A 1-in-100 Investor

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

One of our highest-rated members is hansschmidt, with a 99.97 member rating. Since joining in October 2008, hansschmidt has made more than 530 stock picks, including 192 active picks. With 84% accuracy, hansschmidt has attracted almost 19 "groupies" -- CAPS members who've listed this investor as one of their favorites.

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

Stock	CAPS Rating (out of five)	Call	Price*	Current Score
Abraxis Bioscience	****	Outperform	$41.90	0.35
Animal Health International	****	Outperform	$1.60	(1.15)
Berry Petroleum	****	Outperform	$22.44	(2.15)
Coeur D'Alene Mines	****	Outperform	$13.91	(14.45)
Genoptix (Nasdaq: GXDX  )	****	Outperform	$24.83	7.71
InfoSpace (Nasdaq: INSP  )	**	Outperform	$7.00	2.41
Open Text	**	Outperform	$30.82	11.55
OSI Pharmaceuticals	****	Outperform	$28.95	0.49
Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS  )	**	Outperform	$13.34	6.81
Thompson Creek Metals (NYSE: TC  )	*****	Outperform	$8.15	38.80

Source: Motley Fool CAPS; *Price when call was made. Current score is how many points by which 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 one of these stocks and whether they agree with this top member's assessment.

Degree of risk
As poor economic conditions persist, there's a lot of speculation that they linger because there is still a dearth of credit. Royal Bank of Scotland, however, says it has lots of money to lend, but as real estate continues to be weak and unemployment maintains its inexorable climb, businesses just aren't in an expansive mood. It's not necessarily a lack of credit that's holding a recovery back: It's a lack of demand.

Of course, Royal Bank of Scotland has scads of cash to loan because it has been made an adjunct of the British government, which seized a majority stake last year while world finance officials panicked that the industry was on the verge of collapse. While Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE: LYG  ) also accepted some state control, Barclays (NYSE: BCS  ) chose to stay independent and sell assets, like its money management division, to shore up its balance sheet.

Back in January, after reading some analysis on The Motley Fool's U.K. site, CAPS All-Star member TLMDrexel wrote a bull pitch for Royal Bank of Scotland, essentially discounting the prospects of full nationalization of the bank and noting that it was in otherwise good condition.

Still a very viable business. It will not be nationalised (see the RBS UK TMF discussion boards for more (in depth) discussions as to this risk). Tier 1 ratios etc acceptable.

1. Strong insurance business.

2. New management who appear to be kitchen sinking the losses. Therefore, all the bad news is out.

3. I walked past a branch today and it was busy-business as usual.

4. Iconic business trademark-lost a lot of that goodwill-but as long as the cash dispensers keep on working that will soon be forgotten.

5. Share price in the region of 5% of [net asset value]. This is of course if you believe the balance sheets. Results out in February-will be interesting reading.

6. RISKS: Nationalisation, further deterioration in the mortgage markets, exposure to U.S. sub-prime, complete loss of confidence! All these risks are very real-but a 15 cent stock therefore IMHO fill yer boots.

The strategy seems to have paid off, because the share price has more than quadrupled since then. Financial stocks in general have recovered a lot of the ground they lost during the panic: Stocks with the CAPS Money Center Banks tag as a whole have risen more than 33% in the last month alone, boosted by Allied Irish Banks (NYSE: AIB  ) nearly tripling. But Royal Bank of Scotland has been one of the top-performing stocks this past quarter.

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. It's free to sign up, so why not use this opportunity to take your best shot?