1/3/2007:  I'll be posting a corrected report as soon as I can.  The basic results haven't changed, but some of the details have.

The year end accounting for the "25 Stocks to Own in 2007 and Beyond" contest is attached to this report.

There is a clear winner, and there is a clear loser.  Congratulations to Danny Matthews.  He turned an initial $5000 investment into a porfolio that is worth $6112.71 at the 12/31/2007 prices.  Danny's return is a tad more than 22%!

Our other participants had more modest results: everyone else lost money in 2007!

I think that it is worth pointing out that Danny was the sole participant who did not trade during the year.  He picked 5 stocks at the beginning, and held on to them.

Some comments are in order regarding Mark Robertson's portfolio.  I'm sure that Mark, in the interest of education only, sold Apple short in July simply to demonstrate what can happen.  Thanks for the education, Mark! 

In real life, Mark would likely have fallen victim to a "margin call" sometime back in October or November.  At this point, Mark owes 20 shares of Apple stock worth $3961.60.  He purchased these shares for $2645.01 back in July and has held this postion ever since.  Mark also owes interest on the margin loan that he took to pay for the shares that he sold short.  I haven't attempted to account for this, so his total account value is less than is shown.  (It would be worth it to do a better accounting had Mark's short sale done better, but what the heck!)

Subject to Jim Thomas verification of my results here, these will be the official results for 2007.  Jim has updated spreadsheets with data about the five portfolios here.

I invite the participants to continue this competition in 2008, and I'll promise to continue to update results on a quarterly basis.  I also invite the participants to comment on their selections, modify their portfolios as they see fit, and continue to offer quarterly updates on their holdings.

Another reason not to buy shorts in the winter!

I held all my picks throughout, even though ones like BAC have dropped approx 17% over the year. They may drop some more but this is the time where my reinvestment will help in the long run. The same goes goes for PAYX both total returns should meet the portfolio goals over the next few years. BAC problems seem to be more industry wide that company specific. If there is a spreadsheet to show cost per share it would be intersting to see if my original prices have dropped and by how much through reinvestment of dividends. LIFC was the biggest gainer and still sits with a lofty PE of +50. COST has done well and I expect it to continue to do as they have a solid consumer and business foothold. Oil hit $100 today and we are still buying hummers and large SUV's. I would expect XOM to have another $8B+ quarterly profit.

Past returns, guarantee future results. It is the direction of those results that cannot be guaranteed.

No forum for general investing news but this article shows me why Wall street needs regulation. This is in regards to AHM which has gone from $26 to .08 cents. Next time people say there is too muchregulation...obviously not.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071129/american_home_bankruptcy.html?.v=1 

Congrats Danny on your winning portfolio!  Thanks for showing us all how to be "long-term" investors and how it pays to buy and hold our investments over time.  I, for one, need to learn how to be more patient with my investments.  I am usually too quick to sell my winners, but hang on to my losers (
AMGN, LOW, HD, WAG). 

Thanks Laura. Much of that comes from what I was taught by Jennefer Peele, who taught classes back in the 90's for benning invetstors. One of her mantras is "Successsful investing requires patience not brilliance." Jumping in and out and following the herd, I think, leads to no confidence in one's own ablility to choose a portfolio.                                                                                                          Even as I small investor I also like to look at adding a company with a few questions beforehand, "would I want to be associated with this company?", "Are they true to their word and follow though on announced goals?", and " Are they puttinng the company first or themselves?" These are obviously things the SSG will never tell you, but might be part of the other 20%.                                             As far as the stock you mentioned. HD,when I saw the package they gave Nardelli that was an immediate clue this was in his best interests not the company's. Half a billion dollars package for one man! Ridiculous, they were doing alright before him but he was hailed as the great manager who could save the retailer. LOW seems to be much better focused and should be better over time. WAG I think was a victim of it's own success. Wall Street honored it with a PE that was double it growth rate and about 50% higher than the market multiple (avg.30 vs 17). I think they might have to do something extraordinary to climb back to the price levels they were at. Same Store sales were only 2.6% this Q so we'llsee what happens after we get back to a robust economy. Thye should hold their own in a stagnant economy. AMGN has an osteoperosis drug ready for approval, if that happens things will be good for the company. If not watch out below. They used to trade at a lofty 50 times eps when I owned them, which for me is risky x 2! LIFC is selling at much the same PE and the reason I sold the last of it this year in my personal portfolio.

Good luck to you and all SC investors in 2008.

Here is a chart showing the week by week results for 2007.  The last data point is for 31 Dec 2007 and reflects the corrected results.

-Jim Thomas