By
Chris Harris
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More Articles
March 15, 2011
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It has been two years since the start of the current bull market, and everyone is celebrating it differently. There is some evidence to suggest that individual investors frightened away by the financial collapse are returning to the markets now that they see some level of stability. Others think that the rising markets have erased the margin of safety in U.S. equities, leaving many stocks with valuations that require a series of best-case scenarios to provide even small returns.
In an interesting example of divergent opinion, the 170,000-member CAPS community is divided. Most players are continuing to make bullish calls, and they are doing so at the same pace that they have for the past six months. But lately the best players, the CAPS All-Stars, have been closing their bullish positions across the board and in high volume -- there are nearly 20,000 fewer All-Star outperform picks today than there were last Monday. Clearly, the best stock pickers in the community think that this bull market won't last until its leather anniversary.
While there were decreases across the board, the largest drops were in the materials and energy sector, both of which saw more than 3 times their normal traffic, and both of which have 5% fewer All-Star picks than they did a week ago. Even within those industries, some companies were hit harder than others, however, with seven standing out:
|
Company
|
Sector
|
Industry
|
Drop in Picks
|
| New Gold (AMEX: NGD ) |
Materials |
Metals and Mining |
19% |
| Endeavour Silver (AMEX: EXK ) |
Materials |
Metals and Mining |
16% |
| WSP Holdings (NYSE: WH ) |
Energy |
Energy Equipment and Services |
14% |
| SandRidge Energy (NYSE: SD ) |
Energy |
Oil, Gas and Consumable Fuels |
13% |
| Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL ) |
Materials |
Metals and Mining |
12% |
| Massey Energy (NYSE: MEE ) |
Energy |
Oil, Gas and Consumable Fuels |
12% |
| Jaguar Mining (NYSE: JAG ) |
Materials |
Metals and Mining |
11% |
Are the All-Stars right? With oil, gold, and silver all at or approaching new highs, perhaps the smartest move is to lock in gains and look elsewhere. Find out for yourself -- keep your eyes on all of these companies by adding them to My Watchlist, your free and customized hub for the news and numbers on the companies you care about:
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