5 Stocks Indistinguishable From Magic

In this episode of Rule Breaker Investing: Review-a-palooza! Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner is joined by Motley Fool analyst Joey Solitro to review two previous five-stock samplers to find out how they are doing relative to the market. Solitro also shares his own experience with COVID-19. Finally, Gardner shares his 26th stock sampler, with a theme that celebrates one of author Arthur C. Clarke's most famous adages.

Also, discover what's in-store next week and the week after that; new programs you wouldn't want to miss; upcoming guests, and much more.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. To get started investing, check out our quick-start guide to investing in stocks. A full transcript follows the video.

This video was recorded on Sept. 1, 2020.

David Gardner: Two years ago, I was having fun. It was a little cocky, I'll grant you. I was picking five stocks to beat the market, one of my five-stock samplers, and I simply picked the letter "M" out of the alphabet and said I can pick five stocks from my own universe that simply start with the letter "M" and beat the market with them. Made sense to call that one 5 Stocks That are Mm Mmm Good. So, now, it's two years later, how have they done?

One year ago, I was a little more serious. This time I was reflecting on a spectacular listener note from a guy named Paul. Paul's screen name that he uses at Fool.com as a member is Tailwind Blow; and he was reminding us all of the power of tailwinds behind some of our best stocks. Tailwinds, undeniable and powerful trends that are happening in society that provide great support for companies working within those industries that get tailwinds. So, it was time to pick 5 Stocks for a Tailwind Blow, one year ago, this week. How are they doing?

Get a sense that we're about to do a review-a-palooza! a review of multiple past five-stock sampler portfolios from one and two years ago? Well, you're right. Give yourself a gold star. And that's not all. So long as we're going to talk stocks this week, how about if I pick five new ones. Yep, my newest, my 26th five-stock sampler waits in the wings, 5 Stocks Indistinguishable From Magic. I will explain. Only on this week's Rule Breaker Investing.

Welcome back to Rule Breaker Investing. I'm already rubbing my hands together because this September is going to be pretty spectacular for Rule Breaker Investing. Yep, we've got a new five-stock sampler this week; I'll mention that in a sec. First, we'll be reviewing two past five-stock samplers, two samplers picked exactly one and two years ago this very week. A very different world, what were the stocks I was picking, why, and how have they done?

Well, my friend Joey Solitro, a relatively new analyst here at The Motley Fool will be making his Rule Breaker Investing debut to go over those two past samplers with me very shortly. I also want to mention we're going to have another review-a-palooza! next week, because yep, I've got two more five-stock samplers to review, including the very first one I ever picked, which will be closing down after five years next week. So, it's a reminder that this podcast has been coming to you every single week without a repeat for more than five years. But the very first five-stock sampler we ever picked, well since we launched in July 2015, I waited a couple of months and picked in September. In fact, I might as well remind us that the first one was called 5 Stocks for the Next Five Years. So, yeah, we will be reviewing that one next week.

The week after, I get to talk to Whole Foods founder and Motley Fool board member John Mackey about his new book this fall, Conscious Leadership. Now, I'm already about midway through, and full disclosure, he's a board member at The Motley Fool, but I speak independently to tell you, I think it is a spectacular book on leadership. So I'm very excited to bring John to you later this month as well.

All right. Now, before we get started this week, I want to mention something wonderful that The Motley Fool is bringing to the world starting next week. You know how lots of kids are having to do distance learning, and their stir-crazy parents are wondering how to keep them occupied? Check. You know how lots of young adults and even, I would say, many not so young adults haven't gotten an adequate series of lessons teaching them how to win the game of money and investing? Check. Now some people call this financial literacy -- or lacking it, financial illiteracy -- but at The Motley Fool we're calling it Fool School, and guess what? Starting this coming Tuesday, Sept. 8, for one hour every day from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, we're going to bring Fool School, 30 lessons in all, to Motley Fool Live. That's right, in 30 lessons, running the gamut from the three best financial habits for students, right through to picking the best stocks. The Motley Fool's Fool School is going to spend the middle two weeks of September bringing free schooling to a world that we think could really benefit. There's only one catch, this material will initially be for members only. So, if you're a Motley Fool member, great! You have membership access to Motley Fool Live, so maybe you yourself are an adult who'd love to learn these lessons yourself and/or maybe you're connected to a young adult, high school level and up will be our focus, maybe a daughter or a grandson who'd really enjoy watching over your shoulder. Great! Fool School is headed your way.

So, here are the details. I'll be there to kick us off this coming Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 3 p.m. Then, every weekday at 3 p.m. over those next two weeks, we're going to have the next set of sequential lessons right through to completion 10 days later on Friday, Sept. 18. So, come for one hour or come for all, and please note that the material we provide will be saved for replay and reuse later for the wider world.

So, Motley Fool Live is at live.fool.com, and Fool School on Motley Fool Live starts next Tuesday, 3 p.m. Eastern. See you there.

Now, this week's 26th five-stock sampler I have called 5 Stocks Indistinguishable From Magic. I will be explaining a little bit more about that later in the show, but suffice it to say, we're focused on companies that are so high-tech or so bleeding edge that what they're doing could almost just be magic. Have you ever tried to explain, let's say, the streaming show Vikings to a Viking? That wouldn't be very easy. How about just explaining the internet to a Viking? That would be a fascinating conversation. That's what it's like explaining some of these companies' businesses to you and to me here in 2020. 5 Stocks Indistinguishable From Magic, coming up later.

But first, I want to welcome my friend and recent, I'm not even going to say longtime Motley Fool analyst, because, Joey Solitro, you came to The Fool; what was your start date?

Joey Solitro: Jan. 31, 2013, officially as a contractor, then I came in-house March 2019.

Gardner: March 2019. That's when I first met you, but I certainly had read you before for years as a contractor, and I've seen your spectacular performance on Motley Fool CAPS, where you are a perennial top five performer. So, you had come to my attention years and years ago, but I'm delighted we could seal the deal when in 2019 you moved your young family up, I think, from Florida?

Solitro: Yes sir.

Gardner: Wonderful. And so, I'm delighted to have you, I know you're a fellow Rule Breaker. And, Joey, could you just briefly introduce what you do at The Motley Fool to our audience?

