For stocks, 2009 was one of the most eventful years ever. From the widespread fears of financial Armageddon that pounded the market at the beginning of the year, to the signs of “green shoots” of hope, to one of the strongest and swiftest market rallies in history, a myriad of factors caused stock prices — and investors’ emotions — to swing wildly.

In the end, the market ended up well in the black, and our Validea.com guru-based models did even better. While the S&P 500 rose 23.5%, John Reese’s 12 individual guru-based 10-stock portfolios gained an average of 34% for the year, and the Hot List portfolio — which uses a blend of all of the individual approaches — jumped 47%.

The biggest winner of ’09: The Joel Greenblatt-based 10-stock portfolio, which jumped 63.1%. Also near the top of the list were the Warren Buffett-inspired 10-stock portfolio, which gained more than 50%, and the Peter Lynch 10-stock portfolio, which gained more than 45%. And the Top 5 Gurus portfolio, which, like the Hot List, uses a multi-model approach, gained more than 55%. All in all, 11 of the 14 ten-stock portfolios beat the market; 12 of the 14 twenty-stock portfolios did so as well.

To read more about how Validea.com’s guru-inspired portfolios performed in ’09 (and over the long term), click here for a free special report.