dragonLZ (86.97)

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#1) On August 20, 2009 at 9:31 PM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Here, I intend to keep track of my real life portfolio that I have at Sharebuilder.com.

Of course, I'm doing this because I believe that the value of my portfolio is going to go up, and that one day, I'll be very proud of it.

I didn't keep track of all my trades this year, but my best guess is that my RL portfolio is up approx. 90-110% YTD.

I was investing slowly during the months of January and February, and started buying stocks more heavily in March of this year (2009).

Some of the stocks I bought in March are: BAC, BYD, LVS, MOD, HTZ, MIC, then in April: ROCK, ZLC, GNW, CENX, SOA, CBL...

Today, most of these stocks are up 200, 300, even 500% since my first purchase price.

Unfortunately, I didn't keep them all long enough to take full advantage of those gains. I even sold some of them at a loss, because I sold them as soon as they dropped a little below my purchase price, just to see them quadriple in price during the next 3-4 months. Also, for some of them, all I had to invest was a hundred, sometimes even only fifty bucks...

Even though bumbed about it, I'm not totally "unhappy" with what I achieved with the money I had (or did not have) on hand, and with a fear of losing any money as I didn't have any money to lose. Just as an example, at one point I had $3,000 in my portfolio, and almost no money in my checking or savings account. And at home, wife, with a part-time job at best, a year old baby, and a motgage, which we hardly could pay...

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#2) On August 20, 2009 at 9:44 PM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

I'm sure I didn't check off that box for "publication" at the end of my post so I have no idea why this was published at the front page of the CAPS (for everybody to see). This really was something I just made for myself, with a hope that one day I will proudly be showing this to people I know...

Please, if anyone is reading this, do not comment here. This is kind of private diary or journal... 

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#3) On August 20, 2009 at 9:48 PM, bothisellhigher (29.24) wrote:

Hey Dragon...I think you'll be happy with the results of your investments...I charted all your picks ...I like all of them with the exception of kerx and pcbc...12 out of 14 is pretty impressive to me.  Good luck to you and your family!

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#4) On August 20, 2009 at 10:06 PM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Just noticed that I missed FITB as my sixth largest holding (right after DDR):

FITB, 100 shares, $8.05, $1,042  

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#5) On August 20, 2009 at 10:08 PM, capf00l (< 20) wrote:

Wealth polarization, labor trends, trade imbalances, size of FIRE economy vs. productive economy, consumption vs. investment. I'm less interested in proving it mathematically as I am about coming up with an explanation that makes intuitive

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#6) On August 20, 2009 at 10:15 PM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Even though I didn't intend this to be a "comment free blog", I have to thank you bothisellhigher for the kind words, and good wishes. Good Luck to you and yours too.

p.s. I have a few stocks in my portolio that are "wild cards" (usually don't put much money into them). I don't know pretty much anything about KERX and PCBC, bought them based on the charts alone... :) 

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#7) On August 21, 2009 at 8:10 PM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Today, my portfolio was up $362 or 2.8%, while S&P 500 was up 1.86%.

Good, but nothing special. I don't know, but I guess I just got so used to have my portfolio outperform the market (on good days like today) by 3-4, sometimes even 7-8%. However, I have to say here that my portfolio normally also underperforms the market on bad days by the same margin...

My stocks worth mentioning today:

LVS up 6%, FNSR up 9%, DDR up 5.2%, FITB up 4.8%, and FOE up 3.6%.

My portfolio's value today:

CASH                                                            $1,018

Total Stock Value                                                $12,202

Total Portfolio Value                                            $13,220  

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#8) On August 24, 2009 at 10:45 PM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Today: S&P 500 -0.06%, My portfolio: -0.14. I'd say both flat. 

My notable stocks: FNSR up 11% (after being up 9% yesterday).  All my other stocks were pretty much flat, other than ARM, which was down 9%. Right now, I'm not worried about this one as ARM was down before, but would then be quite a bit up, even on days when the market was down.

Today, I purchased 200 shares of FNM at $1.64, and 130 shares of WNC at $2.62.

Before, I tried to stay away from FNM, but today I really liked the chart...

This is my second buy of WNC. I bought it first time at $1.13 earlier this month (300 shares, sold them a couple of weeks later for a small gain).

My portfolio's value today:

CASH                                                                     $323

Total Stock Value                                                $12,878

Total Portfolio Value                                             $13,201 

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#9) On August 25, 2009 at 11:28 PM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Today, S&P 500 was up 0.24%, my portfolio was up 2.49%.