Solitro: Yes. So, when I came in-house at The Motley Fool, I was a Premium Investing Analyst with The Motley Fool Canada team on the Stock Advisor and Hidden Gems newsletters. I have since transitioned as Head of Editorial or Editor-in-Chief of Motley Fool Canada. And I still -- you know, I'm always pinging Rule Breaker investors with some ideas, great to see a lot of my babies have made it into the service. And it's just, you know, I live the Rule Breaker lifestyle in everything I do, whether it's investing, you know, I go with the high-growth Rule Breaker Investing style. I do CrossFit, which apparently, you know, you're not supposed to do that, it's not healthy compared to other styles. I'm paleo and keto; apparently, you're not supposed to do that, it's just -- you know, I break the rules in my everyday life. So, it's always been a goal and dream of mine to be on this podcast with you, and here we are.

Gardner: Love it. I'm so glad. We're here to make dreams come true; it's not just a Disney thing, it's a Motley Fool thing as well. Well, I'm really excited to have you here as well, Joey. And thanks for taking some time this week to look at both of our past five-stock samplers

We're going to start last in, first out -- LIFO accounting, as I like to do with these. So, we're looking at one from two years ago, but first, we're going to look at one from last year. This was 5 Stocks for a Tailwind Blow, the date, Sept. 4, 2019, a year ago. 5 Stocks for a Tailwind Blow. Joey, what does a tailwind blow mean to you?

Solitro: To me, a tailwind blow is, you know, you're investing early on in the trend and then you see that trend gaining steam. It's like you're the early adopter and the technology takes off. So, you know, like the surfer with the wave coming in behind him, and it just propels him forward. So, that's how I see a tailwind blow, and I try to tailor my portfolio accordingly.

Gardner: Well, that's wonderful, and that was the theme for these five stocks. Now, there are a lot of stocks that you and I look at and invest in that arguably have some form of tailwind, so I can't even say that these five represent the ultimate examples. In fact, a couple of them are real underperformers, so I don't feel great about them one year later. But of course, we're not just playing the one-year game.

But I just wanted to say before we start, each of these, I think, has an identifiable tailwind. And the way we've been reviewing our five-stock samplers, Joey, is we typically look at the worst performer first. So, let's talk a little bit about Waste Management (WM -0.52%).

Solitro: So, Waste Management, you know, they're the leading provider of waste management services in the United States, and they're the leading operator of landfills. So, Waste Management, how I look at them is, they're like the Steady-Eddie. You know, this isn't the one that's going to knock the boots off or blow the barn door off with the returns, it's going to be one of those steady growers, Dividend Aristocrats that just provides you that solid return. And where it has underperformed so far, I see it's down less than 6% on the scorecard, which compared to the market might seem significant. But if you're going to have a loser, that's the type of loser that I'd want to have in my portfolio.

Gardner: Well, and thank you for that. Yeah, Waste Management, as you are mentioning, is down 6%, rounding. And the market, by the way, for this five-stock sampler, as we record on Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 1, the market is up 19.6%. We're going to give the market an extra 0.4%, we'll call it 20%. So, that's the bogey; that's what we're shooting to beat with each of these five stocks. So, with Waste Management down 6% and the market up 20%; we're minus 26% to start off this sampler. Now, the tailwind for me, with this one anyway, Joey, is just the sheer amount of growth worldwide, not just in population and in lots of other things, but in trash and waste as well. And so, as you mentioned the Steady-Eddie, the big dog here, that felt and still feels to me like a good place to be invested for a longer period of time.

Solitro: Waste Management scores one of the highest possible scores on a test that I like to run with stocks that I would want to invest in, and I call it the funeral test. You know, if this company died, would you be very sad, how many people would go to its funeral? If Waste Management went away tomorrow? Wow! We'd have a major, major problem across the United States. And this would affect probably more people than it wouldn't. Because not only would trash flood the streets, these landfills would go unattended, it's one of those that, you know, it is very important infrastructure to the United States as to what Waste Management is doing. So, this is a company that has that staying power. And you know, I always like to say, is this the gold standard of what they do? And Waste Management clearly gets that gold-standard stamp, because they are.

Gardner: Well, and I agree. I think part of it is COVID 2020 here. COVID-19 end of 2020, and probably 2021, I think there's just less produce and less waste, which, in some ways sounds really good to me, but it doesn't sound great probably if you're trying to run Waste Management's business right now. So, that's the worst performer.

Let's move from there to the best performer. Now, really happy to say our higher highs whomp on our lowest low, because the best performer in this 5 Stocks for a Tailwind Blow sampler is...

Solitro: That would be Teladoc (TDOC 0.30%). Now, Teladoc is the leading provider of telehealth services, basically video chatting with your doctor. So, you think about the ultimate COVID stock. And the service that has the biggest tailwind as a result of everybody being locked in their homes. The absolutely last thing you want to do is go to the doctor right now, because yes, you're wearing masks in the grocery store, but you know, if people are going to the doctor, they're probably sick, they're either sick or hurt. So, if you just have the sniffles or you don't know what's wrong with you, you don't think it's COVID, you don't want to go there. So, to be able to pick up your phone, hit "chat with a doctor," and you have an appointment in 5 to 10 minutes, it's the easiest and it just improves life.

Gardner: And I agree. And talk about improving life. Teladoc has improved its own fortunes by merging or announcing its intended merger with Livongo Health, which is another Rule Breaker. And that was a great day for Rule Breaker-ville as those companies came together. We weren't expecting that when I picked it for the sampler one year ago. But, Joey, tale of the tape on this one, up 276%. Yep, the stock from $59 to $222 as we record. So, that's a 276% gain. That's a little ahead of the market's 20%. And that on its own is going to be enough to propel this sampler to a one-year huge win.

Solitro: And this is where I'd like to do a little plug for Hidden Gems Canada, where I recommended Livongo just over $20 a share where we have had an absolute monster winner, over 500%, I think maybe even over 600%, 700%. Now, I'm not sure stock is sitting right now. So, I love it when Rule Breakers come together, because then you've got this $20 billion, $25 billion company growing 85% on the top line; it's going to change healthcare as we know it. And I just absolutely love this.

And Teladoc is the perfect example of this scorecard as to, you know, the Rule Breaker or even the Stock Advisor mentality, where if you've got five stocks, you really only need one to be that absolute home run 1,000%, 10,000% gainer, everything else can go to 0%. Now, Waste Management and the other ones in this sampler aren't going anywhere, so for those, even if they track the market and this is the one home run, that's how you produce those market-beating, outsized gains that we look for here at The Motley Fool.

