Power Gauge Report Review (4+ Yr Member): 2026 Updated Results

Power Gauge Report Review: My Chaikin Analytics Review (4+ Year Member, July 2026 Update)

Hey folks, Jeff Lenney here. I first signed up for Marc Chaikin’s stock advisory service back in October 2021. Not a free trial. Not a “research-based” review where I rewrote the sales page. I paid for it, I’ve renewed it, and I’ve been watching every single pick come through for nearly five years now.

Most reviews of this service are written by people who’ve never logged in. I have. Below you’ll find real stock performance data, closed trades with actual ticker symbols, and an honest breakdown of what the system gets right and where it falls short.

If you just want the quick version: the service is legit, the screener is the real gem, and the trailing stop-loss has saved me more money than any individual stock pick. The top position just booked a 248% gain on a half-sell. But it’s not perfect, and I’ll show you exactly why.

Quick Specs: Is It Worth It?

Best for: Active traders, growth investors, self-directed portfolio managers | Not for: Total beginners, passive index investors, day traders

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Chaikin Analytics Review: Who is Marc Chaikin?

Marc Chaikin built Chaikin Analytics LLC into one of the more respected independent stock analysis firms on Wall Street over the past 40+ years. He created the proprietary stock rating system behind the service and developed the Chaikin Money Flow indicator that professional traders and money managers use regularly. His stock market analysis has been featured in Forbes and Investors Business Daily, and his tools are used by institutional traders across the industry.

Fun fact: the company was originally called Chaikin Power Tools when it launched in March 2011. Marc rebranded it as the broader Chaikin Analytics platform grew beyond just the screener.

The thing that actually got my attention: in 2018, Marc and his team rang the NASDAQ opening bell. Nasdaq partnered with him and IndexIQ to bring his rating system to the ETF market. That’s not a participation trophy.

The Nasdaq Chaikin Indexes, powered by the Power Gauge rating system, have outperformed their benchmarks since launching in April 2014. The guy has a real track record, not just marketing claims.

What You Get With the Chaikin Analytics Platform

Here’s what Chaikin Analytics provides with the investor subscription:

• Monthly newsletters with new stock picks and Marc’s market analysis
• Access to the Power Pulse System (the computerized stock screener) covering 5,000+ stock and ETF tickers (you can look up any stock or ETF)
• Model portfolio updated every Wednesday with buy or sell signals
• AI Power Picks portfolio (bonus picks in specific sectors like AI, with companies poised to double or triple in the next 12 months)
• Chaikin Idea and Hotlists showing trending bullish stocks and bearish warnings
• Daily email alerts with market updates and commentary
• Three research reports: AI Power Picks, Tomorrow’s 10x Power Trends, and Top Stocks to Avoid During the AI Boom
• OptionsPlay integration for options strategies on recommended picks
• Mystery bonus ($2,499 value, which… yeah, I still don’t love the mystery angle)
• 30-day money-back guarantee

You can subscribe for $149 the first year (discounted from $499). The renewal is $499/year, which I’ll address in the refund section below because there’s something you need to know about that.

Note: Chaikin Analytics may change their promotional offers and pricing from time to time, so the current deal you see might differ slightly from what I describe here. The core product and stock selection methodology stays the same.

How does this compare to something like Motley Fool Stock Advisor? Honestly, they’re different animals. Motley Fool is more of a pure stock advisor service. Buy this, hold forever. Marc’s system is more active. You get the screener, the trailing stops, the institutional money flow data. If you want a set-it-and-forget-it stock advisor, Motley Fool might be more your speed. If you want tools for active stock trading and decision-making, this is the stronger option.

What’s Inside The Members Area?

I’m glad you asked. I joined so I can show you!

The Monthly Newsletter and Stock Picks

Every month, Marc sends detailed research reports with his top mid-cap or large-cap new stock pick, plus he maintains a model portfolio of his current recommendations. The picks come with detailed reasoning, including fundamental and technical analysis. He walks through the data with fundamental metrics like price to book ratios and financial health indicators, and explains why he thinks it’s a good entry at that moment. It’s not just “buy this ticker.” You get the full thesis with earnings consistency data and his prediction for where the stock is headed.

The big shift in recent years has been the AI focus. Instead of generic tech stocks, Marc’s identifying companies building AI infrastructure. The research feels targeted rather than trendy, and he’s making specific predictions about which sectors will drive significant gains.

How I’ve Been Tracking This: My Methodology

I first joined in October 2021. Since late 2023, I started systematically logging every pick across both portfolios. I tracked entry dates, reference prices, dividends, stop-loss levels, and every sell alert.

