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Guess the NASDAQ close and Win $1,000

Blain at Stock Trading to Go is giving away $1,000 to the person who can guess the NASDAQ close on April 30th, 2009.  Hurry up though, entries close today (Sunday April 5, 2009) at 9pm EST.

Stock Competition Update

At the beginning of 2009, a group of bloggers thought it would be a good idea to have a stock picking competition and have quarterly updates. The bloggers who had the foresight to pick gold may have the winning portfolios thus far, but 2009 isn’t over with yet! My picks did not perform as well as I would have liked but we did see some gains in one of them.

Here were my picks at the beginning of the year

My 4 Stock Picks

1. Hanfeng Evergreen (HF.TO) – This company creates high yielding fertilizer for the Chinese market.  I’ve been watching this stock for a couple years now and it seems to be oversold relative to their (profitable) earnings.  This stock has the possibility of making a comeback providing that the Chinese market makes a partial recovery.  If the markets don’t cooperate in 2009, then this stock could go down even further.  Price as of closing Dec 31, 2008: $5.63
2. Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) – Now that I have my exciting stock out of the way, time to go to the boring large cap stuff.  Johnson and Johnson manufactures ’staple’ items like Tylenol, Johnson baby products, band aid, Listerine and other popular skin care products.  Even in a recession, I believe that people will continue to buy these products.  JNJ also offers a sustainable dividend at an attractive yield.  Price as of closing Dec 31, 2008: $59.83
3. Husky Energy (HSE.TO) – This is my pick for some energy sector exposure.  Even though the potential global recession throughout 2009 could keep oil prices depressed, I like Husky Energy’s oil properties and their profitability.  Their dividend doesn’t hurt either. Price as of closing Dec 31, 2008: $30.87
4. Power Financial (PWF.TO) – This holding company has large positions in IGM Financial, Great West Life, Canada Life and London Life.  It offers a generous sustainable dividend and I believe that this stock has been irrationally oversold.  Hopefully PWF will recover in 2009. Price as of closing Dec 31, 2008: $23.90

Here are the results thus far:

For those of you who had your own picks in the original article, how did you do?

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