Ultimatespinach, thanks for the insightful response to Jim's point. It does appear that Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers have beaten the S&P 500 by a nice margin.

However, how many of TMF's other products (newsletters) have been shut down due to underperformance?

Personally, I briefly subscribed to the newsletter Hidden Gems many years ago, but I did not subscribe to the Stock Advisor or Rule Breakers.

Did you know in advance that one should subscribe to the Stock Advisor and/or Rule Breakers, and ignore the rest? If so, good for you. If not, does it prove Jim's point that it is difficult to identify winning bets (whether it is stocks or newsletters*) in advance?

*I am generalizing here and hope that that it is in line with Jim's views.