Members' Top Picks (Winners)

In the 4th quarter, the best performing stock within the members' top picks screen was Baidu.com (BIDU). Three savvy members selected that stock on September 9th as their top pick and have won lifetime honorary memberships to The Kirk Report (will have to pay no more yearly dues), along with $50 to spend as they like and a small gift. Like with previous winners, I asked all three to answer a few questions about themselves and to share some thoughts I think you'll find of interest:

NAME:  Bill Haedrich (Queensbury, NY)

PROFESSION:  I am currently a substitute teacher with a BA in Mathematics and a Masters' degree in Divinity.

MARKET EXPERIENCE:  After receiving a number of stocks from my Dad (in 1996), I became interested in the stock market. Since that time I have read a number of different excellent investment books (among them Stocks for the Long Run by Jeremy Siegel.) I also subscribe to IBD as well as reading KIRK.

MARKET STRATEGY:  My strategy during the past year (I'm a slow learner) has been getting more settled about appreciating the unpredictability of both the stock market as well as the economy. "Grounding" myself in this regard is always a challenge. My basic approach is combining intuition, 'faith' and doing some research. After reading or hearing about a particular stock, ETF, etc. that sounds interesting, I will wait and see how often (if at all) I might read or hear about it again. If I do I go to different sources (among them Yahoo Finance and IBD) and do some further research. Some would say that I take a more visceral vs. an intellectual approach in my strategy! There is too much to think about. As Dick Davis elaborates in his book, there is so much to know! In any event, my reward has come with investing in the following stocks during market turn downs in 2007: BIDU, BHP, DE, MON, NOV, SLK, SYK, and VLO.

MOST IMPORTANT THINGS I HAVE LEARNED:  Looking back and obsessing about my "mistakes" is never very healthy! Lastly, there is a reason why it has been said that patience is a virtue!

NAME:  Eric Cadora (French Riviera, France)

PROFESSION:  Import/exporter

MARKET EXPERIENCE:  I started with Mutual funds in the past but I was going nowhere. Stumbled across Kirk Blog in 2005 and it was the beginning of an epiphany in the world of trading.

MARKET STRATEGY:  I am mainly an intra-day investor. I look for a gap up in the morning, especially when previous two to three days were down before the gap. For tech tools I like Bollinger band, 5 days moving average, MACD and Fibonacci set up. I look for inverted head and shoulder, also Cup and Handle.

MOST IMPORTANT THINGS I HAVE LEARNED:  Never stop learning. Emulate from other successful investors. Invest at the sound of drums and sell at the sound of trumpets. Know who much you're willing to lose per trade so you do not get run over by Mr. Market.

NAME:  Luke Friendshuh (Elko, MN)

PROFESSION:  I am a software engineer for Seagate Technology. I create computer models of disc drives (and subsystems of disc drives) to estimate performance for design decisions. I also am interested in Systems Modeling in general and have recently started a small research institute to pursue this interest.

MARKET EXPERIENCE:  I have watched and invested in the market since 1991. Mostly without too much success. I have learned a lot, but haven't made much money.

MARKET STRATEGY:  Right now, I am using option straddles. I look for very popular stocks with the idea that they will either continue to surprise on the upside or collapse on bad news because they have been priced for perfection. I like playing for extreme moves and the limited losses of options. Options are highly leveraged, so you have to be very careful about position sizing. BIDU was mostly just a lucky guess. I did notice it was acting strong in a weak market when you asked for a pick, so I went with it.

MOST IMPORTANT THINGS I HAVE LEARNED:  Be very disciplined about stop losses. That is what has allowed me to continue to play in the market even though I haven't had a lot of success. It has saved me more times than I can count.

Congratulations again to the winners - I'm honored to have you part of the membership!