Portfolio of the Week

[IIC]

I'm not positive...But I think Karel said something about being busy for a while???

Maybe it was my imagination...But I did a search back to 10/1 and didn't find that he posted anything like that.

If anyone would know it would be Ernie...

Mr. M: Where's Karel???

[Tatnic]

My money IS being handled by a professional. The money I use for investing is not liquid. It is all within an IRA that was set up when a former employer discontinued it's profit sharing and pension plans ... plans in which I was 100% vested. When the plans were funded, my options were to re-invest it somehow or pay tax and a significant penalty for early withdrawal. So I rolled the money into an IRA which is held at an investment firm I chose because my twin sister is a registered sales assistant there for 4 of the brokers.

The funny (sad) thing is that most of the stocks and mutual funds I have in my portfolio (recommended by an "expert") are either flat or worth less than when I bought them. The only really significant profit I've made is eBay, which I wrote about in another thread. I made this buy decision on my own after hearing a radio talking head say, "Buy what you like." At that time, I was having a lot of fun buying and selling things on eBay. So I called my broker and asked, "Would eBay be a good buy right now?" He said yes and I bought some. It sold later due to a stop loss that was also recommended and my profit was in the area of 400%. I lost my socks on WorldCom (also recommended by an "expert.") My Intel stock is currently worth in the neighborhood of $8,000 to $10,000 less than when I bought it. I've had a few other success stories on stock sales but nothing to write home about. The biggest problem is that when I first converted the money in my IRA from a cash account to stock investments, it was only a couple of month before the stock market bubble burst. (2000? 2001?) So I'm still trying to earn back to the point of my initial investment.

I could be wrong but I feel like my broker ignores my account because the amount of money in my IRA is paltry compared to his clients who have hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars to play with. Also, if I have to pay a commission on each trade, I want the profit to end up in my account, not my broker's pocket.

I really went off on a tangent there. The bottom line is that my money is being managed by a professional and it will stay that way for as long as I don't feel like I'm knowledgeable enough to handle it myself.

Mary

Assuming you have better things to do Mary, here's a simple portfolio mix of stocks and bonds that can be adjusted quarterly, taken from Swenson's Book Unconventional Success:

30% U.S. Equities (Vanguard has no-load mutual funds that makes this simple, or Income Fund of America is another good one but its a heavy up-front load and much higher maintenance fees. Vanguard is a non-profit and has no upfront fee and very small management fees.);

20% Real Estate...any good REIT or if you want to say you have that in your house already that's cool, but I'm assuming your investable funds are liquid and don't include your house.

15% Foriegn developed equities..again, VAnguard has a no-load fund.

5% emerging market equities...vanguard.

15% U.S. Treasury bonds

15% U.S. Treasury Inflation protected securities (or commonly called TIPS)

Then after 3 months or so, lets say the stock market has a correction and the and the original US equities portion is only 27% of the portfolio, and the US Treasuries are 33%. You'd sell the treasuries and buy the equities so they're back in balance. That way you're buying cheap and selling expensive and more importantly you don't have one stock that can wipe you out like WCOM.

Or you could chase hot stocks here until you've totally wrecked your accounts. By chasing I mean buy them when you're very excited (usually at their highs) and sell them when you're bummed out (usually at their lows). That's human nature and hard to avoid.

[Tatnic]

Assuming you have better things to do Mary, here's a simple portfolio mix of stocks and bonds that can be adjusted quarterly, taken from Swenson's Book Unconventional Success:

30% U.S. Equities (Vanguard has no-load mutual funds that makes this simple, or Income Fund of America is another good one but its a heavy up-front load and much higher maintenance fees. Vanguard is a non-profit and has no upfront fee and very small management fees.);.

I forgot to add that those Vanguard funds would be stock index funds that mimic whatever index they're tied to and are the so-called bench marks that other for-profit funds (and money managers too) compare themselves to...I'm sure you've heard those comparisons: "we beat the market by 1/2% pt last year"...what they don't tell you is that they milked over 5% of the fund's assest and plowed them into their yachts and third homes in Vale. Or you've got companies that basically practice naked shorting by issueing options to top management that are immediately excercised and sold at a huge mark-up...the options and therefore the stock are fabricated out of thin air...and this is legal.

[Mary]

My first pick for this game.

Oops! I originally posted the following in the "Rob's Lobs" thread. So I deleted it from there and am re-posting it here.

I haven't learned how to do all the research yet, so just to get my feet wet in this game and see how I do the first week, I'll pick eBay long because, in reality, that's the stock I've done best with since I've had some of my IRA money invested in stocks.

[Mary]

Thanks, Tatnic

Thanks for your advice, Tatnic. Some of what you said is still too "shop talky" for me. I've been posting quite a bit during my first few days here and much of it is not related to investing. I guess I should try to keep those kind of messages to a minimum? I intend to hang around here for awhile, whether I post or not, and try to soak up some of the knowledge.

[peanuts]

rules are rules

Oops! I originally posted the following in the "Rob's Lobs" thread. So I deleted it from there and am re-posting it here.

