The top performer among our bullish picks this year is Helmerich & Payne, which provides drilling services to North American energy companies and has benefited from the sharp rise in natural-gas prices.

Other big winners: chip maker Marvell Technology and power producer Dynegy.

Other big winners: chip maker Marvell Technology and power producer Dynegy.

Wyeth, which we profiled positively in April, has proven to be one of the few bright spots in the tough pharmaceutical sector, thanks to hopes surrounding a new Alzheimer's drug that is undergoing large-scale testing. Wyeth is hoping the tests are sufficiently successful to gain approval for the drug from the Food and Drug Administration.

Some of our biggest gainers from 2007 came from those groups, including XTO Energy, Nabors Industries and Walter Industries, a coal producer.

Some of our biggest gainers from 2007 came from those groups, including XTO Energy, Nabors Industries and Walter Industries, a coal producer.

Walter quadrupled from the time of our article in April 2007 through June 30, 2008, making it by far our best selection last year.

Not surprisingly, our biggest losers this year were in the financial sector, the worst industry group in the stock market, with a 30% drop in the year's first half. Seemingly inexpensive stocks like First Horizon, East West Bancorp and American International Group got crunched after our articles, largely by credit problems.