Meet Chris Camillo, self-taught investor who put $20,000 into stocks in 2007; 3 years later, his portfolio had topped $2 million

In 2007, Chris Camillo started investing in the stock market with just $20,000. He was not a professional fund manager or a financial advisor. Instead, he was a self-taught investor who believed that everyday changes in people's behaviour could reveal opportunities in the stock market.

Within three years, his investment had grown to more than $2 million, according to media reports. Camillo later founded TickerTags, a social analytics company, and wrote the book Laughing at Wall Street: How I Beat the Pros at Investing. His investment journey also featured in financial publication Benzinga in 2019.

All about Chris Camillo and his journey

Apart from being an investor, author, and entrepreneur, Chris Camillo is also known for developing an investment approach called social arbitrage. It involves identifying changes in consumer behaviour before they become widely recognised by the financial markets.


Camillo began investing in 2007 with $20,000. According to reports, he grew the amount to more than $2 million within three years. His profile also states that an independent audit of his account showed average annual returns of more than 80% over seven years.

Benzinga reported in May 2019 that Camillo had generated nearly $10 million in stock-market returns between 2007 and 2017. The report said he hired an independent accountant to verify his performance before publishing his results online.

What is social arbitrage, and how does he use it?

Social arbitrage is based on identifying changes in people's interests, buying habits and opinions before the stock market fully responds to them.

Rather that relying only on traditional financial information, Camillo studies what consumers are discussing and experiencing. He then tries to connect those trends to businesses that could see an increase or decrease in demand.

The idea is to identify a change early, assess which company could benefit from it and invest before the information becomes widely known to other market participants.

Benzinga reported that Camillo used social data to study consumer experiences and emerging trends. The approach aims to find gaps between what people are already doing and what investors have recognised about the possible impact on companies.

He also once explained in an interview that he made one or two large investments a year and used leveraged options, which can magnify both gains and losses. His results therefore involved substantial risk and were not simply the product of ordinary stock purchases.

His story later became the basis of 'Laughing at Wall Street,' which describes his approach to finding investment opportunities outside traditional financial analysis.