So as the trading year for 2009 has come to a close it’s time to reflect on the results of the 2009 Bloggers’ Stockpicking Contest. My four picks averaged +56.14% for the year. Here is a more detailed recap of the individual picks… (full rankings at bottom of this post)
EDC.us: Direxion Emerging Markets 3X Bull, up 158.66%. This is a triple leveraged ETF trading in the US which seeks to track 300% of the daily performance of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. As I’ve mentioned before, with any daily leveraged ETF you have to be right in direction and path over longer periods of time, and luckily this one worked out.
ENA.to: Enablence Technologies, up 63.33%. This is a Canadian company that manufactures hardware that reduces data bottlenecks between data carrying cables outside your house and your cable modem (in a nutshell). This was all over the place this year, and up until a few weeks ago looked like it was going to end the year flat.
TNA.us: Direxion Small Cap Bull 3X Shares ETF, up 25.37%. This ETF seeks to track 300% of the daily performance of the Russell 2000 index, which is an index of small cap US stocks. Same warning as with EDC up above – direction and path were right enough to get a positive result.
HOU.to: Horizons BetaPro NYMEX Crude Oil Bull+ ETF, down 22.81%. Here is a prime example of how path dependency can really muck you up. The index was fairly close to flat yet the decay really manifested. For those of you still new to leveraged ETFs I suggest doing a search on the right for Leveraged ETF as I’ve written about them extensively.
Compared To The Other Guys…
I finished 3rd out of 9. The average performance of all picks (among all bloggers in the contest) was 34.16%. Interestingly the S&P/TSX Composite was up 32.69% (half way through trading on the final day anyways). The S&P500 was up 26.47%. The best set of picks was up 81.56%, the worst was -9.36%. The single best stock pick was +214.95% (BIDU) and the worst was -70.08 (BCF).
Here is the link to the spreadsheet with all the picks and results.
For the recaps from the other bloggers click on their names below (not all of us have our recaps posted, so I’ll link to their homepages until they are all up to date.):
First place at +81.56%: The Intelligent Speculator
Second place at +68.57%: The Wild Investor
Third place at +56.14%: WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com
Fourth place at +41.37%: The Financial Blogger
Fifith place at +35.16%: Quest For Four Pillars
Sixth place at +18.17%: Dividend Growth Investor
Seventh place at +16.05%: Million Dollar Journey
Eighth place at -0.24%: MyTradersJournal
Ninth place at -9.36%: ZackStocks
FinanciallySmart
Congratulations on coming third.