J. Thomas Wins $5,000 in Week Three of Beat the Street Contest

Step aside Sarah Jessica Parker and your Milano Blahnik-loving Sex in The City posse (TWX)! When it comes to your affection for footwear, Beat the Street winner J. Thomas may have your feet beat.

That is because Thomas, playing TheStreet.com's  Beat the Street stock picking game under the player name "Bandit7," scored the first weekly victory for a male contestant by choosing... shoe stocks! That means a $5,000 price. Apparently, it pays big for men to love shoes as well.

Thomas finished with a portfolio value of $ 305,943.47.  He is the first player to break the $300,000 barrier with an impressive 22.3% weekly gain.  He rocketed into first place led by long shoe positions in DECK and SKX. For those of you unfamiliar with Deckers; they are the makers of the uber-popular Uggs brand of shoes. (Uggs came into vogue with the help of Oprah Winfrey a couple years back when she spotlighted them on her nationally broadcasted show.)  At the end of last week, DECK was up $25.31 to $142.76 on the back of a strong earnings report.  The other shoe play, Skechers returned 24% for the week.

Thomas’s other portfolio holdings were long VMW, long RVBD and short ABK. Thomas used his swap stock option on Wednesday to sell his long position in EMC and buy DECK. Good decision!

Coming into the final couple days of trading, old Bandit7 was in 31st place and down a whopping $ 40,124.34 to a leader board dominated by shorts in airlines stock such as UAUA,  JBLU, CAL, and longs in ANAD, and SIRT. So, it goes to show that it ain’t over until that final bell rings.