The first ASOS Challenge was successful in the sense that it taught us a few lessons on investment timing. Only three of 11 shares ended in profit and that included ASOS itself: congratulations to legend for BNH and bosley for SEO. Back to the drawing board for the rest of us (over the year the portfolio would have thrashed any opposition!).

Participants welcome for the second challenge. Primary objective is to find shares that will double in value by 1st July, beating ASC in the process; secondary to be most successful stock-picker in terms of the value of your 20K portfolio. Rules are:

1.Each participant has 20K which can go into 1,2,3 or 4 shares in units of 5K.
2.ASC has 20K and is team yardstick, not in individual portfolios.
3.Duplication between entrants OK with no upper limit for total for one share.
4.Start weekend of 21st Jan. Buy price half way between closing offer and mid.
5.Latest time of entry to be 8 pm on Sunday, 23rd Jan.
6.Challenge to close Friday, 1st July.
7.Entrants can switch up to a total of 10K; av. of Friday close bid and mid.
8.Progress reports to rank shares by performance but also participants (initial only to protect from the ridicule of outsiders!).

Participants welcome. Just post selection here or on ASC thread.

Eric

Well done and thanks Eric

capa

Any chance of putting bets on today or is it too late?

If not when is the next challenge?

Eric thanks for all the hard work, great to see the numbers taking part has risen so well. This should go to shares mag. for interest!

Mark, ASOS, As Seen on Screen, epic ASC.

MOB is storming ahead today!

Eric,
you`re doin` a great job already and it will be fun to follow. One point though as my selection of TAD was mid price 9.375 this morning whereas you have put it at 1.31 ??? This would have helped me no end but best to get it right from the start. no criticism.

Many thanks for feedback and corrections.
Jules: deleted PCI and PDX; added AEN at 697.5p and MDW at 9.09.
ramu: corrected PET to 53.75p, unfortunately.
snakey: corrected TAD to 9.94p, again unfortunately.
chad: sorry, but only fair to stick to the deadline. Comp. runs to 1st July;
if enthusiasm persists, no doubt we will repeat.
moneyplus: will drop a line to Shares re interest; re publicity; re prize(s).
kus: ASC are benchmark share; thus allocation to team; allocation Z because sandrew would not be happy if not A!

Any other corrections?

Amazing start with CFP (last time's booby) +23%, SEO (close runner up) +14%, AGL +9.5%. bosley and another (modesty forbids the real name!) up 9% and seb up 7%.

Eric

Oi!!
If I have to cook the dinner, at least I can be A!
Offers to do the washing up please!

EW , I definatley meant BPG (Business Post Group) and not BPRG. I will give reasons for my choices later.

Cheers and thanks for the work your putting in.

Damn - any chance of a late entry - just spotted the thread

My choice would have been SEO,NLR,FGO and RTD

Barry

Eric - Following Dil, whose comments I find more rational than most, I also went for BPG and not BPRG. Please adjust accordingly. You will see that my suggestions are (hopefully!)stronger companies likely to be less volatile than many suggested, so I do not expect to win, but hope to demonstrate that decent quality will usually outperform the majority. Don't want to complicate the issue, but dividends are very valuable in the long term (particularly when rolling up in Peps/Isas), so when I give the reasons end of July why my lot are not better, this will get a mention!

partridge: thanks; correction made; good philosophy - slightly more conservative against risk than some, but probably sleep more peacefully!
Dil: ditto; look forward to seeing logic.
Barry: sorry! Only fair to have fixed deadline. If generally appreciated, we should run again from 1st July.
sandrew - Cornwall seems fine for celebrations in early July. Do you want to be A1 rather than just 'A'?

Eric

I think I'd better leave that to you Eric. Thanks anyway!

We'll leave the A1 until you've won the contest, sandrew. lol! Eric

seo and agl doing me proud.

Can't do any worse than last time....I hope!!

Eric - Thanks for your response - I will keep an eye out for the next comp.

Regards Barry

Eric
Sorry slightly o/t.
Have you seen todays rns on MLS, can you give me bullet points briefly on why you think its a buy.
Looking to go in tomorrow with small stake, it seems a bit like a lottery but the rewards could be very attractive.
Thanks in anticipation.
Steve

Eric,
I trawled the AIM market for the four best trends (upwards!!!) on metastock and put them in. SD.