Do you like picking stocks?
I do. I like it best when I pick the right ones, but just picking them in general is fun.
If you think you can pick stocks better than a bunch of personal finance bloggers, you should join the Money Pros 2012 Index Fund Challenge.
Enter the Money Pros Index Fund Challenge
That’s it. The winner gets bragging rights. It’s just supposed to be fun.
Again, if you want to join, just sign up here and put in your three stocks. See if you can beat the Money Pros (me and six other personal finance bloggers).
My 2012 Stock Picks
As far as my picks, I haven’t completely decided on all of my picks, but I do know one of them is going to be Pizza Inn (NASDAQ: PZZI). I’m pretty excited about Pizza Inn because it’s a Dallas based company and they in the first stages of rolling out a new type of pizza restaurant.
It’s basically like a Subway where you can customize your personal pizza as much as you like. Then they throw it in the over and it’s ready in two or three minutes. This restaurant is to pizza as Subway is to sandwiches and Chipotle is to Mexican food. I have a lot of faith in this business model, and right now is a great time to get involved in the company.
For my other two picks, I am considering AGNC (my favorite REIT with a huge dividend payout), Citigroup (my favorite bank), CPY (owns Sears and Walmart photo studios, has a huge dividend, and has a very depressed price), Sprint (I really just think this stock is on sale). Or I might find something else. I have until Dec 31st to completely decide.
If some of these sound good, you may want to add my picks in your submission. If you think they are stupid picks, then make your own and beat me!
Disclosure: This post is not a recommendation to invest in any of these stocks. Consult your financial adviser for investment advice. I own shares of AGNC and C and am considering purchasing PZZI, CPY and S.
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
Ill take that challenge. I put in 3 speculative stocks that all have the potential to double in 2012.
Disclaimer: I wouldn’t suggest actually investing in these, unless you have the time to wait them out, and have no problem sleeping at night becasue of volitility (frequent 5-6% changes in price for these shares) because they are all very speculative and because commodities are very volitile right now. I have enough faith to have actual money in SD and MCP (actually the perfered shares of MCP), but Im an young and can afford to loose my entire investment if it comes to that without hurting my retirement chances. So don’t bet the rent money either.
SD: Has what I believe to be a solid plan to pay off its debt and build business. Was > $12 a share in summer, and nothing has really changed for the worse in the company since then except the share price is in half. If oil trades over $105 a barrel sustained next year, the price should spike past $8. Actual purchase price: $6.12 a share
MCP: At 52 week low right now because people are afraid of rare earths. But China will soon cut off the world’s supply (since much of it is mined there). MCP mines in the US, and is opening new mines soon. If China follows through with its threat, prices for rare earths skyrocket and so does share price. I bought the perfered shares because they pay a 5.5% dividend right now. Actual purchase price: ~$65 a share (yes, Im underwater by $8 a share right now).
SSN: Bakken play. Great buyout candidate. Price around $1.70 a share, might buy 1000 shares or so sometime in mid 2012, if prices stay there.
happy picking, waterbuffalo
SD is definitely the best of the oil and gas firms on a valuation to assets basis. Good to see other people talking about that one.
I like your AGNC pick. I looked at that one for my retirement portfolio a few months ago I also looked at NLY. I didn’t go with either because I like my current weighting in REITs, prehaps when I get underweight I might buy in. Just make sure watch it very carefully in a few years when/if interest rates rise. For real estate plays, I own O and CGMRX, both longterm holdings (7% of my overall networth between these two).
The MoneyPros spreadsheet says that Financially Consumed is up 200 percent … hard to beat that!
Why do you call it an index fund challenge when you’re talking about individual stocks and not index funds?