The data below comes directly from the Chaikin Analytics members area. I exported the portfolio on July 24, 2026. The returns shown are from Chaikin’s own tracking system.

One important caveat: the portfolio page only shows current open positions. Closed trades disappear from the dashboard. So while I’ve been a member for nearly 5 years, the detailed entry-to-exit data I can share is limited to the positions I personally tracked. I’m showing you what I can verify with complete records, nothing more.

Performance results shown represent specific case studies from my personal tracking. Past performance does not guarantee future results. I am not a financial advisor and this is not investment advice.

Real Trades, Real Tickers: Closed AI Power Picks

These positions are done. Nobody can act on them anymore, so I’m sharing the actual tickers so you can verify everything yourself. Try finding this level of detail in any other review of this service. (Spoiler: you won’t.)

One thing to keep in mind as you look at this table: the system isn’t designed to win on every trade. It’s designed so the winners are big enough to more than cover the losers. The three winners below generated a combined +200% in gains. The five losers totaled about -92%. If you put equal amounts into every trade, you’d still be well ahead.

The breakdown: 3 winners averaging +66.75%, 5 losers averaging -18.35%. The overall average across all 8 trades is still positive at +13.6%. The August 2025 batch didn’t pan out, but the stop-loss system kept every loss contained while letting the winners run to +52%, +70%, and +77%.

The CrowdStrike Trade: Why the Stop-Loss Is the Real MVP

This is the trade that made me a believer in Chaikin’s system for risk management.

CrowdStrike was added on August 3, 2023 at $157.55. By mid-2024, it had run up big, and the 30% trailing stop was ratcheted up accordingly. On July 22, 2024, the stop triggered and I exited at +70.66%.

Here’s the context: on July 19, 2024 (three days before the stop triggered), CrowdStrike caused a massive global IT outage that grounded flights and crashed systems worldwide. The stock cratered. The trailing stop-loss got me out with a 70%+ profit right as things went sideways.

That’s not a marketing story. That’s risk management doing its job. Look up the timeline yourself.

The AECOM Loss: When It Doesn’t Work Out

AECOM (ACM) was added to the AI Power Picks on August 28, 2025 at $125.74. It dropped steadily. The 30% trailing stop triggered on February 12, 2026 at a -29.31% loss.

That stings. No sugar-coating it. But the stop-loss capped the damage. Without it, the position could have fallen further. I’ve followed other newsletter services that have no exit strategy at all, and members end up riding losers to zero. At least here, the system forced a disciplined exit.

The Big Wins: 248% and 115% Booked in 2026

This is the part of the review I’m most excited to update. In June and July 2026, Marc recommended selling half of two positions to lock in massive gains while keeping the other half running:

The banking stock had half sold on July 17, 2026, booking a 248% gain on that half-position. The remaining half is still open with a hard stop at $140, protecting substantial profits. This is the same stock I’ve been tracking since November 2023. It’s been the quiet MVP of the entire portfolio, and that 248% booked return is the kind of number that pays for decades of membership costs.

An enterprise computing stock had half sold on June 1, 2026, booking a 115% gain after less than a month in the portfolio. The remaining half is still open above a trailing stop at $325. A 115% return in under 30 days. That’s the system working exactly as advertised.

This “sell half” approach is smart portfolio management. You bank real gains on half while letting the rest ride with a protective stop underneath. It’s the kind of active management you don’t get from a basic stock screener or a passive stock advisor like Motley Fool.

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Current Open Positions (July 2026)

I can’t share the specific tickers for open positions (that’s what you’re paying for). But here’s how both portfolios look right now:

Main Model Portfolio (11 open positions):

AI Power Picks (2 open positions):

The Reality Check

The main portfolio is running 11 positions, the most active I’ve seen it. Six in the green, five in the red. But the green positions are doing the heavy lifting: that banking stock and the computing pick alone have generated returns that dwarf every loss in the portfolio combined.

The AI Power Picks have thinned to just two open positions. The big tech/AI pick at +148% continues to crush it. The real value of using Chaikin Analytics lives in the main portfolio and the screener tool. If you subscribe, that’s where you should focus your attention.

The 30% Trailing Stop-Loss: The Feature Nobody Talks About

This is the most underrated part of the entire service, and I want to spend a minute on it because no other review covers this.

Chaikin uses a 30% trailing stop-loss on all positions, updated every Wednesday. Here’s what I’ve seen watching it work across multiple trades:

When it protected gains: CrowdStrike (CRWD) stopped out at +70.66% right before the July 2024 global outage. Adobe (ADBE) stopped out at +52% in June 2024. The banking stock had a half-sell at +248% in July 2026 with a hard stop protecting the rest. All smart exits.

