From the general cheeky mouth to childish temper tamprum's I think I have discovered someone's true identity- Too bad he can't spend the 1k on the full set of collector GI Joe with the Kung-Fu grip series.
Stock picking contest won by 12-year-old
March 15, 2001 6:53:00 PM ET
LOS ANGELES, March 15 (Reuters) - Who says you need a Ph.D. and years of financial training or even be old enough to shave to make a virtual bundle on Wall Street?
Not 12-year-old Brandon Wallace, a Las Vegas sixth grader who beat out nearly 40,000 contestants to win the top score in a weekly stock-picking contest sponsored by CBS MarketWatch.
The youngster's success lay in short selling technology stocks, which have taken a drubbing in recent weeks. The short-selling process allows investors to make money on stocks when their prices go down.
Using the process, Brandon, with some help from two friends, was able to increase the value of his $100,000 "virtual portfolio" by a hefty 38.7 percent in the week from Feb. 26 and March 2.
Brandon's short sales included a who's-who of once-high-flying tech stocks, including Broadcom Corp. (BRCM), Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), Juniper Networks (JNPR) and JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDU).
"I figured the stocks would go down, so we shorted them," said Brandon, a student at Brinley Middle School, who gets up at 6 a.m. each day to check the latest stock market updates.
But the news wasn't all good for the young stock picker from Las Vegas. Rules of the contest stipulate that participants must be 18 or older to win, making Brandon ineligible for the $1,000 prize he would have otherwise received.
That honor went to David McCuistion, a 25-year-old software engineer whose portfolio grew by 37.6 percent for the week.
© 2001 Reuters |