Almost all of my stocks were flat, just like the market, but CNO, which was up 22% saved the day. Nice.

The only other stock that kind of stood out is FNM with 9.4% gain.

Today, I bought another 114 shares of WNC @2.62 (same price as my yesterday's buy).

Just a note: As of today, my only losing position in my portfolio is KERX, which is down 14% since I bought it. However, I really like it's chart. Based on what I see, I think this stock might jump a lot one of these days, and it might be a $6 stock very soon.

My portfolio's value today:

CASH                                 $23

Total Stock Value           $13,507

Total Portfolio Value        $13,530

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#10) On August 26, 2009 at 9:59 PM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Another flat day today: S&P 500 up 0.01%, my portolio down 0.01% (or $1).

KERX and BZH were up 5% each. No other ones worth mentioning.

Today, I sold my 100 shares of PCBC @ $2.86. I just wasn't sure about this stock, and it wasn't moving as I hoped it would (but I also had it for just a few weeks).

My portfolio's value today:

CASH                                 $299

Total Stock Value           $13,230

Total Portfolio Value        $13,529

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#11) On August 27, 2009 at 11:58 PM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Today: Slightly better than flat. S&P 500 up 0.28%, my portolio up 0.61% ($82). I'll take it.

My best performers were C, which was up 9%, and CNO, up 5%. 

Today, I bought 400 shares of CHB at $0.65.

My portfolio's value today:

CASH                                 $31

Total Stock Value           $13,580

Total Portfolio Value        $13,611

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#12) On August 30, 2009 at 12:12 AM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Yesterday, on Friday, 8/28/09, S$P 500 was down 0.20%, my real life portfolio up 0.87% (or $118).

This week was a strange week. All 5 days, market would be either up or down in the morning, then by the end of the day it would reverse. However, it would usually end up being up or down just a few points - no big changes.

S&P 500 ended a week being positive - up 0.27%. My portfolio was positive too - up 3.85% for the week (or $509).

I'm happy with the performance of my portfolio this week. No big gains like I used to have, let's say a month ago or so, but still a nice gain comparing to the market's performance. I calculated that if my portfolio matched market's gain of 0.27% this week, my portolio would be up "only" $36, not $509 like it did. So, I'm happy. Once again, I know when the week comes when the market ends up being down 3-4%, my portfolio will probably be down 8 - 12%. Still, I think that in the long run, I will outperform market nicely.

Yesterday, I also made some changes in my portfolio.

I sold half of my DDR shares (75 shares) at $8.29, and more than half of my FOE shares: 134 shares at $8.02. I have to say I got a little scared of the possibility of the market starting to correct. I don't know why, but I guess just this weird movement of the market this week got me a little confused and scared.

Why I say scared? Because I still can't afford to lose a lot of money. When I say a lot I mean $2 - 3,000. That's a lot of money for me right now. So I thought: If the market continues to go up, I want miss on a lot by not having these 234 shares in my portfolio. I still have $12,000 invested in stocks. But if market starts going down, I thought I could really get hurt, especially because both FOE and DDR were up a lot lately. So, I didn't want to sell all my shares of these two stock that I have, I just trimmed my positions "a little bit".

We'll see what happens. I already think I made a mistake by selling too many shares of FOE. Maybe I should've kept more. But once again, we'll see.

Another reason why I sold shares of these two stocks is because I want to buy some new stocks. Yesterday, I thought I should buy more of the biotechnology stocks. Lately, they have been going up like crazy, and there is still plenty of them that trade below a dollar. (I'm going to write about my new buys and what I am thinking right now in a different post).

My portfolio's value today:

CASH                             $1,708

Total Stock Value           $12,021

Total Portfolio Value        $13,729

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#13) On August 30, 2009 at 12:41 AM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Here is how my portfolio looks today:

                       Avg. Purchase Price      Market Value (today)

LVS     100 shares,     $13.27,                            $1,472

GCI     150 shares,       $5.45,                             $1,373

CENX  111 shares        $8.89                              $1,230

FITB    100 shares        $8.05                              $1,083

FOE    100 shares        $6.96                                $804

ARM    100 shares,       $6.74,                               $753

CNO    150 shares        $2.25                                $646

DDR     76 shares         $6.55                                $633

MNI     262 shares,       $1.72,                               $536

WNC   244 shares        $2.66                                $625

C        100 shares,        $4.20,                               $523

FIG     100 shares         $3.76                                $466

FNSR  522 shares,         $0.51,                              $462

BZH    100 shares          $3.03                                $432

FNM   100 shares          $1.72                                $408

KERX  200 shares,         $1.58,                               $278

CHB    400 shares,        $0.67                                 $252

 

