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 and Pacific Ethanol (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 They’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.