.

But what's more important, with The Defensive Portfolio, they've designed a diversified portfolio to help protect your assets in a market decline. Some positions will prosper in a declining market, therefore helping to offset some of the losses you might suffer elsewhere.

Another key is that this strategy includes cash... That's critical if we find ourselves in the middle of a bear market. You could use the cash to go "bargain hunting."

The portfolio is generally diversified across "Blue-Chip 'Forever' Stocks"... "Uncorrelated Gems"... "Anti-Fragile Stocks"... "Trophy Assets"... short positions... and gold and cash.

Similar to The Total Portfolio, the key to this portfolio's success lies in its structure...

Most of the recommendations in The Defensive Portfolio are steady companies within the categories mentioned above. As I said earlier, it's more about playing defense than finding stocks that soar quickly. The Investment Committee seeks stability with this approach.

The exceptions, of course, are the "short plays"... That's where the Investment Committee looks for the worst companies and aims to profit from their declining share prices.

Those shorts helped contain the losses when stocks tanked in March 2020...

The biggest winners in that sell-off were short positions in retailer Nordstrom (JWN) and rental-car company Hertz Global (HTZ). Our Investment Committee booked 50% and 59% gains, respectively, on those two positions as their share prices plummeted.

Again, wealth protection is our primary objective with this portfolio – not wealth generation. But of course, the Investment Committee won't reject triple-digit winners...

At the end of 2021, Google's parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) was up 158% from the Investment Committee's May 2019 recommendation... And drugstore chain CVS Health (CVS) was up 104% in the same span.

Overall, The Defensive Portfolio produced a 45.5% total return since its May 2019 launch through the end of 2021. That performance beat its benchmark by several percentage points.

This portfolio is performing the way we expected... And as a result, it earns an "A" for this year's Report Card.

Stansberry's Forever Portfolio: B+

The timing was perfect...

We launched this portfolio on March 25, 2020. That was precisely two days after the bottom of the March 2020 COVID-19 crash.

Our founder Porter Stansberry called an "emergency briefing" as stocks plunged more than 34% in roughly a month... At the time, stop losses were getting triggered across many of our publications. Most analysts around the world stepped aside – too afraid to buy anything. Some of them turned outright bearish, believing the world would soon come crashing down.

And yet Porter was convinced it was the buying opportunity of a lifetime...

So he and our Stansberry's Investment Advisory team of analysts worked overtime to identify the best companies on the planet. They're the stocks that we've studied, researched, and followed for years... And at that point, as panic hit the markets in March 2020, we had a rare opportunity to recommend a bunch of them at fire-sale prices.

If you've been with us for a while, you've heard us talk about capital-efficient companies like Hershey. When Porter first recommended the stock in Stansberry's Investment Advisory in December 2007, it was trading for around 11 or 12 times operating cash flow. He believed that folks buying at that level could make 12% to 14% per year on their money.

Well, it has performed even better than Porter said it would... With dividends reinvested, Hershey has returned an average of almost 15% per year since December 2007.

Since then, however, the stock had rarely traded anywhere near its December 2007 valuation. But then, it happened... In March 2020, the market pushed Hershey's share price down to around 12 to 13 times cash flow again – a valuation it hadn't seen in years.

Remember, finding great companies like Hershey is just one part of the investing equation... Buying them at the right price is what determines your results. Porter and the rest of our research team knew that buying gems like Hershey at these cheap levels stacked the odds of success heavily in our subscribers' favor.

Hershey is just one example... Our research team built a portfolio of roughly 20 stocks. And they placed another 20 on a watch list to build out the portfolio over time.

At the end of 2021, Stansberry's Forever Portfolio showed a total return of 79% – or an average annualized gain of 44.6%. Those are great returns... But they trail the benchmark S&P 500 Index. Therefore, this portfolio earns a "B+" for this year's Report Card.

Keep in mind... as the name suggests, these are "forever" stocks.

But right now, this portfolio is less than two years old. I would bet that it will outperform over the next one, three, five, and 10 years as these businesses continue to grow.

Gold Stock Analyst: A

Gold Stock Analyst ("GSA") editor John Doody has one of the most remarkable track records in gold stocks...

Through the end of 2021, his Top 10 portfolio has returned 1,033% since 2001. It has more than quintupled the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index – which tracks a large group of mining stocks... The index has returned 204% in that span. If you'd bought gold at the beginning of 2011, you'd be up about 560%. Total returns for the S&P 500 for the same 20-year period came in at 440%.