Gardner: Well, thank you very much for that. I agree. In fact, I'll briefly mention two of the also-rans; we'll talk about them in a minute. But NextEra Energy (NEE 0.34%) and Roku (ROKU 1.91%) are both, kind of, around where the market is. So, Teladoc stands out hugely in this five-stock sampler. I'm also happy to say, though, it's not the only one that's doubled; we'll talk about that next. But before we go to The Trade Desk (TTD 0.85%) next, Joey, could you share a little bit about Livongo for listeners who might not know what that company is and why a Teladoc-Livongo combo would happen?

Solitro: So, Livongo; it's actually an incredible technology. They have something called Applied Health Signals, which connects to their glucose monitors that you would actually have in your possession. So, say, you're at home and you have diabetes, you have your glucose monitor, you test your blood sugar. It goes into it. And from there, this will basically monitor your health externally. So, if your blood sugar is too low, it knows, "Hey, let's send a nudge and tell this person, 'Here's what you could do.'" And it pretty much gives you these nudges as a way to improve your lifestyle.

And the other thing is, say, it gets a drastically low reading to where you could be in danger. It knows where you are and it can actually contact health officials or some emergency services to get to you. So, when you think of mixing that service along with the Teladoc service of actual video chatting, and Livongo has a mental health solution, you kind of get this well-rounded, basically a way to have healthcare at home without actually going to the doctor. So, I really love this mix of companies, plus those executive teams are absolute world-class. So, having those heads come together is really something special.

Gardner: And so, it has been. And what a year it has been for Teladoc. Now, Teladoc is not a one-year stock for us. Teladoc entered Motley Fool Rule Breakers years ago, and has been an even better performer over the longer term, and I trust will continue with you, Joey, to outperform from here. It'll be a new entity and we'll be watching together reviewing this five-stock sampler over the years. This is just the year one. And, boy! 276% gain, minus 20% from the market, that's a plus 256%; netting out the 26% from Waste Management, we're at a plus 230% alpha as we turn to The Trade Desk.

Now, The Trade Desk, a year ago this week, was at $240.19. A lot of you probably own The Trade Desk. This is one of the more widely held stocks in Rule Breaker-dom. Trade Desk has gone from $240 to $497, as we record right now; that's up 107%, so that's a plus 87% in the win column for this one. Joey, what's going on at The Trade Desk?

Solitro: So, The Trade Desk, they're actually in a very interesting position because whereas COVID caused a slowdown in advertising across all the big agencies, all the big brands, basically stopped spending in March and April as they were basically preparing for the headwinds that were coming, we didn't know how long COVID would last, we didn't know how long the shutdown will go on. We didn't know if there was going to be stimulus checks sent out to people. So, these brands, it didn't make sense for them, other than maybe Clorox, to put these advertisements out in front of people.

So, for The Trade Desk, this is one of those, you know, stealth beasts that emerged. Because, you know, how Trade Desk works is, everybody has got these ad spaces across multiple mediums. So, for them to basically have this consistent bidding system where people are placing ads, it's all happening in real-time. So, then you kind of see the world is shifting and it's becoming more digitized and everything shifting online. Then you see, "Oh, wait! this is not as big of a headwind for The Trade Desk, this could actually be an incredible tailwind for them, because as more people are scouring these websites, more ads have the opportunity to hit these eyeballs." So, where they might not get as much money for each ad placed, they're having a lot more eyeballs and have more opportunities to place those ads. So the stock has absolutely soared from their March lows.

And this is one of those that I had watched for a very long time and I did not own, so I actually used the massive sell-off in March to initiate my position. And, man, it has been a wild ride since.

Gardner: It really has. I mean, the stock was cresting at new highs in late February. And then as COVID, especially here in North America, began to make its ugly progress, we watched the stock, a lot of members going, "Guys, what's up with The Trade Desk?" It went from $300 down below $150 in one month. So, to see it back just short of $500 brings a tear of gratitude to this Foolish eye. Joey, this is plus 87%, that gives us plus 317%. The other two stocks, NextEra Energy and Roku, again, kind of also-rans. So, I'm going to tie up the numbers and then pass you the ball to talk briefly about those two.

But NextEra Energy is 4% up on the market; Roku is 13 percentage points behind the market, both of those stocks are actually up, but of course, they're competing against the market gain of 20% from a year ago. So, when you map it all out, we end up with a plus 307% divided by five, you have roughly plus 60 percentage points outperformance up-and-down this five-stock sampler. In fact, as I pass you the ball now for NextEra Energy and Roku, I'll just mention the official accounting. The average performance of these five stocks is 81.8% as we record this Tuesday afternoon, the market now at 19.7%, we're up 62.1% per stock for this five-stock sampler after one year.

Solitro: I'll take that for a one-year return. So, NextEra Energy: This might sound like an incredibly boring company. Oh, wow! It's utilities. But then you kind of peel back the skin and you see Florida Power & Light, which I have a personal connection to, because when I lived in Florida, I paid these guys my bills every single month, and I can tell you, energy is not cheap. And so, then you peel back the layers and you see, NextEra Energy, they're not producing this energy by burning, you know, coal and oil, all these dirty ways to produce electricity, they're actually using wind and solar. So, you see, this falls in that category of investing in the change you want to see in the world. You know, let your portfolio reflect your best vision of the future.

In the future, if we can power everything by just wind and solar, imagine how much cleaner everything would be. So, then you see the cash flow this company creates, and then I look at the storage side of things, where if they are harnessing the power of the sun at an increased scale and then they can store it more, we can become more efficient all around. So, where it might seem like a boring utility, you peel back the layers and it's actually a very, very exciting utility.

Gardner: Very well said; and from a former customer who seems as if -- people usually don't like their utilities much. Did you like these guys, FPL, did you like them?

Solitro: So, I will say, if I ever had an issue, they would come out fairly quick. The two that I dealt with down there were Duke Energy and Florida Power & Light. And luckily, the footprint of Florida Power & Light, at the part of maybe where I lived, was smaller, so they actually had the team where they would dispatch quicker and they also subbed out to, I think it was called Pike Electric. So, they had enough subs in the area. And best of all, they actually had where they parked their trucks, like, right around the corner from where we live. So, if there's ever an issue, they'd come right out. Because also, fortunately, we had a fire station right around the corner. And you know, if there's ever a power outage, the first places they're going to regain power to are the ones that are running on generators, and they need to have repowered quickly -- hospitals, fire stations, police stations and all that. So, not like I planned, oh, wait, where's the fire station, should I live here? But it was a nice plus.

