A 1-in-100 Investor

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The first 100 days in office sets the tone for any new president. Similarly, Motley Fool CAPS keeps an eye on how well investors do in their first 100 days. Some of our best -- we call them All-Stars -- have achieved scores of 100 on stock selections in their first 100 days on CAPS. In this column, we're looking at our best players who made some of their best stock selections early on and seeing which ones they think will be best next.

One of our highest rated CAPS members is bullishbabo who sports an impressive 99.87 member rating. A member since just January 2009, bullishbabo currently has 191 active picks on CAPS out of more than 300 stock picks made. Achieving 75% accuracy, bullishbabo has already attracted 10 "groupies" so far, 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
Esterline Technologies	****	Outperform	$25.40	2.46
Gushan Environmental Energy (NYSE: GU)	****	Outperform	$2.07	0.86
Harry Winston Diamond (NYSE: HWD)	*****	Outperform	$4.40	0.42
Hill-Rom	****	Outperform	$11.93	0.29
Qiao Xing Mobile Communication (NYSE: QXM)	*****	Outperform	$2.51	0.54
Rowan Companies (NYSE: RDC)	****	Outperform	$15.04	2.66
RTI International Metals	****	Outperform	$13.91	$7.50
Spherion (NYSE: SFN)	*****	Outperform	$2.60	$31.77
Ternium	****	Outperform	$7.92	5.96
Transportadora de Gas Del Sur	*****	Outperform	$2.15	(2.55)

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

Degree of risk
Biodiesel fuels aren't proving to be the slick trick they were once thought. With worldwide oil prices hovering around $50 a barrel, biodiesel producers like Gushan Environmental Energy and Syntroleum (Nasdaq: SYNM) may end up stuck in the muck for a while.

Domestic biodiesel producer Syntroleum, which is working with chicken farmer Tyson (NYSE: TSN) to make the green gas, has had to warn investors not to buy up too much of its company's stock lest a change in control be triggered and it loses net operating losses that it uses to offset taxable income. When you need to ward off potential buyers in such a fashion, there's a reason some might consider it to be on its deathbed.

Gushan Environmental, on the other hand, which produces biodiesel only for the Chinese market, has suffered from compressing margins, project delays, and overly ambitious expectations on production. It is hoping to renegotiate cuts in prices it pays for raw materials to keep gross margins from eroding any further.

According to some estimates, biofuels represent just 1% of the fuels used in the global transportation sector. Ethanol represents a good portion of that total, but it suffers from the image of pitting people against fuel for feedstock. Biodiesel, such as that produced by Gushan and Syntroleum, at least has the benefit of being derived from vegetable oil offal that won't lead to rising food costs or depletion of scarce water supplies. Biodiesel would seem to have an upper hand in the future of green fuels.

Investors are also looking for the day when oil prices begin to rise anew. CAPS member bcnu6 thinks that Gushan has the systems in place to capture a lot of the demand China will place on biodiesel when oil prices become more attractive again.

While it may be more difficult to obtain full and current information on actions of any Chinese company compared to a North American or European company, this is one company for which the risks are far exceeded by the potential. [Gushan] has no debt, tremendous past growth, and huge potential as it meets energy demands of China. Yes, oil prices currently are favorable compared to biodiesel, but the cost of oil will increase dramatically as the world comes out of recession.

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?