Tipperary financial controller Mr Gearoid McDermott destroyed accounting stereotypes by gambling all to win this week's prize. Like the previous winner, he set his sights on the £1,000 prize by narrowing his investments to just two shares. The GMCD 13 portfolio, which grew by more than 20 per cent, holds just Nokia and contest darling Baltimore Technologies.
"I was looking at which shares had fallen substantially but were good companies and likely to recover quickly," he said.
Both shares were in the top five gainers with Baltimore up 21.42 per cent and Nokia advancing 14.83 per cent for the week ending April 28th.
Mr McDermott played Share track 100 very differently in 1999 ranking near the 2,500 mark overall. "Last year, I was trying to keep the portfolio spread out and sensible - generally the things you'd do if it was real money. This year I was more of a gambler and put it all in one or two baskets," he said.
Mr McDermott says his style is quite different when investments are funded with his hard-earned cash. When using his new share dealing account, he will "be the typical conservative accountant and invest in a diversified portfolio of blue-chip stocks".
Mr David Butler is the student competition winner again this week but with a different portfolio. Sally PLC rose almost 18.16 per cent to £1,043,638. Snapping at Mr Butler's heels are the Madden siblings, along with Ms Sheila Robinson and Mr James Timoney.
The overall student leader is Ms Edel Conran. Her Team 14395 portfolio just edged out Mr John Galbraith's Galbraith Fund and JWG Fund.
Ms Conran's investment is up from number eight last week and she believes a widely diversified portfolio has the best chance of winning the overall prize. Team 14395 has held the same shares since the beginning of the competition: Bula, Horizon, Waterford Wedgwood, Independent News & Media, Tesco, Norwich Union, Elan and Nokia.
Waterford Wedgwood significantly boosted her holdings with a rise of 15.46 per cent over the week. The final year student of hotel management at GalwayMayo Institute of Technology says that, unless something goes horribly wrong in the markets, she will hold on to the existing portfolio.
On the main leaderboard, Mr Colm Martin and Mr Joe Twomey's Tayto investment packet remains firmly ahead of Mr Val McDermott's Team 14621 and Dilger's Advice portfolios. Mr Gerry Byrne's surprisingly named Gerry Byrne portfolio has crept up two spots to number four overall this week. The Midas 4 portfolio managed by Mr James O'Brien soared to the fifth spot from number 41.
Some of the stocks up this week are: Smartforce advancing 17.5 per cent and MCI World Com increasing by 12.5 per cent.
The shares that made the big losers' board are: Rapid Technology, down 17.11 per cent; Microsoft, off by 13.06 per cent; AstraZeneca, which declined 7.56 per cent; Fyffes, down 7.5 per cent; and Reuters, off by 7.26 per cent.