I haven't learned how to do all the research yet, so just to get my feet wet in this game and see how I do the first week, I'll pick eBay long because, in reality, that's the stock I've done best with since I've had some of my IRA money invested in stocks.

Mary, you rebel you, already causing touble here... Here's the rules: RULES
As requested before, please read, then post.
POTW starts at the beginning of the week. Last time I checked, that was Monday, not Friday

I would suggest that you enter your pick after the market closes today (4 pm EST) so that you are meeting the guidelines of the contest. And actually, it may be better for you to wait until you get to do some weekend research as well, then post on Sunday... just a thought

[Rob]

Week 43 (4), *Final* Results

[Websman]

Nice job Gwhiz and Rob!

This is one time that I'm glad that the winner beat me since I'm holding ERS in my portfolio.

[Mary]

Following the Rules

Mary, you rebel you, already causing touble here... Here's the rules: RULES
As requested before, please read, then post.
POTW starts at the beginning of the week. Last time I checked, that was Monday, not Friday

I would suggest that you enter your pick after the market closes today (4 pm EST) so that you are meeting the guidelines of the contest. And actually, it may be better for you to wait until you get to do some weekend research as well, then post on Sunday... just a thought

Hmmmmm.....

Well, the rules say, "Enter your stock pick (long or short) or enter a cash position, no later than 3:59 p.m. Eastern on the first day of the trading week, to be entered into the contest." I entered my stock pick "no later than 3:59 Eastern on the first day of the trading week," did I not? I'm not going to do any research this weekend. Too busy with other stuff. So, if you want me to make my pick after the market closes today -- and it's closed now -- my pick is still eBay. After I've spent more time here absorbing the intelligence, then I'll do some research before playing this game.

[Mary]

P.s.

Incidentally, I've been working for lawyers since 1985. I know how to parse words with the best of them.

The rules (at least rule #1) do not state how early the pick can be made. Rule #1 only states that the pick must be made before the market closes on Monday. Soon as I post this thread, I'm going to go look again at the rest of the rules.

[Mary]

Rule Breaking

I see that I did break this rule: "All picks must be entered after the market closes on the last day of the trading week (usually Friday) and prior to the market close on the first day of the next trading week (usually Monday—see rule #1 above)." My apologies. It won't happen again.

[skiracer]

I see that I did break this rule: "All picks must be entered after the market closes on the last day of the trading week (usually Friday) and prior to the market close on the first day of the next trading week (usually Monday—see rule #1 above)." My apologies. It won't happen again.

The last person that did what you've done is now pushing daisies up somewhere in Uganda. Rob will be the first one to tell you that you, "must read the rules". Jeez he has that sign right there on the front page of the POTW thread. Mary, are you a troublemaker? Lyehopper and Websman both said that they thought that Rob's little sister might be a trouble maker and that she liked square dancing. Well you've already broken one of Rob's cardinal rules and you have kind of disagreed somewhat with his profanity request. Are you sure you're not a troublemaker? Rob, what's going on here?

[Mary]

Who's the troublemaker?

The last person that did what you've done is now pushing daisies up somewhere in Uganda. Rob will be the first one to tell you that you, "must read the rules". Jeez he has that sign right there on the front page of the POTW thread. Mary, are you a troublemaker? Lyehopper and Websman both said that they thought that Rob's little sister might be a trouble maker and that she liked square dancing. Well you've already broken one of Rob's cardinal rules and you have kind of disagreed somewhat with his profanity request. Are you sure you're not a troublemaker? Rob, what's going on here?

Methinks you may be the troublemaker, trying to stir up trouble where there isn't any. Rob emailed me privately and told me of the rule I broke. Square dancing???? I haven't square danced since I was 10 years old and we had a one-week unit of square dancing in my 5th grade class. What I do is country western dancing, which is a different animal. Why, oh why, does everyone ask me about square dancing when I don't square dance??? Um, I don't disagree with Rob's profanity request. I think if it really bothers him (and I believe it does) and he has humbly requested that it be kept to a minimum, I think it would be nice if everyone did keep it to a minimum. When I said I wasn't bothered by it as much, I added the caveat that I probably haven't seen as much as he has because of how new I am to $$$Mr. Market$$$.

[IIC]

Methinks you may be the troublemaker, trying to stir up trouble where there isn't any. Rob emailed me privately and told me of the rule I broke. Square dancing???? I haven't square danced since I was 10 years old and we had a one-week unit of square dancing in my 5th grade class. What I do is country western dancing, which is a different animal. Why, oh why, does everyone ask me about square dancing when I don't square dance??? Um, I don't disagree with Rob's profanity request. I think if it really bothers him (and I believe it does) and he has humbly requested that it be kept to a minimum, I think it would be nice if everyone did keep it to a minimum. When I said I wasn't bothered by it as much, I added the caveat that I probably haven't seen as much as he has because of how new I am to $$$Mr. Market$$$.

Yes Mary...Ski is a troublemaker...lol

Hey, I have an idea...Why don't you take up square dancing???...Doug(IIC)

[alice4321us]

Mtex

I am taking MTEX long next week.