2 leaders change places with 3 weeks to go in Blade's School Stock Contest

4/14/2009

With a portfolio gain of nearly 5 percent, the "CoD" team at St. Joan of Arc School in Toledo re-took the top spot in The Blade's School Stock Contest last week.

As the 14-week contest enters its final three weeks, CoD now holds a lead of $2,362 over second-place "$Maker$" at Fassett Middle School in Oregon. CoD's hypothetical portfolio rose last week to $55,206 from $52,681. The Fassett team, which was first during the prior week, fell 1.5 percent to $52,844.

The St. Joan team recorded gains in each of its four stocks, but the biggest leaper was video game retailer GameStop Corp., Grapevine, Texas, which was up 13 percent to $32.42 a share. Other stocks are Kohl's Corp., Dick's Sporting Goods, and Netflix Inc.

Besides the flip-flop for first, "there was nothing substantially different" among rankings of top teams, said Matthew Faltys, vice president and portfolio management director, at Fifth Third Bank. The bank, which is tabulating results, is co-sponsoring the contest with The Blade's Newspaper in Education program.

At this point in the contest, Mr. Faltys said, three-quarters of portfolios are in positive territory and 71 are beating the Standard & Poor's 500 index, a widely held collection of the nation's largest and most successful companies.

This year's contest attracted 1,150 students from 26 schools. Teams evenly divide a hypothetical $40,000 among four stocks trading for at least $5 a share.

The winner is the team whose portfolio makes the biggest gains by May 1. First place wins $250 for the school and $250 for the team. Second place receives $250 for the school; third, $100 for the school.

Contact Gary Pakulski at:

gpakulski@theblade.com

or 419-724-6082.