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 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 members who made some of their best selections early on and seeing which stocks they are rating now.

One of our highest-rated members is TickRTapeKing, who sports a 99.99 member rating. A member since July 2008, TickRTapeKing has 90 active picks on CAPS out of nearly 1,000 stock picks made. And with 85% accuracy, TickRTapeKing has already attracted more than 500 "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.

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 a few of these stocks and whether they agree with this player's assessment.

Degree of risk
You might notice a pattern with TickRTapeKing's recent picks: They're all precious metals miners, and this All-Star is not expecting any of them to fare favorably against the market. These calls hurt this member's performance in the short run, though, as gold sprinted to record highs, helped by news that India purchased 200 metric tons from the International Monetary Fund.

Investors such as CAPS member smittyhaggis agree with the call on Hecla Mining because they see rising costs and falling cash flows, and ydanneels says in a pitch for Golden Star Resources that $1,000 or more for gold doesn't seem plausible. But is it possible that some systemic influences that not only keep gold high can lead to it going higher still?

Such influences have nothing to do with "return-to-the-gold-standard" Congressman Ron Paul's fears of inflation spurring a flight to precious metals, even if he might be correct, or Peter Schiff calling for gold to go to $5,000 an ounce. Rather, it may be more fundamental than either of those prognostications.

Recently, both Barrick Gold and AngloGold Ashanti officials have said they want to unwind their gold hedge positions faster than they had otherwise planned. Gold companies hedge their positions when they suspect the price of gold might fall. They sell future production ahead of time, which locks their prices in. By unwinding their positions sooner, the gold companies are suggesting that they see gold going higher. Their moves also serve as catalysts because they provide a floor for today's price levels. Barrick's hedging has turned into a bear of a problem for it.

CAPS All-Star screach isn't so sure, writing instead that we're in the grip of a "gold bubble," but tonymagoo signs on to the notion analysts have been promoting that we've still got room to run.

Gold should continue its rise over the next 6 to 12 months according to many international metals experts. [Barrick Gold] should only rise with the metal they mine.

The pundits have had their say, but do you think the gold bugs are bugging out, or do these precious metals companies have a bright future? Let us know in the comments section below.

A 1-in-100 opportunity
Some of the best and smartest members in the CAPS 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?