How 'Bricks and Mortar' Bets Had Solid Gains

Editor's note: "Bricks and Mortar" is a mock portfolio created by reporter Nicholas Yulico that is meant to help generate real estate and gaming-related stock ideas. In keeping with TSC's editorial policy, Yulico doesn't own or short individual stocks.

Find the winners and throw out the losers. That was my simple philosophy when starting the "Bricks and Mortar" mock portfolio earlier this year.

So far, it has turned out well. Though I made some bad calls, my picks averaged a 20% return since the portfolio's inception in late January. This beats the S&P 500's return of 4% in the same time frame.

Hopefully, you paid more attention to my "flags" than to my "buys." Finding overvalued stocks was clearly my forte this year. ...