Welcome to week 23 of my stock-picking throwdown with Mr. Market. Let's get right to the numbers:

Company

Starting Price*

Recent Price

Total Return

Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM)

$22.23

$13.49

(39.3%)

Harris & Harris

$6.22

$3.40

(45.3%)

IBM (NYSE:IBM)

$128.33**

$84.12

(34.4%)

Oracle

$22.75

$16.53

(27.3%)

Taiwan Semiconductor

$10.34

$7.37

(28.7%)

AVERAGE RETURN

--

--

(35.00%)

S&P 500 SPDR (AMEX:SPY)

$125.26**

$84.40

(32.62%)

DIFFERENCE

--

--

(2.38%)

Source: Yahoo! Finance.
* Tracking began on Aug. 7, 2008.
** Adjusted for dividends and other returns of capital.

A rotten week for Mr. Market was slightly worse for my tech portfolio, which fell another 26 basis points behind in our three-year race to the finish line.

The good news? My tech stocks held up better than most. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) took a beating when CEO Steve Jobs opted for medical leave due to a still-mysterious condition that's preventing his body from absorbing food. Seagate (NYSE:STX) succumbed to the tech recession, parting ways with CEO Bill Watkins and COO David Wickersham and cutting 10% of its workforce. And after months of often-wild speculation, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) said that it would cut 100 recruiters and end development on six of its smaller projects, including a very useful organizing tool called Google Notebook. (Bummer.)

Worst of all, though, was the news from Nortel. Canada's once-dominant networking equipment supplier finally gave in to market and competitive pressure and declared insolvency this week. Hello, Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO)? You just won the recession lottery. Pick up your prize at bankruptcy court.

The only remedies for times like these are prudence in picking stocks -- stick with the very best -- and patience in waiting for gains. That's how David Gardner produced a decade of 20% returns in the real-money Rule Breaker portfolio. Tom Gardner's "simpleton portfolio" was also a 10-year winner. I believe that, with these five tech stocks, I will achieve similar success.

Checkup time!
Now, let's move on to the rest of today's update:

  • Earlier this week, Merrill Lynch analysts cut their rating of Akamai from buy to neutral, citing a few known catalysts and competitive challenges. I'd say the company's very fair valuation -- Akamai trades for 17 times trailing and eight times forward earnings -- is compensation enough for the uncertainty.
  • IBM has taken to "in-sourcing," choosing East Lansing, Mich. and Dubuque, Iowa for its two newest service centers, according to BusinessWeek.

There's your checkup. See you back here next week for more tech stock talk.

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