Update:

Dividend Paid  

Payment Date: 10/15/2008
Security: ***PENGROWTH ENERGY TRUST (PGH)
Amount Credited: $38.03


Holdings
100 shares ACM
100 shares KBH
200 shares PGH
10 shares FSLR

CASH $494.46
+38.03
= $532.49

10K2008 Portfolio Value at close 19 Sep 2008: $11,253.46

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 20 Oct 2008: $7811.29 (OUCH, down 36%)

Too bad I didn't sell KBH when I wanted.


Jim

Any updates fellas???

Yep,

I realized I didn't post a dividend update for last month and I just got this months.  I really wished I would've hedged this with a S&P or Dow ETF like I have in my other stuff.



Anyway, here's an update:


Date posted: 12/15/2008
Amount: $36.43
Description: ***PENGROWTH ENERGY TRUST UNIT NEW DIST ON 200 SHS REC 12/01/08 PAY 12/15/08

Date posted: 11/17/2008
Amount: $36.45
Description: ***PENGROWTH ENERGY TRUST UNIT NEW DIST ON 200 SHS REC 10/31/08 PAY 11/15/08


$532.49 + $36.45 + $36.43 = 605.37

Holdings
100 shares ACM
100 shares KBH
200 shares PGH
10 shares FSLR

= $605.37 Cash, $8,185.77 Total value


10K2008 Portfolio Value at close 19 Sep 2008: $11,253.46

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 20 Oct 2008: $7811.29 (OUCH, down 36%)

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 17 Dec 2008: $8,185.77 (improving)


Had I sold 1/3 of something I was in the green on in Sep and hedged with SDS, I could've dodged the Oct bear market or at least cushioned it's effects.

ACM just got back in the green and I thought about selling it and buying 40 shares of SDS in the $82-84 range.  

All the infrastructure stocks have been running since "O" has stated he's going to pour money into it.  

This may also be why FSLR is starting to come back, since green is in.

I bought SDS on 8 Dec @ $84, sold it on 15 Dec @ 91 and I just bought more at $82 yesterday.  It works almost exactly opposite of my long positions, so when they go up 10% or more I sell some off and buy SDS.  When the market tanks, SDS goes up, I cash out and add to my long positions.  It's a beautiful thing.

Jim

I guess the depression has set in.

I'd REALLY like to see where these things are now.

This thing is pretty static due to market conditions and does not reflect what I'm doing with my big portfolio (frequent trading).  

However, I expect the financials have turned and homebuilders are going to continue their present upward climb as housing markets bottom and housing starts increase.  I expect ACM and KBH to continue upwards.  I don't expect PGH and FSLR  to move much.

I think solar is dead and I may eject and buy a financial to replace it or perhaps a bear ETF such as SDS, as the market has run too far in the last two weeks, driven by tech, oil and better financial news.

The present market is a trading market and I've been trading both ETFs (exchange traded funds) and these stocks in my big portfolio:  SDS FAZ POT RIMM ACM COIN since November and liquidated some others (EP TIE SBR BTE and some PVX) with no intent to buy them again.

I buy a volatile stock like Potash (POT) in three increments, ride it up, sell it off and buy a bear ETF (SDS) when the market took profits and tanked I would ride SDS up (it works inverese to the indice, it goes UP when the market goes DOWN).  

I would use the profits from that to buy more POT or more recently, UYG and ride that up and buy a financial bear (FAZ) and do the same thing all over again.   I started with 1000 shares of UYG and now have 5000.  essentially, no matter what the market does I have something to sell at a profit, whether the market goes up or down.  By the way don't short the financials, they are on a long term run up and shorts are likely to get crushed.

Also look at what RIMM is doing after hours:  http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=RIMM

I sold 60% of  my RIMM today, as I thought it would tank after hours.  I was wrong, but I took precautions to take some off the table because it had been trading in a range and I did't envision the explosive move upwards.  However, I'll be liquidating the other 40% of my RIMM tomorrow (sell the news) and buy back in after a pull back.  If it doesn't pull back, I won't chase it.

