Stock Check

Yowsers! Anybody who knows me recently knows that I've been gaga over stock picking lately. Well, I got hammered this week along with everyone else in the market. Luckily I had stop losses on everything so I didn't lose much. In fact, I'm even from where I was when I started back in September. And I don't feel bad because most of my picks are now lower than where I sold them. I could buy them back now at a cheaper price. That being said, I'm on the sidelines for most of this month, except for a double reverse ETF, MZZ, which will pay me the double the inverse of what the S&P Mid-Cap 400 does.

But I'm itching to get into Goldman Sachs (GS), New York Stock Exchange (NYX) and Devon (DVN).

Back on September 27,2006 I recommended four different stocks off the top of my head. I sold all of them within a couple months. But I decided to check back with them and see how they've done since I recommended them, as if I had held them the whole time.

Blackboard (BBBB) +13.6%
Crocs (CROX) +46.9%
PetSmart (PETM) +4.7%
Guitar Center (GTRC) -2.6%
Total gain (if they were weighted equally): +15.67%

S&P 500 gain over same time frame: +3.68%

I would have beat the market by 12% in that 5 month period. Of course, I'm wishing I had kept them, especially since I sold Crocs before its big run-up. But hindsight is 20/20.

I'm going to play the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. Starting Monda y, March 5, they will give you a million dollars in fake money and you pick stocks. The highest percentage gainer in one week will win $10,000 real money. The best over the course of ten weeks will win $1,000,000. They offer bonuses for referrals, so if you are interested, let me know so I can enter your email address in my referrals form and you can sign up. Even if you don't like to follow the market, you'll be helping me out.