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coopers11 (< 20) Submitted: 8/11/07 5:15 PM

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Welcome to the top. It appears there is a common thread with the top 5 Fools.... the big red "UNDERPERFORM" thumbs down. While this may be a useful tactic to achieve this feat, it is useless to most of us investors searching for picks with some upside left in them. It would be a refreshing change to see a Fool reach the top 10 using only "OUTPERFORM" picks. Can it be done? Maybe not. This approach of picking only winners is not for the weak heart or novice players such as myself and should only to be attempted by a real "blackbelt" stock picker. I will throw down the gauntlet..Is there a Fool out there worthy of this challenge? We need a hero.

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bostonwayno (66.33) Submitted: 8/12/07 10:13 AM

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Great post .... I second this!!

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BankerChris (96.02) Submitted: 8/13/07 10:36 AM

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Hear hear!!! If you read my profile I call for a person who will pick stocks that are relevant and pick stocks that they would buy... it's easy to watch the ticker scroll buy and see the ones you wouldn't buy... but how about the ones you would.... do this and see who keeps it above... oh say.... 95????

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TDRH (100.00) Submitted: 8/15/07 8:58 AM

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Have not read your profile, but if you are interested you can look at those individuals who are "Yes Men" in the game.
Hibachio had an incredible run to the top 5 with primarily positive picks, took him only a couple of months. Same with WCWolkey.

It still comes down to timing and conviction, you can time shorts incorrectly and be burned just as badly. If the fed had for some reason lowered interest rates the top ten would be quite a bit different.

Don't knock the guy at the top because he timed it correctly.

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meegypte (65.35) Submitted: 8/15/07 10:08 AM

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I guess I didn't really understand the "thumbs" part of picking to effect score. So if I look at it daily, and adjust the thumbs just using the fair value screen I could probably increase my ratings. Of course this game, like picking actual stocks requires constant monitoring of your positions and DD. I (as shown by my picks) do not have that time or ability to pick winners consistantly so will continue to hope indexing will keep me even to or at a reasonable plus to the overall market.

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intothefuture (< 20) Submitted: 8/15/07 5:15 PM

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Funny ... I thought the purpose of investing was to make money ... My Daddy (a very successful investor) taught me that Bears make money, Bulls make money, but Pigs don't make money. That's one of the reasons Greed and Fear run the market. Too many scared piggy's. As for a Hero, anyone who stops the war, undoes the damage old GB has done and rebrands America so we win the respect and consideration we once had is my Hero. The market is all about the business of business. If I picked a Bull Stockpicker as my Hero I'd be pretty worried about their longevity. A Hero is a person you can look up to for inspiration for a long time.

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tbolioli (92.77) Submitted: 8/28/07 12:11 PM

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The reality is it is not just unrealistic (meaning never happen in the real world) shorts (looking @ TMFKmoney's shorts, some of them are very realistic, others are not) that got them to here, but actually the "re-loading" of stocks. If you look @ any of the top 1-2% (using the view all trades and sorted by ticker) you will see that they "buy", "sell" and then "re-buy", in the same direction, the same stocks over and over again to boost their accuracy. This is something that TMF could fix by not allowing the subsequent trades to count towards accuracy, or not allowing trades on stuff you just traded if you are going to stick to the same direction (ie; up or down) for a period of two weeks (or more). Hey, they are already doing that on the buy side, so why not on the sell side of the transaction as well. You do not want to limit yourself to "yes-men" because that is limiting yourself to half of the knowledge applicable to the market. That is not the spirit of the game. The real hero will have a mix of both.

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1nvestor (45.63) Submitted: 9/06/07 5:47 AM

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I wouldn't worry, you can only momentum trade so much. At the end of the day we are in a semi bare phase for however long. So let them make their proverbial hay, it will all come back to bite them later :-)

Fool on,

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loat98 (86.76) Submitted: 9/06/07 2:52 PM

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I understand your point if you see the ratings as only a tool for finding buy recommendations and not for evaluating the relative value that the community sees in each stock. Since the player ratings of stocks form the base for the star rating for each stock, if the system did not have thumbs down, how would those stock ratings maintain validity? Just my take on the process. IMHO suggestions for CAPS improvements should be encouraged as long as the overall usefulness as an investment tool is maintained. Congrats to TMFKmoney for reaching the top!!!

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stocksracer (97.26) Submitted: 9/24/07 4:28 PM

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Do I qualify for this? I have mostly been picking stocks I consider worth buying. I have actually bought a few of my own stock pickings here... and I am currently above 97.

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WallyWattz (74.30) Submitted: 10/03/07 7:35 AM

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Is there a way to screen for the "Yes Men". I do not see that in this site anywhere.

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QOS (99.09) Submitted: 11/08/07 3:08 PM

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Hey Coop. I am trying my best haha.

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millionairefools (99.47) Submitted: 1/05/08 12:35 AM

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Can all the whiners please pipe down and rather spend their time reading about investing?
Picking on top 10 performers and like doesn't make you smarter, it just makes you look like classless f**ks. Better learn from these guys and act like men.

Anyway, historically, it is actually harder to pick an under performing stock than one which will outperform, as markets tend to go up overall.
And why would one try to be a top ranking guy without shorting? Would you drive a car with no brakes? You need both the pedal and the brake to keep it from reeling off course.

Also, all the argument against "reload" of under-performing stocks on CAPS is asinine. One can do it in real life, so one can do it in CAPS too. I know you can complain about trading costs, but that's missing the point of re-load and simple apathy to basic mathematics

Let's short a sinking stock (maybe a firm run by whiners) and follow the scenarios...

### NO RELOAD ###
$10 - short $12,000 (borrow 1,200 shares)
$6 - buy back (made $4x1,200 = $4,800)
--------------------------------------------------------
Total keep : $4,800

### COMMIT THE HEINOUS RELOAD ###
$10 - short $12,000 (1,200 shares)
$8 - buy back (made $2x1,200 shares = $2,400)
$8 - short again ($12,000/8 = 1,500 shares)
$6 - buy back (made $2x1,500 shares = $3,000)
---------------------------------------------------------
Total keep : $5,400

If extra $600 or so makes me an idiot, I would rather be an idiot.
Oh yes, I spent extra $20 making the 2 trades, right? I still got $580 more than I would've otherwise.

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telcomac99 (28.66) Submitted: 1/30/08 3:03 PM

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millionairefools:

Your post is true and makes sense, and this is applicable to short positions. But, for buy positions it seems that the affect CAPS has works differently since it is in percentages. For instance, if you "buy" and $10 stock and "sell" at $5 you lose 50% and hence 50 CAPS points (assuming the market hasn't moved) and then if you "re-buy" the stock at 5 and it rebounds to 10 you made 100% return on the play and hence 100 CAPS points.

In the real world the sum total of this would result in a net gain of a big fat ZERO, but in CAPS it will result in a net gain of 50 CAPS points. So, jumping out and jumping into positions can sometimes give you CAPS gains that in the market could have been actual losses.

Granted, your accuracy would be affected by this, but I think ultimately such play improves your score. Also, I'm not arguing for CAPS to change the system, I think it is a good one, albeit not perfect. But, it should be recognized that there are strategies to playing the CAPS game that should differ from simply playing the markets to optimize your performance.

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kdakota630 (99.84) Submitted: 3/25/08 5:36 PM

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This was my thinking exactly, and then I see I'm getting absolutely slammed on my CAPS points. Glad to know some of the more highly rated players have been burned even more badly than I have so far.

Not that I wish it to happen, but it's reassuring that my mindset is probably correct.

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