Gardner: [laughs] All right. And I hate to give this one short trip, but we need to keep moving. So, just a minute on Roku. Are you also a customer of Roku?

Solitro: Roku changed our lives. So, in March, you know, we're all locked in. I've got an almost 5-year-old, almost 3-year-old, and now 8-month-old, and we needed some way to entertain them. So, Disney+ was our go-to, the problem is, we did not have the smart TV that could go to Disney+. So, I venture out and grab a Roku Stick. And wow! that's when it hit me, that Roku isn't this weird little box that just kind of connects things, you see this incredible content base that they've got, it connects in everything. I can hit one button on my Netflix, click the other one on my Disney+, it's just lightning-fast, it makes everything smarter; and that's when it hit me. And I had initiated a position before that, and I actually got COVID. And I remember I was in like a COVID-induced coma and I quadrupled my position in Roku because I was watching everything on there. I was like, "Oh, I see the value proposition. I see just how valuable this service is, I'm never letting go of this." And then, of course, by subscribing to Disney+ and these other services having billing go through that, that's when you see, they're even taking a piece of a Netflix subscription, a piece of this, a piece of that. And it just all hit me once I got it.

And when it initially IPOed, I thought, oh, it's just a weird hardware play, it's software in a TV, that's boring. But then you get it and that's when it hit me, like, wow, this is incredible what they've built.

Gardner: Well, you just packed a lot into that minute, Joey. I'll say at $169 a share, which is where it was a year ago, this stock, its COVID low mid-March, like so many other companies, $60. So, it had lost two-thirds of its value and now it's at $179. Again, we're talking about the stock, because it's an also-ran, it's actually an underperformer. The stock is up a little bit, market is up more; as I already mentioned. But you and I talking before the show, you're thinking, of these five stocks, Roku might have the highest upside.

Solitro: I believe Roku has the most upside over the next 10 years. So, my investment style is, I only buy stocks that I believe could 10X in 10 years, and I actually look for significantly more. So, when I think of Roku, what they're doing with streaming, how everything is going the way of streaming, how our lifestyles have likely changed because of this pandemic, and there will be increased consumption. That, paired with the cord-cutting revolution, the work-from-home lifestyle, it's just, I feel like if there's a stock with the biggest tailwind in this mix, I believe it is Roku.

Gardner: All right. Well, Joey, thank you for that perspective. We're going to take a quick pause before going to the next one, because I need to hear about your COVID experience, I did not know you had had it, I think a lot of us would love to hear a minute from you about what happened and what you learned from that. But again, to close 5 Stocks for a Tailwind Blow, remember this is a three-year game we're playing, but we're up 62%, 82% against 20%, for our first year. Pinch yourself, Fools, because this has been a most unusual year. And this five-stock sampler has greatly outperformed any expectations any of us should ever have for a given one year of a five-stock sampler.

Okay. Joey, we're about to move to 5 Stocks That are Mm Mmm Good. We'll get there in a minute, but give us a minute on what happened with you and COVID?

Solitro: Yes. So, this was late February and I was on paternity leave from The Motley Fool, so luckily, I wasn't in the office around this time. But I just felt like this fever was coming on, I felt really weak. I mentioned I do CrossFit and everything, so I like to say I'm in good shape, very healthy. So, when I was feeling weak that's usually a sign of something that's going to happen. You know, within a day or two, I could barely get out of bed without needing to take a nap within a couple of hours. That's just not me. I'm always just energy all day, every day.

And then I got a fever that spiked to 105. It's just one of those where I knew something was up, and this was just next-level bad. So, it was just, you know, freezing cold showers, liquids, staying away from my family. I'd be upstairs or in the basement in the corner just away from them all day, just having my laptop to try to keep myself somewhat occupied when I was awake. And you know, it was this nagging cough that lasted maybe three or four weeks. So, it was really rough, and then of course, I was transitioning to a different role at The Motley Fool at the time. So, I'd be like in video chats just coughing nonstop and just apologizing. So, yeah, it was fever, weakness, cough; it was rough. And then to see it pan out, it's like, everybody is getting it, I was like, "Oh, wow! Now I see why this was bad." And now I see why it's so bad for someone that has preexisting conditions or the older population, because where I am in very good shape, my body could handle it; if you are in a deteriorated state or you have some sort of condition, I could see why something like that would be so deadly.

Gardner: Wow! You're like one of the only friends that I have, that I know, who's had COVID. So, thank you very much for sharing that. I know a lot of people have lost people through COVID. For whatever blessed reason, I'm happy to say, all Gardners have been healthy all the way through; I hope that's true of many people listening to me right now. But, boy! it's out there, it's real, and, Joey, you made it real for all of us by sharing your experience. Thank you for that.

So, is it fair to say now you're feeling better, is it fair to say, Joey, you're feeling mm mmm good? [laughs]

Solitro: Oh, I'm back at 100%, and I feel like it was like a reset for everything. You know, it was not eating for a while, [laughs] not going to the gym, it's like every internal injury was healed, everything was flushed out, I lost, like, 12 pounds that I didn't have to lose in the first place. So, it's like completely rebuilding and I just feel incredible today. And I would say I'm feeling mm mmm good.

Gardner: Well, good. And, in fact, when you said you're back to 100%, well, 100% is an interesting number to think about as we review five mm mmm good stocks from two years ago. Now, each of these starts with the letter "M," we're having with the mm mmm name of this sampler. But, yes, the theme behind this one was silly. We go sometimes sublime; other times we go silly. I went silly with them. I just said, I can beat the market, give me a letter. Letter is "M," OK, great, let's pick five stocks and see how they do three years later? Well, here we are two years later. And let's start again with our worst performer. Now, of these five stocks, I'm happy to say four are market beaters, but one of them really isn't. The ticker is MOMO, the company's name is Momo (MOMO 2.90%), some people invest in a different way for Momo, this has been a bad form of Momo.

Solitro: So, Momo is the leading provider of online dating services or app-based dating services in China, where one of the big winners on this scorecard being Match Group, it's almost like you could see the geographic differential in treatment of these companies. Where you would think with a significantly larger population, you know, basically the same type of technology trends among the two countries. A large millennial population that the online dating community might be significantly larger or growing faster in China.

Gardner: Yeah, I would think that, I was thinking that two years ago.

