Spiffy-Pop

Spiffy-pop is a term coined by Motley Fool Rule Breakers that refers to a situation whereby a stock's price increases more in a single day than the original cost basis.

When a stock in your portfolio becomes a daybagger -- gaining more in one day than you originally paid for it -- it has spiffy-popped.

In 2007, David Gardner asked the Rule Breakers community to help him invent a word to capture this phenomenon. Member Carol Binion came up with spiffy-pop as the winning verb that David selected. As he explained at the time, she "seemingly shares my bent toward the whimsical... seemingly understands what I will simply call the 'fizz' of language -- I've somehow been haunted by it."

A mere two days after announcing the winning words, Rule Breakers had its first stock spiffy-pop: Digital advertiser and marketer aQuantive received a buyout offer from Microsoft and gained more than $38 that day. From its recommendation price of $25, that made aQuantive the service's first daybagger.

"Spiffy is for closers!"
An impassioned discussion similar in force and breadth to Major League Baseball fan arguments for and against the designated hitter, a debate rages back and forth over exactly what constitutes a spiffy. Is it, as some believe, anytime during the day that a stock rises more than your cost? Or, does the stock have to close above your cost? On April 29th, 2010 at 12:48am EDT, David Gardner attempted to close the debate with the simple statement, "Spiffy is for closers." In other words, the term's champion strongly sides with those who believe a true spiffy-pop closes above your cost, does not merely flit briefly above it early in the day and get daybagger credit. The only exception that David allows on this point are those who decide -- for better or worse -- to sell their daybagger intraday, locking out the position at a spiffy price.

Otherwise, spiffy is for closers.

David Gardner Explains (Circa 2010)

Fool Lore
The most frequent Motley Fool premium services spiffy-popper -- long ago now a "forget-me-pop" (see below) -- is Priceline. Stock Advisor's May 21, 2004 selection has a cost basis of $23.71. With the stock more than a 50-bagger, Priceline's spiffy-pops long ago stopped counting. Another early classic spiffy-pop stock has been Motley Fool Rule Breaker Intuitive Surgical. For three straight years (2007-2009), Intuitive Surgical spiffy-popped the week of July 20th! The 2007 daybagger was July 20th, while in both 2008 and 2009 Intuitive Surgical spiffy-popped on July 23rd. Perhaps July 23rd should be relabeled Spiffy-Pop Day.

The Motley Fool premium services' original spiffy 3-pop (see below) occurred with the acquisition of Marvel by Disney, announced on August 31, 2009. The Stock Advisor scorecard went nuts, and one of David Gardner's best stock picks got gobbled up. (The investment with its outstanding returns continues, though, as Disney.) The most recent Motley Fool spiffy-pop -- the 12th of 2015 -- was achieved by Motley Fool Rule Breakers with Tim Beyers's pick of Salesforce.com, the second time Salesforce became a daybagger for The Motley Fool. This came soon after a very notable spiffy-pop for Amazon.com. That stock was first recommended by David Gardner for Stock Advisor at $15.98 on September 6, 2002. What made this spiffy even sweeter is that David's original cost basis on Amazon was actually much lower -- $3.21 from this original buy report in September 1997. Thus, Amazon's gain of $55.11 on April 24, 2015 was not only a spiffy 3-pop for Stock Advisor members, but the first-ever spiffy deca-pop (see below) for those who've been with David and Amazon from the beginning. Every Motley Fool spiffy multi-pop is to be cherished of course. Only those Fools who have truly drank from this cup can appreciate the alluring and -- to most of the world -- mysterious flavor. The Motley Fool continues to work its hardest to "share the taste of spiffy" with as many people as possible in pursuit of our mission to help the world invest better.

History of Motley Fool Premium-Service Spiffy-Pops
This is an incomplete listing of spiffy-pops achieved by Motley Fool premium services for members who've bought and held winners with us.

the ^ indicates first -- "you never forget your first"
the * indicates a spiffy multi-pop (see below)
the ** indicates a very rare supernova multi-pop
the $ indicates the fabled forget-me-pop (the 13th and final day-bagger we recognize -- see below)

All-Time Fool Daybagger Stats
With Priceline having become our first-ever forget-me-pop (see below), and having since daybagged several more times, it is believed that Priceline enjoys the status of spiffiest Fool pick ever. That said, in June 2013 Netflix also forget-me-popped, so Priceline has competition. Amazon and Baidu may not be far behind. The record number of daybaggers in a single month for Motley Fool premium services is six in August 2011 and then again in October 2014. The group in 2011 included a memorable Netflix supernova for Stock Advisor members, while the group in 2014 included Baidu doing it two times in three days (and four times in two months). The still amazing record number of daybaggers in a single day for Motley Fool premium services is August 23, 2011. On that remarkable day, FIVE different Fool stocks spiffy-popped. Records of stock movements from our original Fool Portfolio -- which included AOL (at one point AOL was a 100-bagger) and Amazon.com and others -- are not included, though it is presently suspected that David Gardner's original cost basis of $3.17 in Amazon.com would be the Motley Fool selection that -- for more than a decade -- has probably spiffy-popped the most, long ago a "forget-me-pop." However, as Amazon was repicked for Motley Fool Stock Advisor, its stats appear in the table above. 

