I lived through Hurricane Andrew in 1992. It was only the third Category 5 storm to make landfall in the United States, and it was a doozy. I remember waiting for the deafening gusts to subside before venturing out to see the savage destruction that the killer storm had caused. When it comes to windstorms, Category 5 is as intense as they get. When it comes to investing, growth stocks would be the market's equivalent.
Growth stocks are powerful, which can sometimes be a good thing. Find the right stock on the cusp of blowing apart the landscape, and you can go from being a modest investor to a rich one in the blink of a hurricane's eye. Think Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) just as it was rolling out its Norton virus-zapping software. Delve into VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) as it began enabling the first online merchants with secure platforms or Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) just as it was standing up against Mr. Softy with its infrastructure software solutions.
By the same token, growth stocks are volatile. I saw it when I stepped outside of my home in 1992. You can see it, too, in a portfolio ravaged by the wrong growth stocks. Planet Hollywood? 3DO? They both blew my portfolio to pieces way back when.
Bracing for the big one
Snapping up the right growth stocks is the aim of the Motley Fool Rule Breakers newsletter service. Every month, David Gardner leads a team of analysts in unearthing a couple of ultimate growth stock ideas. When he's right, Category 5 investing can be a thing of beauty. Four of the 24 recommendations from 2005 have gone on to more than double (three have more than tripled in value!), and nine more have posted double-digit gains. When he's wrong, though, the damage can be brutal. Ten of the 24 picks from 2006 are sporting double-digit losses.
The key to aggressive growth stock investing is to let your winners run. If you land that 10-bagger, it means that nine other similar investments can go to zero and you'll still have broken even.
Taking chances has led the service to single out some pretty eclectic -- if not outright eccentric -- companies. InterMune (NASDAQ:ITMN) has gone on to nearly double since being singled out last year as its hepatitis C protease inhibitor continues to move forward in the clinical trials process. AQuantive (NASDAQ:AQNT) is a more recent newsletter winner. The company has thrived in connecting old-school merchants with new-economy marketing solutions. Yes folks, there is an underbelly of promising paid search beneficiaries beyond Google (NASDAQ:GOOG).
Buying into new technology is risky. That's OK. Disruptive technology may not disrupt overnight, but when it does, the upticks can come in a hurry.
I am fortunate enough to have been with The Motley Fool in the mid-1990s, when David was recommending the purchase of companies like America Online, PayPal, and Amazon. They seemed like radical investments at the time. AOL was fighting it out in the cutthroat realm of dialup online services. PayPal was battling established financial services titans in the field of online micropayments. Amazon was trying to turn retail distribution upside-down by shipping book orders placed online directly to the end user. AOL, PayPal, and online shopping took off, and so did David's real-money Rule Breaker portfolio.
Andrew, 14 years later
The storms keep coming. I still live in Miami, so I've had my share of windstorms come by in recent years. Storms continue, but so do investing ideas. Last summer, I looked at investing styles and labeled them as hurricane categories.
- Category 1 took a peek at high-yielding investments.
- Category 2 emphasized value stocks.
- Category 3 approached the merits of a balanced portfolio.
- Category 4 explored small-cap stocks.
Wrapping things up with the most powerful -- and sometimes dangerous -- basket of stocks makes sense. I'm part of the Rule Breakers team of analysts. I buy stocks in all shapes and flavors, though I'm always smitten by a good young growth stock with a great story to tell.
Oh, they do tell stories. It was easy to snuggle up to a company like Shanda -- one of the earliest Rule Breakers recommendations -- as it captivated a young audience of Chinese online gamers with its fantasy role-playing games. The stock has been bouncing back lately, and it's one of four hot Chinese stocks that have earned the nod from the ultimate growth stock service.
I don't mind the exotic. I don't fear Category 5 investing. I've seen David excel at it for nearly as long as I've been telling stories of how I made it through Hurricane Andrew.
Are you a Category 5 investor? Want to learn more to see if you are one? Give Rule Breakers a spin with a free 30-day pass to see if growth investing is right for you.
This article was originally published on July 21, 2006. It has been updated.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz believes in taking chances to earn superior returns. He does not own shares of any company mentioned. Amazon is an active Stock Advisor pick, as are AOL parent Time Warner and PayPal parent eBay. Symantec is an Inside Value pick. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
