Playing it safe gave yours truly a head start in the four-week championship round of our share race.
Each tipster won a round last year. Once again we have a $100,000 portfolio of 10 stocks; it should be worth at least $102,629 based on the market's rise last week.
I chose mostly financial stocks on the basis that interest rates are falling, so anything with a half decent dividend is going to perform.
But my best pick was LNG which, surprise, builds mid-size LNG export terminals and has some big projects in North America. It's held out against the falling oil price much better than other energy stocks due to its low capital and operating costs.
In fact, energy aside, the whole market is getting a kick out of the plunge in the price of oil.
Especially the blue chips. It's been a long time, if ever, that some one cent wonder wasn't leading the race, though there are still three weeks left.
And what a ride it promises to be. Wall Street is all over the shop with conflicting earnings reports and fears about when the Federal Reserve might lift interest rates.
The Fed's answer is it doesn't know. Last year it said it wouldn't be before at least two more meetings which made it late April at the earliest.
But last week it pointed out the economy was "solid" though inflation would "decline further in the near term". Trouble is inflation is already below its target so there's no hurry to lift rates.
Then there's Greece. Its new government says it will tear up the EU's bailout conditions, just as the euro is looking shaky again.
Back home the earnings season begins with JB Hi Fi reporting on Monday, Echo Entertainment on Wednesday and Tabcorp on Thursday.
