Business Week wrote:Looking, perhaps, for investors comfortable with a certain amount of exposure, Tradingmarkets.com, a site for short-term traders, asked Playboy (PLA ) to assemble 10 former centerfold Playmates for a 2006 investing contest. In January each woman built a virtual five-stock portfolio. As of May 1, four Playmates have matched or beaten the 4.56% return of the S&P 500. Collectively the group has a 7.87% return, topping the results of about 75% of all mutual funds so far this year.
Admittedly, overall results have been skewed by the standout performance of Amy Sue Cooper, now a nursing student, whose picks are up 47.9%. (Only two of the 20,187 mutual funds tracked by Morningstar (MORN ) have done better.) Her portfolio benefits from two energy plays: Pacific Ethanol (PEIX ) (up 214%) and Dril Quip (DRQ ), a maker of offshore drilling gear (up 57%). Cooper says she chose her stocks by looking at "what's going on in the news." Tradingmarkets.com will donate $50,000 to the winner's chosen charity
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