Chloe’s Corner

Pam’s seven-year-old Labradoodle, Chloe, joins Pam and Jack each week on MoneyTrack as a co-host. Chloe has a special job: to keep the investment jargon to a minimum on the show, and remind everyone that the show is about – and for – real people. Chloe’s other job on MoneyTrack is to show our web site address to viewers during every episode.

The Chloe Versus Cramer Challenge

During Season Two, in episode #206, Chole took on CNBC’s famous investment guru, Jim Cramer of Mad Money. One day in June 2007, we tuned into Cramer’s show and wrote down four favorite stocks that he said he wanted to own. On the same day, we had Chloe walk across the business section of the newspaper and randomly select four companies to put in her own portfolio.

Since then, we’ve tracked the performance of each portfolio. It has been quite interesting to see how their portfolios have changed, especially during the recent turbulent economy. Both Chloe’s and Cramer’s portfolios are down but it’s still a close race. Because Washington Mutual closed, Chloe lost that investment, so we picked a replacement – Bank of America. Stay tuned to see what happens as the markets start to rally!

GFX – Chloe Vs. Cramer Stock Pick Chart

April 2009

CRAMER’S PICKS -54%

• Dell -66%
• GameStop -50%
• AAR Corp 61%
• CarMax -39%

CHLOE’S PICKS -56%

• Honda -23%
• Bank of America – ?
• Hitachi -58%
• GlaxoSmithKline -42%

Check out our Top 10 Investing Terms to Know. We defined them in plain and simple English so they’re easy enough for any beginner investor – and their best friend – to understand.