A co-worker popped his head into my office the other day. Since he is one of our I.T. guys, about the only time we talk is when my computer is on the fritz. So, I figured something was up when he dropped in unannounced.

“One of my friends has made a ton of money off of bitcoin” he confided to me, “and told me I should buy it, too. What do you think?”

What do I think?

I think anything that has appreciated 1,500% (or whatever the number happens to be today) in less than a year may not have much upside potential left in it. I am also innately suspicious of anything that can move so far in such a short period of time.

One problem with Bitcoin (among many) is that it is impossible to determine a fair value for it. If you don’t have a way of accurately measuring the value of something, how can you figure out if it is worth buying at today’s price?

More importantly, if what you are looking for is a fast way to make triple-digit returns then I believe there are less risky ways to do that.

For example, in November I closed out two positions in my Systematic Wealth trading service for annualized gains of 273% and 359%.

[I prefer using annualized returns since I don’t stay in some of these positions very long. If I can make 10% in one month in one stock and then do it again in another stock the next month, that’s fine with me!]

I didn’t do it by trading cryptocurrencies or penny stocks. In fact, the two companies involved in those trades were Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) and Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS).

That’s right; two “boring” retailers that were supposed to be driven out of business by Amazon delivered the type of huge gains you would expect from a hot tech stock.

I know what you’re thinking. I must have used options or some other leveraged approach to generate returns like that.

Nope, those gains were earned by owning the stock outright without using margin or options.

Now, some of my readers do use options, and they reported earning quadruple-digit returns on those same trades.

To my way of thinking, that is much safer way to build wealth than speculating on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. I like to think of it as “Bitcoin for chickens.”

I don’t mean that as an insult. In fact, I consider myself to be a bit of a chicken since I’ve never been comfortable taking big risks. I avoided dot.com stocks in the late 90s, and do not own any of the faddish “FANG” stocks in any of my portfolios now.

I just don’t see the point in buying stocks (or cryptocurrencies) that have no basis in reality. If I can earn the same returns owning things that can be accurately measured, then I’m not going to mess around with other things that have no clear value.

That’s why I use my IDEAL Stock Rating System to evaluate every single stock in the S&P 500 Index. Once I know what a company should be worth, I can figure out how much profit opportunity there is in owning it.

You can do the same.

During the past year, the analysts at Investing Daily have recommended dozens of trades that delivered triple-digit annualized gains.

Tomorrow, I am going to show you three specific examples of triple-digit winners that we gave you for FREE in 2017, and one that could do the same for you this year.

Editor’s Note: If you don’t feel like waiting around until tomorrow to find out how you can make triple-digit annualized returns this year (even if the stock market goes in the tank), feel free to take a “sneak peek” at exactly how it can be done by clicking HERE.