When it capped losses: AECOM (ACM) stopped out at -29.31% in February 2026. Zebra Technologies (2nd position) stopped out at -30.46% and Xometry at -16.18%, both in February 2026. Painful, but the bleeding stopped there each time.

When it was neutral: Zebra Technologies (1st position) stopped out at -0.87% in March 2025. Essentially breakeven. Capital preserved.

Marc doesn’t market the stop-loss system heavily. But after watching it work for years, I’d argue it’s the single most valuable feature. It enforces the kind of discipline most retail investors (myself included) struggle with on their own.

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How the Screener Works: The Power Gauge’s 20-Factor System

This is the most powerful stock screening tool I’ve used. You can use the Power Gauge to analyze any stock or ETF across 20 different factors and get a chaikin power gauge rating of Bullish, Neutral, or Bearish. Type in a ticker, hit one button, and you get a full breakdown across four categories. It gives you insight into what institutional money is doing, which makes it a genuinely useful tool for selecting stocks and making informed decisions.

Financials

Five factors covering price to book ratios, free cash flow, debt levels, and valuation metrics. The system also uses accruals to flag stocks where earnings quality might be overstated, which tells you a lot about the sustainability of a company’s reported profits. These fundamental metrics help you avoid value traps.

Earnings

Five factors showing current earnings, growth trends, earnings surprises, and earnings consistency. Critical for timing entries and understanding where a stock is headed.

Technicals

This category tracks market movements using technical charts, RSI, and momentum indicators. It’s where market sentiment shows up and where you find the best entry and exit points for bullish stocks breaking out of ranges.

Experts (The Secret Sauce)

This tracks what analysts, short sellers, money managers, and insiders are actually doing with their capital. It includes the Chaikin Money Flow indicator, and after years of watching it, I’m convinced this “Expert” component is the most important category.

Here’s what I noticed through actual use: the 20 factors aren’t weighted equally. The Expert component acts like a “super-factor” that often overrides weak signals in the other categories. Stocks with mediocre fundamentals but strong Expert ratings tend to outperform. Stocks with great financials but weak Expert signals? Much more hit-or-miss.

That means Chaikin’s system is momentum-weighted. It favors bullish stocks where institutional money is flowing in NOW, not stocks that just look good on a spreadsheet. This makes it better for growth-oriented traders than pure value investors.

All 20 factors get boiled down to four simple sliders. Decades of analytical research, visible at a glance. I use this screener more than I use Marc’s specific monthly picks, and honestly, that’s where the real value lives.

The Chaikin Money Flow Indicator

The CMF tracks institutional buying and selling over 21-day periods. Readings above +0.05 signal accumulation (institutions buying), below -0.05 signals distribution (selling). Marc’s prediction system uses this as a core input for stock ratings across the platform.

During the August/September 2024 stock market volatility, the CMF flagged several high-flying tech stocks shifting from “Bullish” to “Neutral” or “Bearish” about 10-14 days before they dropped 8-12%. That early warning and market analysis alone was worth the membership cost multiple times over.

Watch Out for the EQ Upsell

Marc’s been pushing the Earnings Quality (EQ) feature as the “secret” to finding top stocks. It’s not included in the base membership. You need the Platinum level or Breakthrough Investor service for that.

Don’t let it distract you. The core 20-factor system is plenty powerful on its own.

The AI-Focused Special Reports

Three research reports come free with your membership:

Chaikin’s AI Power Picks targets smaller AI companies in specific sectors that aren’t the obvious names. Based on my tracking, this portfolio has been more volatile than the main picks. The big tech/AI winner at +148% is incredible, but several other AI picks hit their stops in early 2026. High risk, high reward.

Tomorrow’s 10x Power Trends covers broader stock market shifts driven by AI. Infrastructure plays, regulatory changes, supply chain shifts. Some of his predictions have been surprisingly accurate.

Top Stocks to Avoid During the AI Boom is potentially the most useful of the three. Marc identifies overvalued AI stocks, companies slapping “AI” on their business model for publicity, and traditional companies facing disruption. I was actually eyeing one stock he flagged, and it dropped significantly after his warning.

OptionsPlay Integration: For Options Traders

One feature worth mentioning is the OptionsPlay integration. If you’re interested in running options strategies on top of Marc’s stock picks, OptionsPlay provides strategy overlays showing optimal call and put plays based on each stock’s rating. It’s not a replacement for doing your own analysis, but it gives you a starting point for options trading around the core recommendations.

The Refund Policy: Read This Before You Join

The marketing says “30-day money-back guarantee,” and that’s technically true. But here’s what they don’t make obvious: if you don’t manually disable auto-renewal within 30 days, you’ll get charged for the full year at the non-discounted rate ($499). I noticed several people flagging this on the BBB site, so heads up.