Few can boast such high returns for an entire portfolio for such an extended period – especially in the precious metals space.

The secret to John's success is his approach...

You see, together with his right-hand man Garrett Goggin, John has tracked and monitored all the gold companies and mines around the world for years. He has developed his own proprietary methodology on how to value these mining companies... and figured out how much you should pay for them... and when.

He knows everyone – including financiers, analysts, miners, CFOs, and CEOs – in the industry. Many of them come to his annual conference.

And as I mentioned, he manages his Top 10 like a portfolio – similar to our Portfolio Solutions products.

So he manages risk... And there's plenty of risk in this sector. He never holds more than 10 of what he considers the best gold stocks at any given time. And as I've mentioned before, he doesn't let just any gold stock into the mix.

If one drops out of the Top 10 for any reason ‒ and he only drops them for a good reason ‒ the next must past strict due diligence to make the portfolio. And I've seen him do it. For example, in 2020, an opening appeared in his portfolio... but he told subscribers to leave the 10th portfolio position in cash until he found a suitable replacement.

And it took a few months to do that. But the results should pay off for subscribers as the stock has the potential to triple from where they got in... That new stock was up roughly 30% as 2021 ended, and there's still plenty of upside.

I'm not aware of any other gold publication like GSA in the market.

As you know, despite the odd glimmer of hope in 2020... gold has mostly traded sideways the last two years. Which makes John's performance even more impressive. And shows how important it is to have an expert in your corner.

Because John manages his Top 10 as a fully allocated portfolio that he rebalances each year, we focus on total returns and average annualized gains as we do with our Portfolio Solutions products.

For this year's five-year grading period, the GSA Top 10 generated average returns of 16.4% – beating the benchmark by four percentage points. The total returns came in at roughly 81%.

GSA earns an "A" for this year's Report Card.

After a sluggish year for the precious metals sector, John has a bullish outlook for 2022 and beyond. I know many folks like to debate the future of gold. All I will say is this...

John has been at this a long time. He has seen a lot of different market conditions. And given his track record over the long term, I wouldn't bet against him.

Silver Stock Analyst: A

Silver Stock Analyst ("SSA") is similar to GSA... but as the name suggests, it focuses on silver.

And the results can be even more explosive.

You see, when gold prices move, silver often moves in lockstep... but the moves can be much more dramatic. For example, when gold soared more than 700% to its 1980s high... silver climbed 1,000%. Likewise, when gold rose 600% from its lows in 2000 to the high in 2011... silver soared 968%.

You should know that the reverse is true too. When gold declines... silver will likely drop even more.

Silver spiked in 2020 from around $15 per ounce to as high as $25 per ounce. And many observers thought the beginning of the long-term bull market was underway. But like gold, every glimmer of hope with the rise in silver prices was soon followed by a similar decline. Silver has effectively traded sideways over the past couple of years.

Still, if you can catch one of these parabolic moves in precious metals... it's worthwhile having some exposure to silver... as well as gold.

SSA editor Garrett Goggin, with support from GSA editor John Doody, has developed a proprietary methodology of evaluating the silver companies and mines around the world.

But in this publication, they only select the best five stocks that make what they call their "Fave 5" portfolio. Again, that is where John and Garrett's expertise has served their readers well by navigating volatility and maximizing the opportunities within the sector as they arise.

Garrett manages this portfolio and covers all things silver, including any updates to the Fave 5 holdings in the monthly publication.

Likewise, just as the GSA Top 10 portfolio is a fully allocated portfolio, so too is the Fave 5. So like GSA, we have graded this similar to how we grade our Portfolio Solutions products.

For the five-year period of this year's Report Card, SSA showed average annualized gains of 20.1% and a total return of 99%. As with GSA, these returns outperform the benchmark and earn SSA an "A" for this year's Report Card.

We're happy with these results... And we're confident that when the next bull market in silver does get underway, you'll want to invest alongside Garrett and his Fave 5 portfolio.

That concludes the grades for our portfolio-managed products. Now, let's look at our traditional publications...

Crypto Capital: A+

Some might say it's not a fair fight...

In short, with Crypto Capital, editor Eric Wade has knocked it out of the park since joining us a little more than three years ago. His track record is unlike anything else...

Eric already holds the top two spots in the "Stansberry Research Hall of Fame" at the bottom of each Digest with 1,169% and 1,164% gains. He also holds two other spots on the list (978% and 963%).

