In the four-plus years since Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner began hosting Rule Breaker Investing, he has shared quite a few of his signature five-stock samplers. Using companies culled from the hundreds that he actively recommends, he has built each of those mini-portfolios based on a multiyear time frame -- because investors (as opposed to "traders") buy and hold -- and usually centered each around a quirky theme. But if the Gardner brothers and their company are dedicated to picking great investments and being a bit Foolish, they are just as dedicated to the principle of keeping honest score. And that's why, around the anniversary of each sampler's debut, he tallies up their percentage gains or loses, talks about the factors behind each company's performance, and measures the portfolios against the benchmark of the S&P 500.
Sometimes, he can check in on sampler and fit something new in, too -- be it launching a new one, or an interview. But this past week was the second time in the podcasts history when three of those anniversaries coincided. So for this episode, it's samplers, samplers, and more samplers. In this segment, he and his guest host, senior analyst Emily Flippen, look back to that first sampler, compiled before he realized he was going to need to come up with a lot of clever gimmicks. It was the plain and simple "Five Stocks for the Next Five Years": Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ: CASY), FireEye (NASDAQ: FEYE), MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI), and Middleby (NASDAQ: MIDD). How are they doing? Let's just say this one is something of a nail-biter.
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