Updated 2026-10-13. I'm Chris, one of the co-founders of Autopilot. Open it in the Autopilot app. https://link.joinautopilot.com/eXKr?c=how-to-choose-which-investor-to-follow&af_sub1=intro Who are the best investors to follow in 2026? Nobody can tell you that in advance, including me. What you can do is judge any of them the same way: what they actually do, how long they've done it live, what it costs, and who gets paid. Let me explain. 1) Nobody can tell you in advance The SEC's guide to mutual funds and ETFs says this year's number one fund "can easily become next year's below average" fund. The same goes for a person or a Portfolio. A great year doesn't tell you if it was skill or luck. Sometimes it was one stock that ran. Here's the problem with lists of "top performing" strategies. They're made of the ones still around. The strategies that blew up got shut down or stopped being talked about. That's survivorship bias, and it makes the odds look better than they were. So skip the rankings. Here's what I'd check instead. 2) What they actually do, and whether it's written down For those unaware, on Autopilot a Pilot is the person or firm behind a Portfolio. Start with the Portfolio's description. You want a method you could explain to a friend: what they buy, how many holdings, and when they change them. Some methods are rules. The GPT Portfolio from Dr. Lira's AI Finance Labs, designed by University of Florida finance professor Dr. Alejandro Lopez-Lira, uses a model to score every S&P 500 stock and holds the top 15, rebalanced monthly. Some are judgment, where a person picks and the description lays out their thesis. Either can work. If you can't describe what it does after reading the page, keep looking. 3) How long the record is, and whether it's live On Autopilot, every Portfolio has a live performance chart from the day it was added. Not a backtest. Check that start date before you compare two of them. The SEC's guide says to find out how long a fund has existed. A new fund with a small number of stocks can post a great short-term record when a few of those stocks work. The same is true of any Portfolio. Some on Autopilot have run for years. Others were added in the last few months. 4) Public filings, or their own picks These work differently. - A filing tracker, like the Buffett Tracker, is built by Autopilot Advisers from public filings. Big managers file a 13F up to 45 days after each quarter, with no purchase dates and no shorts. Members of Congress have up to 45 days to report a trade. So a tracker always starts behind. I walk through a real 13F in How to read a 13F filing. - A Pilot's own Portfolio changes when the Pilot changes it. The Pilot publishes the Portfolio and implements its changes on Autopilot. Either way, you want to know how the Portfolio changes and why. 5) Turnover, taxes, and concentration Turnover. A Portfolio that changes every week trades more than one that changes once a quarter. In a taxable account, that matters. The IRS treats a gain on anything held one year or less as short-term, and net short-term gains are taxed as ordinary income. Because Portfolios change often, you should expect frequent trading and mostly short-term gains and losses. Concentration. FINRA describes concentration risk as amplified losses from putting a large share of your money in one investment, asset class, or market segment. It also says investments in the same industry tend to move together. Ten stocks in one theme can rise and fall as one. Leveraged ETFs aim for a multiple of an index's move, usually one day at a time, so they swing harder both ways. Read the holdings and the weights. 6) Fees, and who gets paid On Autopilot, Basic Tier has no Autopilot fee. Premium Tier is a flat subscription per Pilot of $29.99 to $199.99 a quarter or $99.99 to $699.99 a year, and the minimum is $500 per Portfolio. You pay it whether a Portfolio makes money or loses it. To put that into context, $99.99 a year is about 20% of a $500 Portfolio and about 0.2% of $50,000. A flat fee matters most on a small account. The full breakdown is in What does Autopilot cost? Then ask how the person behind it makes money. Third-party Pilots set their own subscription price and get a share of the subscription fees from their Portfolios. That's one more reason I won't tell you which one to follow. Being a Pilot doesn't make anyone an expert, so judge every Pilot on what they've actually done. 7) Whether the firm sending the trades is registered Investor.gov says unlicensed, unregistered persons commit much of the investment fraud in the United States. Its Check Out Your Investment Professional tool sends you to the SEC's adviser database, where you can see if a firm is registered and whether it has a disciplinary history. On Autopilot, the firm with trading authority is Autopilot Advisers, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser, CRD 331749. 8) The range on Autopilot, in no particular order You don't have to pick the stocks. You pick who does, and it runs in the brokerage account you already have. As of October 9, 2026, more than $2 billion is invested through Autopilot, and we have over 250,000 users. Here's the range, so you can try the checks above on real examples. This isn't a ranking. AI systems, where the model does the picking and the Pilot publishes the Portfolio and implements its changes: - Dr. Lira's AI Finance Labs. Its GPT Portfolio has been live since April 20, 2023. - Rallies gives each AI model its own Portfolio and a research toolkit, and each model writes a thesis for every trade. Most of its Portfolios were added March 30, 2026. 