Solitro: So, it's actually incredible to see just how quickly their growth rate basically came to a halt. And I think it could be because that was kind of ground zero for COVID and it's like no one wanted to be near anybody, whereas in the United States, a lot of my friends were increasing activity on Match's dating apps because they were at home and feeling lonely, and they were just looking for different connections. So, the differential is actually incredible to see. And the growth rate, I think, is definitely what came into play with Momo.

But I'm also looking at it based on valuation now, where it seems very attractive. Now the one thing about Momo that I would love to see is them acquire a fresh IPO over there called BlueCity, which owns Blued, the leading gay app for dating and location-based dating in China. They also recently acquired LESDO, which is the second-largest lesbian dating app in China. So, I feel like if they basically pulled in this incredibly fast growing niche product within the dating category, it would give them a more well-rounded feel for the entire population of China. It almost seemed like, you know, an app much like Match, where they've got different products geared toward every different population.

Gardner: I was going to say that, exactly. And Match Group has been a winner, we'll talk about the numbers in a sec, but in part because it has different strokes for different folks, it's got the whole model. It owns many sites. Of course, most people know Tinder, and we've said in the past, maybe they should rename the company to Tinder, it's such a big thing for Match. But that's a really interesting point.

And, yeah, just to put some numbers on this, Joey. Now, Momo two years ago this week, just about $45, $45.23; today, right around $20.50. So, the stock is down 55%. The market, by the way -- the bogey for this particular five-stock sampler -- the market is up 21.7% from two years ago. We'll round that 22%, so not that much bigger than one year ago. But, yeah, with Momo down 55% and the market up 22%; that's a minus 77% hole.

And as you're pointing out, Match Group and Momo, very similar businesses, both big countries. Why has Match Group more than doubled?

Solitro: Yeah. And I feel like maybe it's because the growth rate has been so much more impressive in the United States. And I always defer to my group of friends that actually use certain apps. Now, I always let the numbers speak for themselves, but I always like to know, you know, what's the hot app? Like, is there a new one that's taking over Tinder? No one is coming on their territory. Match Group is absolutely dominating, they continue to do so.

It was a couple of years back; I had a friend that got married and he met his spouse on Match. So I see the power of the platform, I see what it's done for people. And when you think this is something like a $30 billion company today, it still has an incredible potential over the next 10, 20 years as everything becomes increasingly digitized, and we're working from home, doing everything from home, not going out to bars and restaurants as much as we were. I feel like this is going to become much like, you know, Zoom and Slack have taken over how we communicate and work, this could be how everybody kind of communicates with their, you know, soon-to-be-spouse.

Gardner: Well, let's hope so. And two years ago, Match Group was at $50.50, today it's at $114; it's up 126%, again, the market plus 22%. So, we're going to give ourselves 104% points in the win column, which nets out the -77% from Momo and leaves us with profits to play with as we talk about the other three companies. Now, we're not going to cover all of these in depth, but let's go with the two middling performers next.

Masimo Corp., which is up 88% against the market's 22%, and then, McCormick & Co., the spice company, up 61%; that's up 39% over the market. Take your pick, the pulse oximeter or the spice company, which one would you like to talk about?

Solitro: Let's go with the more boring one in Masimo right now. So, Masimo, you'll know these guys by, if you've ever been to the doctor hospital, they clamp something on your finger, it's called a pulse oximeter. Basically, it's tracking the oxygen in your blood. So, where it's not the most exciting product, it's been around for a very long time. If you look at the full product category, they actually have a pretty impressive portfolio. They've got one that does sleep analysis. They've got another one that actually helps curb the side effects of opioid withdrawal, and you think that is something that is becoming increasingly relevant in today's day and age. And then you've got something that's called SafetyNet, which is actually improving or monitoring patients dealing with COVID.

So, you think of the main things that you can actually see from COVID, and they're saying, you know, oxygen saturation levels are very important with that, respiratory rate, and your temperature. So, this one device actually tracks all three, and it has external monitoring, much like Livongo for diabetes -- that's kind of what SafetyNet has become for COVID. So, you can see why they have done so well even in this COVID environment. Because normally with medical device companies that are selling to hospitals, hospitals aren't doing elective surgeries, that's their nut. So for that to go away, these hospitals can't be doing all that well. But you see that their catalog or portfolio actually is very well-positioned for this COVID environment.

Gardner: So well put. And I have to admit, that one had escaped my notice. I don't spend equal time looking at all of my stocks; I couldn't possibly. And so, I'm delighted to know that Masimo has made that enhancement to its business. And, wow! What foresight, given the world that we're living in today. Well, these two winners put another, I'm going to call it 105 points on our scorecard here. So, we're up to a plus 132; that's after looking at these four companies. And that's 132 points of alpha or outperformance among the four when you average them in.

Best for last, Mercado Libre (MELI -1.98%) was part of this mm mmm good stock sampler. Two years ago, this week, Mercado Libre was at $328 even. As we record this Tuesday afternoon, it's at $1,209. It has more than tripled in the two years since I brought it to the podcast two years ago this week. I think a lot of us know Mercado Libre, it's a stock we've talked a lot about. A lot of people listening to me right now own some. I think part of what we love about this company, Joey, is that it's really running all gears right now. It's got the e-commerce outfit; it's got Mercado Pago, the payments; it's got logistics in place. And it's just expanding with a middle class in an important area of the world, Latin America, that is itself expanding. What do you see or like most when you look at Mercado Libre?

Solitro: With Mercado Libre, yes, it has been a massive winner for us over the last decade plus here at The Motley Fool. The thing is, it's still a very small company compared to what it could be long term, and we're kind of seeing the accelerated adoption of not only e-commerce but digital payment solutions worldwide as people have been essentially locked in their homes and told, you know, don't go out. What do you do? You increase your usage of your smartphone or computer to order all essentials. So, with Mercado Libre being that, you know, Amazon, eBay, PayPal, everything combined, the all-in-one platform, that's basically the Latin American solution, go to Mercado Libre for everything and anything that you need, and only go out if absolutely essential. So, Mercado Libre, much like Amazon in the United States, we've all increased usage, it's become almost like that essential service for us; that is Mercado Libre is Latin America.

Gardner: Really well put. And you're right, it is a long-term unfolding story of growth. First brought to Rule Breakers Feb. 18, 2009. Stock price was $14.13 that day. So, to see it at $1,209 does my heart good. [laughs] And we all need good stories here in 2020. Well, Joey, you've done a great job telling some good stories about these companies. And let me wrap up this particular story, because when you add another 247 points of outperformance [laughs] that Mercado Libre brings to the sampler, very happy to say, the five mm mmm good stocks have been all that and more. Two years later, up 97.6% as a group. As I mentioned earlier, the market is up 21.7%, so we're up 75.9% per stock above the market.

