Stocks in 2005 Review

Today is new year's eve. I want to wish everybody have a happy new year and a prosper 2006!

2005 marked the year with gains mostly from the oil and metal industries. Gold has surged to new year as well as oil almost touches the $70 per barrel mark. Although the energy price has increased almost 100% fold, it still the US economy from humming along. The GDP is growing from last year. Consumer sentiments still remain positive. For 2005, the Dow is still down about 1%, S&P 500 is up about 3%, and Nasdaq is up about 1.4%. Overall the market is flat. But there are many outstanding winners and losers.

Stocks Winners For 2005 (source IBD):
(NTRI), weight management and fitness products and services company is up about 2000% for the year.
(BOOM), up 395%, metal related
(HANS), up 333%, beverage industry
(NRPH), up 247%, medical-biotech
(ASF), up 233%, job and human resources services
(CTRN), up 205%, retail, new issue in 2005
(GHM), up 203%, machinery
(UARM), up 195%, apparel maker, IPO in 2005
(ISRG), up 193%, medical device, one of my favorites
(SWN), up 164%, oil exploration
(FTO), up 182%, oil refining
(MFLX), up 164%, electronic components
(SNDK), up 152%, flash memory maker
(AAPL), up 123%, the famous iPod maker
(GOOG), up 115%, king of search on internet

Although last year's winners maybe not any indication for this year's winner, but if you digged into the news of them, it serves as a learning tool for picking new winners for the coming year. If you look at those winners, they all shared the common trait, their products are in hot demand. As stated in my previous blog on market leaders, it is worth while to look at how and why they are in demand. I am still in the process of learning how to pick the winners. The learning process does not end at any particular point, there is always something new every day. I am aimming to pick the next stocks in the top 10 list for 2006. This blog hopefully will guide you all to them.