A few personal finance bloggers decided to have a friendly stock picking contest for 2009. We had made our picks back in December of 2008 and the plan was to track the calendar year performance of four picks (equal weighted for the sake of determining portfolio performance). As alluded to in my post that discussed my picks initially – don’t take these contests too seriously. A one year horizon is nothing more than gambling.

…and when I gamble, I go big or I go home, Baby!

My picks were pure swing for the fence plays – two of them were 300% leveraged ETFs, one was a 200% leveraged ETF and the fourth was a penny stock play. Leveraged ETFs only do well if the underlying investment goes in the intended direction with little to modest retracements (if you are holding them for any extended length of time). This is due to a compounding/de-compounding leverage risk. So far, the extreme market gyrations have decimated the picks – the total portfolio of four picks is down around 22% for the year! Of course, the year is young and compounding leverage can still work in my favour if markets turn around. So it is still possible to whup ass with three quarters to go. (It’s also possible to have my ass handed to me on a plate!).

You can read the original rationale for the picks on my original post back on January 1st, 2009.

In case you don’t read the original post, read this: THIS STOCK PICKING CONTEST IS JUST FOR FUN, IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN GAMBLING. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING THE STOCKS LISTED HERE OR ON ANY OF THE OTHER BLOGGERS’ SITES WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING A PROFESSIONAL FINANCIAL ADVISOR. IF YOU BUY THEM ANYWAYS, YOU MUST RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND BEFORE PLACING THE ORDER AND REPEAT, “I AM A NUTBAR”.

That being said…

Here are the individual stocks’ results on a year to date basis:

All together on an equal weighted basis, the portfolio is down a whopping 21.77%.

And here are the portfolio results for all the participants:

(Note you can click on the names to visit their stock pick reports for more details)

* denotes these blogs are posting their updates shortly.

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