The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

HILTON HEAD, S.C. (July 31, 1997) -- Time for a portfolio update for my three hypothetical strategies. Let's begin with the undisputed winner to date for 1997: the Technology Portfolio. This is a group of 15 hi-tech stocks from selected industry groups of the S&P 500. The stocks are chosen strictly by market capitalization, selecting the 15 largest companies.

Since the beginning of 1997, the group of 15 is up an eye-popping 69% versus the S&P 500 gain of 29%. Even more stellar is the performance of the five stocks from within that group that sported the highest Relative Strength rankings at the beginning of the year. The five stocks, including INTEL <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: INTC)") end if %>, MICROSOFT <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MSFT)") end if %>, DELL COMPUTER <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: DELL)") end if %>, COMPAQ COMPUTER <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CPQ)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CPQ)") end if %>, and SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SEG)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SEG)") end if %>, have posted an average gain of 86% in 1997. Just imagine if Seagate hadn't been such a relative laggard!

The other long-term portfolio is my Blue Chip Portfolio, a group of 15 large-cap stocks chosen with an eye to long-term earnings stability, brand equity, financial strength, and industry leadership. The portfolio began July 1, 1996 and is up 55% for the 13 months, versus 42% for the S&P 500. The portfolio was updated on July 1, 1997 and for the first month of the new year is lagging the market by a couple of points, gaining 6% versus the S&P 500's gain of 8%.

The third portfolio is my Thoroughbred Portfolio, a short-term aggressive growth portfolio intended to include stocks each month with strong earnings growth as well as significant momentum in recent months. This portfolio concludes its first month today and managed to post a return just equal to the S&P 500, 8% each. While it sported winners like Dell (up 46%), it also held a bowser, SMITHFIELD FOODS <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SFDS)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SFDS)") end if %>, which dropped 19%.

The 15 stocks for August will be:

ADC Telecom (ADCT)
Advest Group (ADV)
Cerner (CERN)
Cisco Systems (CSCO)
CKE Restaurants (CKR)
Compaq Computer (CPQ)
Dell Computer (DELL)
Dixie Group (DXYN)
Herman Miller (MLHR)
Michael Foods (MIKL)
Money Store (MONE)
Navistar (NAV)
Penwest (PENW)
Sun Microsystems (SUNW)
Titan (TTN)

Monthly Growth Screens
(Jan. 3 to present)
54.07%  Relative Strength  
27.58%  S&P 500 Index  
22.83%  Investing for Growth  
18.06%  Low Price/Sales  
17.84%  Unemotional Growth  
14.02%  EPS Plus RS  
12.82%  YPEG Potential  
-2.90%  Formula 90  

Annual Value Screens
(Jan. 1 to present)
27.52%  Dow Jones Ind Avg  
23.34%  Dogs of the Dow  
21.39%  Beating the S&P  
16.89%  Dow Combo  
15.87%  Unemotional Value  
15.87%  Beating the Dow  
 5.86%  Foolish Four