TRADING BASICS
GPSM Top 45 Stocks
Written By Will Bell 28 Year Retail Trader
Key Takeaways
🔑 GPSM Top 45 narrows thousands of publicly traded companies into a manageable research universe.
🔑 The list spans large-cap leaders and smaller companies across technology, finance, healthcare, energy, and other industries.
45 Companies We Keep in Our Market Research Universe
About the GPSM Top 45: The GPSM Top 45 is an editorial stock-research list published for general educational and informational purposes. It is not a mutual fund, ETF, index, managed portfolio, model portfolio, securities rating, or recommendation to purchase or sell any security. Companies are not equally weighted, and inclusion does not indicate that GPSM expects a security to increase in value. The list may change without notice as company information and market conditions change. GPSM Stock Alerts, its owner, affiliates, employees, or contributors may hold positions in, or trade, securities discussed in the GPSM Top 45. These positions may change at any time without notice.
Open almost any stock screener and you'll understand the problem immediately.
🟢 Thousands of publicly traded companies.
➡️ Thousands of charts.
Thousands of earnings reports, announcements, filings and price movements competing for attention.
Trying to follow everything is not research at some point, it simply becomes noise.
That's why we built the GPSM Top 45.
This is the group of companies we keep close enough to study regularly.
It gives us a working view across artificial intelligence, semiconductors, cloud computing, banking, payments, healthcare, consumer spending, energy, industrial activity and smaller U.S. companies.
You'll recognize some of the names immediately.
Apple.
NVIDIA.
Microsoft.
JPMorgan.
Others probably won't appear on financial television every afternoon.
That's intentional.
➡️ The U.S. stock market is much bigger than the handful of mega-cap companies dominating the headlines.
First, Understand What the GPSM Top 45 is.... the name might create the wrong impression if we don't explain it.
The GPSM Top 45 is not a fund... it isn't an ETF... it isn't an index... it isn't a managed portfolio or model portfolio. And it isn't a list of 45 stocks we believe everybody should go out and own because there are no target allocations attached to the list.
These are companies we want within reach because they help us study different businesses, industries and parts of the market.
Some will remain here for a long time.
Others may disappear when the facts change.
Research List Updated: Oct 28, 2026
AI, Technology & Digital Infrastructure
1. NVIDIA | NVDA
You can't spend much time studying today's AI infrastructure buildout without eventually arriving at NVIDIA. The company sits at the center of several areas we want to follow closely, including GPUs, networking and data-center demand.
What makes NVIDIA particularly useful from a research standpoint is that it can tell us something about the scale and durability of technology spending well beyond the company itself. The stock may get most of the attention.
We're just as interested in what the underlying demand says about the broader AI investment cycle.
2. Apple | AAPL
Apple is easy to reduce to one product. That would be a mistake. The iPhone still matters enormously, but the business also includes services, custom silicon, a massive installed-device base and an evolving approach to artificial intelligence.
Hardware replacement cycles remain worth watching, but they are only one part of the Apple story now.
3. Microsoft | MSFT
Microsoft gives us several major technology businesses under one roof.
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Enterprise software.
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Cloud computing.
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Artificial intelligence.
Azure growth is an obvious area to watch, but so is the enormous investment required to build the infrastructure supporting AI demand. That makes Microsoft useful when studying both the opportunity and the cost of the current technology cycle.
4. Amazon | AMZN
Most consumers know Amazon for packages showing up on the doorstep. From an investment-research standpoint, that is only part of the company.
AWS and advertising have very different economics from traditional retail, and those businesses can materially influence Amazon's overall financial picture.
We watch cloud demand, consumer activity and how changes in the business mix affect operating margins.
5. Alphabet | GOOGL
Alphabet owns one of the most powerful businesses ever built around internet search. Now AI is changing the way people find and interact with information. That makes the company particularly interesting.
Search still matters.
So do YouTube, Google Cloud and the enormous digital-advertising operation supporting the business. The question isn't simply whether Alphabet participates in AI. It's how AI changes the economics of businesses that already operate at enormous scale.
6. Meta Platforms | META
🟢 Meta controls two of the world's largest social platforms through Facebook and Instagram. That gives the company tremendous reach for advertisers.
