Here were my 2008 stock picks for this year’s family stock contest. We take the closing price on 12/31/2007, so the current streak of eight straight losing days for the NASDAQ put us all in a big hole.
| Stock | Starting Price | YTD |
| Berkshire Hatha Class B Ord Shs | 4736.00 | -6.78% |
| Mindray Medical International Ltd | 42.97 | -8.03% |
| PowerShares Water Resource Portfolio | 21.40 | -6.45% |
| Buffalo Wild Wings Inc | 23.22 | -7.97% |
| Mueller Water Products Series A Ord Shs | 9.52 | -10.82% |
| Central European Distribution Corp | 58.08 | -5.35% |
| Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp | 33.94 | -9.81% |
| Grant Prideco Inc | 55.51 | -1.44% |
YTD: down 7.08%, and the family pickers are down 6.18%.
I picked these with a little less analysis than I normally do before making a trade, and perhaps relied a little too much on the Motley Fool community recommendations as a screening tool to find eight I liked. I had briefly considered ISRG, but passed on it as too pricey (turns out it is in fact down almost 16% YTD). I picked PHO based on Paul Kedrosky’s love of water (and predictions that “blue is the new green” for 2008, meaning that environmental talk will turn from global warming to the implications for water.
BRK.B appears to be a safe port in down years. The rest are just small to midcap stocks that I think have the potential to appreciate significantly if the market does turn around.
