The 2014 NCAA Basketball Tournament certainly had an eventful weekend! 52 games have been played across the country with 5 of them going into overtime. The $1 Billion that Warren Buffet offered to anyone that had a perfect bracket is now a distant memory. Every year there are plenty of surprises and this year has been no different:
- 3 of the 4 teams that were seeded as #12 in their brackets posted wins over teams seeded #5! The one team that lost was beaten by only 3 points in overtime!
- #1 seed and ‘media darling’ Wichita State lost to #8 Kentucky in the 2nd round.
- The 2 longest winning streaks in the country have both come to an abrupt end – Wichita State with 35 and S.F. Austin with 29.
Here are some other mind boggling numbers to take into consideration with the NCAA Tournament:
- The odds of winning Buffet’s $1 Billion prize was 1 in 4,294,967,296!
- It is estimated that Vegas takes in over $100 Million from bets on the NCAA Tournament – experts think this represents only 4% of all the money wagered on games!
- The NCAA tournament costs businesses $1.7 Billion in lost productivity during the month of March.
Our bracket is certainly no different and offers several compelling stories as well.
- #12 seed SNTA (Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp.) posts impressive wins and makes a run all the way the Final Four.
- #10 seed DIS (Walt Disney Company) posts two upsets to become a member of the ‘Sweet 16’.
- MONIF (Monitise PLC) becomes the story of our bracket – emerging from the International Bracket and winning it all.
If you haven’t already take a moment to dig in and read our complete story: March Madness: Final Four Investing Bracket 2014. Our bracket has been reviewed by over 5,000 readers since it was posted last Wednesday!
This has been such a popular investing article over the past few years that we’re doing two new things due to some of the excellent feedback we’ve received:
(1) We’re tracking performance! Using an overall “deposit” of $4,000,000 we have assigned each investment at least $50,000. Depending on how far the investment survived in our bracket we added $25k to it with the exception of the overall champion which was allocated a premium. Here are the initial investment amounts if you wish to track them yourself but we’ll do the work for you and revisit the performance throughout the year:
| Name | Symbol | Last price | Shares | Cost basis |
| Target Corporation | TGT | 59.54 | 837.66 | 50000 |
| iShares S&P 500 Index (ETF) | IVV | 187.51 | 267.07 | 50000 |
| Ford Motor Company | F | 15.4 | 3263.71 | 50000 |
| Costco Wholesale Corporation | COST | 113.15 | 442.28 | 50000 |
| Weight Watchers International, Inc. | WTW | 19.72 | 2520.16 | 50000 |
| Vanguard Index Funds | VB | 112.78 | 444.88 | 50000 |
| The Medicines Company | MDCO | 29.21 | 1723.54 | 50000 |
| Clean Energy Fuels Corp | CLNE | 8.83 | 5643.34 | 50000 |
| PowerShares Emerging Markets Sovere(ETF) | PCY | 27.54 | 1816.86 | 50000 |
| iShares Silver Trust (ETF) | SLV | 19.19 | 2590.67 | 50000 |
| Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF | BND | 81.06 | 616.75 | 50000 |
| ProShares UltraShort Lehman 20+ Yr(ETF) | TBT | 67.94 | 737.35 | 50000 |
| Rio Tinto plc (ADR) | RIO | 52.99 | 949.13 | 50000 |
| iShares MSCI Japan ETF | EWJ | 10.98 | 4566.21 | 50000 |
| Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF | VEU | 49.13 | 1020.2 | 50000 |
| Telefonica S.A. (ADR) | TEF | 15.44 | 3250.98 | 50000 |
| Market Vector Russia ETF Trust | RSX | 22.42 | 3351.21 | 75000 |
| Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (ADR) | BBVA | 11.97 | 6291.95 | 75000 |
| Smith & Nephew plc (ADR) | SNN | 75.59 | 992.59 | 75000 |
| Total SA (ADR) | TOT | 63.99 | 1175.92 | 75000 |
| iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund (ETF) | TIP | 111.94 | 669.88 | 75000 |
| iShares IBoxx $ Invest Grade Corp Bd Fd | LQD | 116.59 | 643.34 | 75000 |
| Direxion Indexed Managed Futures Strategy Fund | DXMIX | 35.46 | 2115.06 | 75000 |
| Senior Housing Properties Trust | SNH | 22.05 | 3412.19 | 75000 |
| Under Armour Inc | UA | 117.87 | 641.41 | 75000 |
| Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF | VO | 112.85 | 665.6 | 75000 |
| Spirit Airlines Incorporated | SAVE | 60.18 | 1262.2 | 75000 |
| Mylan Inc | MYL | 49.94 | 1513.32 | 75000 |
| Mattel, Inc. | MAT | 38.69 | 1936.48 | 75000 |
| Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF | VYM | 62.15 | 1207.54 | 75000 |
| Starbucks Corporation | SBUX | 75.88 | 990.23 | 75000 |
| Vanguard REIT ETF | VNQ | 69.84 | 1074.19 | 75000 |
| Apple Inc. | AAPL | 539.28 | 185.45 | 100000 |
| The Walt Disney Company | DIS | 79.77 | 1252.19 | 100000 |
| First Solar, Inc. | FSLR | 74.48 | 1344.99 | 100000 |
| WhiteWave Foods Co | WWAV | 28.55 | 3517.41 | 100000 |
| Market Vectors Africa (ETF) | AFK | 31.22 | 3203.07 | 100000 |
| Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF | VWO | 39.03 | 2558.2 | 100000 |
| SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bnd ETF | JNK | 41.19 | 2428.36 | 100000 |
| SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) | GLD | 126.15 | 791.26 | 100000 |
| iShares MSCI Mexico Inv. Mt. Idx. (ETF) | EWW | 62.8 | 1989.18 | 125000 |
| Active Fixed Income | 10.26 | 12183.24 | 125000 | |
| J2 Global Inc | JCOM | 48.34 | 2582.11 | 125000 |
| Constellation Brands, Inc. | STZ | 81.54 | 1536.38 | 125000 |
| Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. | SNTA | 4.65 | 32537.96 | 150000 |
| LS Opportunity Fund | LSOFX | 12.84 | 11682.24 | 150000 |
| Tesla Motors Inc | TSLA | 221.28 | 801.76 | 175000 |
| MONITISE PLC | MONIF | 1.28 | 174418.61 | 225000 |
| Total Invested in 2014 March Madness Investing Bracket | $4,000,000 | |||
(2) We are also taking requests for stocks or investments from our fans. If you have a
company that you want to have us consider for next year simply email it to us at info@myportfolioguide.com with the subject heading of “March Madness 2015”.
Dear Mr. Market: 