You can see most of those trades here: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=133&t=798831

Here's all the 10K actions for 2009:

01/15/2009
Amount: $26.82
Description: ***PENGROWTH ENERGY TRUST UNIT NEW DIST ON 200 SHS REC 12/31/08 PAY 01/15/09

02/17/2009
Amount: $26.84
Description: ***PENGROWTH ENERGY TRUST UNIT NEW DIST ON 200 SHS REC 02/02/09 PAY 02/16/09

02/19/2009
Amount: $6.30
Description: KB HOME CASH DIV ON 100 SHS REC 02/05/09 PAY 02/19/09

03/16/2009
Amount: $15.72
Description: ***PENGROWTH ENERGY TRUST UNIT NEW DIST ON 200 SHS REC 03/02/09 PAY 03/16/09

Total dividends: 75.68

Holdings
100 shares ACM
100 shares KBH
200 shares PGH
10 shares FSLR

Cash: 681.05

10K2008 Portfolio Value at close 19 Sep 2008: $11,253.46

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 20 Oct 2008: $7811.29

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 17 Dec 2008: $8,185.77

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 02 April 2009 $7,479.25

I don't know if continuing this is a good idea.  

My actual portfolio is bigger, and I'm contemplating reporting what I'm really doing, as the 10K has become an artificial construct, which is probably doing little good to anyone.

While I have a "buy and hold" component to my portfolio, I also trade a lot.  That is necessary in this market, which is trading in a band.  That is not reflected in the 10K portfolio.

Perhaps a better avenue is to report what I'm actually doing, since I really do run my own money and have had significant gains since mid-March.  

I've been posting all my trades here since early April: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=133&t=798831&page=17

If you want to know what I've really done, provide some feedback and I'll consider changing this up to reflect something that's useful.  

Otherwise, I'm going to kill this thread.

Jim

data for the 4 fund portfolio period ending 13 june 2008:  






summary: the 4 fund portfolio is at $7,397.62, or down about -26.17% since portfolio inception inclusive of all trading costs.

ps:
the FFNOX reference portfolio is at $7,654.73, or down about -23.45% since portfolio inception.

ar-jedi

jim,

i vote to keep it open.  

primarily, in a year i would like to look back at the investing
landscape of 4Q2008 and 1Q2009 and either smile or wince.

ar-jedi

My $10k portfolio, created just about exactly when this thread was started, stands at $7,137.05 as of 6/12/09.

Invested entirely in Vanguard's Total Stock Market Index Fund.  Expense ratio: 0.18%.

data for the 4 fund portfolio period ending 16 sept 2009:  






summary: the 4 fund portfolio is at $8,676.73, or down about -13.41% since portfolio inception inclusive of all trading costs.

ps:
the FFNOX reference portfolio is at $8,680.17, or down about -13.20% since portfolio inception.

ar-jedi

Are you a CFP?  Who do you work for?

no.  i have a pair of engineering degrees.


my wife.   she never stops telling me what to do and how soon it has to get done.  like right now.  unbelievable.

ar-jedi

I LoLed.

 

Holdings
100 shares ACM
100 shares KBH
200 shares PGH
10 shares FSLR

Dividends since 29 April:

KBH $18.90
PGH $131.00

Cash: 730.95

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 19 Sep 2008: $11,253.46

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 20 Oct 2008: $7811.29

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 17 Dec 2008: $8,185.77

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 02 April 2009 $7,479.25

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 31 Dec 2009 $8,228.95

- 33.51% For the 2009

I think all of these may do well in 2010.

Jim

data for the 4 fund and reference portfolios for the period ending 02 jan 2010:  






summary:

the 4 fund portfolio is at $8,892.78, or down about -18.94% since portfolio inception inclusive of all trading costs.

the reference portfolio is at $8,940.61, or down about -16.69% since portfolio inception.

ar-jedi


ETA:

If I remember (been on staff duty for the last 21 hours, I will post my accounts and positions.)



My ROTH finally got over $10k yesterday. Thank you F, AMD, and USAGX. AA too.

My IRA had a little correction but its on its way back up. Early in Feb I sold PBODX and I broke around even for it.



170 shares of USAGX

100 shares of F

100 shares of AMD

21 shares of AA

1000 shares of SIRI

3 shares of ACOR



Current values on 23 Feb: $9281.81 Its down around $800 from its all time high but still up 50%.



$230 cash

data for the 4 fund portfolio for the period ending 03 dec 2010:  






summary:

the 4 fund portfolio is at $10,020, or up about 0.2% since portfolio inception inclusive of all trading costs.

the reference portfolio is at $9,890.11, or down about -1.1% since portfolio inception.

ar-jedi

I did 244 trades this year and have tried to figure out how to create something of value at 10k and trade very little.

