The team had its recent investment meeting on Sunday July 30, 2007 and just as I suspected --- the kids > Coach Baker!  A year later, the stocks picked by the kids (Apple and GameStop) have trounced the performance of Coach Baker's stock (Phoenix Insurance).  Apple achieved a 112% return, GameStop an 82% return, compared to Phoenix's negative 1% return.  It appears that Apple and GameStop have been the beneficiary of new technologies and trends that are popular with kids.  Whoever coined the phrase "out of the mouths of babes" was a genius, because truer words were never spoken.  The results just go to prove that it is nothing short of amazing what our kids know about what's hot and what's not and which companies will benefit.

But as we look to set the portfolio for the future, several questions and issues arose.  Can Apple and Steve Jobs maintain its recent momentum?  Dimitry Martelli believes that the Sidekick from T-Mobile is cooler and has more features than the Apple iPhone and thinks it is time to dump Apple, while Christopher Smith (Nick's dad) believes it is foolish to bet against Apple, regardless of its recent run-up.  David Higham (Jett's dad) thinks GameStop will soon become a dinosaur as consumers will eventually start buying games online instead of in stores.  Furthermore, we should dump GameStop before it realizes a similar fate as Blockbuster.  Dimitry countered that Sony was marking down the price of the PS3 so GameStop's sales, and earnings, would get a short-term jolt (Dimitry how do you know this stuff?). 

However, a topic everyone could agree on is that Mr. Baker is too emotionally attached to Phoenix.  We had to stop the meeting on several occasions to wait for the laughter from the kids and parents to subside.  But like a true executive, Mr. Baker tried to position himself so that Mr. Neverson would take the fall.  When that didn't work, he threatened to cut back everyone's playing time . . . ironically the laughter suddenly subsided.  We finished the meeting with a task for the kids to decide which stocks to trade out of and which ones to add.  The new candidates are Johnson & Johnson, Prada (fat chance Dimitry), American Express, Nike and Adidas.  The entire results from the meeting is in the process of being updated on the "Shock Exchange Fund" webpage.