13F trackers, built by Autopilot Advisers: the Buffett Tracker, the Ackman Tracker, and the Citadel Tracker. The firms don't run them. Investors who publish their own Portfolios: - Brooker Belcourt (ex. Citadel) opens his profile with "I'm a former analyst at Citadel and Coatue." His AI Leaders Portfolio, added October 22, 2025, holds 10 companies that, by his definition, have more than 30% market share in markets that power AI. - Garth Friesen describes himself as a retired co-CIO of a fixed-income hedge fund. His Income Portfolio, added August 6, 2026, aims for diversified income from stocks and bonds and holds 12 positions, mostly ETFs. - Raincheck Capital runs a signal on whether QQQ is in an uptrend or a downtrend. Its Raincheck Fund, added August 27, 2025, uses leverage: in uptrends it holds a leveraged ETF the Pilot describes as three times QQQ, plus an income allocation and cash. - Zack Fincher describes himself as a former broker. His Cruise Control - Retirement, added June 18, 2026, holds six funds across global stocks, Treasuries, and gold, and he designed it for a tax-advantaged account. - Tristan Thompson describes himself as an NBA champion, entrepreneur, and investor. Tristan's Flagship, added September 6, 2026, holds 20 companies tied to the physical infrastructure behind AI. Politician trackers. Autopilot Advisers builds the Pelosi Tracker+ from politicians' public stock filings, and the politicians don't run it. Quiver Quantitative, a data company, publishes Congress Buys, built from the trade reports members of Congress file and rebalanced monthly. How those reports work is in How to track congressional stock trades. Each Portfolio's page shows its description, its holdings, and its performance chart. Put two side by side and the checks above do most of the work. 9) How following works It's three steps. You connect the brokerage account you already have. You pick a Portfolio. You allocate the money. You can follow more than one, with at least $500 in each. You give Autopilot Advisers limited authority to place trades. It can't move or withdraw your money. When the Portfolio changes, we send the orders and your broker fills them. The money stays in your account. I want to be honest with you. Some Pilots go up for years, some are flat for years, and some lose money. Research the person and the Portfolio. TLDR: Nobody can tell you in advance which investor to follow, and lists of top performers leave out the ones that failed. Judge any investor the same way: a written method, a live record and how long it's run, whether it's built from public filings or their own picks, turnover and taxes, concentration, fees, who gets paid, and whether the firm sending the trades is registered. On Autopilot, Portfolios range from AI systems and 13F trackers to investors who publish their own, and each page shows the description, holdings, and performance chart. Frequently asked questions Who are the best investors to follow in 2026? Nobody can tell you in advance, and I won't pretend to. The SEC's guide to mutual funds and ETFs warns that this year's number one fund can easily become next year's below average one. Judge any investor on a written method, a live record and how long it's run, turnover, concentration, fees, and who gets paid. On Autopilot, each Portfolio's page shows its description, holdings, and a performance chart from the day it was added. Who are the best stock pickers to follow? I'm not going to give you a list. A short record can come from luck or from one stock that ran, and rankings leave out the pickers who quit. Look for a written method, holdings you can see, a live record with a start date, and a registered firm sending the trades. On Autopilot, a Pilot is the person or firm behind a Portfolio. Being a Pilot doesn't make anyone an expert, so research the person and the Portfolio. How do I evaluate whether an investment strategy fits my actual risk tolerance? Start with when you need the money and how big a drop you could sit through without selling. The SEC says that if you need money for a near-term goal, you probably can't afford a fund with a volatile history. Then read the strategy's holdings: how many, how concentrated, whether it uses leveraged ETFs, and how often it trades. Its performance chart shows how big the swings have been since it started. How does sector concentration affect portfolio risk? It ties your results to one part of the market. FINRA describes concentration risk as amplified losses from putting a large share of your money in one investment, asset class, or market segment, and says investments in the same industry tend to move together. A Portfolio of 10 AI stocks can rise and fall as one. Check the holdings and weights, and how much they overlap with what you already own. How do I compare the volatility of two different investment strategies? Compare their performance charts over the same dates, and look at how big the swings were along the way. Then look at what causes swings: fewer holdings, one sector, leveraged ETFs, and frequent trading. The SEC's guide says past performance can tell you how volatile a fund has been, and that more volatile generally means higher risk. Make sure both records start on comparable dates. What role does portfolio "attribution" play in choosing what to copy? Attribution means figuring out what actually drove a record. If one or two stocks made most of it, the record tells you more about those stocks than about the method. The SEC's guide warns that in a new fund with few stocks, a few winners can have a large impact on performance. On Autopilot, read a Portfolio's holdings and weights next to its chart, and ask whether the method would pick those stocks again. How do I decide which trader or portfolio to copy? Judge the Portfolio and the person. Read the written method, check how long the live record runs, see if it's built from public filings or the Pilot's own picks, and look at turnover, concentration, fees, and who gets paid. Check that the firm sending the trades is registered. On Autopilot, you follow