Saturday, February 4, 2012

Strong Markets Drive Gains in UCU 2 Portfolios!



It is a nice change to have positive market tone over the course of our UCU Investment Challenge 2, a much more pleasant environment relative to what we saw last autumn.


Over the past week, the TSX Composite Index was up 0.89%, while the S&P 500 Index was up 2.17% and the Nasdaq Index was up 3.16%. Driving gains in the US was a very strong day on Friday, where the S&P 500 was up 1.46% on the day, led by the Financial sector that gained a lot of lift from very strong economic data - mainly great non-farm payroll numbers and a drop in the unemployment rate.


Many institutional investors are now talking about the January effect, which basically states that market tone for the whole year takes its cue from the month of January. As of the close on Friday, the TSX Composite was up 3.2% on a one month basis, while the S&P 500 was up 5.3% and the Nasdaq was up a impressive 8.7%!


In our competition, the positive market tone is driving some very strong performance numbers for the portfolios that have a bullish bias (our regrets to the bears in our contest, but one never knows how the markets will behave, and sentiment can turn on a dime!). Over the course of the week, top performing portfolios in our contest include: Matthew R., up over 11% over the past 5 trading days; Volodymyr V. - up over 7.5%; Andriy S. & Roxy L. both up over 7% and Matthew M. & Oleh F. - both up over 6%!


Currently wearing the Green Jacket is Volodymyr V., whose portfolio has posted a 25%+ return over the first three weeks of the contest. Closely on his heels is Adam M., whose portfolio has gained over 21% for the same period and clinging to third spot is Matthew R., up over 18%.

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