Earlier when you said you were back to 100%. Well, this one is almost there at 97.6%.

Solitro: Yeah. And you know, with everything that's going on for these companies, I believe this scorecard, when we look back out in a couple of years, it will be significantly north of 100%.

Gardner: Wow! That's really promising and I'm going to enjoy watching these companies along with you, Joey, and all of our Rule Breaker listeners, because that's a lot of the fun of Rule Breaker Investing, as I say goodbye to Joey Solitro. Joey, thank you so much again.

Solitro: Thanks for having me.

Gardner: Great job. That's the fun of Rule Breaker Investing, the companies themselves and what they do, the products and services, the innovations that they bring to the life that you and I are living, to the everyday world. You think about Joey there with his young family, my gosh, poor guy is sick with COVID, and there's the Roku stick. And Roku has even underperformed for us well over this year; it's been pretty good stock the last few years. But just think about that one company, and then all of the companies that Joey just helped us learn more about and cover. And I think that's why it's so important to me to get as many people invested as possible worldwide, because once you get some skin in the game and when it gets addictive, it's a lot of fun. You want to save more money, so you can add more to your investments. And you want to grow those investments so you can make your family life as awesome or as amazing as it can be, and help your community and the world at large. So, this is a message, I hope, every one of you knows and hears each week on this podcast. But I do feel sometimes, especially in 2020, that we need to double underline that.

So, thanks again to Joey Solitro for a wonderful job reviewing these 10 companies and these two big-time winning five-stock samplers. Again, neither one finished, they're all three-year games, but I like our odds going forward.

All right. Well, let's start warming it up here for five-stock sampler number 26: 5 Stocks Indistinguishable From Magic.

So, a word or two before we start. I initially came across this phrase "indistinguishable from magic" from an enjoyable news site that I've used, in the newsletter over the years, one of those that goes against the grain of traditional media, which, if it bleeds, it leads, that's the way so much of our news reads these days. But the guys over at Future Crunch, which is a site on the internet. I think they're moving from a free newsletter, which I've enjoyed for the last few years, to a paid service. But regardless, they have been, for years now, looking at the positives that are happening in the world and making that the focus of their news reporting. So, I've enjoyed Future Crunch, and one of the sections they always report in is called Indistinguishable From Magic. And it looks at technologies that are so amazing that they are indistinguishable from magic.

So, I was going to give you that as the source of the phrase, but I know some of you are already ahead of me on that one, and so is my Producer, Rick Engdahl, when I mentioned the name of this sampler. He's like, oh, you mean the Arthur C. Clarke line, the British science fiction writer and futurist, Arthur C. Clarke. And I didn't realize, to my embarrassment, I admit, that the phrase came from him. But I want to honor Arthur C. Clarke with his three laws, three adages that are known as Clarke's three laws. You'll hear the phrase "indistinguishable from magic" in law No. 3; it's the best known of them.

But here they are, these so-called laws are: No. 1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. That's law No. 1. Law No. 2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. And finally, the celebrated law No. 3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

And that phrase had stuck in my mind in recent months as I thought what should my next sampler be? This is the 26th. We have such an outstanding record with the first 25; virtually all of them beating the market, most of them absolutely crushing it. It is incredibly lucky for me to have racked up that record, because when you're just picking five stocks, a couple of them go wrong and it can sink a whole sampler. So, for us to be reporting on the numbers that Joey shared with you earlier and to know that up-and-down the first 25, that's largely how it looks, is maybe the greatest achievement [laughs] of my investing career. I say that because I'm hitting a batting average far in excess of what I normally can manage. So, we'll see if I can keep it going here [laughs] or not with 5 Stocks Indistinguishable From Magic.

But I was thinking about companies that are doing something so bleeding edge that even to us in 2020, it sounds like magic. This also has me getting away from some of the really popular areas of investing, things like SaaS stocks, cloud stocks. Stocks that we love and have done wonderfully with in Motley Fool Rule Breakers, and I know many of you are enjoying Tim Beyers' service on cloud stocks. We love those and celebrate those, but sometimes there's too much attention paid to some areas of the economy and the more bleeding edge, earlier-stage companies don't get that much attention.

So, I looked up-and-down my Supernova universe, that is simply the sum total of all of my active recommendations drawn in full from Rule Breakers and my half of Motley Fool Stock Advisor; of course, my brother Tom has the other half of Stock Advisor, where we pick stocks as brothers one each, every month. So, I have half of Stock Advisor and all of Rule Breakers, that's always what I'm selecting from as we beat the market together with Rule Breaker Investing in these five-stock samplers. So, I looked up and down that list, I came up with many examples of companies that have technologies that are indistinguishable from magic. So, this is a small sampling, which is what my samplers are and why I call them five-stock samplers. There's always a lot more behind a few picks like this in Rule Breaker or Stock Advisor that are there for members, and we have so many of them, of course, listening to me today. And if you're not a member, I hope you'll join either Stock Advisor and/or Rule Breakers. I think they are truly services that, used properly, over meaningful amounts of time will literally pay for themselves and leave you a lot of money afterward. I don't want to over promise here, but looking at history, it's very clear that these services [laughs] more than pay for themselves, which is in contrast to most of the other subscription relationships I have in my life.

Anyway, without further ado, 5 Stocks Indistinguishable From Magic.

Stock No. 1. The ticker symbol is ASML. The name of the company is ASML Corp. (ASML -2.05%). It is a Dutch company and it is a big player in the world of semiconductor chips. Yup, all of those chips, those billions, maybe one day trillions of chips that are in our world today were all manufactured, of course, from a handful of semiconductor firms, and one of them -- and one of the biggest -- is ASML. The market cap for this company is $158 billion. It's a recent pick of mine in Motley Fool Stock Advisor, where it is slightly underperforming the market out of the gate.

So, what do I like about this company? Well, first of all, photolithography is how chips are made. It's the process by which microscopic circuits are etched onto wafers that ultimately become individual chips. Literally every one of the billions of chips in the world today were made by this process, no matter who was the manufacturer, they needed a lithography system. But what is the magic beyond what we're already talking about, which is magical, [laughs] if you're trying to explain to our Viking friend? Well, the answer is, that this company now operates at such a miniature scale, it's called extreme ultraviolet lithography, or EUV, and ASML is the only company in the world capable of doing that. We're talking about 7-nanometer chips. These are chips that, for example, are in your iPhone today.

