alt="StockScouter investment returns chart" title="StockScouter investment returns chart" >It's been a while since we had a look at our StockScouter investments. Let's check in on how our investments are doing.

As you may recall, we're tracking Jon Markman's 2nd half of 2007 StockScouter portfolio. His system selects 10 stocks from the universe of stocks based on their timeliness and appreciation potential. I've been blogging about the StockScouter system since the most recent selection was made, tracking it's progress through the market's ups and downs.

According to Jon Markman. The StockScouter stock selection system has never had a six month period where it underperformed the S&P500. With less than three months remaining, the StockScouter portfolio has some catching up to do. Four of the ten original picks are down 10% or more. A fifth, Pride International, is down 8.8%. The worst performing stock in the group has been Hiland Holdings GP. Hiland is down over 20% since our hypothetical investment was made in July.

It's been another three weeks already. It's time to take a look at how my StockScouter portfolio experiment is doing. You don't have to look very hard or long at the chart on the right to know things have not been so good lately. I'm burning a lot of red pixels. Looks like there's been a bear in here. Three weeks ago they charged out of the gate looking like winners. Now, if this were real money, I'd be getting a little worried.

It's been three weeks since MSN Money's Jon Markman posted his latest StockScouter portfolio. I have not looked at it since, so I thought today would be a good time to check in and see how our hypothetical 10 stock portfolio is doing.

To recap, every six months Jon Markman, in his Supermodels column on MSN Money, screens the universe of stocks using his StockScouter stock trading system. He publishes a list of just ten stocks chosen by the StockScouter system for market beating returns in the coming 6 months. StockScouter's ten stock choices have consistently outperformed the S&P 500 for the six years. I've decided to track his system's latest stock picks to see how they do over the investment period.

I love a good stock picking system. The idea of using a computer and the Internet to screen through all available investment choices and net out the best ones for my investment dollar... It's appealing, isn't it?

Think about it for a minute. Every once in a while you fire up your laptop, click the mouse a few times and with no more effort than that you have a list of market beating stocks to invest in for the next few months. Click over to your online brokerage account, and after a few minutes of heavy clicking your work is done. Time to hit the golf course until your next round of trades in a few months' time.

Could there ever be such a system?