The Motley Fool's 'absurdly cheap' picks trail the S&P 500 by 0.6 points after 3 days

3 Days Later — Oct 16, 2026

How are The Motley Fool's October 2026 cheap stock picks performing so far?

Three days into tracking, The Motley Fool's October picks are down 2.5% on average, lagging the S&P 500's 1.9% decline by 0.6 percentage points. Author David Jagielski, CPA, highlighted three stocks as "absurdly cheap" in an article published October 13.

Two of the three picks are outperforming the broader index. Verizon (VZ) leads with a 4.7% gain, offsetting losses elsewhere in the small basket.

Three-day windows capture short-term volatility, not thesis validation. The portfolio's average sits slightly below the market benchmark at this early checkpoint.