Overview of Latest Press Releases

Welcome to the Marketocracy Press Room

February 09, 2010

latest press releases

Click here to see press releases related to Marketocracy's family of mutual funds.

Here are the top 5 press releases, please click on the title to read the full release.

January 03, 2007 - Marketocracy Announces “Castaway Stocks” for 2007
"San Mateo, CA – Marketocracy, Inc., an innovative investment management and research firm that has developed the industry’s most extensive farm system of investment managers, announced the release of the 2007 stock picks from the annual “Castaway Stock” competition and the winners from 2006." ... click here to read more

July 31, 2006 - Marketocracy launches Ken Kam’s Best Ideas Blog
"SAN MATEO, CA - Marketocracy, Inc. announced today the launch of a new fee-based service, Ken Kam’s Best Ideas Blog (http:// research.marketocracy.com ) inviting individual investors to follow along as one of the country’s top portfolio managers trades the stocks in his Best Ideas model portfolio. These are stocks that can double over the next couple of years and have been discovered and researched through Marketocracy’s unique team investment process that spans globally across 80,000 members from 130 countries." ... click here to read more

November 16, 2004 - Forbes Launches Marketocracy’s Marketscope Offering to Subscribers
"SAN MATEO, CA – Marketocracy, Inc., an investment management and research firm that harnesses a team of the world’s best investors based on a meritocracy, announced today that Forbes is launching a new subscription service to offer Marketocracy’s Marketscope, a monthly newsletter, to its subscribers." ... click here to read more

September 29, 2004 - Marketocracy Secures Venture Backing from U.S. Venture Partners and Formative Ventures
"SAN MATEO, CA - Marketocracy, Inc., an investment management and research firm, today announced that U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) has invested in the company’s Series D round of financing. USVP joins lead investor Formative Ventures in this financing, signifying an endorsement by the venture industry of Marketocracy’s pioneering “Team Investing” process that seeks to consistently beat the stock market by adapting as the market changes. Marketocracy has raised approximately $13M to date, and this $2M round enables the company to stage the next phase of growth towards profitability." ... click here to read more

April 20, 2004 - Marketocracy Announces Top 100 Three Year Track Records
"For the three years ending 3/31/04, the top performing virtual fund returned 305.32%, or 59.44% annualized, while the 100th ranked virtual fund for the three year period returned 73.95%, or 20.27% annualized. In comparison, the S&P 500 Index returned just -2.94% over the same period." ... click here to read more
by Marketocracy

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what people are saying about Marketocracy ...

Forbes.com, which ranks Marketocracy’s Forums on its “Best of the Web” Investment Boards page, says “Put the best investors in a room and let the world listen in. That's the idea behind Marketocracy.com's forums, which only allow posts from managers of the site's top 25% online portfolios. Threads such as ‘One pick for 2002’ allow the site's stars to chime in with their top pick of the year.”
Adam Leitzes & Joshua Solan, Forbes.com Best of the Web, March 18, 2002

Clint Willis, in his article "USA: Funds – Virtual fund managers outgun the pros" writes "The vast majority of stock funds lost money last year - so it may come as a surprise that a small group of funds soared to big gains of 50 percent or more. Even more amazing: The funds were run by amateurs with no formal investment training." Funds "with names like TC Money Machine and Chabino's Rising Retailers-delivered an average return of 33 percent on their portfolios. . . .Last year, 40 of the 100 top Marketocracy managers posted virtual returns that would have placed their funds in the 100 top-performing equity funds-and six of those virtual funds would have taken Top 10 honors. Amazingly, two of the amateur managers, Kevin Fravel (up 96.4 percent) and Christian Straessle (up 95.2 percent), bested the returns of all professionally managed stock funds in 2001." He goes on to quote Marketocracy manager Sam Kortiz, "who guided the Sam A. Koritz's Small & Micro-Cap Fund to a 43.5 percent gain last year. . . . 'I've found opportunities to buy cheap shares of companies that other investors unjustly ignore,'[Kortiz] says. 'The small-and micro-cap world is full of these stocks.'"
Clint Willis, Reuters English News Service, February 14, 2002

Forbes.com profiles five stock pickers in its Best of The Web, "Desert Blooms" article: "In difficult markets, smart stock pickers prevail. . . . Thanks to the Fed's barrage of rate cuts, housing is one of the few remaining vibrant sectors in the economy. That's been a boon to Kevin Fravel's housing-stock-heavy mutual fund portfolio, posted at Marketocracy.com. His Kevin D. Fravel Fund is up 50% since the beginning of the year and 73% since its inception in September 2000. 'Inflation and interest rates are all historically low, and those are what drive the home-building industry,' says Fravel, a 33-year-old computer programmer."
Adam Leitzes & Joshua Solan, Forbes.com Best of The Web, December 03, 2001

