Why 2026 Won’t Reward Chasing What Worked in 2024
While watching a football game recently, my daughter noticed that a referee was making the “6 7” motion (alternating palm-up hand movements).
I explained that this wasn’t the “6 7” gesture at all, but a signal for an incomplete pass because the receiver did not have possession before going out of bounds.
If you’re not familiar with the term “6 7,” don’t worry. It has no set meaning. It’s just a bit of Gen Alpha slang – a phrase kids repeat because everyone else is saying it.
And yet, just this month, Dictionary.com declared “6 7” its word of the year … although it isn’t a word, and literally it has no definition. The editors explained that their choice reflected how quickly new slang, driven by youth culture and social media, can enter the global conversation.
The “6 7” trend has been extremely hot this year.
My guess? Next year, no one will be using it.
Some things are built to last. Others burn brightly and fade just as fast.
Change simply for the sake of change is often a big mistake. Earlier this year, Cracker Barrel caused an uproar among its customers by changing its logo and was forced to revert to the original design.
But investors know that the opposite can be just as costly.
Holding on to a recent winner for too long can erase a lot of gains. If you invested in AMC Entertainment (AMC) during its meme stock run in 2021, I hope you got out when it was a 10x winner, instead of riding it back down as the hype faded.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big believer in momentum. As our friend and Senior Investing Analyst Brian Hunt likes to say, “Trends tend to persist, and winners tend to keep on winning.”
But every year brings a mix of continuing winners and new opportunities.
Some trends extend, and others peak and fade. Meanwhile, new opportunities begin to form, often before they are obvious to every investor.
As we look to 2026, let’s not just chase what was hot. Let’s focus on what ideas are built to last and which new ones might be emerging.
The AI Megatrend Will Last…
Recently, some market bears have tried to cast doubt on the AI megatrend. But just this week, Micron Technology (MU), reported blowout earnings – beating estimates for earnings per share, revenue and cash flow.
Micron is a leading global semiconductor company that specializes in memory and storage solutions. Specifically, Micron is a leader in high-bandwidth memory – or HBM – solutions, which (as the name implies) offer significantly higher bandwidth compared to traditional memory technologies.
Training AI models requires a lot of bandwidth. That’s why pretty much all AI models are built on top of HBM solutions.
Micron is set to benefit from a huge HBM sales cycle over the next several years as data centers upgrade their memory to high-bandwidth solutions to support large-scale GenAI development and deployment.
Luke noted this trend in Innovation Investor in 2024, and while it struggled early, the stock is up almost 200% this year.
In 2026, Luke is tracking where the Trump Administration is investing the government’s money. The federal government is writing checks and taking equity stakes in the companies that can help the United States win the economic race for AI supremacy.
This new policy has created an almost predictable, explosive pattern in the markets. We’ve seen it happen four times in the last four months, and Luke has built a roadmap for where he sees it happening next. You can find out more by clicking here.
But the Winners List Narrows…
Investing legend Louis Navellier expects the AI megatrend will continue because his system – which focuses on where the earnings are – repeatedly flags AI-related stocks with fundamental earnings power. Louis knows that stocks with superior earnings rise. It’s the “Iron Law” of the stock market.
But he also believes the list of winners will be shorter in 2026, and here is how he recently explained it to his readers.
[2026] will look more like a major wealth transfer – money leaving certain sectors and flooding into others, quietly and methodically.
That’s why you’re seeing some strange contradictions right now. Tech CEOs are selling shares of their own AI companies. Billionaires are raising cash and adding to gold. At the same time, the federal government is committing trillions of dollars toward AI-related infrastructure, especially power, data centers and the systems needed to support them.
Those things don’t happen in isolation. They tell me capital is being repositioned – not broadly, but selectively. Some stocks will continue to do very well. Others will struggle or fail outright. And the difference won’t come down to headlines or narratives. It will come down to where institutional money is actually flowing.
Louis added more than a dozen gold stocks across his portfolios in 2025.
When I mentioned to Louis that I had never seen so many gold stocks in his portfolios, he responded, “Well, they have the earnings.”
Kinross Gold (KGC) was added to the Growth Investor portfolio in June and has since risen more than 75%.
Louis says that his Growth Investor stocks are showing the kinds of bullish market signals that institutions look for.
On average, they’re characterized by 28% average annual sales growth and 93.8% average annual earnings growth. In the most recent quarter, the average earnings surprise was 12.1%, and analyst earnings estimates have been revised about 9% higher over the past three months.
Those three traits – accelerating fundamentals, upside surprises, and rising analyst estimates – are what separate elite from average stocks, resulting in a massive wealth transfer.
Louis just released a new presentation that explains why he believes this market is entering a very different phase, how AI is reshaping capital flows far beyond just tech stocks and how investors can see where institutions are positioning before it becomes obvious.
Some investing ideas are built to last, and others fade as quickly as “6 7” probably will. As you think ahead to 2026, don’t let your portfolio hold old winners at the expense of the new stocks that will beat the market in the year ahead.
Enjoy your weekend,
Luis Hernandez,
Editor in Chief, InvestorPlace
