Connors’ Weekly Battle Plan

Well, the half-year results are now in for our

TradingMarkets Stock-Picking Contest, and the results are
impressive! Even though the average mutual fund money manager is up
about 10% for the year, we have a number of contestants who have
achieved results that are TRIPLE, our MBA, Wall Street friends.

In case you don’t know about the contest, we are giving away $1000 to
the winner who put together the best performing 5-stock portfolio for
2003. The portfolios were created in late December and we’re tracking
the results each quarter. The only stipulation we put into the
contest was that you had to be 5-years or younger to enter. We
suspected that this one rule assured that many of the contestants
would beat the majority of the mutual fund managers in this country,
and damn, we were right!

Let’s dive right into the results and brief bios of the three top
leaders. Because by knowing what they do on a day-to-day basis, the
information ascertained can be used by Harvard Business School,
Wharton, and many other fine institutions that produce money managers
who consistently not only don’t beat the averages, but actually come
in under the numbers.

Without further adieu, let’s meet these Wall Street market-beaters and
look at their returns:

In third place with a 37% return for the first sixth months of the
year is Natalie Brooks. You may remember Natalie from the last
quarter’s results, as she was one of our leaders then, too.
Consistency is the model we all strive for and Natalie has proven to
shine in this area. All five of her stocks are up for the year, led by
Yahoo
(
YHOO |
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News |
PowerRating) which is up more than 100% since she’s selected it.
According to her dad, since we last met her, “Natalie has a new puppy
named little Mo, and a new fish, that she has called Sally Pickle
Juice.” (Listen, even if I wanted to, there’s no way in the world I
could come up with this stuff!) “This summer she plans to go to animal
camp and take swimming lessons. And, this week she had her very first
sleep-over with her girlfriend from kindergarten.”

Nice job, Natalie!

There is obviously a genetic relationship to these results because
incredibly, Natalie’s 3-year old brother Will is in second place. And
he has a completely different portfolio than his sister! Will’s
results? Up nearly 38% for the first half of the year. I’m not sure
what Will and Natalie’s mother does for a living, but there may be a
business here. If she’s interested, I can probably put her in touch
with a few venture capitalists who would finance the creation of one
heck of a human genomics company using just her genes.

And now for our leader. In first place is Joseph Hetzer, who is up 47%
for the first half of the year! Joseph has the distinction of
achieving returns that have quadrupled the averages, with NTAI — new
symbol NTE
(
NTE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) — and
(
SBL |
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News |
PowerRating), his two top stock picks, both
up over 60%. His secret? I’ll reprint his mother Kristen’s email to
us:

“Joseph graduated from Kindergarten last week. Leading up to
graduation were his dance performances in the Spring recital of his
dance school. Joseph took center stage as the only male of his tap
dance number. He finished his T-Ball season in good shape and did an
outstanding job performing for his school’s annual Spring Sing. He
started summer day camp this week which he will be participating in
all summer: daily swimming, archery and arts and crafts and just plain
fun. Joseph has two new rabbits that he has had so much fun with —
Cupcake and Brownie.

You may be laughing about Cupcake and Brownie, but I’m certainly not.
I’m not up 47% for the year, so Joseph has earned my full respect.
Plus, not only can the kid pick stocks, he’s smart enough to be the
only male in his dance class. Way to go, Joseph!

The final six months of our first annual stock-picking contest are now
here and the race to see who will win the $1000 prize is going to be
exciting. And now let’s meet someone who absolutely will not be in the
hunt at year’s end. Near the bottom of the results list (ok, bottom)
is my son Dylan. Dylan did, though, have some good news during the
quarter. He graduated pre-school, and more importantly (at least in
his mind), he got his second belt from the fighting school he attends.
And the progress that he’s making in his fighting career may come in
handy as a wrestler in the WWE because, at least early on, it appears
there is no chance in the world he will ever become famous for his
stock picking abilities. He’s down almost 2% for the year, which
amazingly puts him ahead of nearly 30% of the hedge fund managers in
the country, but certainly gives him no chance to catch the likes of
Natalie, Will, Joseph and the other handful of kids who are up over
20% for the year in the contest (that’s ok Dylan. What father wouldn’t
rather watch their son on
Smack Down Thursday
with Vince McMahon instead of on “Wall Street Week” anyway?).

For this week’s lesson, I had intended to focus on Wednesday’s
reversal. It was the type of reversal day that happens about 2-3 times
every quarter and we can all learn a lot from days like that.

As I was writing about Wednesday’s trading, an e-mail came into my box
from a TradingMarkets member. As I read it, I saw that there was an
enormous amount of wisdom in it. It was wisdom gained from the
journey…the path that many traders have to take before becoming
successful. Therefore, my lesson on Wednesday’s reversal will wait
until next weekend. I feel that more can be learned from this
gentleman’s letter.

As I’ve written over and over again, becoming a successful trader
doesn’t happen overnight. It many times takes years and even then,
there is “No Guarantee” of success. But, as we learned from the
“Market Wizards” and “New Market Wizards” books, success happens for
some, but only after they have paid the tuition. And that tuition is a
combination of learning to master how to trade (some people never get
there) and experience. This letter helps us all see that there really
is no quick-fix solutions to making trading a profession. The only way
to get there is to learn as much as possible about the markets…and
more importantly, learn as much as possible about yourself.

Here is the email, reprinted with this gentleman’s permission:

Larry….