The goal of this portfolio, as I wrote in my July 30, 1999, column ("Votes are in! See the Future Fantastic 50 stocks"), was to come up with a list of stocks that would pass this simple test: If you were to look at the list in July 2004, you'd say about each entry: "Boy, I wish I'd have bought that five years ago, and I'd sure be willing to hold it for another five years."

When I decided to put together this more-aggressive version of the blue chips in my 50 Best Stocks in the World portfolio, I asked for help from readers in finding the 50 best blue chips of 2004. About 2,500 readers cast nearly 12,000 votes for the original Future 50. In the first four years of this portfolio I also asked for readers’ help in my annual revisions of the portfolio. The final list was a combination of my own picks and those that scored well in the reader surveys. In the last three years, in an effort to improve returns and reduce volatility, I've taken over the annual drops and adds. For better or worse, the portfolio is now pretty much my work. The membership of this portfolio is updated annually: the last time on July 24, 2007 (The next generation of winning stocks).

Inclusion in this portfolio indicates that I believe this stock is a good long-term investment. It is, however, not a recommendation to buy the stock at its current price. On a schedule that is ideally quarterly but is in practice much more erratic, I note up to 10 stocks that are Best Buys for new money at the time of the update. At the time of the last update, I made seven buy recommendations. For the 12 months that ended July 19, 2007, the Future Fantastic 50 portfolio gained 31% versus a gain of 26% for the S&P 500, ($INX) and 25% for the Nasdaq Composite, ($COMPX). For the fourth year in row this portfolio beat both the Nasdaq and the S&P. For the 12 months that ended July 17, 2006, the Future Fantastic 50 portfolio gained 6.2%, well ahead of -2.8% loss for the NASDAQ Composite and the 3.1% gain for the S&P. For the 12 months that ended in July 2005, it was a 21.8% gain for the Future 50, 12.3% for the Nasdaq and 10.5% for the S&P 500. In 2004, the numbers were 12.9% for the Future 50, 10.2% for the Nasdaq and 11.1% for the S&P 500. For the eight years since the start of the Future 50 portfolio in July 1999 -- just a year before the bear market hit in March 2000 -- it is now up 12%. That's a substantially better than the 3% return in the Nasdaq, but trails the 17% return on the S&P 500. This portfolio is clearly volatile, and these stocks are best suited for aggressive investors and even then should be owned as the edge surrounding a more conservative growth core.

(Editor's note: [1.] Jim Jubak may at any time own shares in a number of companies included in this list. [2.] On Feb. 27, 2007, Icos and Mercury Interactive were removed from the list due to an acquisition by a larger company and were replaced by Lan Airlines and Central European Distribution.)