How to Beat the Market – With Less Volatility
Hedge funds had a terrific year in 2025...
Well, at least by their standards.
To the casual observer, a 12.6% return from a hedge fund looks like a home run. If you told a farmer in Nebraska or a dentist in Ohio that their portfolio grew by double digits in a single year, they would likely pour you a drink to celebrate.
But in the world of high finance, performance is relative.
While the hedge-fund elites were high-fiving in their Manhattan penthouses because it was their best year since 2009, the S&P 500 returned nearly 18% in 2025.
The S&P 500 outperformed by more than 500 basis points... and you don't pay anywhere close to the fees on an S&P 500 fund as you do with a hedge fund.
Unfortunately, hedge funds now have a long track record of doing worse than the market.
Over the past 16 years, the S&P 500 has returned an average of 12.9% annually. The average hedge fund was just 6.2%.
That's a massive difference...
If you had invested $10,000 in the S&P 500 16 years ago, you would be sitting on over $30,500 today. That same $10,000 in a hypothetical average hedge fund would have barely cleared $19,900.
In fact, hedge funds have only done better than the S&P 500 in three of the past 16 years.
Folks who put money into a hedge fund assume they are going to beat the market. While hedge funds are designed to limit risk with complex strategies like derivatives and short selling... it's hard to justify their high fees because of their poor long-term performance.
Here at Stansberry Research, we have a better way...
It's called The Total Portfolio.
The Total Portfolio is a fully allocated, done-for-you portfolio. It's something we want you to be comfortable putting 100% of your wealth into, if you choose. We not only tell you which stocks to buy... but how much of each stock to buy.
Similar to hedge funds, this portfolio is laser-focused on risk. It doesn't just contain high-growth stocks meant to beat the market. It's balanced.
We separate the portfolio thematically into Get Rich holdings – like growth stocks – and Stay Rich holdings – like gold, insurance companies, water utilities, and bonds.
The Total Portfolio can not only beat the market when it's in a bull market, but it can also have less volatility.
Our publisher, Matt Weinschenk, recently went over the results of The Total Portfolio in our sister publication, the Stansberry Digest.
Here's Matt...
As you see in the performance recap, for 2025, The Total Portfolio beat its benchmark [the Vanguard Balanced Index Fund] 17.8% to 11.6%. That's an A+ performance.
In other words, if you'd followed our advice, you'd have made 53% more money last year than someone who'd held the Vanguard Balanced Index Fund.
Over five years, we're up 58.2% to 41.5%. Between the size of that gain and its outperformance versus the benchmark, I'm giving The Total Portfolio an A for five-year performance.
And since inception in 2017, we're up 185% versus 123% for the benchmark.
Here's what's most shocking...
Even though we're focused on risk and balance, we also beat the S&P 500's 15.4% rise for 2025 in a major bull market (again, starting in February).
This is the holy grail of investing: a market-beating portfolio with balance and safety.
So while hedge funds struggle to beat the performance of the S&P 500, we deliver actual results for investors. Like we mentioned, The Total Portfolio is all about risk as well.
Take a look at the chart below. As you can see, The Total Portfolio had less volatility than the S&P 500 in 2025 – all while producing more gains.
On The Total Portfolio's worst day, it was down less than 5% on the year.
Our focus on diversification and risk management protected our portfolio – making it about half as risky as the S&P 500.
The investment committee for The Total Portfolio includes myself and four of our leading analysts. We have decades of experience between us. And most importantly, we review 21 different publications across Stansberry Research and pick the best of the best investments to fit in this curated portfolio.
If you ever want to get a fully allocated, built-for-you portfolio, then I suggest you consider joining us at The Total Portfolio.
Yesterday, we unveiled the complete, official Stansberry Research playbook for 2026.
The Investment Committee (plus a special guest) got together and debated what's happening in Venezuela, how AI will affect energy demand, what Trump means for your portfolio... and more.
Click here to watch this video if you haven't already.
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Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,
Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
January 28, 2026