Artificial intelligence increasingly touches recommendation systems, ad tools and consumer products, while infrastructure spending remains a major financial consideration. With Meta, we want to understand both sides of that equation. What is AI improving? And what does it cost to build?
7. Broadcom | AVGO
Broadcom isn't always the first company consumers think of when they hear “AI.” Behind the scenes, though, it touches a surprising amount of modern computing infrastructure.
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Semiconductors.
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Networking.
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Custom silicon.
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Enterprise software.
That combination makes Broadcom useful for studying some of the less visible machinery underneath the technology buildout.
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8. Taiwan Semiconductor | TSM
Many leading chip designers don't manufacture their most advanced products themselves. They depend on TSMC.
That puts Taiwan Semiconductor in a unique position within the global technology supply chain. Demand matters.
Manufacturing capacity matters. So does geopolitical exposure. This is one of those companies where industry analysis and risk analysis have to happen together.
9. Advanced Micro Devices | AMD
AMD gives us another perspective on processors, data centers and AI accelerators. The research question here isn't simply whether AI demand continues. We're also interested in how widely that demand spreads.
If the AI-computing market broadens beyond today's dominant players, AMD is one of the companies worth watching closely.
10. Oracle | ORCL
Oracle has become increasingly difficult to discuss as merely a legacy enterprise-software company. Cloud infrastructure and AI-related demand have become much more important to the story.
Backlog can tell us something.
Data-center expansion can tell us something else. And then comes the expensive part. How much capital will be required to support that growth? That's where the research becomes more interesting than simply looking at quarterly revenue.
11. Micron Technology | MU
Memory markets have a habit of reminding investors that technology can still be highly cyclical. That's part of what makes Micron useful.
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Pricing can change.
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Inventories can change.
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Demand can change.
High-bandwidth memory introduces another important variable. During different points in the semiconductor cycle, Micron's financial picture can shift considerably.
12. Salesforce | CRM
Salesforce gives us a direct look into enterprise software spending. AI adds another possible source of demand, but that's only the beginning of the research. Are subscriptions growing? What are margins doing? Are new AI-related products translating into measurable business?
The story matters. The numbers still have to show up eventually.
13. Palantir Technologies | PLTR
Few companies have become more closely associated with enterprise AI enthusiasm than Palantir. Its business spans government and commercial data systems, which makes growth important. But growth is only half the conversation.
Expectations matter too. So does valuation. A company can execute well while investors simultaneously demand an enormous amount from the stock. That's why Palantir remains interesting to study.
14. ServiceNow | NOW
ServiceNow works inside large organizations, helping automate workflows and business processes. Its growing AI capabilities make the company useful for a different reason.
We can watch whether corporations move beyond AI experimentation and begin incorporating these tools into real operating systems at scale. That's a much more meaningful signal than simply counting how many companies mention AI on an earnings call.
15. JPMorgan Chase | JPM
If you're trying to understand the U.S. financial system through one company, JPMorgan gives you a lot to work with.
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Consumer banking.
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Commercial lending.
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Investment banking.
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Payments.
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Trading.
Few businesses touch so many different parts of finance. That's why JPMorgan stays on our desk. Sometimes the company itself is the story.
Other times, what it's seeing tells us something about the economy around it.
16. Blackstone | BX
🟢 Blackstone takes us somewhere very different from traditional banking. Private equity, real estate, credit and alternative assets all live inside the business.
That means fundraising matters. Investment activity matters. Capital-market conditions matter. And when markets change, the effects can show up here differently than they would at a conventional bank.
17. Visa | V
Visa doesn't operate like a normal lender. It sits between consumers, merchants and financial institutions, processing enormous amounts of payment activity.
That makes transaction volume interesting. International spending can be even more revealing. Travel, consumption and broader economic activity often leave fingerprints in the payment networks.
18. Mastercard | MA
Mastercard offers a similar window into global electronic payments. Cross-border activity is especially worth watching because it can reflect changes in travel and international consumer behavior.
This isn't simply a story about plastic cards. It's about the infrastructure moving money around the economy.
Healthcare, Consumer, Energy & Industry.
19. Eli Lilly | LLY
Lilly has become particularly important because of demand for metabolic-disease treatments. That demand understandably gets attention.
We also want to know whether manufacturing capacity can keep pace and what happens elsewhere in the pharmaceutical pipeline. Today's successful product matters. So does what comes next.