In fact, Eric has so many triple-digit – and quadruple-digit – winners in his open portfolio that he was hogging all the space in our regular "Top 10 Open Recommendations" table published each day... So we launched a separate table for him. You can find it at the bottom of each Digest.

Outstanding doesn't even begin to describe the performance...

Crypto Capital has only been in Stansberry Research's suite of products since June 2019. It launched under our former affiliate, Stansberry Pacific Research, in 2017. And Eric became the editor in 2018. We'll use its track record since inception for this year's Report Card.

As 2021 closed, our team had made 96 recommendations in Crypto Capital... and 53 of them were winners. That's a 55% win rate.

His benchmark – the world's most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin – posted an impressive 191% average annualized gain from 2017 through 2021. But Eric has made that look tiny by comparison... With an average holding period of 383 days, Crypto Capital boasted an average annualized gain of more than 280% at the end of last year.

You don't need me to tell you how spectacular these results are. They speak for themselves.

But today, I do want to emphasize the quality of Eric's research...

We all know the crypto market is extremely volatile. Despite what the most avid crypto supporters will tell you, it's still a wildly speculative niche sector. We've seen cryptos soar hundreds of percent in a matter of weeks... then plummet just as fast in a matter of days.

Yes, the space is spawning many cryptos with real applications and real use cases. But there will be many, many losers along the way, too. That's why we consider it so important to make sure our research is so thorough...

Eric has a background in finance. He's also an entrepreneur, so he knows how to analyze the business case for these applications and all the financial implications. And he has mined cryptos, so he understands the technology.

Eric digs deep into each crypto before making any recommendations. He also started to build out his team last year... His research efforts are helped by analysts Andrew McGuirk, who has an advanced degree in finance and mathematics, and Stephen Wooldridge II, who holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and is a former educational lead for a crypto startup.

Combining this experience and knowledge with the passion that these three talented individuals have for the crypto markets is a winning formula for providing such high-quality research that is fundamental to everything we do in our business.

The results are fantastic, of course. But I love that Eric's research is so profound. And I love that he breaks down the technical issues into plain English for his subscribers...

For example, I remember in 2018, he showed readers a cryptocurrency to protect online privacy and to facilitate paying web-content creators... And in 2019, he shared how readers could protect themselves from the changes taking place on crypto exchanges... And in 2020, he explained about the rise of oracles and how they would give readers the potential for thousands-of-percent gains.

Again, I'm proud of the research Eric produces... And his results are outstanding.

I believe it's the best crypto-focused research you'll find anywhere, at any price... And I sincerely hope you're enjoying some of these gains.

In case you didn't figure it out yet, Crypto Capital earns an "A+" for this year's Report Card.

Cannabis Capitalist: B-

A roller-coaster ride is an understatement when it comes to cannabis stocks...

Over the past three years – roughly the period we've covered these companies – the sector has gone from spectacular crash to parabolic rise to yet another spectacular crash.

And today, with the benchmark U.S. Marijuana Index falling more than 60% from its 2020 high, we might be on the cusp of the next parabolic rise... Cannabis Capitalist editor Thomas Carroll certainly believes so.

Tom was among the most experienced and respected health care analysts on Wall Street before he joined us in 2019...

He worked for two decades at financial firms Legg Mason and Stifel Financial. Forbes magazine once named him the No. 1 health care analyst in the world. And he was regularly among the top performers for stock-picking awards from the Wall Street Journal and StarMine.

Aside from Cannabis Capitalist, Tom's research appears from time to time in other publications across our firm – including Stansberry's Investment Advisory and Retirement Millionaire.

More to the point of this service, Tom is incredibly passionate about the sector... And I doubt there's anyone with more knowledge and expertise in the space than him. We're delighted to have Tom on our team.

Due to the roller-coaster ride in cannabis, it hasn't been easy for Tom as he navigates the sector for his subscribers...

His biggest winner came from GrowGeneration (GRWG).

And it didn't get off to a great start... He recommended buying in February 2020 – a little before the overall market tanked. Tom watched the stock fall about 50% over the next month.

But then, it turned higher along with the overall market... By August 2020, it was up hundreds of percent off its bottom. Tom recommended taking some of the profits off the table when the position was up around 200%. The rest of his position soared as much as 438%. He closed the combined position for a 317% return in August 2021.

The wild swings in volatility also hurt some positions, of course. Several stocks are in the red, which drags heavily on this publication's overall performance.

