The final week of the monthly (and quarterly) competitions!
June 23, 2008
Stocks tumbled sharply on Friday, fueled by on-going concerns about the financial sector and escalating energy prices. The NASDAQ index fell 2.27%; the Dow Jones sank more than 1.8%; and the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.85%. The financial sector was the main factor pulling the Dow down during the session after Merrill Lynch (MER) cut their earnings forecast for regional banks and was the target of rumors implying that the bank may issue profit warnings in the near future. The decline accelerated by a Lehman Brothers analyst prediction of write-downs (a reduction in the estimated or nominal value of an asset) for automakers Ford (F) and General Motors (GM). The technology sector also suffered from rebounding energy prices. Dell (DELL), Oracle (ORCL), and eBay (EBAY) were among the biggest decliners. U.S. light crude oil rose $2.72 a barrel to $134.65, following reports that Israel may be conducting military exercises as a preparation for an attack on Iran. Finally, the Dollar declined again in comparison to the Euro and the Yen. The above bad news were amplified by poor results of a couple of brokerage houses. This was in contrast with results of Yalicoo’s leaders, as detailed in the next paragraph.
FieldGoals dramatically increased his return this week to 17.18% and is maintaining his first place position
in the
monthly competition. As in the past, he decides to open this week with no stocks in his portfolio, probably predicting a continuation of the bearish market that we witnessed recently. BanderaS (9.19%) and tech (7.86%) improved their scores this week and rose to second and third places on the scoreboard. If you are a contrarian and think that the market has gone too low, especially the financial and airline sectors, you can find many interesting stocks inside BanderaS's portfolio, such as the diversified financial services company - Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), Ryanair Holdings (RYAAY), JetBlue Airways (JBLU) and UAL Corporation (UAUA). While in a contrarian view these stocks could be attractive and have good chances of rebounding and yield large gains in the near future, consider also the higher risk and larger volatility of these stocks. Since we have only about one week left for the monthly competition, a quick jump in price of these stocks could boost your portfolio’s return and place you in a much higher position in the competition.
As we get closer to the end of the quarter, the
quarterly competition becomes very interesting and tough. Agent (20.32%) is still leading with a substantial gap of more than 5% from Ach (15.20%) in second and ShimTom (12.02%) in third place. Both Ach and ShimTom are experienced players, thus the game is definitely not over yet. wOrStCaSe and BlowOut are also still in the picture for winning one of the three first places. As the market continues to be volatile, and since some of the players are loading substantial portions of their portfolios with energy stocks, it will not be surprising if we see dramatic changes on the scoreboard.
While you continue to compete in the current quarterly and
monthly competitions, keep in mind that new quarterly (and monthly) competitions are starting next week. Don’t be caught unprepared; previous competitions have shown that early birds sometimes succeed in increasing the gap from other players in the beginning of the competition. Thus, by registering early, you have improved chances to boost the value of your portfolio and eventually win the competition (and the cash prizes!) more easily.
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