You wouldn’t call it “sporting” would you?

If you selected the world’s top 10,000 meter runners and pitted them in a 10K running race against a slew of prospective contestants in the hit television series, The Biggest Loser, we know what the results would be, right?

The overweight contestants from the hit reality show would get lapped by the Kenyan and Ethiopian gods of running—over and over and over.

But how about this?

Some of the world’s top financial minds run actively managed mutual funds.  Their jobs are to research  companies, keep their fingers on the pulse of the economy, and ultimately make money for the people buying their funds.  The fund managers make this money for others through the nimble buying and selling of stocks within their respective funds.  The men and women running these funds are like champion runners.

What if we made these fund managers race against the biggest financial losers?

Wouldn’t it be interesting to see how far the top finance professionals could pull away from the investment world’s bottom dwellers?

To set this race in motion, I’ll need your help.

  • Give me the name of the best American stock based mutual fund you know (in your view).  My hope is to collect 10 different “top” funds from 10 different people.
  • I’m also looking for 30 of the worst American stocks you can think of. Each person can give me names of 1 or 2 “bad” stocks, but they must be trading above $15 a share.

Once I get your feedback, I’ll pit the 10 top selected mutual funds against the 30 “lousy” stocks to see what performs better: the great mutual funds or the basket of crummy stocks.
I’ll post the results of the profit “race” on my blog periodically, tracking performances using “Smartmoney’s” online portfolio tracker.

There will be no “end date” to this race.  We’ll track it as long as I keep this blog active.

So…I’m looking for:

  • Great American mutual funds (stock based funds—not bond funds)
  • ”Lousy” American stocks trading at $15 or above (per share)

I’ll compile the holdings from your suggestions, and we’ll let the race begin!

(Note—Total returns will count, including dividends, but I’ll put dividends into cash instead of reinvesting them.)