The S&P 500 has averaged 13% per year. Yet most investors only see around 8% annually. That underperformance means they’re not actually making money relative to the market. Many are starting to catch on and look for better options.

That’s one reason alternative investments — real estate, commodities, private equity, hedge funds — have surged in popularity. But most alternative assets return about 15% per year at best. One standout is Blackstone, which has outpaced the S&P by 6% annually over the past 15 years.

This is where the Stars model comes in. It’s a different kind of alternative — a disciplined, model-based approach that consistently beats the S&P without relying on bonds or cookie-cutter allocations. The current version has outperformed the S&P by 19 percentage points annually over the past 14 years.

And we’re just getting started. Our next version of Stars will capture 19 intra-year corrections instead of 4. That upgrade could add another 10 percentage points per year, pushing total returns closer to 40% annually over the long term.

Investing doesn’t have to mean accepting underperformance — you just need a better model.