Win in CAPS; make money in the market
December 12, 2006
– Comments (2)
After poking around CAPS for a few months now, it appears to me that there are three things you need to do to get to the top. The first two are obvious:
1. Get lots of points.
2. Have good accuracy.
The third key, however, is less obvious:
3. Get points and accuracy that others are not getting.
Here's the thing: To keep pace and have fun earning points and accuracy, it's important to pile on to the ideas that other people have. However, to do better than other people, you need to get points that they're not getting.
To me, this means rating stocks that don't have hundreds or thousands of ratings.
In fact, I think it's important to avoid rating the stocks that have thousands of ratings. Frankly, I think these stocks (apart from the Hidden Gems recommendations) correlate closely to the stocks that have hordes of analysts following them, active message boards, and receive the most media coverage. These stocks, in my opinion, tend to be the most efficiently priced.
And an efficient price means smaller gains.
So here's my challenge to myself and to every other CAPS user: Find a stock that is not rated, research it, rate it. I think you'll do better in CAPS -- and I think a similar strategy will help us all make more money in the market.
tim