2nd pick...

They always say, "invest in what you know." Now I'm not sure who "they" are...but I do hear that phrase quite a bit. Anyway, I work with a bank and I work in marketing...so I decided to look in that direction. And that little headstart brought me to the following pick...

Umpqua Bank (ticker symbol UMPQ: NASDAQ)

Now in Fantasy Sports...I love a good sleeper. I'm mean, come on now, who doesn't? Find that gem that only a few people are talking about and then have that player blow up and provide great value. There's nothing better in Fantasy Sports. I'm talking 2009's Steve Slaton, 2006's Mark Teahan, 2006's Marques Colston (who was TE eligible in Yahoo leagues back then) or 2005's Boris Diaw.

Well in the 2009 Investment draft, I'm looking at you Umpqua Bank.

And what's makes this bank in Oregon a sleeper, you might ask? It's a "small cap". I'm being told that means the company valued between $300M and $2B. Decently small in the world of investing with room to grow. UMPQ sits at a market cap of $550M being sold at $9.50 a share.

So what do I like about this sleeper? A couple things:

#1 - I dig their vision. They are a progressive bank. Marketing-wise they are doing some cool things (see their "store" layouts). Their website looks great. And from a product standpoint, they have some neat ideas (check out Green Street Lending). Now, being progressive isn't always a good thing. Sometimes people get ahead of themselves and the market. But in this case, I like what UMPQ stands for. They talk about keeping the focus on being a "community bank" and "slow banking". I could go on and on why I like that...but just take a look at their website for a flavor of their ideals (umpquabank.com).

#2 - The government likes them too. They were one of the banks who got a portion of money from the "bailout". Now that sounds like a bad thing but they didn't get the money cause they were in trouble. No, in fact, they had plenty of cash reserves, unlike the troubled banks. They were chosen as a bank to back by the government based on the merit of their standing and future.

#3 - The current economy. Recent news doesn't put the finance sector in a good light. In fact, people are predicting gloom and doom for financials. To me it looks like this financial trouble was caused by big banks getting too big. These huge banks were willing to take tons of risk because of their size, forgetting about the principles that made them strong institutions in the first place. So now, I'm looking for growth from small, strong, community-oriented banks. And it looks like in Oregon, Umpqua has done a solid job laying that foundation. They've also begun to expand into surrounding areas (Washington & Northern Cali) and they've expanded their services as well (a new asset management division).

Them's my reasons. Disagree if you like. Regardless I'm in for $9.50 a share and we'll see how that turns out.

Now, I'm not looking for this bank to take over the world. Nah, I'm just expecting it to grow a little, mature and expand. It has its niche and should excel in it.

I'm comparing them to Ichiro in his rookie year. Corner outfielder with little power. A little strange for the times (he wasn't all HR or nothing). He didn't/doesn't walk much but doesn't strikeout much either. He's not your prototypical player but he does really, really well for a team in Avg and Runs. And he ended up MVP that year. So here's to hoping that UMPQ turns out to be my MVP.


(for more on Market Cap I found the following article below)
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/03/031703.asp