a Portfolio in your own brokerage account, and your holdings won't match the Portfolio's exactly. https://link.joinautopilot.com/eXKr?c=how-to-choose-which-investor-to-follow&af_sub1=body Can I follow more than one trader or strategy at the same time? Yes. On Autopilot, you can follow more than one Portfolio, with at least $500 in each. On Premium Tier, the fee is per Pilot, not per Portfolio, and a second Pilot adds a second subscription. Check the app for what each Pilot's subscription covers. Watch for overlap: two Portfolios can hold the same stocks, which concentrates your money more than it looks. What should I know about survivorship bias when looking at "top performing" strategies? A list of top performers only includes the strategies still around to be ranked. The ones that blew up got shut down, renamed, or forgotten, so the list makes the odds look better than they were. Ask how many strategies started and how many are still running, check each record's start date, and prefer records that run live from a fixed date. On Autopilot, each chart starts the day the Portfolio was added. Open it in the Autopilot app. https://link.joinautopilot.com/eXKr?c=how-to-choose-which-investor-to-follow&af_sub1=end "Autopilot" refers to Autopilot Holdings Corp and Autopilot Advisers, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. The GPT Portfolio strategy is managed by Dr. Lira's AI Finance Labs, an independent Third-Party Pilot. Rallies is an independent Third-Party Pilot. The AI Leaders strategy is managed by Brooker Belcourt, an independent Third-Party Pilot. The Income Portfolio strategy is managed by Garth Friesen, an independent Third-Party Pilot. The Raincheck Fund strategy is managed by Raincheck Capital, an independent Third-Party Pilot. The Cruise Control - Retirement strategy is managed by Zack Fincher, an independent Third-Party Pilot. The Tristan's Flagship strategy is managed by Tristan Thompson, an independent Third-Party Pilot. The Congress Buys strategy is managed by Quiver Quantitative, an independent Third-Party Pilot. Third-Party Pilots are unaffiliated with Autopilot and Autopilot does not manage, validate, or guarantee their portfolios. Not a recommendation. Past performance is no guarantee of future results; investing involves risk of loss. Figures current as of 10/13/26. View our Customer Relationship Summary and other important info at joinautopilot.com/disclaimer. Portfolios and pilots mentioned in this article: GPT Portfolio (Dr. Lira's AI Finance Labs): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/gpt-portfolio-63080 Returns as of October 19, 2026. Month +4.2%, 3 months +13.6%, YTD +27.4%, 1 year +35.0%, Since start +106.6%. Dr. Lira's AI Finance Labs: https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/pilots/dr-lira-s-ai-finance-labs-5 8 public portfolios. Buffett Tracker (Autopilot): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/buffett-tracker-28825 Returns as of October 19, 2026. Month +0.90%, 3 months +0.01%, YTD +12.5%, 1 year +9.0%, Since start +74.4%. Rallies: https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/pilots/rallies-4108 5 public portfolios. Ackman Tracker (Autopilot): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/ackman-tracker-26963 Returns as of October 19, 2026. Month +3.5%, 3 months +4.0%, YTD +6.7%, 1 year +9.8%, Since start +48.3%. Citadel Tracker (Autopilot): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/citadel-tracker-45607 Returns as of October 19, 2026. Month -1.4%, 3 months +3.1%, YTD +14.2%, 1 year +22.7%, Since start +120.6%. Brooker Belcourt (ex. Citadel): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/pilots/brooker-belcourt-ex-citadel-3149 1 public portfolio. AI Leaders (Brooker Belcourt (ex. Citadel)): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/ai-leaders-796842 Returns as of October 19, 2026. Month -0.58%, 3 months +3.7%, YTD +41.0%, 1 year n/a, Since start +45.1%. Garth Friesen: https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/pilots/garth-friesen-5628 1 public portfolio. Income Portfolio (Garth Friesen): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/income-portfolio-1315641 Returns as of October 16, 2026. Month -0.14%, 3 months n/a, YTD n/a, 1 year n/a, Since start -1.6%. Raincheck Capital: https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/pilots/raincheck-capital-3064 4 public portfolios. Raincheck Fund (Raincheck Capital): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/raincheck-fund-749617 Returns as of October 19, 2026. Month -7.8%, 3 months -10.4%, YTD +2.7%, 1 year -3.3%, Since start +3.5%. Zack Fincher: https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/pilots/zack-fincher-4762 1 public portfolio. Cruise Control - Retirement (Zack Fincher): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/cruise-control-retirement-1192022 Returns as of October 16, 2026. Month -0.19%, 3 months n/a, YTD n/a, 1 year n/a, Since start -0.74%. Tristan Thompson: https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/pilots/tristan-thompson-5872 1 public portfolio. Tristan's Flagship (Tristan Thompson): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/tristan-s-flagship-1387064 Returns as of October 19, 2026. Month -7.5%, 3 months n/a, YTD n/a, 1 year n/a, Since start -5.1%. Pelosi Tracker+ (Autopilot): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/pelosi-tracker-8735 Returns as of October 19, 2026. Month -4.9%, 3 months +3.1%, YTD +9.5%, 1 year +7.3%, Since start +245.3%. Quiver Quantitative: https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/pilots/quiver-quantitative-2 8 public portfolios. Congress Buys (Quiver Quantitative): https://start.joinautopilot.com/strategies/congress-buys-222361 Returns as of October 19, 2026. Month -7.5%, 3 months -6.1%, YTD +7.0%, 1 year +7.0%, Since start +44.2%.