I'm going to change this up and bring it in line with what I currently have, since I actually did 36.6% in my real portfolio, which is a lot larger than this and over half my gains were from dividends.  

If you want to see what I'm trading, go here: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=133&t=798831&page=29  I tend to keep a core position and trade around it, selling blocks into run-ups and buying them back when corrections occur.  I prefer to trade the same twenty stocks over and over.

Now back to the 10K:

I am going to keep one speculative in here (AVL), which is a heavy rare earth element (REE) miner.  

You have probably heard of rare earths stocks in the news recently.  

I've been researching the REE's for over a year now and have picked AVL to add to this portfolio.  

Now, AVL has run quite a bit, but no where near what the others have and I owned it when it was AVARF.PK, buying my first shares in the 2.5 range.

REE stocks will probably run for 2-3 years until worldwide production catches up, so I expect AVL to be much higher by the end of 2011 and beyond.

China controls more than 95% of worldwide production and the West is only now realizing their strategic vulnerabilty to China's potential stranglehold on these critical elements needed for a multitude of high tech, military and green applications.

I currently have 2000K shares of AVL as part of my real portfolio and plan on boosting that to 5000-1000K when pull backs occur.

I currently hold AVL C FTR HIX IRET MFA PVX REMX RWT SJT TIE WAVX WY and may trade/add CSCO, EHI EPB HGT MO NHP PCL PDS PWE VOD, VRSN and a homebuilder KBH or TOL this year.

I believe doing a portfolio at 10K is tough because it doesn't provide much flexibility and I have a lot of that in my actual portfolio.  

However, "buy and hold" can work if diversified, high yield stocks or funds are used for most of the portfolio, which is why the speculative is only going to comprise less tha 15%.

I've also added 200 shares of HIX, which has a current yield of 11.10%.

The fund invests in the fixed income markets across the globe. It invests in securities of companies that operate across diversified sectors.

The fund invests in high yield debt securities issued by U.S., foreign corporations and foreign governments.

The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against Barclays Capital U.S. Corporate High Yield 2% Issuer Cap Index and the JPMorgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Global. Western Asset High Income Fund II, Inc. was formed on May 28, 1998 and is domiciled in the United States.


I also plan on adding a real estate investment trust (REIT) when the market pulls back in January.  Probably MFA or IRET.


Dividends for 2010:

KBH $25.2
PGH $162.8

Cash: $918.95


Holdings change:

100 shares KBH remain
200 shares PGH remain

Sell 10 shares FSLR @ close for 1301.40
Sell 100 shares ACM @ close for 2797.00

Fee: 20.00

Cash $5017.35

Buy 200 shares HIX @ close for 9.37 = 1824 + $10 fee = 1834
Buy 200 shares AVL @ close for 6.24 = 1248 + $10 fee = 1258

Cash $1924.35


10K2008 Portfolio value at close 19 Sep 2008: $11,253.46

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 20 Oct 2008: $7811.29

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 17 Dec 2008: $8,185.77

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 02 April 2009 $7,479.25

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 31 Dec 2009 $8,228.95

10K2008 Portfolio value at close 31 Dec 2010 $8,968.35

I'm going to reengineer this portfolio and probably buy something next week on the pullback.
I'm also going to go back to actually holding what is in this portfolio so I get the proper div notifications.  
I will also be DRIPing the high yielders that are in here or the ones I plan to add.

More to follow.

I went ahead and enrolled HIX in a Dividend ReInvestment Program (DRIP).

I'm not certain if the DRIP will purchase shares for this period, but it will for the next dividend pay date.
If the DRIP kicks in for this most recent paydate, it would purchase 1.795 additional shares of HIX at Friday's close of $9.47.

Sat Jan 29 03:05:24 2011 Dividend or Interest Paid
Payment Date: 01/28/2011
Security: WESTERN ASSET HIGH INCOME FD (HIX)
Amount Credited: $17.00

Sat Jan 29 10:51:41 2011 DRIP Enrollment Request Complete
Your Dividend Reinvestment Program (DRIP) Enrollment request is complete.
Security: HIX

I bought PGH back to reconstitute the portfolio:

02/02/11 12:39 PM EST Buy 200 PGH Executed @ $12.7795

I plan on DRIPing these shares as I did with HIX.

I'm only missing KBH now, but I'll "sell" that into a rally and buy a REIT, probably RWT, PCL or WY.  

I've been waiting for WY to pull back, but it keeps on running.

