How I Made a 995% Gain in 2005... and Why Today's Opportunity Is Even Better

Doc's note: Dozens of you wrote in to say that you enjoyed the guest article last week from my friend and colleague Steve Sjuggerud... and several asked specifically about how his system works with gold and gold-mining stocks.

In this issue of Retirement Millionaire Daily, I'm sharing another essay that Steve wrote for his DailyWealth e-letter that answers that question.

It's an important look at Steve's process. And it's a must-read if you're at all interested in buying gold stocks today...

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In July 2005, I (Steve) recommended three small gold stocks in my high-priced, speculative newsletter back then called Sjuggerud Confidential.

At the time, gold-exploration companies were dirt-cheap and completely ignored. Nobody wanted anything to do with them.

My top recommendation went on to return a 995% gain. That's the largest gain of any recommendation in the history of my publisher, Stansberry Research.

And right now, I believe we have a similar – but even better – opportunity than back in 2005. Today, I'll show you why...

You have to remember, the price of gold in mid-2005 was around $425 an ounce... To put that in perspective, the price of gold was down 50% from its high 25 years earlier! Why on Earth would anyone invest in a gold-exploration company in 2005?

Of course, you know I'm a contrarian investor... I look for what nobody else wants. By 2005, gold had bottomed and was moving up. So I started checking out the gold positions with more upside potential – like exploration companies.

I wanted to find three companies with massive piles of gold in the ground. I wanted to find three "golden lottery tickets" that never expired... They just needed the price of gold to go up.

So in July 2005, I recommended three gold-exploration companies to my subscribers – Seabridge Gold, Arizona Star, and Crystallex.

As I wrote then, "the thing about buying tiny gold stocks is, you really shouldn't buy just one." You want to spread your risk, as some will soar and some will crash.

I stand by that advice today.

As you know, the price of gold soared over the next few years. Seabridge Gold and Arizona Star turned out to be home runs – you would have more than doubled your money on both of them by following my advice.

Seabridge Gold was the top performer – we pocketed a 995% profit. That 2005 recommendation of Seabridge Gold has turned out to be the best-performing stock recommendation of my career so far. The third stock didn't turn out so well... Crystallex was taken over by the Venezuelan government and basically went to zero.

But because our risk was spread out across three stocks, we made extraordinary returns.

And today, we have an even better opportunity than in 2005...

Gold-exploration companies have been decimated over the past four years. They're down about 80% since April 2011. Take a look...

gld vs gdx vs gldx

After a crash like that, gold explorers like Seabridge Gold are cheaper today than they were in 2005 (based on how much gold you control when you buy a share of their stock). And they're more hated than I can ever remember. Nobody wants anything to do with them.

The bigger picture in gold stocks is similar...

The next chart shows the ratio of a gold-stock index to the price of gold. Today, you can see that this ratio is right at its all-time lows...

HUI to Gold

The only time this ratio got this low in the past was in late 2000 – and gold stocks soared by 300% in the two years after that.

Right now, we have one of the best opportunities in history to buy gold stocks. This ratio is too extreme to ignore. Gold explorers have fallen the most – they are the most hated.

While I believe all gold stocks could perform well over the coming years, the biggest gains will come from following my 2005 blueprint... buying "golden lottery tickets" with huge hoards of gold in the ground.

That's what I'm doing in my True Wealth Systems newsletter right now. In fairness to my readers, I can't tell you the specific recommendations. But I recently put together a full presentation on how my system works, which you can check out here.

Even if you don't become a True Wealth Systems subscriber, you have an amazing opportunity in gold stocks today. I urge you not to miss it.

Good investing,

Steve Sjuggerud
Editor, True Wealth Systems

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Doc's note: Here's how Steve's latest issue of True Wealth Systems starts off...

Our most powerful gold indicator is FINALLY signaling "buy!"

This gold system has delivered outstanding 46% annualized gains when in "buy" mode over the past 40-plus years.

We don't get this "Super Signal" often... Our True Wealth System (TWS) computers have kept us "out" of the trade roughly three-quarters of the time. But today, they're giving us the all-clear to buy gold.

Click here to learn more about Steve's system and how it works with gold and gold-mining stocks.