Beat the Street: Another Full-Short Press

Editor's note: All winning portfolios and players are subject to verification.

The final week of TheStreet.com's Beat the Street stock-picking contest ended, not surprisingly, with stellar short-investing proving once again the winning strategy. M. Oppman led the pack this week with an all-short portfolio of financial and airline stocks, beating nearly 4,000 other players.

The financial sector continued to get thumped as unremitting pressure from the credit markets and Goldman Sachs' downgrade of U.S. investment banks crushed stocks in the sector again. Airlines did not have it any easier as intractable high energy prices wrecked havoc on share prices.

M. Oppman, under the player name "Mardan59," finished with a portfolio value of $307,922.88 and a not-too-shabby 23.2% weekly gain.

In his bearish portfolio, Oppman held positions in MF Global (MF Quote), Washington Mutual (WM Quote), PMI Group (PMI Quote), MGIC Investments (MTG Quote), MBIA (MBI Quote) and UAL (UAUA Quote).

Full marks to M. Oppman for beating the Street and for excellent ursine stock-picking!

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