Here’s how the Fox Business Block gurus performed in 2016 compared to the indices (excluding dividends). This return is based on investing $1000 per weekly stock pick at the closing price Friday night. The stock picks started 12/31/2015 through the 12/23/2016 picks, versus dollar cost averaging into the index ETFs during the same time period.
The stock market had a good 2016, so you think that everyone would look like a great stock picker in a rising market. There is some saying about a monkey throwing darts at the stock page could pick winning stocks when the market is in an uptrend!
Rich Karlgard from Forbes on Fox is the 2016 winner! Rich made 7 stock picks. The most stock picks were made by the Bulls and Bears crew. Gary Smith, Jonas Max Ferris and John Layfield all made 33 picks. Scott Martin only made 5 stock picks for the year, and came in last place.
After the 2016 election of Donald Trump, Small Cap stocks roared and finished at the top of the index ETFs. Overall, the index ETFs outperformed most of the gurus – as expected.
Only a few gurus beat the market. And Adam Lashinsky and Ben Stein tend to pick mostly diversified ETFs.
How did the shows do compared to each other?
The Forbes on Fox team won the battle this year, although underperformed the market. Also note that Cashin In doesn’t make stock picks anymore. But I still have Jonathan Hoenig in that group for 2016. After Eric Bolling took over, the show is mostly political and the stock talk is long gone. Jonathan has moved on to appearing on the other shows when he is on.
Most stock picks are made without any future guidance. Once you buy, there is no advice to sell or buy more. The shows do have an occasional “follow up” show that goes over the best and worst picks for each guru, and what they’d do with that one or two picks going forward.