Jim

I'd be interested to see how the 10k portfolio is doing now. I started a 401k invested in mutual funds 11/1/2009. It got a 20% rate of return in the first year.

I "sold" KBH at the close on Friday for $14.79 - 10.00 fee = 1,469.

This currently gives me:

$1469 cash

plus

HIX dividend ($17).  HIX will reflect the DRIP inth next dividend payment.

Payment Date: 01/28/2011

Security: WESTERN ASSET HIGH INCOME FD (HIX)
Amount Credited: $17.00

$1,469 + $17 = 1486 cash to add to $1,924.35

= 3410.35

Total value of 10K = $9,332.35 at Friday's close.

I also just requested DRIP for PGH:

Sat Feb 12 23:56:36 2011 DRIP Enrollment Request In Process

Your Dividend Reinvestment Program (DRIP) Enrollment request was received and is currently in process.

Security: PGH
Request Date: 02/12/2011

The plan is to buy 100 shares of WY on a pullback and keep the rest in cash.

I believe KBH will rise once again, but WY and other REITs will climb (this year) before the homebuilders will (next two years)

These are now actual buys I've reinstituted, so I'm holding what the 10K contains once again in my actual portfolio.

Jim

My DRIP share purchase showed up for HIX.  This allowed me to automatically buy 1.74413 shares of HIX and not incur a brokerage fee, instead of receiving a $17.01 cash dividend.

Still waiting for WY to pull back.  I may buy PCL or RWT as an alternative.

I bought WY on the pullback today.

This completes my repurchase of equities for the 10K and we'll see what happens this year.

I'm holding 11% cash for any big drop that may provide an opportunity to buy something at a discount.

I don't plan on DRIPing WY at this time as I've done with HIX and PGH.

Tue Mar 01 14:50:52 2011 Buy 100 WY Executed @ $23.3684
Your Day buy order for 100 WY at a limit price of $23.4 was executed at $23.3684.  

100/23.37 = 2337.0

cash 3410.35

    -2337 = 1073.35

    -10 = 1063.35

OK, I decided to buy some more AVL when I saw the DOW futures in the -270 range and AVL slid below $6.  I like to buy into big pullbacks and sell into rallys.

03/15/11   8:46 AM EDT      Buy 100 AVL Executed @ $5.99  + 10 comission = 609.

1,063.35  - 609 = 454.35 cash remaining, which is a little low.  This is a trade and I'll probably sell these 100 shares if AVL crosses $8 in the coming months.

OK,to keep this simple,

PGH shares were added via DRIP, but only a partial share was added, as a foreign tax was taken out for $2.11.  

I can get that back at the end of the year in my taxes, so I'll add that $2.11 tax to cash and add the new PGH partial share.

I need to remember to do this each month.  Additionally, I'll add the new shares into the total instead of creating a new entry each month, otherwise, this thing will be longer and longer as monthly divs are added.

This stood up well during the Japan fiasco, with the only significant pullback occurring with AVL.


03/16/11   Dividend        ***PENGROWTH E Foreign Stk W/HCORPORATION CAS...   -2.11
03/16/11   Dividend        ***PENGROWTH ENERGY CORPORATION CASH DIV ON 2...   14.07
03/16/11   Dividend        0.93882  ***PENGROWTH ENERGY CORPORATION REI...   -11.96

UPDATE:  I sold 100 AVL into the runup today.  

AVL is a speculative mining stock, and while it has a bright future, it tends to piggyback on MCPs runup, but pulls back on no news, so I sold some.  

If it continues upward, I still have 200 shares.  If it pulls back, I'll rebuy.  Just trying to cover all bases.

Volume was almost 16,000,00 shares today, roughly 3.8 times average volume.  

This is a BIG sign AVL is going higher, but nothing goes straight up, so I took some off the table as I indicated I would.

