A 1-in-100 Investor

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Just as the first 100 days in office set the tone for any new president, Motley Fool CAPS keeps an eye on how investors do in their first 100 days with the service. Some of our best -- we call them All-Stars -- have achieved scores of 100 on stock selections in their first 100 days on CAPS. Since data shows that the best stocks to buy and sell have earned top ratings, might we also assume that when the best players rate the best stocks, there's a correlation?

One of our highest-rated CAPS members is Wollac, who sports a nearly perfect 99.95 member rating. A member since July 2007, Wollac has 165 active picks on CAPS out of more than 960 made. Achieving 73% accuracy, Wollac has also attracted 11 "groupies," CAPS players who've listed this leading investor as one of their favorites.

Here are a few of this top member's most recent stock selections and how they were rated.

Stock	CAPS Rating (out of 5)	Call	Price*	Current Score
Acura Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ACUR)	*	Underperform	$4.72	(19.68)
DineEquity	*	Underperform	$8.28	(8.93)
Fifth Third Bancorp (Nasdaq: FITB)	*	Underperform	$9.26	(1.56)
First Horizon National (NYSE: FHN)	*	Underperform	$9.90	(2.15)
Ford (NYSE: F)	*	Underperform	$1.91	28.50
General Motors (NYSE: GM)	*	Underperform	$3.16	14.02
Interoil (NYSE: IOC)	*	Underperform	$11.00	2.85
Landry's Restaurants (NYSE: LNY)	*	Underperform	$11.78	(9.40)
Maguire Properties	*	Underperform	$2.74	25.84
WebMD Health	*	Underperform	$18.31	(12.65)

Source: Motley Fool CAPS. *Price when call was made. Current score is how many points a member is beating (lagging) the S&P 500 index from the time of the call.

Let's look at what other CAPS members are saying about some of these stocks and whether they agree with this top player's assessment.

Ford
If you listen to the executives of the big three automakers, you'll get the sense that this is the end of days. They went before Congress yesterday to plead their case for a bailout, yet only Ford said it could survive beyond the end of the year. That could be why CAPS member aguadaboca believes Ford is the best choice for picking a winner amongst the triumvirate -- presumably if you were forced to choose:

Ford [is the] best "bet" for survival in the autos. Ford family [owns] a lot of common stock and will fight a bankruptcy, perhaps selling out to a foreign company. This is strictly a speculative bet, totally out of character for me!

General Motors
Arguably the sickliest of the three, General Motors also went to Capitol Hill and made the passionate plea to save not only the iconic automaker but also American jobs, the economy, and, by extension, one would guess, Western civilization. If GM's situation has become so dire, though, it makes you wonder why only a few months ago it was hitting up the taxpayer for loans to retool its plants to produce greener cars. Perhaps the company should have thought to salvage its business first.

CAPS All-Star jmt587 says GM makes pretty good cars, a point I would generally agree with, but he acknowledges that its cost structure is simply too weighted against it to prevent a bankruptcy:

I think [General Motors] makes pretty good cars. But their business model and cost structure is outdated and unsustainable, and will force them into bankruptcy so they can reorganize and become a stronger company in the future. I don't think they can turn things around without bankruptcy. Management and the politicians will find the necessary steps too unpalatable until they have no choice (i.e. forced by a bankruptcy judge).

Fifth Third Bancorp
Is there a link between the availability of payday lenders in a state and the amount that banks collect on overdraft fees? I'm not sure, but CAPS member Robermac suggests there is and notes that with payday lenders on the ropes in the Buckeye State as a result of a legislative defeat, regional banks such as Fifth Third stand to reap a windfall as a result:

Payday lending was defeated in Ohio and many payday lenders will close their doors. This will allow the fees collected by banks to skyrocket. Fifth Third bank is the largest regional bank with the most branches located in Ohio. When a [similar] law [passed] in [Georgia] a few years ago the regional bank gained [from] increased fees from bounced checks.

A 1-in-100 opportunity
Some of the best and smartest members in the CAPS investor-intelligence community have made their mark, but it pays to start your own research on these stocks on Motley Fool CAPS. Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made -- all from a stock's CAPS page.

As hockey great Wayne Gretzky once noted, "You miss 100% of the shots you never take." At Motley Fool CAPS, every investor's opinion counts. And since it's free to sign up, why not use this opportunity to take your best shot?