OT - So, when do we start the G&K mutual fund? <g>
LOS ANGELES (CBS.MW) - Individual investors rule. So believes Michael Witz, founder and chief executive of
StockJungle.com, a money management Web site that tracks investment moves of its community's savviest
individuals.
"There's been a fundamental shift in power from institutions to individuals," said Witz, 28. "Individuals have been
given access to almost all of the same tools used by the professional community."
Witz should know. He's sat on both sides of the fence, first as a young investor and then as a securities analyst.
Fascinated by the stock market, Witz began investing at 16. With a few hundred dollars, he bought Zeos
Computers for $1 a share after reading about its reorganization and PC awards. He sold at $13, before Micron
(MUEI: news, msgs) bought the company.
Witz became an analyst for an investment bank, where he got the idea for StockJungle.com. Seeing online
investment communities sprouting -- on Yahoo message boards among others -- he pondered how one can
separate the best stock pickers from people just blowing smoke? Answer: By tracking their performance.
That's what StockJungle.com does, identifying the best regular Joe or Jane investors out of 14,000 people that use
its site. The Web site then posts their stock picks to help other investors make money.
Last November, Witz created a no-load fund based on the people's best stock picks and evaluated by a team of
money managers. Called the Community Intelligence Fund (SJCIX: news, msgs), it's a low-cost fund of large-cap
growth stocks. As of July 26, it's up 31.4 percent, according to
Morningstar, a fund rating and securities analysis firm.
It's also the sixth best-performing large-cap growth fund this year out of 338 such funds, Morningstar reported.
StockHawk |
