2020 ended up being a surprisingly good year for investors, including my subscribers.

I was able to find stocks that went up in all our key sectors

1. Gold,
2. COVID stay-at-home
3. EV battery technology
4. ESG

through the full year.

Normally I’m looking at a stock that’s in one of the major memes of the year–so it has liquidity, and there’s lots to write about. But the secret of course is separating the promoters from the businessmen & women who have something real.

I want to say up-front, I had a few bad trades this year. NOBODY traded HYRECAR (HYRE) worse than me. It traded lock-in-step with UBER, except for its quarterlies which showed profitability moving farther and farther away. I couldn’t take that, but congrats to CEO Joe Furnari. And I sold some high quality stocks way too early out of the COVID bottom that I wish I still owned.

But for the most part, 2020 was an exceptional year for subscribers.

In January this year, subscribers saw companies like Nano One (TSX-V:NNO), an EV battery play, and Greenlane Renewables (TSX-V:GRN-), a renewable natural gas stock (we used to call this garbage gas in the 1990s) triple in stock price as the ESG meme was in full swing. I wrote about Nano One just recently here.

Then in February and March, I found the first 10-bagger of the year–Capricor Therapeutics (CAPR). I bought it at $1.11. It was a micro-cap biotech with a ZERO Enterprise Value (trading at cash) with upcoming catalysts in the same space that took Sarepta from $10 – $160 in few months (a couple years ago). The stock went up 10X to over $11 by the end of April–in just two months–and we took profits all the way up.

Then in early April, a mining junior named Fosterville South (TSX-V:FSX) came public. Our subscribers participated in the 40 cent IPO, and the stock opened above 90 cents. Located directly south and on trend with the most profitable mine in the world–Kirkland Lake (KL).

Fosterville Mine–the stock saw a meteoric rise to $5 in three months. I sold just over half my position between $2.25 all the way up to $4.89, letting subscribers know every time I sold. You can read my initial report on the stock here (pdf).

At the same, COVID-19 engulfed the world. Who would have thought a global pandemic would be net boost to world stock markets? The Market discovered stay-at-home stocks–online retailers like Overstock (OSTK) and Wayfair (W) did amazing, as did home gym plays like Peloton (PTON) and Nautilus (NLS).

My big win was OSTK--I bought it at $13 and sold my last 2,500 shares at $91.75 in just three months–a profit of US$195,625, or 579.6%.

During the summer of 2020, gold stocks were on fire and I followed legendary investor Eric Sprott to a few winners. In June I agreed with him on both Galway Mining (GWM-TSX) and Kore Mining (KORE-TSXv) , two Canadian exploration plays that both TRIPLED in two months–and I took profits. You can read my report on Galway here and on KORE Mining here.

When these junior mining stocks move in a bull market, they often go fast and understanding the exploration, financing and promotion cycles is key to profit.

And because I’ve been in junior mining since 1992, I know how those cycles work–and I also know almost all the players. I know the best management teams personally, and can get access to financings for subscribers.

The Market has been on a tear again in the late fall, and I have continued to harvest triple digit profits. AcuityAds (AT-TSX), an online ad company (think Trade Desk (TTD) was the very first pick of my service in early 2019 at $1.68, and my timing could not have been worse. Two days after I said this was the one to buy, they announced a financing at 20% below market, and the stock never recovered for a year–despite the business doing better and better every quarter. Finally, with their new self serve online ad service going live, the stock started to perform. The stock hit 80 cents in the middle of the COVID fear in March–and just hit $8, a 10 bagger from the bottom. I took profits there as well, which was 340% profit for me–worth about $180,000. (I’m rarely this patient.)

In late November, I took advantage of the renewed EV mania and took partial profits on Grande West (BUS-TSXv) as they soared from 30 cents to $2 in 2.5 months. I started buying the stock at 60 cents and took partial profits at $1.79–one penny short of a triple!!!. You can read my report on the company here.

I have no idea what 2021 will bring. I think the reality of the 2021 North American economy will NOT live up to the post-vaccine hype we are seeing now, so I’m cautiously optimistic on gold.