Martin Weiss – Research Columnist
by Martin Weiss and Don Lucek
Barack Obama has just won the most pivotal election of our lifetime. The near-term impact on financial markets could be dramatic; the potential consequences for your money, huge.
But I’m ready. I have a plan of action. And I am deploying it this week — with $1 million of the retirement money my wife and I have saved up over the years.
First and foremost, we will avoid the GARBAGE — the stocks that are most likely to crash and burn if the market falls … or that will greatly underperform if the market rises.
Second, we will deploy our EARLY ALERT system — a very reliable way to anticipate major market crashes and buy investments that help us PROFIT from any fall.
And third, we are going to buy only the CREAM of the CROP — stocks that are likely to greatly outperform in good times OR bad.
Why are Elisabeth and I so confident in this approach that we’ve put $1 million of our own retirement money on the line?
Because of two great advantages we have:
Advantage #1 is the RATINGS I personally developed years ago, which have proven to be a very powerful, OBJECTIVE tool — not only to identify the best and worst investments … but also to help TIME major market turns.
And advantage #2 is DON LUCEK, the man Elisabeth and I have chosen to call the shots in our $1 million portfolio.
Don knows more about our ratings than any other person on Earth. And he’s already been using them to make very good money in our portfolio.
In the next half-hour, he tells you precisely how we do it — and how you can do it, too.
He names the 14 widely held stocks we won’t touch with a ten-foot pole … and that you should avoid, too.
Plus, he tells you how to target the very same investments that we’re aiming to buy.
So now that we know Obama will be in the White House for four more years, we have no time to waste … and nor do you.
Don, please take it from here …
Thank YOU for the trust you’ve placed in me!
Let me tell you what I’m doing to protect Martin’s million-dollar portfolio from downside risk.
First, before I invest one PENNY of his money, I make sure we avoid the worst stocks in the Dow — not to mention the worst of the S&P, the Nasdaq and every other stock index. And the ratings tell us EXACTLY which ones they are.
Right now, for example, here are some big-name stocks we are avoiding — stocks you shouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole no matter who wins the election.
- Nokia Corp (NOK)
- Navidea Biopharmaceuticals (NAVB)
- Office Depot (ODP)
- Fannie Mae (FNMA)
- Molycorp (MCP)
- Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
- Overstock.com (OSTK)
- Sony Corp (SNE)
- LG Display Co. (LPL)
- Transocean LTD (RIG)
- LinkedIn (LNKD)
- Pacific Sunwear (PSUN)
- J.C. Penney (JCP)
- Panasonic (PC
If you own any of them your money may be in extreme danger. My recommendation is that you consider selling them immediately.
Second, the ratings show us the sum TOTAL of thousands of companies’ earnings, revenues, debt, profitability and other critical fundamentals. And this gives us a clear picture of the health of the overall market overall, when taken in aggregate.
When ratings are rising across the board, they reveal hidden strength in the stock market.
And when the ratings are falling, it means there’s a strong chance the market is about to enter a massive sell-off versus expectations!
This gives us an EARLY ALERT SYSTEM that shows us when to take profits, add hedges to protect against downside risk, and even PROFIT from market declines with select inverse ETFs.
Third, and most importantly, we invest exclusively in the most solid companies in the strongest sectors.
Needless to say, we need to approach every sector with great caution, always making sure we avoid the low-rated stocks and always making sure we have the right protection against the downside.
But remember, thanks to the consistent, prize-winning accuracy of these ratings, we always select only the best of the best — and I feel that ALONE gives us more downside protection than virtually any other portfolio imaginable.
Let’s take a look at each of our favorite sectors and you’ll see how our top-rated stocks have ALREADY performed starting with …
Huge Profit Opportunities in the Energy Complex
From 2001 through the end of 2010, top-rated energy companies like the following crushed the S&P with gains like …
- A 311% jump in Petro-Canada, which was acquired by Suncor Energy …
- A 162% increase in Eastern American Natural Gas …
- And a 398% gain in Imperial Oil.
That’s an average gain of 313% … enough to turn a $10,000 investment into $41,300
But we believe that’s nothing compared to what I see coming next in the energy sector …
These ratings have already told me precisely which energy companies will give us the strongest — and safest rated — returns to cash in a booming energy businesses.
And I’ll name some of the best before we part today.
But right now, let me tell you …
How investing in our highest-rated banks and insurance companies could have made you up to 815% richer…
I’m talking about gains on “A”-rated companies like …
- 58% in Chubb Corp
- 66% in Travelers
- 122% in Washington Federal
- 122% in Dime Community
- 158% in Allstate Life
- 163% in UBS
- 200% in John Hancock
- 267% in Ameriprise
- And 815% in Hartford Financial
Now, you can’t go back in time to buy these stocks and neither can I.
But with the Fed issuing QE to infinity, and buying all the banks’ toxic mortgage-backed securities … I think it’s a safe bet that easy money will continue to flow into this sector …
Which is why financials are one of the major sectors I’m watching right now.
Right now I’m preparing my list of all the top-rated banks across the country, a few of which I’ll name in just a moment.
Plus …
Here’s why I believe there’s an absolute fortune to be made from healthcare companies — PROVIDED you select them wisely!
No matter what you think about Obamacare, or any other approach to our nation’s healthcare, there’s one undeniable truth in this market …
Over the next 10 years healthcare demand will skyrocket because of retiring baby-boomers!
The Federal government will have no choice but to funnel billions more into this sector every year, helping to deliver record profits — but ONLY for the companies who can innovate and control costs.
We’re just at the beginning of this trend and we’ve already seen some of our top-rated companies post monster gains like…
- 213% on Cubist Pharmaceuticals …
- 163% on HMS holdings …
- 159% on National Research Corp …
- And 255% on Mettler-Toledo International.
