The past year has been a rather dramatic one of the market, but also a very
formative year for InvestorPlace.com . We ramped up our content output, launched
a host of new features and managed to forge some great partnerships. Oh yeah,
and I got to grill the president in June . Not a bad year. We assuredly have
made our share of boneheaded calls. In the interest of full disclosure, I have
tried to air my track record here and will make a concerted effort to own up to
my mistakes in the new year. Because trust me, mistakes will be made. But before
we turn the page on the calendar and start grading InvestorPlace.com on its
calls in 2012, I'd like to take a moment to recap some of our very best work
from the past year. Here are what I consider the seven best examples of the kind
of work we provide here, and the quality of work I hope we can replicate in the
new year: #7: 5 Stocks Doomed to Disappear in 2012 This is a bit of an unfair
metric, but judging by clicks alone, the most popular story of 2011 was the very
recent article about stocks that might not make it in 2012. InvestorPlace has
grown by leaps and bounds in recent months, so it doesn't surprise me that a
recent pick would be at the head of the pack when measured by clicks some
330,000 and counting in just the past week alone! #6: A Modest Proposal to Fix
the Debt Ceiling: Strategic Default Styled after Jonathan Swift's sarcastic
satire, I wrote: " America, it is time we just walk away ." The heck with
taxes, the military and government in general who needs em! #5: Is the Gold
Bubble Reaching Its Climax? Charles Sizemore is one of the smartest contributors
we have, and he showed it in this article on Aug. 22 , with a headline that
proved to be right on the money in both substance and timing. His bubble call
came just days before gold peaked over $1,900 per ounce. Charles reiterated his
call in this article on Sept. 20 . Gold is at $1,570 right now. #4: This
Week's Market Movement a Historically Bullish Sign Daniel Putnam is one of our
most shrewd technical analysts and does a great job of making sense of the
charts. Case in point: A call in the first week of October that the bulls were
back. The Dow is up 12% since then and tallied the best October in a quarter of
a century. #3: Don't Panic: The U.S. Credit Downgrade Changes Nothing I am
particularly proud of this column . I asserted that the downgrade changed little
it wouldn't change the debate in Washington, it wouldn't affect the economy
and it wouldn't affect Treasury rates. When the market opened down 500-plus
points on Monday, some folks thought I was crazy. But time, it seems, has proven
me right. #2 : Hewlett-Packard Embodies What's Worst in Corporate America My
reasons cited in August : Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ ) is characterized by
stupidity, a lack of innovation, bloated operations and no leadership. Judging
by the comments on IP.com and reprinting of the column on MarketWatch and
Huffington Post , among others, many of you agree with my rant. #1: Netflix
Coverage At InvestorPlace.com , we strive to offer a variety of points of view.
Though sometimes this can create contradictions between articles, I strong
believe individual investors benefit from the breadth of ideas we offer since,
lets be honest, no one person can be right all the time. On one of the biggest
stories of the year, however, our many disparate contributors all managed to be
saying the same thing. Namely, that Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX ) was doomed. Netflix
stock closed the year around $70 an ugly 77% flop from its 2011 peak above $300
per share. Here are just a few of our articles warning investors to sell, short
or avoid NFLX. Tyler Craig on Sept. 7, Netflix at $216.00. Sam Collins , also on
Sept. 7, Netflix at $216.00 Will Ashworth on Sept. 27, Netflix at $127.49 Jamie
Dlugosch on Oct. 17, Netflix at $117.33 Charles Sizemore on Oct. 26, Netflix at
$79.40 Lawrence Meyers on Nov. 3, Netflix at $92.29 Tyler and Sam were first in
line after the August volatility but all of our writers deserve credit for
sticking with this story and making sure investors continued to know the score.
Jeff Reeves is the editor of InvestorPlace.com. Write him at
editor@investorplace.com , follow him on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP and become a
fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook . Jeff Reeves holds a position in Alcoa, but no
other publicly traded stocks.
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