Portfolio manager wins share game's first bout

Congratulations to Mr Brian O'Keefe in London, the first weekly winner of Sharetrack 100. He receives a £1,000 cash prize and a year's free share-dealing through Goodbody Stockbrokers, for recording a 59.6 per cent rise in the value of his portfolio Liquidity Crises - the biggest gain made by any investor in the first week of trading.

With a total value of 1,595,595, Liquidity Crises now sits on top of the overall leaderboard after one week's trading. Mr O'Keefe appears to be on a bit of a roll - he dominated the first week's leaderboard, also taking second place with the portfolio Dublin Your Capital, and with a further four of his portfolios appearing in the top 10.

So, what's the secret behind his success and what is his investment strategy from here?

Despite working as a portfolio manager with Commerzbank Securities in London, Mr O'Keefe says that investing in Sharetrack 100 calls for different skills. After all, contestants are investing for a three-month period only - investors should not think "long-term", instead choosing shares that are likely to do well over the competition timeframe.

"If it was real money, you would diversify your portfolio. But here you can take a risk and be a bit more adventurous. It's not really to do with investing - it's everything to do with volatility capture," says Mr O'Keefe.

Mr O'Keefe says he views the competition as essentially having two parts - picking stocks to win the first week and then investing for the duration of the competition.

As the market settles down and investors begin to trade, he expects strategy and tactics to change.

"For the first week, it's a case of placing your bets. Afterwards, it's tactical from there on. The tactics now are to try to concentrate on market-sensitive stocks. You've also got to take a view whether the market is going to go up or down," says Mr O'Keefe.

He placed his bets well. As the competition began, the markets turned around and a bull market started in the Nasdaq, according to Mr O'Keefe.

"With the market in a rebound phase, it was a case of picking stocks which had the greatest tendency to go up with the market," he says. These included software and hardware technology stocks, which dominated the top five shares.

His portfolio included Amazon and Smartforce, the two stocks which recorded the strongest gains - 86.13 per cent and 79.44 per cent respectively.

And Mr O'Keefe is not the only winner. His wife can look forward to a fancy dinner in one of Dublin's top restaurants when the couple return to Ireland for a short holiday in the near future - all thanks to £1,000 he picked up as the first weekly winner.

Third place in the first week went to Mr Denis Ryan with his Mount Merrion portfolio, which notched up a 58.8 per cent gain - less than one per cent behind the leader.

If you didn't make this week's Top 50, don't despair - the remaining competitors can console themselves with the thought that everything can change in a week and anything can happen over the next 11 weeks.

And, remember, an overall first prize of £15,000 will be awarded to the person whose portfolio has the highest balance at the end of the competition on Friday, July 6th, at 5.30 p.m. Second prize will be £7,000 and third prize £3,000. So, it is all to play for yet.