Now please realize: These are the PAST winners. They are not the companies on our new list of companies most likely to double and triple in value.
Again, I’m saving the best for last — so that I can name some of those companies before we’re done here today.
But first, let me tell you about …
The Best Opportunities in Technology
Technology is the driving force behind nearly all of the productivity gains coming out of corporate America right now.
Cloud computing is changing the way companies store and distribute information …
Smart robots are changing the face of manufacturing, which according to the Boston Consulting Group has the potential to bring over 6 million high paying factory jobs back to our shores …
And mobile technology is totally transforming the way we work and spend our leisure time seven days a week.
Catching just one right company at the right time could easily double, triple or even return 10 times your money.
But here’s the thing …
These big opportunities also come with big risks.
So there’s only one way Martin will let me invest in this sector — or any other sector: By faithfully adhering to the conservative ratings he developed over a decade ago.
Thanks to these ratings which we now distribute with the Street.com, you can easily capture the upside of the market … but also limit your downside by only investing in the strongest most profitable companies today.
So why are we so confident in the ability of these ratings to shuck off the garbage and pick out the gems … and do so with consistent accuracy in both rising and falling markets?
The answer is simple: Because we have …
A fully documented, historical track record that has been praised by some of the most respected authorities in the nation.
Let me show you what I mean …
Back in 2007, J.P. Morgan loved Ford, rating it a buy. But our ratings gave it an “urgent sell.
In the months that followed, Ford stock plunged a staggering 80%!
Our ratings also told us that NYSE Euronext was a disaster waiting to happen — despite the fact that Citigroup was urging investors to buy it with both hands.
In the months that followed, this stock also plunged OVER 80%!
But that’s just the beginning. The ratings identified a long list of stocks to sell immediately. By the end of 2010 — even AFTER the economy had supposedly recovered from the credit crisis, we had seen the following massive declines:
| Stock with “strong sell” | Decline by 2/31/10 |
| AMD | -84.5% |
| CBS Corp | -87.8% |
| Nuclear Solutions | -97.2% |
| Current Technology | -98.8% |
| EPIX Pharmaceuticals | -99.8% |
That’s an average loss of 93.42%.
And, if you had ignored the strong sell rating and invested $10,000 in EPIX in 2007, you would have lost $9,980 and been left with a meager $20 holding! And, I repeat: This was AFTER a two-year rally in the market.
Here’s the bottom line: Regardless of the sector or industry, over the years, these ratings have proven to be remarkably accurate:
- Our bank ratings have warned of nearly every major and minor bank failure in ADVANCE for the past three decades.
- The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that our insurance company ratings beat our #1 competitors by a factor of THREE to ONE.
- In 2005, The Wall Street Journal reported our ratings were #1 in the nation for accuracy and performance … outperforming J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Standard and Poor’s and every one of the 18 other ratings firms reviewed.
- In 2009, our ratings earned the Jaywalk Best Stock Selection Award …
- In 2010, these ratings earned the ConvergeEX Group Award for “first-rate recommendations and insights” …
- And last year these ratings won the Independent Research Provider Performance Award for “exceptional investment recommendations that have proven to be enormously valuable to clients during these uncertain times.”
That’s because we originally designed these ratings to objectively judge stocks exclusively on the basis of hard numbers: All without any bias.
The key: When it comes to earning substantial stock market profits in confusing times, avoiding weak stocks is fully half the battle!
The other half is maximizing your profit potential and further reducing risk by investing only in the companies that have earned the HIGHEST rating.
Because by using our ratings you could have gotten …
More than FOUR dollars in gains for every ONE dollar the average S&P investor earned since 2001 …Despite TWO of the most severe bear markets in American history!
To mark the ten-year anniversary of the ratings, back in 2010 we completed a special study — the most thorough documentation we have compiled in the 40-year history of our company — to determine exactly how much money investors could have made by buying the top-rated stocks.
So let me tell you the results: The data show that the average S&P 500 stock delivered a 44.6% total return, including price appreciation, dividends and reinvestment of dividends over that time period.
In other words, if you had invested $100,000 in the average S&P stock, you would have had $144,600 at the end of the period.
But if you had invested equal amounts in all of 15 of the stocks we rated “A” when we first published stock ratings in 2001 — and simply held those stocks until December 31, 2010 — you would have beat the S&P 500 by 4.48 to one!
And consider this:
- The average Weiss “A” stock beat the S&P by 153 percentage points!
- The best Weiss “A” stocks beat S&P the by 741 percentage points
- Our study included ALL the Weiss “A” stocks — no cherrypicking
- With ALL of our 15 stocks rated “A,” you would not have had A SINGLE LOSING STOCK! Even if you had the “misfortune” of buying only the WORST performing stock on our list of 15 “A”-rated stocks, you STILL would have beat the S&P 500!
- All of this is over nearly a decade that brought us not just one but TWO of the most severe bear markets in U.S. history, and STILL our A-rated stocks would have made their investors a great fortune.*
And there’s more: If you had been able to use our overall market indicator, which is also based on these ratings, to time the onset of the 2007 bear market, you could have moved your money into inverse ETFs during the decline. In that case …
Using our ratings, you could have beaten the S&P 500 by 10.5 to one, which would have turned $100,000 into $567,800!
Now, I need not warn you that the past and the future are two different animals. So in the future, the specific trading approaches that will work the best may be different from those that worked best in the past. And, needless to say, with any investment strategy, losses CAN happen.
The key is that our ratings have passed the toughest of tests: Our “A”-rated stocks could have not only helped protect you from losses, but also helped you greatly outperform the market averages for nearly ten years.