Riva Richmond, journalist for The Wall Street Journal, writes in an article titled "Stock-Talk Forum Marketocracy Chooses Quality Over Quantity," that "Marketocracy Inc., of Los Altos, Calif., this week inaugurated message boards on its Web site, www.marketocracy.com. The site tracks the performance of more than 40,000 members’ virtual portfolios, but only the 2,000 best quarterly performers are invited to post comments. The remaining 38,000 may listen and learn." The article continues on to say "It follows that Mr. Kam sees Marketocracy’s top members as resources both he and other investors should be tapping. Message boards can be a tool for doing that."
Riva Richmond, Wall Street Journal, August 30, 2001

Amy Baldwin, in an article titled "Of Mutual Interest", quotes Jean-Hugo Drouillet, a m100 member who works as a translator in Philadelphia as saying "Common sense can be an investor's best tool. The most important thing is to exit a position when you have a huge gain and not to be too greedy. This is the hardest part, because you are always tempted to have more and more.
Amy Baldwin, San Francisco Chronicle, August 07, 2001

Journalist Jack Sirard of the Sacramento Bee writes in an article titled "Going his own way pays off for investor," about Sacramento native Mike Koza who says, "after six years of owning mutual funds, [he] was really disappointed with the results." Sirard goes on to write that Koza's feeling "was that [he] could at least do what the experts had done. It was worth trying." Koza is also quoted to say that "Picking the stocks I have in the contest is just like managing a fund, and it's a challenge to see how I stack up against both those in the contest and the brokerage houses." Sirard elaborates that although "Koza came in a little later than some of the front-runners, his portfolio posted a sizzling gain of 65 percent. It was the biggest winner in the second quarter, topping the marks of 45,000 other funds."
Jack Sirard, Sacramento Bee, July 31, 2001

Amy Baldwin, in her article titled "Mock fund managers tout results, knowledge" states, "Buy low, sell high. Be patient. Don't panic. Such advice sounds like it comes from mutual fund managers stating the basic rules of investing. But this wisdom comes from virtual managers - people who put together winning mock funds at Marketocracy."
Amy Baldwin, Associated Press Newswires, July 31, 2001

In a New Orleans Times-Picayune article titled "Armchair market gurus get their shot," reporter Mary Judice writes, "Local investors have found a way to play the market at someone else’s expense—and successfully. And all they have at stake is reputation." She goes on to relate, "Fund Manager Ken Kam, known for his prowess at Firsthand Fund, is out to find the next generation of mutual fund managers."
Mary Judice, New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 29, 2001

BusinessWeek Online quotes Michael Kernan, a postmaster of New Sarpy, La. and a Marketocracy m100 member, as saying, in reference to the possibility of becoming a professional fund manager for Marketocracy in lieu of his current job that, "[He’d] drop this job in a second." The article continues, "according to Morningstar, Marketocracy’s m100 beat 94% of professionally managed equity funds."
BusinessWeek Online, July 25, 2001

Alpesh Patel discusses not being a fan of top-10 stock pick lists, except for when it comes to Marketocracy's m100 Weekly Statistics Top Buys & Sells: "If you really want trading ideas based on what fellow online traders are buying and selling then see www.marketocracy.com. It's a US list site which tells you what net traders hold and, more importantly, their track records."
Alpesh Patel, Financial Times, June 23, 2001

Justin Wiser, in an article titled "Marketocracy index tops Dow, S&P" notes that "a choppy year for the major stock market indexes hasn't slowed down the leading virtual fund managers at Marketocracy.com."
Justin Wiser, CBS.MarketWatch.com, June 20, 2001

Phoenix recognizes one of its' own in Michael Kantor (ranked #12, Q1-2001): "Michael Kantor has been called a 'stock picking guru' by Marketocracy, a company that is using the Internet to identify & recruit top investors to build a family of mutual funds. During the first quarter of this year, his virtual mutual fund had a return of 18.37%, outperforming 99.7% of all professionally managed funds."
The Business Journal of Phoenix, June 11, 2001

In talking about the m100 Weekly Statistics subscription, Dawn Smith notes: "By looking at the buying and selling habits of these top performers, Kam believes, investors get unbiased data. Of Wall Street research, he says 'very little of it tells you when to sell.'"
Dawn Smith, SmartMoney.com, May 02, 2001

Theresa Carey of Barron's notes: "The site tracks your net-asset value and performance, which sets it apart from most of the other stock trading games. You can see how your picks stack up against professional mutual-fund managers, as well as other Marketocracy members. If your career goals include mutual-fund management, check out this game."
Theresa Carey, Barron's, March 05, 2001

