3 of the 10 Picks for the Stock Market Game

Twice a year The Foundation for Investor Education holds a Stock Market Game for students across the country.  The students open portfolios on-line and can invest in  a $100,000 simulated portfolio. They have 2 goals over the 10 week competition:  1 - beat the S&P 500 and 2- of course beat all the other schools that have entered.  For several years I've mentored the Senior Economics class at my daughter's Alma Mater - Charlotte Latin.  Mr. Gregory the instructor breaks the class up in teams of 3 and they are  in charge of their own portfolios.

I spend some time exposing the class to all the free websites that they can use to research stocks, we meet in the Library's computer lab to make trades and at the end of the 10 weeks each team makes a report on how they did and what they learned.  I also give them a homework assignment to complete with their parents.  I ask them to watch Jim Cramer's Mad Money and also Fast Money with their parents.  They are to discuss as a family if they think the shows are valid investment advice that could be followed or just a form of "reality show" and just pure entertainment.  Boy do we have a lot of diverse opinions on that assignment.

I try to pick my own portfolio but instead of trading, I buy and hold for the entire 10 week period. Over the next 10 weeks I'll write a series of posts to tell you how the students are doing and how my portfolio is progressing.

Here are my first 3 picks and my reasons for including them in my portfolio:

Whole Foods Markets (WFMI) 

Technical Analysis: 

• 100% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter (tm) buy signal
• 3 new highs and up 12.62% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 77.00% and rising
• Trades around 59.70 with a 50 day average of 51.23

Fundamental Analysis:

• Wall Street brokerages published 8 buy and 14 hold recommendations
• Sales projected to increase by 11.90% this year and 11.60% next year
• Earnings are estimated to increase by 24.50% this year, 14.60% next year and 18.18% annually for the next 5 years

Investor Sentiment on Motley Fool

• CAPS members vote 3,713 to 575 to beat the market
• All Stars vote 1,233 to 105 to beat the market

TJX Companies (TJX)

Technical Analysis:

• 88% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter (tm) buy signal
• 13 new highs and up 8.19% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 61.30% and rising
• Trades around 49.60 with a 50 day moving average of 46.05

Fundamental Analysis:

• Wall Street brokerages have 11 buy and 10 hold recommendations published for their clients
• Sales projected to increase 8.40% this year and 5.30% next year
• Earnings are estimated to increase by 21.80% this year 10.10% next year and 14.56% annually for the next 5 years

Investor sentiment on Motley Fool

• CAPS members vote 437 to 63 to beat the market
• All Stars vote 138 to 16 for the same

Stryker (SYK)

Technical Analysis:

• 96% Barchart technical buy signal
• Trend Spotter (tm) buy signal
• 6 new highs and up 4.24% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 71.14% and climbing
• Trades around 60.30 with a 50 day moving average of 55.90

Fundamental Analysis:

• Wall Street brokerages published 19 buy and 13 hold recommendations for their reps to push
• Sales expected to increase by 11.80% this year and 6.10% next year
• Earnings estimated to increase by 11.40% this year, 10.50% next year and 10.97% annually for the next 5 years

Investor Sentiment on Motley Fool

• CAPS members vote 1,403 to 3 to beat the market
• All Stars vote 500 to 7 for the same

Over the next few days I'll share with you the other 7 picks and we will follow them over the next 10 weeks.

As always your comments are welcome.

Jim Van Meerten is a professional investor with over 40 year experience in investing in stocks, mutual funds and ETFs.  He shares his knowledge on Barchart in his daily blogs -- Barchart Portfolio Blogs.

Through Marketocracy Capital Management you can have a Separately Managed Account that mirrors his Barchart Van Meerten New High portfolio.