When launching this service, we knew that we would go through some gut-wrenching drawdowns in the portfolio. And that's how 2021 ended... Many of Tom's recommendations were showing losses. And the average loss was around 47%.

Still, we know rebounds will follow. It's part of the risk-reward relationship with this publication. That's why we always recommend using proper position sizing in volatile sectors – like cryptos and cannabis.

The good news is... Tom is excited about the outlook for cannabis in 2022 and beyond.

This publication's history is a little less than three years old. So it doesn't encompass the full five-year grading period like many of the other publications in this year's Report Card.

Since the publication's inception, Tom has made 22 recommendations. Eight were showing profit at the end of 2021. That's a 36% win rate. The 12.3% average annualized gain is good – especially compared to the benchmark, which had a 4% average annualized loss over the same span.

Naturally, we're pleased with the positive average gains... And it's great to see Cannabis Capitalist beating the benchmark's negative return by a wide margin.

However, we're looking for a much higher win rate. We're confident that will come in time as the sector matures and Tom's recommendations have time to play out.

For now, Cannabis Capitalist earns a "B-" in this year's Report Card.

Stansberry Gold & Silver Investor: C

As the name implies, the Hard Rock Portfolio offers diversified exposure to both gold and silver...

When we launched this publication in 2016, our goal was to provide subscribers with a balanced portfolio of securities in the precious metals sector.

So here, you'll find major producers and royalty companies... These are enterprises like mining giant Barrick Gold (GOLD) or royalty company Franco-Nevada (FNV). We recommend putting 30% of your gold allocation to these larger, relatively safer sector plays.

Next, we recommend allocating 20% to small gold producers and what we call "gold in the ground" plays... We believe that the smaller developers give upside potential as they grow production and therefore revenues... or they might be bought out for a higher share price by the majors. The "gold in the ground" plays – like NovaGold Resources (NG) – provide leverage to the price of gold. They hold prized assets that will become incredibly more valuable as the price of gold rises.

Then you have the explorers and developers.

Companies scour the globe to find the next big mine – like the Grasberg in Indonesia... the Super Pit in Western Australia... or the Carlin Complex in Nevada.

These are typically small, often tiny, companies. Finding gold and silver is challenging... and expensive. The odds of success are stacked against them. But if they find the next Super Pit, the upside can be life-changing. So we want some exposure to these stocks... but to manage the risk ‒ because they can go to zero ‒ we recommend allocating only about 15% to this corner of the portfolio.

And finally, we suggest allocating 35% of the portfolio to physical gold. Throughout history, physical gold – the hold-it-in-your-hand kind of gold – has been the most secure, most global, and least political form of money... While we believe gold stocks will outperform the price of gold in a bull market, gold itself provides more stability and less volatility for the portfolio on the downside.

While gold has mostly traded sideways over the past couple of years, this diversified approach has mostly worked as we expected.

Editor Bill Shaw has headed up these efforts. Over the years, Bill has traveled the globe to see mines with his own eyes... and meet with miners, CEOs, CFOs, and investors to provide his readers with a first-hand perspective with his research. He has visited Russia, Kazakhstan, Peru, Chile, and to Vancouver, Canada, where many mining firms are based.

While we recommend a diversified model portfolio, please know the Hard Rock Portfolio for Stansberry Gold & Silver Investor is a list of recommendations. It isn't managed as a risk-adjusted portfolio like our Portfolio Solutions products.

For the five-year grading period, the Hard Rock Portfolio has effectively broken even... And it's a little less than two percentage points behind its benchmark. For that reason, the Hard Rock Portfolio earns a "C" for this year's Report Card. When gold begins to rise again, we believe this portfolio approach will outperform.

Retirement Trader: B

I don't know anyone with a win rate like this one – especially trading options.

Since this publication's inception in 2010 through the end of 2021, editor Dr. David "Doc" Eifrig made 595 winning trades out of 639 total recommendations... That's a 93% win rate.

Most people who I hear from wonder how he does it...

Longtime subscribers know Doc has one of the most interesting careers among our talented group of analysts and editors at Stansberry Research. His academic qualifications include a BA and an MBA with a double major in finance and international business. And before he became a medical doctor and board-eligible eye surgeon, he worked as a derivatives trader at investment bank Goldman Sachs.

This experience is paying off for his Retirement Trader subscribers...

You see, most investors like to buy options because they provide leverage to the underlying security they're betting on – whether it's a long or short position. They buy a "call" option if they think the stock is going up... And they buy a "put" option if they think it's going down.

