Image Source: PexelsYou know it’s that time… a new year begins (hello 2024!) and an old one ends. Let’s take a look back at how the GreenDot Stocks “Buy” picks did in our first year of the current format.The new format launched in November of 2022, and there are several picks in those first two months, but for the sake of simplicity, I’m just going to roll everything into 2023 for this article (and beyond…).The S&P 500 had a strong year in 2023, returning about 24% to investors from the beginning of the year to the end. Some of that was a bounce back from a poor 2022 when it was down over 11%. Still, many were predicting a recession going into 2023, so that kind of performance was welcome.GreenDot Stocks did even better. We made 16 “buy” calls in 2023 (see the table at the end of the article). 14 of those delivered positive returns for investors (88%). Even better, 12 of those 16 beat the market (75%).Best of all was the relative performance as a whole. Our average pick in 2023 returned a popping 48.1% to those who bought right around the recommendation date. Put up against tracking positions in the S&P 500, the average GreenDot Stocks pick pantsed the market by an average of 30.2%!A pretty good first year!The Outlook Going ForwardThis kind of performance gives me continued confidence that our strategy of buying great companies at good prices and letting them run is THE winning strategy for individual investors. I will keep trying to find great companies for you (and myself), and buying in when the price is right.I’m not much of a market prognosticator (it is a huge waste of time), but I can say with reasonable confidence that stocks are relatively expensive at present. We have a handful of stocks on the Buy List that still represent good value. But there isn’t anything very close to a buy point in our Watch List at present. Right now, the best thing to do is just hold and observe. It’s boring, I know… but it is the right thing to do.In the meantime, we will keep steadily adding stocks to the Watch List and patiently wait for buying points.One other thing, the service hasn’t “sold” any stocks yet. This is a good thing! And, frankly, there aren’t many stocks we currently own that I’m even remotely interested in selling. Just one – Zscaler (ZS) – is anywhere close to 50% over fair value, and unless it gets a good bit over that, I don’t see any reason to dump it.Thanks for following my humble stock picking blog and I hope you continue to follow it going forward!Picks SummaryHere is a summary of all “buy” calls and performance from date of recommendation:
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