Happy Friday, folks! You've got to love it when this weekend falls squarely in between Christmas and New Year's. That little two-day bridge effectively makes this a whole week off. Yeah, the markets are open and we're working, but it's a light week and we can get a bunch of things published that had been on the backburner. It also gives us a chance to do some year-end and year-beginning stuff for you guys. Speaking of.... Have you made your New Year's resolutions yet? Everybody here has some personal ones we'll be working towards in 2014, but there were some professional/trading ones we wanted to share with you guys as well. We had six in all, initially, but I've narrowed it down to just one for now... make more money! I know, I know - it's an obvious idea, and unless we can actually put a specific plan in place to make it possible to get more out of the market, it's actually more of a slogan than a goal. But, as I was nosing around some numbers this afternoon, it became clear to me there's a very easy way to turn that goal into a specific (and easy to execute) plan. Some of you are already subscribers to the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity, and some of you aren't. I'm talking to both groups, though, when I ask, have you taken a little time to really look at the long-term picks these guys have made this year? Their performance is ridiculously good... as in four-digit returns, on a cumulative basis! Let me explain what I mean. One of the greatest aspects of the SCN EO newsletter is that each pick has a finite entry and a finite exit; John Monroe and his team will tell you exactly when to buy and sell a stock. They do that because they know it's not realistic to simply pile a bunch of random picks into your portfolio without ever making room for new ones by following up on old ones. If you didn't sell anything, eventually you'd be 100% invested and have no free cash for the next new trade. Thing is, if you were somehow able to hold onto all of their long-term picks issued in 2013 (and a handful in late-2012), your returns would be nothing less than amazing. The table below tells the tale. The long-term picks they've made have returned, cumulatively, a whopping 1656% over the course of this year. Take a look. Picked Date Company Picked Price Current Price LT Gain 7/19/12 Cray, Inc. (CRAY) $12.44 $27.85 $15.41 (+123.87%) 12/12/12 8x8, Inc. (EGHT) $6.59 $10.46 $3.87 (+58.73%) 12/17/12 Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) $5.44 $9.96 $4.52 (+83.09%) 12/27/12 Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) $248.00 $404.39 $156.39 (+63.06%) 1/3/13 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) $2.49 $3.80 $1.31 (+52.61%) 1/8/13 Google, Inc. (GOOG) $733.00 $1,117.46 $384.46 (+52.45%) 1/8/13 Qualcomm, Inc. (QCOM) $63.91 $73.48 $9.57 (+14.97%) 1/22/13 Medicines Co. (MDCO) $30.10 $38.41 $8.31 (+27.61%) 2/8/13 Zynga, Inc. (ZNGA) $3.35 $4.07 $0.72 (+21.49%) 2/11/13 Astex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ASTX) $3.33 $8.50 $5.17 (+155.11%) 2/11/13 AtriCure, Inc. (ATRC) $8.07 $18.73 $10.66 (+132.09%) 2/14/13 Global X Uranium ETF (URA) $6.96 $14.92 $7.96 (+114.37%) 3/5/13 Flex International Ltd. (FLEX) $6.78 $7.69 $0.91 (+13.42%) 3/7/13 Atlantic Power Corporation (AT) $5.68 $3.45 -$2.23 (-39.26%) 4/9/13 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) $2.50 $3.80 $1.30 (+52.00%) 4/10/13 AT&T, Inc. (T) $38.08 $35.16 -$2.92 (-7.67%) 4/10/13 TrovaGene, Inc. (TROV) $6.12 $5.56 -$0.56 (-9.15%) 5/6/13 Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (MRVL) $10.82 $13.76 $2.94 (+27.17%) 5/8/13 Nokia Corp. (NOK) $3.56 $7.89 $4.33 (+121.63%) 5/8/13 Career Education Corp. (CECO) $2.40 $5.73 $3.33 (+138.75%) 5/15/13 Apollo Group, Inc. (APOL) $20.51 $27.13 $6.62 (+32.28%) 5/17/13 LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. (LF) $9.07 $7.91 -$1.16 (-12.79%) 5/30/13 Facebook, Inc. (FB) $24.00 $57.73 $33.73 (+140.54%) 6/12/13 BioTelemetry, Inc. (BEAT) $4.80 $7.17 $2.37 (+49.38%) 6/18/13 iShares Dow Jones US Oil & Gas Ex Index (IEO) $75.57 $81.68 $6.11 (+8.09%) 6/25/13 SAIC, Inc. (SAI) $13.00 N/A N/A (N/A) 6/25/13 Apollo Group, Inc. (APOL) $19.50 $27.13 $7.63 (+39.13%) 8/14/13 Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) $26.12 $21.80 -$4.32 (-16.54%) 8/21/13 iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (ITB) $21.33 $24.48 $3.15 (+14.77%) 9/5/13 Walgreen Co. (WAG) $50.25 $57.67 $7.42 (+14.77%) 9/5/13 Rite Aid Corp. (RAD) $3.51 $5.17 $1.66 (+47.29%) 9/12/13 iShares MSCI Europe Financials Index (EUFN) $22.65 $24.75 $2.10 (+9.27%) 9/19/13 Adept Technology, Inc. (ADEP) $5.94 $14.53 $8.59 (+144.61%) 9/30/13 Leidos Holdings (LDOS) $43.85 $46.24 $2.39 (+5.45%) 10/4/13 BioScrip, Inc. (BIOS) $8.47 $7.09 -$1.38 (-16.29%) 2013 Total Pick Performance Return : 1656.29%, as of 12/26/13 Now, as strong as that return is, I honestly don't think that's the most impressive part of the service's performance. What blows me away is how if you simply bought and held all 34 trades [I'm not able to count SAIC], you would have lost ground on six of them, and gained ground on 28 of them. That's a win/loss ratio of about 4.6 to 1, versus the market's norm - even for professionals - of about 2 to 1 (and that 2 to 1 ratio is on a good day). It's the kind of performance hedge fund managers don't even dare to dream of. Equally impressive is the average gain per trade. Even counting the losers, the average gain for the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity's long-term trades - if you stuck with them for the whole year - is a healthy 48.7%. You can bet I'll be buying and just holding more of the SCN EO's picks in 2014, as it's pretty clear to me John Monroe and his crew can spot big, long-term winners. I may even make a point of freeing up some more cash for whatever calls they're going to be making in the new year. And, I'll be more than content to just let leave 'em alone and let 'em ride. You may want to try the same approach. With all of that being said, here's the last word... The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. If you want to get more out of the market in 2014 (and who doesn't?), what are you going to do that's different in the coming year? If the answer is nothing, then you'll probably do about as well as you did in 2013. If instead you decide to do something different, well, the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity's stock-picking prowess is crystal clear on the table above - when allowed to keep running from their original entry point, you've got a cumulative 1656% return spread out over the service's 34 long-term trades this year. I've seen a lot of premium newsletters in my day, but I've never seen quite as impressive as that. Or, look at it like this: One trade could more than pay for the cost of a subscription. Bottom line: If you want to get more out of the market in 2014, your first resolution should simply be to become a member of the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity service. Here's how. Or, copy and paste the following link in your browser: http://www.smallcapnetwork.com/?vmpd_ckstr[click_track]=SCN+Newsletter&vmpd_ckstr_redirect=/pages/SCNEO/v1/