Well, Doc flips that logic upside down... He recommends selling options. Plus, he only sells puts (or covered calls) on companies that he fully understands and believes offer a high margin of safety... That's his recipe for success.

You can think of it like a company that sells insurance on your car. You hope you never need it... But you're happy to pay the upfront premium for the peace of mind that you're covered if an accident occurs.

People that buy puts are effectively buying insurance that they'll get a guaranteed amount if the share price declines to – or below – a certain price. And people will sometimes pay a lot for that insurance when volatility strikes.

That's why the secret to Doc's success is that he only sells puts on the best companies in the world... They're companies that he would be happy to own anyway.

For example, last May, he recommended a trade on $37 billion online e-commerce company eBay (EBAY). He closed the position in July for a 4.9% profit. That might not sound like much... But he only held the position for 63 days. So that converts into a 28.1% annualized gain.

That's a typical day of work for Doc and his team. Their strategy is repeatable... so the annualized gains are meaningful numbers.

We don't expect Doc to hit any triple-digit winners with this options strategy. The expiration dates on the options he sells are normally only a few weeks or months away – like the eBay example. Instead, he's booking a lot of consistent singles and doubles. And he's booking them routinely every week, month, and year.

It's a strategy to earn safe, steady, reliable income. Doc makes around 50 to 60 trades per year, on average. And as you can see from his win rate, it's a reliable way to make extra income.

Over the five-year grading period for this year's Report Card, Doc also put together a 93% win rate... However, his average annualized gain of 5.1% lagged the benchmark by several percentage points.

We love this strategy and the consistency with which Doc delivers results for his subscribers. The win rate is clearly remarkable... But we've seen Doc post higher average annualized gains over the years. So for this year's Report Card, Doc earns a "B" for Retirement Trader.

Advanced Options: A+

In this publication, Doc employs a more aggressive strategy than Retirement Trader...

The universe of potential recommendations for Doc and his team comes from our macro publications Stansberry's Investment Advisory, True Wealth, and Retirement Millionaire. In short, they look for ways to use options to "juice" the returns of those recommendations.

Just to be clear... Doc and his team never force a trade. If they can't find an attractive opportunity from the recommendations in those publications, or if there isn't enough margin of safety... they'll look for alternatives.

Last March, Doc and his team opened what they call a "bull spread" on $230 billion wholesale retailer Costco Wholesale (COST). Essentially, they were betting that its stock would rise. Here's what they said at the time...

There aren't many opportunities to buy Costco at a reasonable valuation. It's a perfect stock – the company is profitable, growing, destroying its competition, and delighting customers. And it's traded like a perfect stock, too.

But we're getting close to a buying opportunity... As we write, the stock is down about 19% since its peak in November, which makes its valuation look more reasonable.

For investors wanting to own the stock for the long term, Doc and his team called it "a no-brainer."

But in this publication, they're looking for short term trades. And they found a bull spread they liked...

With a bull spread, you buy a call option at one strike price and sell another call at a higher strike price – both with the same expiration date. The income you receive from the higher-priced option reduces the cost of the option you buy. Your risk is the difference you pay. And the potential upside is the difference between the two strike prices – in this case, $10.

Don't let the jargon scare you, though... Doc and his team walk their subscribers through every bit of detail on each trade, so everyone knows how to place them with their brokers.

In this case, the opening spread was $5.25. They closed the trade in just 18 days for $8.20 – a 56% return.

Doc and his team launched this publication in late 2018... So we'll use the track record since inception for this year's Report Card.

From that point through the end of 2021, Doc and his team made 60 winning trades on 92 recommendations – a 65% win rate. And their average gain of 10.6% beat the benchmark by a significant margin. The average holding period was a mere 45 days, resulting in an average annualized gain of nearly 86%.

These results are phenomenal. Congratulations to Doc and his team... And congratulations to those of you who've benefited from this research as well.

Advanced Options earns an "A+" for this year's Report Card.

Ten Stock Trader: A+

Ten Stock Trader editor Greg Diamond crushed his benchmark in 2021...

Last year, he made 52 winning trades from 70 recommendations... with an average gain of 42.5%.

In September, he hit a real sweet spot... He made 12 recommendations... and 11 were winners ‒ with eight of them being triple digit gains ‒ for average gains of 94.9%.

If you're new to Stansberry Research, Greg is a Chartered Market Technician, and his publication focuses on technical trading. In other words, his trades around price action. He's not looking at balance sheets or income and cash-flow statements.

