Is there a Stock Picking Challenge being run for 2022?
If so, is there a link to enter?
And what do people think potential good themes are?
I have not seen anything about it for 2022, so it looks like it is not being done this year.
There have been no updates on the 2021 challenge for a long time.
I don't think it produced the results Stockopedia were expecting.
Themes, I really don't know.
For themes, I reckon copper exposure is worthwhile, from both a fundamental and technical perspective. Looks well set to break out this year, below chart is on weekly tf.
We are having a fallow year in 2022 for the Challenge. I explain some of the recent findings from the challenge in my NAPS Article here.
Quoting from it below:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The underperformance of the UK’s junior market ( FTSE AIM All Share Total Return +5.6% ) illustrates what has been a sobering year for stock pickers in general. One way of monitoring the conviction interests of private investors (subscribers and non subscribers) has been the Stockopedia Challenge. It’s a competition that we’ve run over the last couple of years which has gathered two or three thousand entrants each year.
Tracking the performance of the top 20 most picked stocks has revealed that the strong penchant for risk taking, encouraged during 2020’s Covid Rebound, has not paid off. The list contained only 8/20 winners - a 40% “hit rate”. Yes, this is a competition and people do select punts, but if the sentiment on Twitter is anything to go by then the –14.5% return may have been suffered by many. I’ve heard of some investors who have lost up to 90% in 2021 by following the crowd into highly discussed names at the top of the cycle. While the top 20 selected by the Stockopedia Subscriber community did do better (+6% YTD) there are many on the overall list that will be familiar to the community - BOO, SAGA, DDDD, AVCT, NCYT, SLP, ORPH, ECR, ODX, SYME, GGP, IAG, HZM, TILS, HZM, PHE, BMN, ODX, SNG, ARB.
We have taken the decision not to run the Stockopedia Challenge for 2022 for a variety of reasons linked to the above (we are likely to revisit it in a different format in future) - but if you do wish to monitor the general interests of private investors there are some alternatives. Paul Hill on Twitter has been running a poll which can be found here, and David Stredder will be launching another competition called the Mello BLISS with rules designed to avoid speculation. If you haven’t yet been to a Mello Monday webinar - I highly recommend it as you’ll discover amazing insights from the very best private investors and fund managers - you can learn more and sign up here.
I support the decision not to run the challenge because I think the format incentivised bad investing habits e.g. risk taking and gambling - maybe I'm taking it too seriously and it's just a bit of fun?
I would prefer a different format such as the 'fantasy portfolio' of the old site or the existing 'challenge' format but modified to enable holdings to be sold and replaced as the year progresses.
There is another excellent (if simple) competition which has been running for many years. Some familiar names from here already on it!
