Investors are always looking for an edge to beat top stock indexes and legendary stock pickers. Could the answer have been waiting at the pet store all along?
What Happened: A hamster named Mr. Goxx has been making cryptocurrency trades for his human owner since June 12.
ENTER TO WIN $500 IN STOCK OR CRYPTO
Enter your email and you'll also get Benzinga's ultimate morning update AND a free $30 gift card and more!
The hamster, who is likely named after former Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) exchange Mt. Gox, completed live trades via a Twitch account. The trades are also documented on Mr. Goxx’s Twitter account.
The Twitter and Twitch accounts have over 3,000 followers each.
Mr. Goxx runs on a hamster wheel that selects one of dozens of preselected cryptocurrencies. The hamster then exits the wheel and chooses one of two tunnels, which signal either a buy or sell transaction.
The high-tech hamster wheel, tunnels and cage send the data to a real trading platform that uses real money to invest in the respective cryptocurrency trades.
Since June 12, the transactions are up 24% on an original investment of $390 from the hamster’s anonymous owner.
Related Link: If Tesla Stock Hits This Price, Cathie Wood Could Sell Her Position
Why It’s Important: The rise of retail traders and social media platforms has led to people seeking hot new stock and crypto picks to outperform top names.
Mr. Goxx has a better return than the Nasdaq 100 and SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) since the account was started on June 12.
The hamster has also outperformed legendary stock picker Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRKA)(NYSE:BRKB) and the performance of many of the top cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE).
The 24% return for Mr. Goxx has also outperformed legendary fund manager Cathie Wood, who had many of the top performing ETFs in 2020.
Ark Innovation ETF (NYSE:ARKK) is up 1.0% since June 12 and Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (NYSE:ARKW) is up 4.7% over the same time period.
Mr. Goxx was also close to matching the performance of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock over the same time, but fell just short of the 27% gain for the electric vehicle company.
The returns by the cryptocurrency picking hamster are not guaranteed to continue, but might be worth watching given the short track record.