While he does trade stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), he mostly trades options. He is looking for leverage to get the most bang for his buck for his high conviction ideas... As the name of his publication suggests, he never holds more than 10 positions at a time.

While I've given you some trading statistics... you should know that Greg takes a portfolio approach to his trading. He understands better than anyone that with options, you can make big triple-digit gains... but you can also have substantial losses.

That's why he advises his readers on allocation sizes ‒ based on a $100,000 portfolio ‒ and allocates small percentages to each trade – usually between 0.5% and 2.5%. This matches the underlying thread of everything we do at Stansberry Research – manage risk.

Consider this for example...

For many of Greg's trades, he recommends an allocation of just $500 or $1,000. Even if you lose it all... it's a tiny 0.5% to 1% loss on your total portfolio ‒ assuming a $100,000 portfolio. Any investor should be able to stomach those kinds of losses. And to make up for any losses... he finds plenty of triple-digit winners.

Greg's goal is to show subscribers how to trade and manage money like a hedge-fund trader, but without high fees. "I want to help regular people and not just make rich people richer," Greg says.

Aside from the daily trades – which you can follow along with via the website or the Ten Stock Trader app – Greg sends a note to his subscribers each Monday with his outlook for the week. In those notes, he covers the big macro themes in play... and which sectors he is looking to trade... and why.

We launched Ten Stock Trader in a beta version in April 2018... before officially launching the publication in 2019.

Given we don't have five years of trading history, we have used the track record since inception for this year's Report Card...

Over the almost four-year period, Greg made 119 winning trades from 192 recommendations for a 62% win rate. His average gains were 24.6%, beating his benchmark by an absurd margin... Congratulations to Greg and all his followers.

Trading is a tough endeavor, but Greg is passionate about the markets, likes to educate his readers, and works incredibly long hours to make sure he keeps his subscribers up to date. And based on the past few years' performance... he has clearly found a strategy that works. I look forward to seeing continued success.

Ten Stock Trader earns an "A+" for this year's Report Card.

That brings us to the conclusion of the 2021 Report Card...

If you're wondering about Visionary Investor, The McCall Report, Matt McCall's MegaTrend Investor, Crypto Cashflow, or 10x Investor, please know that we don't grade any publication with less than a 12-month track record. Anything less than 12 months doesn't provide a meaningful result. But we'll have grades for these publications next year.

We trust these Report Cards have provided you with some insights into each of the publications, their goals, and of course, the results. But I'd love to hear how you think we have done... where we can do better... or what you'd like to see from us. Send your thoughts to feedback@stansberryresearch.com. We may not respond to every e-mail... but trust me, we do read them all. Every single one of them.

And finally, thank you for joining us here at Stansberry Research.

As I mentioned last week, we're all very passionate about our work. You let us do exactly what we love doing... to provide the highest-quality research possible for investors just like you.

New 52-week highs (as of 2/10/22): Altius Minerals (ALS.TO), Expedia (EXPE), Mosaic (MOS), Telekomunikasi Indonesia (TLK), Virtu Financial (VIRT), and Zeta Global (ZETA).

In today's mailbag, feedback on yesterday's Digest about preparing for the worst with inflation... and more feedback on the big changes coming to StansberryResearch.com. As always, send your comments and questions to feedback@stansberryresearch.com.

"There is one significant policy change that the Biden administration could make to tame inflation and improve the dangerous situation with Russia. Opening up federal lands to oil and natural gas drilling would make the U.S. energy independent again. This would greatly help to tame inflation and back Russia down from invading Ukraine.

"In addition, we could provide oil and LNG [liquefied natural gas] to our European allies, which would take revenue away from Russia. Unfortunately, due to the radical political ideology of the Democrats, I doubt they would adopt this smart solution." – Paid-up subscriber Thomas N.

"Maybe the Fed isn't so blind. Maybe [it's] intentional that they are letting inflation run hot. Massive government debt won't be positive for increased rates. Therefore, let the economy run hot and inflate debt away???

"Enjoyed your article." – Paid-up subscriber Renee N.

"I admire your dedication and I love your passion, but I am mostly moved by your compassion to help your readers and for that, I am deeply grateful!" – Paid-up subscriber Gabriela D.

"Congratulations on this new and exciting program! If it performs as good as all of your previous publications have performed it will be spectacular! I look forward to using it when it becomes available." – Paid-up subscriber David S.

Good investing,

Brett Aitken
Publisher
Baltimore, Maryland
February 11, 2022