Frank Mangio

Of all the the hundreds of stockbrokers in San Diego County, doubling or not as broadcast business editors, and of all the hundreds of thousands of securities investors in town, who would have guessed that Frank Mangio would be the smartest?

Mangio, proprietor of the 25-year-old MPC Advertising and Promotion in Carlsbad — and not a stockbroker — was one of four winners nationwide of Barron’s annual economic forecast contest.

The Wall Street Journal's weekly, Barron’s asked readers in early 2003 to forecast geopolitical conditions, economic direction, corporate trends, and stock, bond and commodity prices. Mangio and three others, out of 900 respondents, tied for first place. He beat Barron’s senior business editor’s score by 50 percent. Mangio accurately predicted that Intel would be the best and Kodak the worst stocks on the Dow 30.

Mangio has been an active stock market investor for 20 years, although nothing likely matches his smarts for representing Southwest Community Bank, whose stock has risen some 250 percent since opening in 1999.

So, what does Mangio predict for 2004? He says Citigroup and Microsoft are his favorites among the Dow Jones Industrials, and that the stock market will rise about 11 percent for the year.