Invest Better Than Bill Gates

Jim Cramer is a huge fan of Stockpickr, where he's been able to glean a lot of investment ideas.

Take for instance the George Soros portfolio. I've written a number of "Trade Like George Soros" articles on TheStreet.com, based on the idea that if we follow the Soros trades, we could do as well as him.

Cramer, however, took that idea one step further. On the July 12 episode of "Mad Money," Cramer suggested an alternative: trading better than George Soros. Some stocks in Soros' portfolio might be laggards, or even losers. So why not eliminate the losers and stick with the winners?

By conducting a mini "Lightning Round" based on the George Soros portfolio, Cramer culled out the weeds and left us with a garden of stock delights. At Stockpickr, there are a number of portfolios, such as High-Yield George Soros Stocks, Soros Stocks With Insider Buying and Cramer's Take on Select Soros Plays, that attempt to outperform the Soros portfolio.

I decided to follow Cramer's lead, this time using Bill Gates' portfolio, Cascade Investments. Cascade, Gates' investment company, was worth $3.5 billion as of March 30. His portfolio is very concentrated, invested in only about a dozen stocks. Given the small number of investments, it's fair to assume a lot of homework and money goes into each stock pick -- so much so that Gates can, if he wants, exert significant influence on management.

My Better Than Bill Gates portfolio at Stockpickr deconstructs Gates' holdings, keeping what I believe are the winners and discarding what I believe are the losers.