Beat the Street: Airline Shorts the Ticket
Note: All winning portfolios and players are subject to verification.
An all-short portfolio on the airline sector pushed R. Denisenko to victory in Week 7 of
TheStreet.com's Beat the Street
contest. The airline stocks took it on the chin this week as ramping oil prices slammed the whole air transport industry. The ursine bets on the airlines worked because trading in airlines reflected the shocking high fuel prices.
Denisenko, under the player name "Amor13," finished with a portfolio value of $338,986.89, with a mind-blowing 35.6% weekly gain. However, it was not enough to just be short any airline stock, as many traders made similar bets.
To win the cash prize, Amor13 was able to pick the worst-performing (short side trades) airlines stocks for the week. Just as with solar stocks last week, it was not simply a case of closing your eyes, shorting the airline stocks and picking up your check for $5,000.
The winning portfolio boasted bearish short positions in
AMR
(AMR)
,
UAL
(UAUA)
,
Continental Airlines
(CAL) - Get Report
,
US Airways
(LCC)
and
Northwest Airlines
(NWA)
.
As we look forward to next week's game, a quick reminder that the market is closed on Monday for Memorial Day. The bad news is there will be no trading until Tuesday, but the good news is that you get an extra day to strategize and research potential stocks before creating your winning portfolio. You will have until Tuesday morning at 9:29 a.m. EDT to get your picks in. Good luck to everybody next week and congrats to R. Denisenko on the grizzly prowess!
As you get ready for Week 8 of the game, be sure to review the following articles to help you find the next group to make a big run.
The weekly Rocket Stocks
features stocks that have the potential to move fast to the upside. Keep an eye on these.
Also, be sure to review the
, and
portfolios of the week.
Need some guidance on how to Beat the Street? James Altucher shared his insights on
, and all competitors should review that.
And if you're bearish on the market, check out
How to Beat the Street: Short-Selling
.
If you didn't play in the first seven weeks, one of the features of this contest is that each Tuesday you can make one change to your five stocks. Keep an eye out for my weekly
for ideas on what you should swap in.
And get some ideas on the
: ask questions, post ideas and share thoughts on stocks with the rest of the community.
This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.com.