At the top of the page, we now have the top stories as determined by tickerspy member activity.

Below that we show your primary portfolio with our integrated tickerspy Alerts.  You may have noticed these on the newly relaunched portfolio pages we rolled out earlier this month.  By clicking on the Alerts links within your portfolio, you can see the latest Alerts on your stocks.  They cover news, community activity, and market data.  Note that you must have a primary portfolio in order to see it on the front page.  Do you have a blog or news source that you want added to Alerts?  Let us know and we’ll do our best to get it in.

On the right-hand side, as ever, we have our “Beating Buffett” module.  (Are you beating the oracle of Omaha today?  I am.)  Below that we’ve got some interesting daily top-5 lists that we’ve grabbed from our Ideas & Research page.

If you have any questions or feedback about the new front page, email us at help@tickerspy.com.

And stay tuned for more great upgrades to tickerspy coming this fall.

The end-of-Q1 holdings of hedge fund Conus Partners have seen their gains fueled by stocks like STAAR Surgical (STAA), a maker of implantable contact lens and other opthamalic products, cardiovascular disease-focused biotech CV Therapeutics (CVTX), and Symyx Technologies (SYMX), an R&D integration specialist that helps biotechs manage research data.

Sectoral Asset Management, a Montral-based investment advisor with a healthcare focus, has had similar success.  Biotechs Myriad Genetics (MYGN), Amgen (AMGN), and Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) have all performed well.

Finally, Baker Brothers, which is headed by brothers Julian and Felix Baker and focuses exclusively on life sciences companies, has seen its focus serve it well over the last month.  neurological disorder-focused biotech Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR), Myriad Genetics, and cancer-focused biotech Allos Therapeutics (ALTH) have all outperformed.

There haven’t been many places to hide in this market, but these biotech names have done well.  Only time will tell if they can continue to hold up.

We often get asked, “how can I find out who is tracking me on tickerspy?”  Now you can by going to your “tracked by” page, which is linked off your My tickerspy page.  Nobody tracking you yet?  Get active on tickerspy, build a track record, and it’s only a matter of time that people will want to follow your moves.

So go check it out, if you want to see who has been following your moves on tickerspy.  Let us know if you have any feedback or questions.

Our members have told us that one of their favorite ways to generate new ideas is by exploring our 2,000 or so Pro portfolios.  A peek at a couple of Pros shows the wide variety of strategies and stocks represented.

For example, there’s Orrell Capital Management, whose portfolio of gold stocks has held up very well of late, as a weak dollar and bearish fears have sent investors looking for the safety of gold.  Orrell runs a gold-focused mutual fund, the OCM Gold fund (OCMGX), and the firm’s top holding’s at the end of Q1 included Yamana Gold (AUY), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM), and Kinross Gold (KGC).  A look at Orrell’s portfolio offers up ideas from a gold expert for anyone interested in gold.

Pursuing a completely different strategy is Caymus Capital Partners, “a market-neutral energy equity fund,” according to Forbes.  The firm’s founders have an energy industry pedigree.  The Pro’s holdings have seen big gains thanks to its exposure to energy names like Comstock Resources (CRK), GMX Resources (GMXR), and Swift Energy (SFY).  Caymus’ portfolio show its expertise in energy and is full of energy names to explore for the interested investor.

Stay tuned to tickerspy for more upgrades coming soon that will make idea generation even easier.

But which tickerspy portfolios are thriving today, even as the market undergoes another tumultuous day?

As of this writing, the top member portfolio on our Ideas & Research page belongs to bluebeard.  With a short position in Nvidia (NVDA), the portfolio is benefiting from that stock’s plunge on a lowered outlook and product defects.

Meanwhile, a dip in crude prices is offering a respite for beleaguered airline stocks, and boosting airline-focused portfolios from, jwixted, Pozhil, and kranch.  All of these portfolios include AMR (AMR), Continental (CAL), Delta (DAL), Jetblue (JBLU), Southwest (LUV), and UAL (UAUA).

Other top portfolios include that of abs7224a, which is jumping on big gains from Chindex (CHDX) and Converted Organics (COIN).  A portfolio from multibillionaire is up on a big move from Middlebrook Pharmaceuticals (MBRK).

• Clarium Capital: From Dot-Com Winner to Top-Tier Hedge Fund
• American Movil a Hedge Fund Favorite Among Latin American Telecoms
• Fund Firm Looks for Growth and Blue Chips in Rocky Markets
• U.S. Meat Processors Face High Feed Prices; Brazilian Firms Faring Better
• Value Guru Muhlenkamp Seeks Bargains in Tough Markets
• Riding the Commodities Boom, Burlington Northern a Favorite with Pro Investors
• Bullish Case for Copper Based on Valuation, Steady Demand
• Tough Times for Oil Refiners, But Some Pro Investors Have Shares
• As Uranium Prices Dip, Pro Investors Bet on a Nuclear-Fueled Rebound
• Despite a Broken IPO, Hedge Fund Sprott Picks Commodity Winners
• “Tiger Cub” Hedge Fund Lone Pine Looks for Gains in Energy, Agriculture
• With Natural Gas on a Tear, Pro Investors Prefer Apache

Enjoy.

This methodology seems to have led Invus to biotechs and pharmaceutical companies. With general success across the industry, Invus’ especially large stake in Elan (ELN) has driven the portfolio to success in the first quarter. Elan is a researcher and developer of specialty neurological drugs that has pushed higher this quarter on the promise of its Alzheimer’s drug, which is currently in trials. Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR), Schering-Plough Corp (SGP) and Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA) are three other of Invus’ holdings that have returned over 30% in the first quarter of 2008 alone.

Invus does not invest exclusively in biotechnology companies, the fund has realized significant gains from positions in Visa (V) as well as Qualcomm (QCOM). The only real laggards for Invus this quarter were small stakes in Rite Aid Corp (RAD) and Deltek Systems (PROJ), a maker software.

You can have the headlines from the news sources below fed directly to your Alerts page by clicking on “track newsfeed.”

• New York TImes business section - Great business coverage from “the old gray lady.”
• newratings - The day’s upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street analysts.
• Silicon Alley Insider - Blodget and company keep an eye on the markets.
• StreetInsider - A newsfeed dedicated to tracking earnings news.
• ZachStocks.com - Zach offers unique market insights.
• footnoted - Mining SEC filings for fun and profit.
• The Big Picture - One man’s take on the market.
• the tickerspy blog - tickerspy news and site highlights.
• 24/7 Wall St - A premier market blog covering every angle of Wall St.

We hope you enjoy the news coverage on tickerspy.  If there are other news sources you’d like to see on tickerspy, let us know and we’ll try to add them.

As of this writing, the market is way down on woes in the financial sector as more writedowns and losses appear imminent, specifically at Citigroup (C).  C is currently in the second spot on the timely tickers list.  Ahead of it and behind it are a pair of blue chips GE (GE) and Apple (AAPL) that always seem to garner a lot of investor interest.  Even on down days like today.

Rounding out the top five are a pair of stocks in some very hot sectors.  Apache (APA) has been a beneficiary of the sudden boom in investor interest in the natural gas segment.  Natural gas prices have zoomed higher of late following the price of crude upward.

Mosaic (MOS), meanwhile, is a part of the still hot fertilizer sector.  Despite a slight pullback over the last couple of days, analysts remain bullish on the prospects for the industry.