At the end of the second quarter (Q2), the S&P 500 is up
2.71%. Mutual funds fared slightly better. According to Morningstar.com, the
average performance of 9855 U.S. stock mutual funds is +3.19%.
Meanwhile,
Playboy's 2005 Cyber Girl of the Year
Amy Sue Cooper
is still leading the
TradingMarkets/Playboy 2006 Stock Picking Contest with
a year-to-date return of 32.37%.
Amy Sue's best
performing stocks are both in the energy sector: Drill Quip (DRQ | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) and
Pacific Ethanol (PEIX | news | PowerRating | PR Charts ) (click
here for the remaining selections).
The best performing mutual fund at the end of Q2 is the
Pacific Advisors Small Cap Fund
(PASMX) with a year-to-date total return of 20.68%.
George Henning, co-manager, Pacific Advisors Small
Cap Fund, said “I’ve been an advocate of the fact that this is a stock
picker’s market, so you have to be focused on individual stocks to get good
performance. If you’re picking good stocks and you’re in the right place at the
right time, you can have a lot of good things happen to you.” Asked how he
felt about Amy Sue’s performance in the contest, Henning replied: "I think
it's great. She's obviously done her homework to pick some good stocks, because
it wouldn't happen without some good stock selection, that's for sure."
Asked about her performance, Amy Sue said "Obviously
I'm happy to still be in the lead, especially with the recent fluctuations of
the market." And on beating all US stock mutual funds, Amy added "My
portfolio was up by nearly 70% earlier this year so seeing it just above 32% now
is a little disappointing. But, if I'm beating all the mutual funds I guess it's
not too bad after all."
TradingMarkets.com will give $50,000 to the charity/charities of the winner's
choice. Amy Sue Cooper is playing for two charities -- the
UBUNTU Education Fund and the
CEDARS Home for
Children Foundation.
To read Amy Sue's blog,
click here.
Ashton Dorkins
Editor-in-Chief
editor@tradingmarkets.com
