Just when you thought property was dead, listed property trusts or real estate investments trusts (REITs), as they are now known, had a big week to shake up the final standings. Despite the 16per cent jump by the property sector, it was not enough to incite a Greg Norman-esque last round from David Potts.

Alas, Mr Potts's property-less portfolio pulled to victory and even moved into positive territory with double-digit returns from retail and bank stocks. That's right, retail and banks. Who would have thought that? Just Group (JST) vaulted up 15 per cent in reaction to Solomon Lew's raising his bid for the clothing retailer by 15 cents a share.

At Thursday's close, before Friday's plunge, NAB was up 12 per cent and Macquarie Group (MQG) belied data that it was the most short-sold stock on the ASX by going up 11 per cent.

Just under the break-even point was student Andrew Bartolotta, who also found favour from sticking with banks - ANZ (ANZ) and St George (SGB) both delivering a trading profit.

A sobering statistic from the past four weeks was that nine of the 10 worst performers were mining stocks, including Fortescue Metals (FMG), down 30 per cent, Woodside Petroleum (WPL) down 20 per cent and Santos (STO) down 19 per cent. ASX 200 Energy and Materials sectors were both down by about 15 per cent over the past month.