There's a really unique investment company in Europe you ought to know about… because they are insanely profitable.

In fact, a few days ago the company announced that they expect to report an annual profit of $55 BILLION for 2017.

That's more money than Apple makes… which makes this European group THE most profitable company in the world.

Its stock price has more than QUINTUPLED in the past three years, and nearly tripled in the last nine months.

Those are practically cryptocurrency returns. And it crushes the stock performance of Apple, Amazon, etc.

What's even more impressive is that, while Apple and other highly profitable companies like Berkshire Hathaway, PetroChina, and JP Morgan Chase often have tens of thousands of employees or more, these guys only have around 800.

It's an absolutely amazing business… But I haven't even told you the best part yet.

They have a LEGAL monopoly on their product.

Literally ZERO other companies are allowed to compete with them. So they have a lock on the entire market. It's extraordinary.

You might not be familiar with the company… but you've undoubtedly heard of its product.

It's the Swiss franc.

And the company is Swiss National Bank (SNB), i.e. the central bank of Switzerland.

Yes, the Swiss National Bank is actually a publicly traded company, just like Apple or General Electric; it's listed on the stock market in Switzerland under the ticker symbol SNBN.

And yes, the SNB really is the most profitable publicly-traded company in the world. The chairman of the bank expects they made $55 BILLION in 2017.

To put that number in context, $55 billion is equal to roughly 8% of the entire Swiss economy.

The equivalent amount in the United States would be $1.5 TRILLION. So, yeah, it's a lot.

You might be wondering– how is it possible that a central bank made such a staggering sum of money?

It's an easy, four-step strategy.

Step 1: Obtain a monopoly on the currency.

Ensure that you, and you alone, have the authority to conjure as much money as you want out of thin air, and that everyone else in the country is required to use it.

Step 2: Print countless amounts of money to inflate asset prices

Like most central banks, the Swiss National Bank ballooned its balance sheet after the financial crisis kicked off in 2008, growing its size EIGHT TIMES from roughly 100 billion francs to over 800 billion.