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Today’s close was the end of the third quarter already. Time flies by. If I look at the rankings, it’s not yet up to par with the expectations, especially after winning the competition last year. But things are certainly getting better. As a reminder, at the end of the 2nd quarter, I was ranked #6 with a return of -19,06%. 3 months later, I still find myself in the #6 spot but I did improve my performance quite a bit and find myself much closer to most players.
My average stock return is now -7,86% and from day to day I have been swinging between the #4 and #6 ranks. Not saying it’s a bad return, but it’s not terrible either. Obviously, picking stocks for a 1 year period is quite different from the normal stock picks that I do here but there is still something interesting about it and I’m certainly learning my lessons!
Now back to my 4 picks:
1-Nickel ETF (JJN) 23,53%
JJN is not a highly traded ETF but is part of the group of metals that keeps on rising. I will be writing more about the metals (other than gold which was written about last week) but I am obviously happy with the performance. Metals have been mostly driven up by demand, mostly coming from Asia.
2-Natural Gas ETF (UNG) -38,90%
Disaster with this pick as Natural Gas continues to struggle. There is no doubt that I would have gotten out of this trade much earlier if it had been possible. Natural Gas futures are struggling to remain above 4$ and there continues to be more downside risk than anything else at this point.
3-Google (GOOG) -15,11%
Google had a very tough first 6 months and is now finally recovering. I think analysts and investors are finally seeing how much potential and how much of an impact its mobile O/S Android has. I have written about Google many times and certainly am a long term believer so it’s nice to see a turnaround.
4-Sohu (SOHU) -0,96%
Sohu has actually rebounded very nicely after tanking with much of the Chinese market. Apart from Baidu (BIDU), almost all Chinese tech stocks have headed down. It’s been difficult to play and is exactly why I have not been going long or short on these names much this year.
That is it! Hoping that I can gain a few more spots in the last quarter to be the top performer over 2 years:) Here is the competition so far:
Rank Prev Rank Blog Performance Top Pick
1 1 Dividend Growth Investor +21,34% Realty Income (O US)
2 2 The Wild Investor +8,35% Caterpillar (CAT US)
3 5 Zach Stocks +0,84% Silver ETF (SLV US)
4 3 My Traders Journal -1,31% Ishares Dividend ETF (VY US)
5 4 WheredoesallmyMoneygo -2,90% Cedar Fair (FUN US)
6 6 IntelligentSpeculator -7,86% Nickel ETF (JJN US)
7 9 Million Dollar Journey -10,46% QLT (QLT CT)
8 8 The Financial Blogger -15,24% Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO)
9 7 Four Pillars -27,07% Powershares DB Gold Short (DGZ US)
Similar Posts:
- 2010 Stock Picks
- Stock Picks competition (Q2 Update)
- Stock Pick Results-Q4
- 2010 Stock Picks: Q1 results
- 2009 Stock Picking competition – Q2 Results
Good luck in the future!
[...] Intelligent Speculator [...]
[...] Intelligent Speculator [...]
looks to me as though the natural gas etf
is the best buy. With winter coming on
and all?
(I don’t have a position in any of these etfs
or stocks)
I would think so but I would say that Natural Gas is the one commodity I’ve had most trouble understanding lately… so I’d be on the sidelines.
Hi,
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