20. Costco Wholesale | COST
Costco gives us an interesting combination of retail activity and recurring membership economics. Store traffic matters. Renewal rates matter. Margins matter.
And because Costco touches such a large consumer base, the company's results can also provide clues about household spending behavior.
21. Walmart | WMT
Walmart sees the American consumer at enormous scale.
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Grocery.
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General merchandise.
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E-commerce.
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Advertising.
Those businesses react differently to shifts in consumer spending, which makes Walmart useful beyond simply asking whether quarterly sales increased. Sometimes the mix tells us as much as the total.
22. Exxon Mobil | XOM
Energy needs a place in any broad market research universe, and Exxon gives us that exposure. Oil and natural-gas prices are obvious variables. Production matters too. So does refining. And capital discipline can become particularly important when commodity conditions change.
23. Caterpillar | CAT
Caterpillar equipment shows up wherever large physical projects are being built or operated.
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Construction.
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Mining.
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Energy.
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Infrastructure.
That makes the company a useful industrial bellwether. When activity changes across those industries, Caterpillar can help us see it from another angle.
24. GE Aerospace | GE
Commercial aviation operates on long cycles. Aircraft get built. Engines are installed. Then service activity can continue for years.
GE Aerospace's installed engine base therefore gives us more than a view of aircraft production. The recurring service economics are a major part of the research too.
25. Berkshire Hathaway | BRK.B
Berkshire refuses to fit neatly into one sector.
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Insurance.
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Railroads.
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Energy.
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Manufacturing.
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A large investment portfolio.
Instead of treating that complexity as a problem, we think it's exactly what makes Berkshire useful. It is essentially an ongoing case study in capital allocation across very different businesses.
The Russell 2000 Research Bench
The second half of the GPSM Top 45 intentionally looks different.
🟢 Mega-cap stocks dominate financial headlines. We want smaller companies represented too.
For this version of the list, these companies appeared in the September 25, 2026 holdings of the iShares Russell 2000 ETF used as the research reference for this section.
That doesn't make them permanent members of the GPSM list. Russell 2000 composition changes. IWM holdings change. Our list can change with them.
26. Moog | MOG.A
Moog makes precision systems used across aerospace, defense and industrial applications. We keep an eye on backlog and aerospace demand here. It's a smaller industrial company, but the end markets it serves can reveal quite a bit about capital spending and production activity.
27. UMB Financial | UMBF
JPMorgan tells us one banking story. UMB Financial tells us another. Regional banks operate with a different mix of customers and exposures. Deposits, lending activity, credit quality and interest rates therefore become the center of the research.
28. 10x Genomics | TXG
10x Genomics sits inside life-sciences research rather than traditional healthcare delivery. That distinction matters.
Demand can depend heavily on spending by laboratories, universities and research institutions.
When those budgets change, smaller life-science suppliers can feel it quickly.
29. Hut | HUT
Hut brings together digital infrastructure and substantial energy requirements. That creates a different research equation.
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Power costs matter.
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Financing matters.
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Data-center development matters.
The technology story can't really be separated from the capital required to support it.
30. JFrog | FROG
JFrog operates behind the scenes in software development. It isn't a household name, and that's part of why we like having it here. Recurring enterprise revenue and cloud adoption give us a smaller software business to compare with the enormous companies elsewhere in the list.
31. BrightSpring Health Services | BTSG
BrightSpring operates across home and community healthcare services. Patient activity matters, but reimbursement can be just as important. So can execution.
Healthcare service businesses often have very different economics from pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies.
That's exactly why BrightSpring belongs in the mix.
32. Viasat | VSAT
Satellite communications require a lot of infrastructure. And infrastructure usually requires capital. That makes Viasat interesting from several directions at once.
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Network investment.
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Debt.
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Government demand.
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Commercial customers.
The technology may grab attention, but the balance-sheet side can't be ignored.
33. Krystal Biotech | KRYS
Krystal brings genetic medicine into the research universe. Biotechnology companies can change character quickly as products move from development into commercial use.
🟢 That means adoption and pipeline progress can matter much more here than some of the traditional metrics we'd emphasize with a mature company.
34. Brinker International | EAT
Chili's makes Brinker an unusually direct read on consumer restaurant spending.
