Hard as it is to believe, the sharemarket is ahead of where our shares race started three weeks ago, if only just.
Even more amazing is that all eight of our tipsters are not only in the black but easily beating the market as well.
In a wild week, the market slumped 3.8 per cent in one day, only to recover it all in the following two.
The slump was explained by a London analyst's report saying the debt-laden global miner Glencore would go bankrupt if commodity spot prices stay depressed forever, though still rating it a hold. Imagine the carnage if it had been rated a sell.
Anyway Glencore not only digs up but also trades commodities – yikes – derivatives, an awful reminder of how the global financial crisis started.
As is the market's wont, the subsequent rally was a backflip to an overreaction, though its fundamental worry remains: ebbing global growth.
None of this perturbed our tipsters, who are probably glad they can't change their chosen 10 stocks, saving then from panic-selling.
Hanging in there proved to be the way to go as frontrunner Phil Baker, The Australian Financial Review's markets guru, who's seen it all before, slipped less than $700 during the week from a $100,000 starting portfolio. He is beating the market by just over $6000.
Credit ratings agency Veda remains the race's best stock, but Baker has lead in his saddlebags with GR Engineering, which is one of the worst stocks. Win some and…
Vitamins supplier Blackmores, chosen by the Ben-ites, knocked out ThinkSmart as the second-best stock.
But watch Natasha Copolov. With a week to go, she has the race's dark horse in Superloop, which is building a fibre optic cable network. It shot up from nowhere to third-best performer.
David Potts
