The Motley Fool's CAPS investing service is one of the newest additions to the investing community at Fool.com, and it's another great way for investors to work together to beat the market. One of the features in CAPS allows users to set up a blog to talk about their picks, investing strategy, market view, or favorite baseball team (if they so desire).
I've scoured through the CAPS blog universe to bring you a generous helping of the top blog posts of the past week.
Cheap debt or cheap stocks: What's driving the buyout mania?
With massive deals continuing to be announced, buyout giant Blackstone (NYSE: BX) now public, and KKR waiting in the wings, the private equity industry has increasingly pushed its way into center stage. In his recent blog post, CAPS All-Star iamamartin ponders what's driving the strength in the industry -- are public companies really priced too low? Or is cheap, covenant-light debt just too plentiful for the buyout shops to pass up?
The true sign of a great CAPS investor
Spreading the love on CAPS recently was player spartanhoops. In his post, he talks about his experience on CAPS and also shares some of the attributes he's seen in CAPS All-Star StockSpreadsheet that make him such a great investor.
Cherry-picking newsletter stocks
People love The Motley Fool's newsletters. Why, you ask? Because they beat the market. Whether you're talking about the classic Stock Advisor newsletter run by the Gardner brothers, or some of the newer fare like Global Gains, these Fools know how to outsmart Mr. Market. In his recent post, the always Foolish TMFHollywoodDan gives some background on his experience with the newsletter picks and explains why he isn't cherry-picking from the newsletters for his CAPS portfolio.
Noble Corp: amazing returns
If you have yet to explore the drilling subsector of the oil and gas industry, CAPS player jyoung12387 makes a pretty compelling case to look at the group. In his post, he specifically covers Noble Corp (NYSE: NE), but says that "almost all the deep sea drillers are undervalued like Noble." Those convinced by jyoung's pitch may also want to check out drillers GlobalSantaFe and Transocean (NYSE: RIG).
Bullish on Brazil's iron and steel industry
CAPS player vkrish98 has started looking abroad for good investing opportunities and has landed in South America. In his blog post, he offers a few articles that highlight what's going on in the Brazilian iron and steel market. Check out the post for more on why he's bullish on Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (NYSE: RIO), Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (NYSE: SID), and Diana Shipping (NYSE: DSX).
No. 1 in summer contest
One of the coolest features in the CAPS community is the contests that allow CAPS players to score some real money with their CAPS prowess. Currently ongoing -- and still open for entry -- is the $5,000 "Number of Contestants + $1" Summer Foolery contest. All players entered with between one and 20 stock picks have the chance to win an amount of money equal to the total number of contestants plus $1. As of this writing, there are 1,272 contestants.
On Tuesday, CAPS All-Star Hodarius finished the day at the head of the pack and blogged about how difficult it would be to stay ahead of so many other good investors. As of this writing, Hodarius was no longer leading the contest, but he is not far back in fourth place. In his contest portfolio, Hodarius has seen some good returns by shorting UltraShort ETFs such as UltraShort Technology ProShares and UltraShort Basic Materials ProShares.
So how could you make money in stamps?
Want to take a break from reading about stocks? Take a look at the recent post from chk999.
Admittedly, my first idea when I saw the title was to travel back in time, beat out Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) chairman Warren Buffett in the purchase of Blue Chip Stamps, then use the cash as he would've, buy See's Candy and become fabulously wealthy off that great company. I may still like my method a bit better than chk's, but then again, his doesn't require a time machine.
So now it's your turn -- get off the sidelines, join CAPS, and start up your own CAPS blog to share your knowledge and insights with the rest of the CAPS universe.
More CAPS Foolishness:
Berkshire Hathaway is both a Stock Advisor and an Inside Value recommendation. You can find out why with a 30-day free trial of either newsletter.
Fool contributor Matt Koppenheffer shares some thoughts of his own on his CAPS blog. He does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned. The Fool's disclosure policy does not have its own CAPS blog, but if it did, it would blow your mind.
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