Over the past few weeks, you've probably read all about our new stock-prediction service, CAPS (which you can sign up for, absolutely free). If not, here are a few articles that explain it a bit:
In a short period, CAPS has attracted more than 13,000 participants from within Fooldom -- and it has already drawn some attention from without. Traipsing through the Web, as I often do, I recently ran across these pieces:
Manifest destiny?
At manifestinvesting.com, Mark Robertson wondered whether CAPS is "another 'grand experiment' of seminal value" -- not unlike the introduction of investment clubs. He explained, "The Motley Fool CAPS 'experiment' is an effort to capture the consensus of a very broad collective, or investing community. In a sense, it's a combination of fantasy football and investment clubs. Participants attempt to identify stocks destined to outperform (or underperform) the S&P 500 and the results are logged ... my first seven picks from August have fared well, going 6-for-7 for an 'Accuracy' of 85.7%." [His seven picks were Volcom (NASDAQ:VLCM), Home Depot (NYSE:HD), Linear Technology (NASDAQ:LLTC), eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), and Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM).]
Robertson suggested that "Foolish co-founder David Gardner ... is dabbling at the edges of nudging investment club aspirations into warp drive. I eagerly await the day when we can screen for stocks to study from the subset of investors with 5-year time horizons, 5-Stars and All-Star results." (Robertson was recently ranked 193 out of 13,000-plus participants in CAPS. Check out his profile.)
Pure evil?
Meanwhile, at finance-weblog.com, Justin McHenry explained CAPS by saying, "The theory is that the crowd will predict the best gainers/losers, and their wisdom could help you to find new companies you don't know about." He added that "there's nothing that gets the blood pumping more than a game in which you try to show you're smarter than others. In that respect, CAPS is pure evil, because I could see myself suddenly wasting a lot of time trying to beat the faceless mass of people out there who are also picking. For example, today I was ranked 2227 out of 9712 players playing. That's not good enough! I'm not even sure what that means, but I'm angry!" (McHenry was recently ranked 292 out of 13,000-plus participants in CAPS. Learn more in his profile.)
He concluded, "Go check out CAPS if you like to pick stocks, especially if you like to pick stocks without having to put your money where your mouth is."
How social networking was meant to be?
At marylandmedia.com, Martin Ringlein asked, "Could CAPS truly revolutionize the way in which we research, share and discover stock information? I may adjust my wine purchasing decisions based on my interaction with Corkd.com -- am I, though, ready to adjust my portfolio and stock investments based on [CAPS]?" He went on to muse, "Just imagine for a second taking all of the collective knowledge of the stock market and being able to determine whose input is more or less accurate and putting it against one another to capture a median point that almost perfectly predicts a stock's future performance. It is a powerful and scary utility to think that by applying a large social networking environment around the stock market you might actually be able to predict the future of a stock's performance.... This is how social networking was meant to be!"
The analysts
Over at The Wall Street Journal online, Jane Kim reviewed CAPS, noting that "the service also tracks the performance of big brokerage firms, research boutiques and well-known stock pickers, such as James Cramer, former fund manager and a founder of TheStreet.com."
But enough about what lots of other people think. What should really matter most to you is your own opinion. I invite you to check out CAPS for yourself. It's fun -- and free.
Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian owns shares of Home Depot, Linear Technology, eBay and Microsoft, and was recently ranked 1,086 out of 13,678 participants on CAPS. Her favorite discussion boards include Book Club, The Eclectic Library, Television Banter and Card & Board Games. For more about Selena, view her bio and her profile. You might also be interested in these books she has written or co-written: The Motley Fool Money Guide and The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens .
Home Depot and Microsoft are Inside Value picks, Volcom is a Hidden Gems choice, and eBay is a Stock Advisor selection. The Motley Fool is Fools writing for Fools .