04/01/11   Sold        -100 of AVL @ $8.4112   831.11

-10.00 brokerage fee

821.11 cash returned to portfolio

456.46 + 821.11 = 1277.57

Additionally, HIX paid a dividend which was DRIPed as a stock purchase:

03/25/11   Dividend        1.72688  WESTERN ASSET HIGH INCOME FD II INC...   -17.15


821.11

-599

= 222.11

= 35% gain.  Not bad for fifteen days

any updates? been a rough month or so

Got a bit bored at work and wondered what this portfolio would look like according to his final post on it. Needless to say it took a hit. AVL which at the time may have done well absolutely tanked. I actually bought some around the $3.80 mark and took a small loss ($50) just to get my money out and into things that looked more promising. I'm barely a novice at this, but after doing a few of these in college always fun to see where they would have ended up.

data for the 4 fund portfolio for the period ending 06 aug 2012:  






data for the reference portfolio, same period:




summary:

the 4 fund portfolio is at $10,298, or up about 3% since portfolio inception inclusive of all trading costs.

the reference portfolio is at $10,902, or up about 9% since portfolio inception.

ar-jedi

ps:
M* Instant Xray output for the 4 fund portfolio:

I'm a retard that can't link pics

data for the 4 fund portfolio for the period ending 21 feb 2014:  






data for the reference portfolio, same period:




summary:

the 4 fund portfolio is at $14,089, or up about 40.9% since portfolio inception inclusive of all trading costs.

the reference portfolio is at $14,422 or up about 44.2% since portfolio inception.


ar-jedi

Why didn't this guy simply invest in an index-tracking ETF? He would have almost doubled his money since his original post, and there would be no headache with all the risk and trading and worrying.

data for the 4 fund portfolio for the period ending 14 may 2014:  






data for the reference portfolio, same period:




summary:

the 4 fund portfolio is at $14,568.13, or up about 45.7% since portfolio inception inclusive of all trading costs.

the reference portfolio is at $14,731.52 or up about 47.3% since portfolio inception.


ar-jedi

I've read this thread several times, and I feel like it has made me a wiser investor. - Thank you for that.

Last year, I tried to do my own version of this (pick 4 funds and sit on it for a year) almost a year ago, and it tanked hard on me (about 5-8%), even though they were 5-star rated funds (by Schwab), and had previously gained large growth over the past two years of charting.

May I ask you how you decided to select these 4 funds? You obviously had quite a bit of wisdom picking these, because they have seen amazing growth over the past few years and even continue to do so to this day.

ok, but i am going to turn this around () and first ask about your methodology for selecting the 4 funds you picked.  what factors did you consider?  were the factors strictly technical, or based on analyst recommendations, recent history, or by gut feel, or via tips from your barber, or some combination thereof?  what were your expectations of the overall performance?  what reference are you comparing the performance to?  please post the symbols, and what percentage each fund represented.  it is not necessary to give a dollar amount, i don't need to know how big or small your egg is; a complete portfolio analysis can be done using Morningstar's (free) InstantXray tool irrespective of the total amount of money involved.  just the distribution of the money is needed, in terms of what percentage of the total was allocated to each fund.

ar-jedi

ar-jedi

data for the 4 fund portfolio for the period ending 04 oct 2014:  






data for the reference portfolio, same period:




summary:

the 4 fund portfolio is at $14,654.98, or up about 46.5% since portfolio inception inclusive of all trading costs.

the reference portfolio is at $14,876.90 or up about 48.8% since portfolio inception.


ar-jedi

My $10k now sits at $18,016.76.

anyone have any updates from the recent run up?

data for the 4 fund portfolio for the period ending 23 apr 2015:  






data for the reference portfolio, same period:




summary:

the 4 fund portfolio is at $15,779.90, or up about 57.8% since portfolio inception inclusive of all trading costs.

the reference portfolio is at $16,098.83, or up about 60.1% since portfolio inception.


ar-jedi

Why not do a update?

So no update, I wonder why.

it's been exactly a year since the last update so here is the 10K model portfolio as it stands...

data for the 4 fund portfolio for the period ending 26 apr 2016:  






data for the reference portfolio, same period:




summary:

the 4 fund portfolio is at $14,798.56, or up about 48% since portfolio inception inclusive of all trading costs.

the reference portfolio is at $15,717.29, or up about 57% since portfolio inception.


ar-jedi


eta:
http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/perf.php?DODFX,FBALX,IJJ,TAVFX,FFNOX

@ar-jedi, another update?

i lost track of time and it's been more than a year since the last update so here is the 10K model portfolio as it stands...

data for the 4 fund portfolio for the period ending 13 jun 2017:  






data for the reference portfolio, same period:




summary:

the 4 fund portfolio is at $17,544.21, or up about 75% since portfolio inception inclusive of all trading costs.

the reference portfolio is at $18,254.70, or up about 83% since portfolio inception.


ar-jedi


eta:
http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/perf.php?DODFX,FBALX,IJJ,TAVFX,FFNOX

@loon_138