Ken Kam is a longtime mutual fund manager who came up with an innovative way to manage money about five years ago. He created the site Marketocracy.com, an online community where investors are invited to join and create portfolios, which are tracked publicly. He then takes the picks of the top 100 performers and sticks them in the mutual fund he manages (this is simplifying a bit, but you get the idea).

The Marketocracy Masters 100 Fund (MOFQX) has outperformed the S&P 500 the past two years, but did pretty poorly in 2004. Morningstar gives it just one star, but Kam is looking forward to its five-year anniversary when he says its returns will be more than double the S&P 500 over that time.

What I find fascinating about Kam's business model is that the community at Marketocracy has become Kam's own research pool. When he has an idea, he tests it against members. When he's looking for new ideas, he checks to see what the top-performing managers on the site are buying. (Premium members get to do the same thing).

This year Kam started his Best Ideas Blog. There he posts about companies he considers, well, his best ideas. His site charges subscription fees for full access to newsletters, forums and the blog. But he shared some of his ideas during a recent visit to AOL's offices.