14 Out of 16 YouTubers Beat the Market. Here's What That Actually Means for You.

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You've probably heard it a thousand times: "Just buy index funds. Nobody beats the market."

It's become almost religious at this point. Your finance professor said it. Warren Buffett said it. That annoying guy on Reddit who types in all caps definitely said it.

But what if I told you that in 2025, 14 out of 16 financial YouTubers actually crushed the S&P 500? Three of them returned over 50%.

A YouTuber named Adriconomics decided to do something nobody does—actually track the stock picks these influencers made at the start of the year and see who delivered.

The results? Pretty wild.

Let's break down how everyone performed. Think of the S&P 500 (which returned 16.39% this year) as the "pacing car" in a marathon. The NASDAQ did slightly better at 20%.

The Losers (Tier F)

Only one YouTuber actually lost money: Brian from Long-Term Mindset. His portfolio got absolutely wrecked by one pick—Duolingo, which tanked 45%. If you put $10,000 equally across his five picks, you'd have ended up with $9,700.

Ouch.

The lesson here is simple: one terrible stock can destroy an otherwise decent portfolio. Diversification isn't just a fancy word your finance textbook throws around.

The "Just Buy SPY" Tier (Tier D)

This is where the S&P 500 (16.39%) and NASDAQ (20%) live. They're the benchmarks. The baseline. The "you could've done this with zero effort" line.

Solid Outperformers (Tier C: 20-29%)

This tier is packed with creators who beat the market but didn't knock it out of the park.

Everything Money hit 22%. Their Meta and Google picks carried, but Adobe dragged them down (dropped 21%).

Stealth Wealth Investing and Sven Carlin both landed around 24%. Sven's secret weapon? Samsung, which exploded 125%. That one pick basically made his whole year.

The Patient Investor also hit 24%, with Celsius gaining 74% but Amazon and Canadian Pacific slowing things down.

Invest Diva was interesting—she picked "boring" stocks like AbbVie and L3 Harris that nobody was hyping. Returned 27%. Sometimes boring works.

Daniel Pronk matched that 27% with Mercado Libre and Brookfield.

Park closed out this tier at 29%. He had massive winners in Nvidia and AMD (up 77%), but Pinterest and DraftKings went negative and ate into his gains.

High Achievers (Tier B: 30-39%)

Now we're getting serious.

Jerry Romine landed in the low 30s. His two power plays? Nvidia and Palantir. Palantir was up 135% this year. If you held it, congrats—you probably feel like a genius right now.

Jeremy from Financial Education hit 31%. SoFi, Celsius, and AMD carried him. Nike and ELF Beauty? Not so much.

Here's where it gets interesting: Couch Investor made TWO prediction videos. His first one returned a mediocre 7.6%. But his second video—filled with "overlooked stocks" like Micron and Intel—absolutely ripped for 60%. Average the two together and you get 33%.

The takeaway? Sometimes the unsexy, forgotten stocks are where the money's at.

Ticker Symbol U crushed it at 37%—more than double the index. Once again, Palantir (135%) was the hero.

Exceptional (Tier A: 40%+)

Travis from Asymmetric Investing managed 42% despite having 20 different picks. Usually, the more stocks you pick, the closer you get to the average. Not Travis.

His winners: Robinhood (up 203%) and Micron (up 239%). Those two alone probably made his entire year.

The Champions (Tier S: 50%+)

Three creators broke the 50% barrier.

Felix and Winston cleared 50% thanks to Palantir and AppLovin (up 108%).

Chris Sain took second place. His home run was Micron at 239%. He would've won gold, but Cava cratered 46% and dragged his average down. One bad pick cost him the crown.

And the winner? Business with Brian with a staggering 57.6% return. His big bet was D-Wave Quantum, a quantum computing company that gained 211%. He also held ASML and AppLovin. The guy took swings, and they connected.

Before you start copying YouTuber portfolios, let's pump the brakes and think about this critically.

The Good News:

Stock picking isn't dead. These results prove that with research, conviction, and some smart diversification, you can beat the market. The "just buy SPY forever" crowd isn't wrong, but they're not 100% right either.

The winners shared a few things in common: they weren't afraid of concentrated bets in high-conviction names like Palantir, Micron, and the AI/quantum computing plays. They also understood that a few big winners can carry an entire portfolio.

The Reality Check:

This was one year. One. That's not a trend—that's a snapshot.

Remember, the S&P 500 has beaten most professional fund managers over 10-year periods. One good year doesn't mean these same YouTubers will repeat in 2026. Some of them might crash hard.

Also notice the pattern: winners like Palantir (135%), Robinhood (203%), and Micron (239%) showed up in multiple portfolios. If you missed those names, you missed the party. Next year's winners will probably be completely different stocks.

The Real Lesson:

The best portfolios weren't the most diversified—they were the most convicted. Five to ten strong picks, researched thoroughly, with the stomach to hold through volatility.

But here's the thing: most people can't handle watching a stock drop 30% without panic-selling. That emotional discipline is what separates the winners from the losers, not just the stock picks themselves.

This year, below are the most talked about stock for you to research

Will he beat the market? We'll find out in twelve months.

Can you beat the market? These 16 YouTubers proved that yes, it's possible. Fourteen of them did it this year.

But here's the honest truth: you probably need more than stock picks. You need conviction, patience, and the emotional discipline to not sell when things get scary.

The people who won big in 2025 weren't the ones who diversified into 50 stocks. They were the ones who picked 5-10 names, did their homework, and held on tight.

That said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with putting most of your money in index funds and allocating a small percentage to individual stock picks you believe in. That's probably the smartest play for most people.

The market is beatable. But it's not easy. And it's definitely not guaranteed.

Trade smart. Stay curious. See you tomorrow.