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Traffic matters.
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Menu pricing matters.
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Labor matters.
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Food costs matter.
Small changes in any of those can move operating margins faster than many investors expect.
35. Old National Bancorp | ONB
Old National gives us another regional-bank perspective. The research questions are familiar because they need to be.
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Deposits.
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Loan demand.
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Net interest margins.
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Credit quality.
And whether losses are moving in the wrong direction.
36. CareTrust REIT | CTRE
CareTrust approaches healthcare through real estate. That makes the research different from studying a hospital operator, pharmaceutical company or medical-device manufacturer.
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Tenant health matters.
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Acquisition activity matters.
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Financing costs matter.
The properties are physical assets, but the financial structure behind them is just as important.
37. Glaukos | GKOS
Glaukos develops products used in eye care. We watch procedure growth, product adoption and reimbursement.
In medical technology, a good product alone doesn't tell the whole story.
How physicians adopt it and how the economics work around it can matter just as much.
38. FirstCash Holdings | FCFS
FirstCash gives us exposure to pawn and consumer-finance businesses. That's a very different corner of finance from JPMorgan, Visa or UMB. Consumer liquidity and merchandise activity become central here, providing another way to study household financial pressure and spending behavior.
39. InterDigital | IDCC
InterDigital develops communications technology and earns revenue through intellectual-property licensing. That economic model is very different from manufacturing chips, phones or networking hardware.
Licensing changes how we think about revenue, margins and the assets driving the business.
40. Cytokinetics | CYTK
🟢 For biotechnology companies, a single development or commercialization milestone can matter enormously.
Cytokinetics gives us another way to study that dynamic. The company isn't researched the same way we'd research Walmart or Caterpillar. It shouldn't be.
41. Protagonist Therapeutics | PTGX
Protagonist develops peptide-based medicines.
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Research progress matters.
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Partnerships matter.
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Regulatory milestones matter.
This is another company where the timing of clinical and regulatory developments can outweigh traditional mature-company metrics.
42. TG Therapeutics | TGTX
TG Therapeutics brings a commercial-stage healthcare company into the smaller-company group. Here we can move beyond development alone and study product demand and the economics of commercialization.
That's a different phase of the biotechnology story.
43. SM Energy | SM
SM Energy gives the smaller-company group direct commodity exposure.
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Production matters.
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Drilling economics matter.
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Energy prices matter.
And because commodity conditions can change rapidly, the financial picture can look very different from one environment to another.
44. Ryman Hospitality Properties | RHP
Ryman combines hospitality real estate with destination and entertainment properties. That means several things can influence results at the same time.
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Travel demand.
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Occupancy.
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Consumer activity.
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Financing condition
💚 It's a useful company for studying how real estate and discretionary spending can intersect.
45. MaxLinear | MXL
MaxLinear gives the list a smaller semiconductor and communications-technology company. Product cycles and customer demand can create a very different pattern here than what we might see at NVIDIA, Broadcom or TSMC.
That contrast is part of the reason it's worth following.
Why 45 Stocks?
There isn't anything magical about 45. We needed enough companies to see different parts of the market without building another giant watchlist that nobody realistically follows.
20 would have been too narrow.
500 would defeat the purpose.
🟢 The large companies help us monitor AI spending, cloud computing, payments, banking, healthcare, consumer activity, energy and industrial demand.
Then the Russell 2000 side makes us leave the comfort of the mega-cap world.
Regional banks... Biotechnology... Medical technology... Energy.
🟢 That mix matters.
If all you ever study are the companies already dominating the S&P 500, you're looking at a very important part of the market.
But still only a part.
How We Think the GPSM Top 45 Should Be Used... Don't use this page like a shopping list.
That's not what it was built for.
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Pick one company.
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Then start digging.
Look at revenue.
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Earnings.
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Margins.
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Cash flow.
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Check the balance sheet.
See what the company has announced recently.
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Pull up the chart.
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Study volume.
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Look at liquidity.
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Ask what has changed.
Then decide whether the company deserves more of your time.
Research should be allowed to end with different conclusions. Sometimes the fundamentals look favorable.
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Sometimes valuation becomes difficult to justify.
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Sometimes the risks are more interesting than the opportunity.
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Sometimes the company simply stops earning a place on the list.
That's research!
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