Playboy Playmates' Virtual Portfolios Up 7.87%

Short-term trading website tradingmarkets.com is hosting a trading contest, whereby 10 former Playboy Playmate centerfold models each assembled a virtual portfolio of five stocks in January, to see how they would do against the S&P 500 and universe of mutual fund managers, Business Week reports.

As a group, the ladies' portfolios were up 7.87% through May 1, versus the S&P 500's 4.56%. If their holdings were assembled as a mutual fund, they'd be in the top-performing quartile of all funds.

The group is being bolstered, in particular, by one savvy Playmate, Amy Sue Cooper, now a nursing student, whose portfolio rose 32.24% in the first quarter of the year. Through May 1, her portfolio was up 47.9%. Cooper has done particularly well with Pacific Ethanol (up 214% through May 1) and offshore drilling gear manufacturer Dril-Quip (up 57%).  She said she selected these stocks because she understood what the companies did and were in industries in the news.

The website is donating $50,000 to the winner's charity of choice. Cooper's is breast cancer.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.