Guess how many nanometers are in an inch? The answer is 25.4 million nanometers in an inch. We're talking about a 7nm chip these days. And ASML, the worldwide leader, is ahead of everybody else, able to crank out chips at that miniature scale. Does that sound like magic to you? It sure sounds like magic to me. Now, will this stock double or triple in the next year or three, like some of the others we heard about earlier? I doubt it. This is a bigger, stronger, steadier performer. I would say a big-shouldered company, one that I do trust will beat the market over the next three years. But the scale, of course, where it operates, it's unlikely to double anytime soon. And yet I do believe it will continue to be a market-beater, which sure enough it has for years.

So, that's indistinguishable from magic stock No. 1. And in fact, I'm going to mention the magic for each of these five companies.

Stock No. 2. Well, let's stay within the realm of chips and let's go to one of my favorite long-term holdings. I first brought it to Stock Advisor members on April 15, Tax Day 2005, here we are more than 15 years later. And fortunately, Nvidia (NVDA 0.76%) has risen quite a lot from our $6.55 cost basis. In fact, as we shut down this taping and the market closes today, I see it was up $17, that's almost 3X our cost basis, a near spiffy-three-pop, and just an OK day for Nvidia, up 3% today. The stock has gone from $6.5 to over $550. And yet here I am, 15 years later saying, I like it going forward.

Now, graphics processing units, GPUs, is the big technology that Jensen Huang, the longtime founder, the billionaire, the genius behind Nvidia... Such an important technology for them. In more recent years, as the world shifted to mobile, System-on-a-Chip, SoCs, another important Nvidia contribution, and building so much of its business. So, whether we're talking about video game machines -- and really, GPUs are used [laughs] for a lot more than just playing Fortnite these days -- right through to the mobile chips, Nvidia has become a worldwide leader. Its market cap is $330 billion.

Where's the magic? Well, there's a lot of magic up-and-down this business if you look hard enough, but for me, I think about its deep learning. So, Nvidia GPUs are used in deep learning, artificial intelligence. The company developed GPU-based deep learning in order to use AI to approach problems like cancer detection, weather prediction, self-driving vehicles. Tesla, anyone? Well, Nvidia chips used to be in Tesla. In fact, these days Tesla is designing its own GPUs competing against Nvidia, but there's a great big world out there that is buying from Nvidia. And I especially like the deep learning aspects. Which seem to me, even as a mature, adult in the year 2020, as magical.

Also magical, of course, has been Nvidia's stock for Motley Fool Stock Advisor members. What a wonderful long-term outperformer. So, here I am once again after a big run saying I like this company very much over the next three-plus years.

All right. Indistinguishable from magic stock No. 3. The ticker symbol is PEGA, the company is Pegasystems (PEGA -0.92%). This is a $10 billion company today. First entered Motley Fool Stock Advisor on Oct. 21, 2011, so just about nine years later. It's been a great nine years for Pegasystems' shareholders, for patient Fools who bought and have held the stock all the way through. We first picked it at $17.20; nine years later, it's at $132. This has been a big winner. And yet, only a $10 billion company today.

So, a little bit about why I like Pegasystems and then the magic. First let me mention, I like the CEO of Pegasystems. His name is Alan Trefler. Alan, at the age of 19, a Dartmouth University student, tied in the open chess world championships. So, Alan is a genius. The son of a Holocaust survivor; this is a great story of an immigrant family that came and added so much value to the United States of America. Alan Trefler then went on to found Pegasystems at the age of 27. Now, 37 years later, the company is a $10 billion company. Alan owns a lot of stock. He's a quiet multibillionaire.

So, a little bit about the background. And as I mentioned earlier, Fool School is coming to Motley Fool Live next week. Well, there's something else coming to Motley Fool Live next week, members can check it out. And that is, Alan Trefler, going to get to spend some time with him in an interview with the CEO of Pegasystems next week. Very happy to pick this stock as indistinguishable from magic, though, this week or any other.

So, what is the magic for Pegasystems? Well, the phrase where they've been identified by Forrester, the tech research firm, as a leader, receiving the highest scores is, "Real-Time Interaction Management." Now, you can read a lot more on Pegasystems' website, but basically they're using AI in real-time to improve business outcomes. They have a pretty good evocative story on their website, I'll share it with you briefly.

Basically, without Pegasystems, we get to meet Marco. Marco is a new condo owner who's been heavily using his bank credit card to outfit his dream home. What does he get without Pegasystems? Well, he gets irrelevant offers; email, web, texts. Marco's bank is everywhere, they're selling him stuff he doesn't need. He gets annoyed, he tunes them out, he stops paying attention. If only he could ignore those high credit card fees though. And so, in this story, without PEGA, it ends with an end of a relationship. A competitor lures Marco away with an offer for a low-rate card at just the right moment.

Now, let's imagine Marco with Pegasystems' Real-Time Interaction Management. Again, meet Marco, he's a new condo owner, who's been heavily using his bank credit card to outfit his dream home. Predicting the future, well, Marco is thinking about switching to a card with lower fees. His bank senses the issue before he can act on it. He then gets the right offer at the right time. The bank emails Marco the perfect bundled offer, a home equity loan plus a lower interest card with reward points at a home goods store. The outcome? Well, of course, this is Pegasystems' marketing, so it's going to be [laughs] a good one, right? Happy customer. Marco gratefully accepts. The bank makes a valued relationship even more valuable, win-win.

Real-Time Interaction Management, that sounds like magic to me. And while I don't have direct consumer experience of it myself... I can't even say I haven't. I'm not even sure. It's still this early date in the history of artificial intelligence where I might already have had a win-win in my life based on Pegasystems' Real-Time Interaction Management.

So, there you have it, stock No. 3, and a little plug for Alan Trefler joining us on Motley Fool Live next week.

All right. Indistinguishable from magic stock No. 4. The ticker symbol is RGEN, the company is Repligen (RGEN -2.44%). Now, here we get into an area where I am not the most knowledgeable, I think most of you, if you've listened to me for any meaningful amount of time, you know that I'm a humanities person. I celebrate that, I like that about myself. And yet, I deeply admire science, it was a delight to discover that Arthur Clarke is behind this week's podcast sampler name. I'm honored to think that we could include Mr. Clarke in this conversation. And once we start talking about biologics and we get into monoclonal antibodies, I either start scrambling for an analyst like my friend Karl Thiel who provides a lot of great insight and explanations for me and you, because he's been on this podcast for Motley Fool Rule Breakers, or I start doing my due diligence.

