It was one year ago today – December 16^th, 2013 – that we published the first issue of Smart Tech Investor. Our reason for launching this service was simple: we believed that tech stocks would lead the stock market in the years to come, and we had a system that could accurately predict which tech stocks would perform better than others.

On that count we have been proven correct, as the original ten stocks that we recommended in that very first issue have produced an average total return of 28.1% versus 15.5% for the NASDAQ Composite Index; an outperformance of 81% over the index!

And in our lead article for that issue, “The One Tech Stock to Own in 2014”, Leo Boeckl named Apple as our top pick for the year. Since that date Apple has generated a total return of just over 40%, almost three times the index average. And while it may seem like an obvious call to make now, there were plenty of people at time who thought Apple was a has-been with very limited growth prospects.

We are justifiably quite proud of those accomplishments, and excited to have Rob DeFrancesco continue the tradition with his pick for “The One Tech Stock to Own in 2015” as our In Focus article. Since joining us in August Rob has done a wonderful job of managing our Next Wave Portfolio, and he believes this stock has the potential to take the market by storm in the coming year.

For our Sector Spotlight article, Leo has updated the report on social media stocks that we issued a year ago, “Dangerous FANGS”. Since then some of our predictions have already come true: notably, Amazon.com has declined 25% in value since peaking above $400 early in the year, and Netflix has dropped almost a third value over the past three months. Although you may have read the original version of this report when you first joined STI, please take a look at this piece to see how much, or how little, things have changed during the past year.

We understand that we are here to serve a very specific purpose for you: To help you make better investment choices in the tech sector so you can achieve your financial dreams. At the conclusion of our first year I am happy to report that we have done that in a big way, and are looking forward to bringing you many more winning stock picks in the year to come. Thank you.