In it's February "Best of Web" issue, Forbes.com named Marketocracy as a "best of web" site, saying "Ever dreamt of filling Peter Lynch's shoes?..." They also recognized m100 member Devin Cassas (ranked #3 in q4-2000) saying "Cassas is a reformed technology investor turned Graham and Dodd devotee. After work Cassas screens for stocks looking for those that meet these minimums: 15% return on equity, 7% net profit margin, and at least $250M in revenue. He then eliminates any companies whose businesses he can't understand, as Warren Buffett is fond of saying..."
Forbes, February 26, 2001

"Mr. Kam's business plan at Marketocracy initially calls for him to hire five people to run one fund in July 2003, although, he said, more would be hired if their track records warranted it. He plans to offer competitive compensation: a combination of salary and a percentage of assets under management."
Carole Gould, New York Times, January 21, 2001

Noted "Best of Web" for investing sites by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report, December 04, 2000

"Think of a fantasy baseball league that came with this unique catch: The winner gets to manage a real Major League team.
Ron Carter, November 26, 2000

Terry Savage, on reviewing the 9/30 results summarizes:"All the entrants are aiming to prove the premise of the contest, that there had to be some amateurs out there who could do a better job." She goes on to say about #1 ranked Colin Williams: "Talking to this 25-year-old stock picker definitely gave me the feeling that I'd like him to win the contest--right away, so he could start managing some real money--mine!"
Chicago Sun-Times, November 23, 2000

Reuters reporter Jeffrey Hodgson writes: " Such contests are nothing new and have long been sponsored by newspapers. But with Marketocracy, there is a crucial difference. Kam plans to offer jobs to investors with the best performing portfolios over three years. It's part of his plan to build a multi-million dollar family of mutual funds managed entirely by people whose only qualification is their track record."
Reuters English News Service, August 17, 2000

"These are the best tools I've seen in one place for evaluating your stock picking prowess. If, after three years of running a model portfolio, you turn out to be any good, Kam might hire you to run a real fund with real money. In the meantime, you get to use Kam's cool tools for free—not a bad deal" Says Jason Zweig of Money.com.
Money.com, August 14, 2000

In a Fortune article titled "The Right Stuff," reporter Margaret Boitano writes, "Ken Kam, a hotshot money manager... [is] trying to give novice investors their first big break at turning pro." She adds that "Kam has a history of thriving by doing things the unconventional way...but with a little luck, he could just find the next Peter Lynch."
Fortune, July 24, 2000

In a Wall Street Journal article titled "Amateur Traders Get a Chance to Turn Pro," reporter Christopher Oster says, "Marketocracy.com is a logical extension of the start to his [Ken Kam's] own investing career."
Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2000

In a Business Week online story titled "Looking to Main Street for the Next Peter Lynch," reporter Mara Der Hovanesian writes, "So you want to be a millionaire portfolio manager? All you need is a computer, an Internet connection, and a knack for picking growth stocks. Then you need this Web address: www.marketocracy.com."
Business Week Online, July 17, 2000

From TheStreet: "From Joe to Pro? Marketocracy.com Lets Investors Run Virtual Fund", reporter Ian McDonald "Marketocracy.com, where Main Street investors can play Wall Street titans by picking a $1 million stock portfolio -- with play money, of course. But instead of picking stocks for their own edification and education, this exercise could lead to a job running a fund." He goes on to say: "In trying to bring meritocracy to the markets (hence the name), the shop plans to launch a fund that will be co-managed by the five best stock pickers in each industry sector over the next three years."
TheStreet.com, July 17, 2000

what people have said about Ken Kam ...

"Ken Kam, the star mutual fund manager...is taking a page out of his old company's playbook in building his own money management firm..."
Dow Jones Newswires, October 16, 1999

"Ken Kam-half of the duo that has propelled this fund [Firsthand Technology Value Fund] to earth-shattering returns- will be leaving the firm in October to start his own shop. Talk about going out on a high note: Only a few months past its fifth birthday, this offering sports the best five-year return in the Morningstar database..."
Morningstar, September 02, 1999

Marketocracy Founder Ken Kam created an impressive track record at Firsthand Funds and his work did not go unnoticed. In August 1999, The Wall Street Journal referred to him as the "health-stock guru" and the Firsthand Technology Value Fund that he co-managed as "sizzling."
Wall Street Journal, August 18, 1999

"Several of the Firsthand funds, including the year-old Firsthand Technology Leader's fund, are the best performing mutual funds in the country..."
Dow Jones Newswires, December 21, 1998

"After starting in obscurity with a paltry $2.5 million under management in the mutual-fund backwater of Milpitas, California, the Firsthand Fund group finally saw reason to pop a few corks recently when its flagship Technology Value fund busted out as the top-performing technology fund over the past five years..."
Dow Jones Newswires, December 21, 1998

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