Two heads are obviously better than one when it comes to the Sharetrack 100 competition this year. Tayto, the portfolio of Mr Colm Martin and Mr Joe Twomey, maintained its lead for four consecutive weeks to clinch the £15,000 (€19,046) prize.
Their victory is even more delicious as Orange, another Twomey/Martin-managed investment, scoops the final £1,000 weekly prize. This leaves the lads - who both work for the Revenue Commissioners - with £8,000 each. The Tayto portfolio won by a margin of £94,788.20 over Mr Seamus Parle's politically charged End Cuban Blockade portfolio. Mr Parle's sprint from sixth to second wins him £5,000.
The third-place winner is Mr Val McDermott and his Evan's Team investment, which delivers a handy payout of £3,000. Mr McDermott's other chance at the top, WA Lacey fell to fifth from second last week. He finishes well with four other portfolios in the top 50.
Although outside the winners' circle, the Kingston clan made a fine showing again this year with nine portfolios in the top 50.
Victorious Tayto's final push is attributed to the markets' anticipation of a US interest-rate rise. Mr Martin says there was no dramatic movement in share prices during the week as a result. So, although the shares in Elan and Reuters were down 9.29 and 6.45 per cent respectively for the final week, major holding Eircom rose by 1.33 per cent to pull Tayto through.
"It gave us £20,000 profit overall, which absorbed the losses out of our core stock. We just wanted some upside and no downside," said Mr Martin.
In an interesting twist to the Tayto tale, the portfolio was misnamed during registration. The boys initially chose the name Potato to stand for "P" in their alphabetical naming system but decided to let it ride as a "T" when they discovered the mistake. No doubt the crisp maker is happy with all the free advertising.
Goodbody Stockbrokers was delighted with the response to Sharetrack 100 this year and will sponsor it again in 2001.
After handing over the winning cheques to Mr Martin and Mr Twomey, Goodbody's Mr Seamus Quinn said: "We were amazed that people can amass such profits in a very difficult market."
With tongue firmly in cheek, Mr Twomey said spending the dosh may not be completely up to him. "My wife hasn't decided yet. She's thinking of going on holiday to the States and hopefully she'll bring me with her." Mr Martin was chuffed that their overall strategy finally led to a win. In last year's Sharetrack 100 competition the pair placed 16th overall.
Although satisfied with their win, Mr Twomey and Mr Martin send commiserations to the other players as they have been there many times before. They particularly tip their hat to third-placed Mr Val McDermott, who put up a good fight to the end.
The student competition also produced some interesting results. Tenacious Mr Neil Madden secures £2,000 and £100 for the superior performance of his UN Has Been portfolio in the overall and weekly competitions. Former pole position player Edel Conran is £1,000 richer thanks to the performance of Team 14395. Last week's number five, Catriona Dwan, captured £750 with Catriona's Fancy in third place.
All the winning students have also earned matching amounts for their student unions.
Congratulations again to the winners. Thanks to all players for taking part and better luck next year.
Baltimore had a 10 for one split on May 12th.
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