You’ve probably seen the charts. Those vertical lines where a stock goes from a "nobody" to a household name in eighteen months. We call them super winners.
But here’s the thing. Most people look at these after the fact and think, "I missed it." They assume it was luck. Or some inside tip. Honestly, it’s usually just math and a really specific kind of momentum that the average retail trader is too scared to touch.
Finding super winners by year isn't about predicting the future. It’s about recognizing the patterns of the past that keep repeating, over and over, like a glitch in the Matrix.
What Actually Makes a Super Winner?
It’s not just a big gain. A true super winner is a stock that outperforms the S&P 500 by a massive margin—often 100%, 300%, or even 1,000%—within a single year or a two-year cycle.
Think about NVIDIA. In 2023 and 2024, it wasn't just "doing well." It was eating the market. But before it was a $3 trillion giant, it was a volatile semiconductor play that most people thought was "too expensive."
William O’Neil, the founder of Investor’s Business Daily, spent his life studying these. He found that most super winners share a few non-negotiable traits:
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- Accelerating Earnings: Not just growth, but growth that is getting faster every quarter.
- New Products or Management: Something shifted. A new CEO, a new tech breakthrough, or a change in the industry.
- Small Supply: It’s easier for a stock to double when there aren't billions of shares floating around.
Super Winners by Year: A Recent Timeline
If we look at the last few years, the "theme" of the winners changes, but the behavior doesn't.
2020: The Stay-at-Home Explosion
Everything changed in March 2020. While the world locked down, companies that enabled remote life went parabolic. Peloton and Zoom are the obvious ones, but the real super winners were often in the background. Roku surged as streaming became the only entertainment left. Tesla also had its massive "breakout" year here, fueled by a five-for-one stock split and S&P 500 inclusion rumors.
2021: The Speculative Fever
This was the year of the "retail revolution." GameStop (GME) and AMC became super winners through sheer social media force, though their fundamentals were, frankly, a mess. But away from the meme madness, energy stocks like Devon Energy started their quiet ascent as the world reopened and oil prices recovered.
2022: The Great Filter
Most stocks got crushed in 2022. It was brutal. However, there are always winners. While tech tanked, the Energy sector was the place to be. Companies like Occidental Petroleum became super winners because they had the one thing the market suddenly craved: actual cash flow and dividends.
2023-2024: The AI Gold Rush
We all know this story. NVIDIA became the poster child, but look at the "hidden" winners. Super Micro Computer (SMCI) and Vertiv (VRT) provided the infrastructure for the AI revolution. They aren't as famous as Google, but their percentage gains were often higher because they started from a smaller base.
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2025: The Efficiency Pivot
By 2025, the market stopped rewarding just "having AI." It started rewarding companies that used it to actually make more money. Google (Alphabet) had a massive redemption arc this year. After being called "behind" in the AI race, Gemini 3 proved that their search moat was deeper than anyone realized. The stock surged over 60% in a year when many expected it to stay flat.
The Performance of 2025's Biggest Gainers
The numbers from 2025 are still making people dizzy. Look at Lumentum Holdings (LITE)—it saw a price return of nearly 339%. Western Digital (WDC) wasn't far behind at 282%.
What do these have in common? They were the "picks and shovels" for the next phase of data center scaling. While everyone was arguing about chatbots, these companies were selling the actual hardware that makes the internet work.
Even Gold and Mining stocks joined the party. AngloGold Ashanti (AU) returned 288% in 2025. When inflation stayed sticky and geopolitical tensions rose, the "old school" winners came back with a vengeance.
Why You Probably Didn't Buy Them
There is a psychological wall that stops most people from buying super winners by year.
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Most of these stocks look "extended." They’ve already gone up 50% or 100%. The average investor thinks, "I’ll wait for a pullback." But the best stocks often don't pull back. They just keep going.
Mark Minervini, a legendary trader who won the U.S. Investing Championship multiple times, points out that super winners usually trade at their 52-week highs. They aren't found in the bargain bin. They are found in the "most expensive" list because high demand equals high prices.
"It's a paradox. What seems too high usually goes higher, and what seems cheap usually goes lower."
How to Spot the Next One
You have to look where others aren't. While the "Magnificent Seven" get all the headlines, the next super winner is likely a mid-cap company ($2B to $10B market cap) that just reported a 100% increase in quarterly earnings.
Check for these three things:
- Relative Strength: Is the stock holding up while the rest of the market is falling? That’s a massive clue.
- Institutional Support: Are big banks and hedge funds buying in? Look for increasing volume on "up" days.
- The "New" Factor: Is there a new product? A new law? A new CEO? Super winners usually have a catalyst that changes their story.
Actionable Next Steps
If you want to catch the next cycle of super winners by year, stop looking at what has already doubled and start looking for what is about to break out.
- Screen for Earnings Acceleration: Use a tool like MarketSmith or Finviz to find companies where the last two quarters of earnings growth are higher than the previous four.
- Watch the 50-day Moving Average: Most super winners stay above this line during their entire run. If a stock drops below it on heavy volume, the "super" part of the run might be over.
- Focus on Leading Industry Groups: In 2025, it was Aerospace and Semiconductors. In 2026, it might be Biotech or Nuclear Energy. Don't fight the trend.
The market doesn't care about what's "fair" or "cheap." It cares about growth and momentum. To find the next super winner, you have to be willing to buy what everyone else is still debating.