Protect yourself:

1. Right after you join, log into your account dashboard
2. Go to “Account Settings” or “Subscription Management”
3. Turn OFF the “Auto-Renewal” toggle
4. You keep full access for your paid period with no surprise charges

If you’re not satisfied within those first 30 days, you can get a full refund. Just make sure to disable auto-renewal on day one regardless, and manually renew later if you want to keep it.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Top-performing pick booked 248% on half-sell, with remaining half still running
Enterprise computing pick booked 115% in under a month
Big Tech AI pick still open at +148%
30% trailing stop-loss saved me during CrowdStrike’s July 2024 crisis
Early warning signals 10-14 days before 2024 market volatility
Screener covers 5,000+ stocks and ETFs with one-click analysis
40+ years of Wall Street experience behind the methodology
$149 first year with 30-day money-back guarantee

Cons:

AI Power Picks more volatile than main portfolio (3 wins, 5 losses across 8 closed trades, though winners still outpaced losers in dollar terms)
Auto-renewal at $499 if you don’t turn it off manually
Earnings Quality (EQ) feature locked behind expensive upgrade
Learning curve if you’re new to technical indicators
Monthly picks only (not for day traders)
$499/year renewal is steep for casual investors
Mystery bonus still feels gimmicky

See the Current $149 Offer >>

My Bottom Line After Nearly 5 Years

I’ll keep this simple: I’m still a member, and I plan to stay one.

The screener is the real value. I use the Power Pulse System to validate my own research more than I follow Marc’s specific monthly picks. Being able to run any stock through a 20-factor analysis in seconds and get an instant rating is worth the cost by itself if you’re an active trader managing a portfolio.

The main portfolio has been the star. The banking stock just booked a 248% gain on a half-sell after running since November 2023, and an enterprise computing pick doubled in under a month. The trailing stop-loss system continues to enforce discipline on both sides: locking in gains on winners and capping losses on losers.

The AI Power Picks have been rougher lately. The big tech/AI position at +148% is incredible, but the batch of picks from August 2025 didn’t pan out. Still, the winners have been so large that even with more losers than winners, you’d be ahead in dollar terms if you followed every trade. That’s the asymmetry the system is designed for.

At $149 for the first year with a 30-day guarantee, the risk is minimal. Just remember to turn off auto-renewal on day one, and you can always renew manually if you find value in it (I did).

Lock In the $149 First Year Rate >>

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this worth $499 per year?

For active traders making 10+ trades annually, yes. The screener alone can justify the cost through better entry/exit timing. The main portfolio just booked a 248% gain on a half-position. If you’re a passive investor making one trade per quarter, probably not.

How accurate is the screener?

Based on nearly 5 years of use, the 8 fully closed AI Picks positions produced 3 winners averaging +66.75% and 5 losers averaging -18.35%. The win rate isn’t the story though. The winners were so large that the overall average across all 8 trades is still positive. The main portfolio’s top position booked a 248% gain. The system’s real strength is the combination of the Expert factor (institutional money flow) and the trailing stop-loss.

Can beginners use it?

If you understand basic concepts like P/E ratios, market cap, and what a dividend is, you’ll be fine. If you’re brand new to investing and those terms are foreign, start with index funds first. The interface has a learning curve and Marc doesn’t dumb things down.

Is this good for day trading?

No. The system is built for swing trading and position trading (holding 2-12 weeks). It updates weekly, not intraday. If you want minute-by-minute signals, look elsewhere.

What closed trades can you actually verify?

Eight AI Power Picks have fully closed with complete data: Adobe (+52%), IBM (+77.58%), CrowdStrike (+70.66%), Box (-14.94%), Zebra Technologies 1st position (-0.87%), AECOM (-29.31%), Zebra Technologies 2nd position (-30.46%), and Xometry (-16.18%). The main portfolio has also rotated positions, but the dashboard only shows open holdings, so those 8 are the ones I can verify with full entry-to-exit records.

What’s the difference between this and other stock screeners?

Most screeners like Finviz or Yahoo Finance focus purely on fundamentals or technicals. The 20-factor system weights institutional money flow (the “Expert” component) more heavily than traditional fundamentals, making it momentum-focused rather than value-focused. It tracks what “smart money” is actually doing, which is something most free tools completely miss.

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Disclosure

Full transparency: I paid for my own membership to test and use this service. Some links in this review are affiliate links where I may earn a commission if you join through them. My opinions are based on my actual experience as a member since October 2021. Review updated July 24, 2026.

Jeff