Spiffy Multi-Pops
But what happens when a stock of yours rises two or more times what you paid for it in a single day? This perplexing situation greeted long-time Motley Fool Stock Advisor members on August 4, 2010 -- coincidentally the 16th birthday of The Motley Fool online -- when priceline.com closed up $50.63 a share, more than double David Gardner's 2004 cost on the stock of $23.71.

The answer is that we say that your stock has "spiffy 2-popped" or "spiffy 3-popped," etc.

This is much simpler to say than "triple daybagger" or "quadruple spiffy-pop," and the elegant use of the numeral also quickly conveys the power of the jump.

The same goes for "supernova 2-pop," which happened for the first time in early 2011 when Netflix went seriously spiffy.

Good luck with all your Spiffy Multi-Pops!

The Fabled "Forget-Me-Pop"
Upon achieving your 13th spiffy-pop for a given stock, you have just scored what David Gardner calls your first "forget-me-pop." This is so called because, after a certain frequency of occurrence of a given daybagger, it's just not all that interesting or worth noting anymore. From here on out, you as an investor (and those of us running Motley Fool premium services) should concern yourself with finding new spiffy-pops. Of course, nothing stops you from tracking all your spiffies, even post their official forget-me-pop. 

The first-ever Forget-Me-Pop for modern-day Motley Fool premium services became Priceline. On November 8, 2011, Priceline rose $43.85, well above its original cost basis of $23.71. This was its 13th spiffy-pop -- its forget-me-pop. As Priceline had been originally picked on May 21, 2004, that set a new record then for the fastest-ever forget-me-pop: 7 years, 5 months, 18 days.

The second Motley Fool premium services forget-me-pop belonged to Netflix. On June 17, 2013, Netflix rose $15.24 (+7.1% for the day). That was the company's 13th since its December 17, 2004 pick date. As it took about 8.5 years to happen, Netflix couldn't outdo Priceline in speed, either. We're not complaining.

The third was Amazon. On July 24, 2015, Amazon rose $47.24 (+9.8% for the day). That was the company's 13th since its September 6, 2002 pick date. Given that Amazon's cost basis for Stock Advisor was $15.31, that final pop was a spiffy three-pop and a grand way for Amazon to exit spiffy-pop tracking. That forget-me-pop took nearly 13 years, over which time Amazon rose 34 times in value.

The fourth was Walt Disney. On September 3, 2015, Disney rose $2.38 (+2.4% for the day). That was the company's 13th since its June 7, 2002 pick date as Marvel -- which Disney subsequently bought out. That gave us a DIS cost of $1.39 for Stock Advisor, so that final pop tacked on an extra 99 cents just for the fun of it. This forget-me-pop took 13 years, during which time Disney stock -- starting as Marvel (recommended several times, and then David also had some Pixar positions purchased by DIS as well) -- has so far risen 52 times in value. Disney also has the most active recommendations in Stock Advisor -- six open multi-bagger positions -- despite David never actually having recommended Disney, per se!

Other Spiffies?
Spiffies can come in many flavors and the Fool Community continues to play with the language and possibilities here. For instance, on a dour note, when a stock loses more value in a single day than you originally paid for it, that's a spiffy-drop. While that's never fun, it generally only happens to stocks for which you are already showing outsized gains; so chin up, Fool. Back to the positives! Motley Fool Chief Investment Officer Andy Cross extended the term further with divvy-pop -- when you are paid more in dividends today after an increase than your original purchase price. And on March 31, 2010, Motley Fool member oikukio achieved an impressive and related, though different, condition: "Hello, Stock Advisor team, I'm proud to report today that the total *interest* earned on my Stock Advisor portfolio has just surpassed my original starting balance! It's not a spiffy-pop, because it took 3.3 years to get here... but it's still pretty cool. Is there a term for it? The 'Day of Surpassion?'" Why not? Very cool. Note these landmarks when you achieve them! And if there isn't already a word for what you just did, invent one. That's spiffy. 

But Wait, What If It Didn't Feel Spiffy?
It's noteworthy that one can achieve some "cheap spiffies" from time to time -- when, say, a stock has a big spiffy-drop and then spiffy-pops just about back where it was before the drop.

For example, the August 2011 spiffy-pop for Priceline was a $44 rise after the stock had lost $38 the day before.

Similarly, on January 24, 2013, Netflix moved up $43 (+42% gain for the day) from $105 to $148. That was a spiffy 3-pop for Stock Advisor, but some members quite reasonably wondered aloud on the Netflix discussion board if that was a spiffy-pop at all -- if it was worthy of celebration, since the stock was still less than half of its all-time high.

While we recognize that such spiffies may feel hollow compared to a leap to new highs, nevertheless there is no guarantee one might ever score a big move up after precipitous drops. As David Gardner articulated the day after that Netflix move, "A spiffy-pop is a spiffy-pop and a spiffy-drop is a spiffy-drop." In the game of baseball, some home runs are more consequential, or more exciting, than others. But they're home runs nonetheless. Or, as David sometimes quotes something he believes Forrest Gump must have once said: "Spiffy is as spiffy does."

How and whether members celebrate or not is a matter of individual context. Most of us swathed in the positive energy that is Fool HQ believe in celebration.

This article is part of The Motley Fool's Knowledge Center, which was created based on the collected wisdom of a fantastic community of investors. We'd love to hear your questions, thoughts, and opinions on the Knowledge Center in general or this page in particular. Your input will help us help the world invest, better! Email us at [email protected]. Thanks -- and Fool on!