CASH                                                                  $1,708

Total Stock Value                                                 $12,021

Total Portfolio Value                                              $13,729  

 

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#14) On August 31, 2009 at 12:14 AM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

OK. So I have decided to buy a few more stocks. I know that I maybe already have a few too many (for the dollar amount I have), but I think there are still some very good stocks out there that I should try to catch before it's too late. And when I say too late I mean before October - November of this year. For a long time now, I've been convinced that market will continue to rally all the way up until December, then will correct a little, then start to trade sideways until January of 2011. But, enough about the market. That's a topic for another post.

So after I did my research over the weekend, I have decided to buy the following stocks tomorrow:

200 shares of HLCS (Biotech). Current price: $1.75.

500 shares of LTS (Financial Services). Current price: $0.73

On Wednesday, when my additional funds get available, I will buy another 100 shares of C (Citigroup). Current price: $5.23 (I hope it won't be much over $6 by Wednesday).

So those are my sure buys for right now. After I make these purchases, I should have approx. $500 left in cash. By Wednesday, I'll decide which one (or two) of these stocks I will buy:

BPOP ($2.22), CT ($2.90), MER ($1.12), BNVI ($0.67), CYTR (1.01), ETFC ($1.64), YRCW ($2.37), AHR ($0.85), and RODM ($3.54).

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#15) On August 31, 2009 at 11:45 PM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Today, S&P was down 0.81%, my portfolio down 1.73% (or $237). It could have been worse, but buying HLCS this morning at $1.58 made me $200 that made up for some losses I had on CENX (down 8%), GCI (down 5%), and DDR (down 6%) p.s. selling half of my position in DDR did help a little.

As I said, I bought HLCS today, 200 shares at $ 1.58. It ended the day at $2.80. 77% gain in one day. Not bad, I'd say. 

I also bought 200 shares of ETFC at $1.88. ETFC endedthe day at $1.76.

I also sold my whole position in ARM at $7.29 (had stop loss set at $7.32).

p.s. I know I said last night that I will buy 500 shares of LTS, but this morning I decided to buy ETFC instead. I'm still planning on buying LTS, but on Wednesday.

My portfolio's value today:

CASH                             $1,709

Total Stock Value           $11,783

Total Portfolio Value        $13,492

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#16) On September 01, 2009 at 10:51 PM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Bad day, what else can I say.

I knew that's how it works, but it still hurts a little. However, I'm still very confident I'll win against this market in the end... :)

Today, S&P 500 was down 2.21%, my portfolio was down 7.09% (or $956).

Had a long day at work so I don't have time to go through all the sells I made today. Will probably write about it over the weekend.

My portfolio's value today:

CASH                             $4,564

Total Stock Value            $7,972

Total Portfolio Value        $12,536

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#17) On September 21, 2009 at 12:15 AM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

For a while now, I haven't posted anything here. And I didn't for a reason.

Now, I think it's stupid to be tracking daily percentage changes in my portfolio. It's too much work, and it doesn't do any good.  It actually does some harm by putting a pressure on myself to have a good daily performance while forgetting the big picture.

That's why from now on, I will be just posting my moves (buys and sells) and my thoughts. Maybe, once a month or once a quarter, I'll post some numbers about my portfolio's performance and its value.

And that's it.

Good Luck dragonLZ! :)

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#18) On September 21, 2009 at 12:21 AM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

Last Friday, 9/18/09, I made the following buys:

MPG  400 shares at $1.67

CPE 400 shares at $2.15

FTWR 280 shares at $1.02 (after buying 500 shares at $1.19 four days earlier).

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#19) On September 21, 2009 at 12:23 AM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

I still think it's great time to get some more of the BIO stocks. Will most likely buy VICL as I think it's ready for a big one-day jump.

Thinking about getting another 200 shares of KERX too. Still looks very good to me.

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#20) On September 21, 2009 at 12:27 AM, dragonLZ (86.97) wrote:

I also think it's a great time to buy some of the oil/natural gas plays. My CPE buy was one of them. Will most likely get some more this week.

Will probably pick one (or two) of these three: PQ (now $5.53), AHD ($4.11), APL ($7.06).

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