Part of being a humanities person is having the confidence as a liberal arts major that you can learn anything, you just start reading. There's an incredible amount of free education out there on the internet and I always want my kids to know that and your kids to know that too. So much to learn, we can never learn it all. But I'm going to provide you a little bit of what I understand about Repligen, and why I was excited to add it to the Rule Breakers scorecard in July of 2019. I'm even more excited to report that this $8 billion company today has gone from $90 back then to $155 today. So, we're talking about a very significant winner and yet still just an early-stage $8 billion market cap company.

So, the big picture here is this is a picks-and-shovels company. So, as other companies in the world of biotechnology discover and hope to get approval, and market, and sell drugs, Repligen is enabling them through its technology to figure out what works. So, let's do a short course right now about the magic here. It's hard to overstate the difference between a traditional small-molecule pill -- think of aspirin, for example -- and a complex biologic which is made using living cells. So, if you want to make some aspirin, you can probably whip it up in your local high school science lab, but you want to make a monoclonal antibody...?

And by the way, a brief course on monoclonal antibodies. These are antibodies that are made by identical immune cells which are all clones belonging to a unique parent cell. So, given almost any substance, it's possible to produce monoclonal antibodies that specifically bind to that substance, they can then serve to detect or purify that substance. And a lot of the work, especially in cancer these days, is about using antibodies and our body's own immune system to fight its own cancer back. It's a brilliant approach to solving cancer in a lot of cases. Anyway, that's a short course in monoclonal antibodies. I do want you to know, though -- you know all those crazy biotech drug names? A lot of them will end in the letters M-A-B. It'll be like, "glituvamab has just gotten FDA clearance," -- and I'm making up that word. But the MAB is for monoclonal antibodies. So, it's baked into the names of a lot of the biologics that are in the industry today.

Anyway, this monoclonal antibody, it has to be grown up in a bioreactor that's filled with specialized cell lines that are painstakingly nourished and kept active. And this is called upstream manufacturing. And then it has to be separated and purified, and that's called downstream manufacturing. Any contamination can not only spoil a production run, but also threaten future one. So, the biologic manufacturing process requires exquisitely fine filtration, purification and analytics, as well as strict quality control, and that is where Repligen and its equipment shines.

This is also a company that's grown a fair amount through acquisition, continuing to add additional arrows to its quiver. So, you can imagine we've already covered the magic, it's the rise of biologics and equipment that enables this major revolution in drug development. Again, this is a picks-and-shovels company; just like the California Gold Rush, which has become the stereotypical example here, these guys aren't trying to find gold themselves, they're not trying to get their drug approved. They are selling picks and shovels to those who are prospecting and trying to discover the next billion-dollar drug.

The ticker symbol again, RGEN. Stock No. 4, Repligen.

All right. And the stock No. 5, proceeding alphabetically, as we always do, through company names, takes us to SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG -3.93%). The ticker symbol is SEDG. SolarEdge is a $10.5 billion company today. This one first hit Motley Fool Stock Advisor in September of last year. That's right, one year ago it was at $89.5, today it's at $223. Now, you might be saying, Dave, how can you actually share that with us now when it's already more than doubled? Well, I say back, hey, I hope you're subscribing to Motley Fool Stock Advisor, because your cost basis would be $89 if you read it and believed it and bought it when we shared it with you a year ago through Motley Fool Stock Advisor. And yet, I'm saying out the other side of my mouth, here I am saying, I like this stock today, going forward, which is how every single one of our five-stock sampler [laughs] has worked. The past doesn't matter, all that matters is scoring going forward.

By the way, before I reveal the magic, I just want to say, this company had a tragic loss when its founder and CEO, Guy Sella -- this is an Israeli company -- unfortunately died following a battle with cancer, and it was subsequent to my recommendation. In other words, it's not something I knew about at the time, I'm not sure how much the world knew about it. But we, within months, lost the founder, the celebrated founder, of our new stock pick. And yet, I'm really happy to see that this company has clearly flourished even after that tragic loss. Obviously, good technology, which we're about to talk about, can overcome all kinds of other losses.

So, what's the magic for SolarEdge? Well, to me, the big picture magic here is just solar energy. Joey spoke to it earlier on this podcast very well. Imagine a world in the future where most, if not all, eventually, of your energy will come from the sun, and to a lesser extent, the wind. But the sun seems to me, and has for years now, been, the obvious, think-backwards-from-the-future answer as to how we're going to power the Earth. How powerful is the sun? It's the most powerful thing in our solar system. And so, harnessing its rays to power Earth is increasingly the story of our time.

Now, SolarEdge participates in the value creation of the solar industry by providing inverters, microinverters. Basically, taking the sun's light on solar panels and the inverter converts it from that direct current, which is what sunlight is, into alternating current, which is what a house can use. So, microinverters are a ubiquitous and very necessary bit of technology, high technology, produced by only a few firms in the world. And this is one of the world leaders, SolarEdge Technologies.

Boy, you talk about your tailwind blow, and you think about the future and the growth of solar from here, I think it's going to be extreme. In the same way I felt about electric cars 10 years ago, I thought one day, electric might be what all vehicles are using. We're not there yet, but boy, does it increasingly look like that's mostly if not ever totally true. Well, I feel the same about solar power and the sun, and so I believe SolarEdge will continue to be a beneficiary with that tailwind.

And to think of just electricity itself, which would have sounded like magic only a few centuries ago, to think it all comes from the sun now and just hits your roof and powers, arguably, everything; that's the kind of magic I love to celebrate.

All right. Well, there you have it. A longer podcast, I guess, anytime I try to stuff in two review-a-paloozas, with such a talented guest star, Joey Solitro joining me this week, and a brand new five-stock sampler. But per all the others, I will add these to my spreadsheet where I keep all of these five-stock samplers. I will take Wednesday's market closing price and we'll see how these do in the next one, two and three years going forward. We will report back as we always do.

Well I hope you enjoyed that start to September as much as I did, this was a pleasure to bring you this week. Just a reminder, we have Fool School starting next week every day 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. for the following two weeks. And Alan Trefler also joins us; I believe it's going to be on Tuesday, Sept. 8, the same day. So, a big day for Motley Fool members.

In the meantime, stay Foolish out there, Fool on!