Well, I’ve had my mock portfolio up and running for a while now and thought I should hold myself accountable by reporting back to my loyal subjects how I’m fairing.
So, on June 17th I bought 1351.35 shares of Origin Oil at 37 cents. Which cost 500 bucks. I sold all shares 1 month 1 day later on July 18th at 46 cents for a profit of 121.62 (less the 7 dollar commission charge). With my 614.62 I bought 33.16 shares of Sinoenergy at 6.03 on July 18th, 3.29 shares of Viacom at 30.37, then today bought 25.31 shares of Washington Mutual at 3.95, 3 shares of VSE Corporation at 40.07, and 1 share of Middleby at 48.55. So I now have about 18 dollars cash after all those commissions ate at it.
Viacom I will hold onto as a longer term investment. Before this “recession” the stock would bounce around 40 bucks. I’ll buy it on the cheap, wait for the price to go back up 10 bucks and make an easy, low risk 10 bucks. Or I can hang on to it for the long haul if down the road I feel that’s a good idea. Viacom is HUGE and no way it’s going under. This is a solid company fo sho.
Sinoenergy I will sell when it starts going down or sideways (Origin Oil has been sideways for a while now which was a sign to get out in that particular situation). Sine is a volitile short term stock for me. I’m going to milk it and sell it.
Washington Mutual This was an experimental pick for me. Until one year ago this stock was hovering above 40, now it’s 3.95!!!! There’s two ways to interpret this situation: Either this company is pulling an Enron and will crash, or it will weather the storm and hopefully rise up. If it raised back up to 40 bucks ( long term it sounds reasonable) it would be a ten-bagger for me!!! That would be a 36 buck profit per share… times 25 shares… minus the 7 dollar commission… 905 dollars profit. PROFIT. Yeah! Plus, if Washington Mutual goes under I have bigger problems– I BANK there!!! Naw, it’s not so bad because it’s FDIC insured. But it’ll be a hassle.
VSE Corporation Will be a short term thing. This one I consider one of my most risky endeavors (maybe WM). Easily I see this rising 10 dollars in a few months, but do the math- I bought 3 shares, so with commission, I’d only be getting like a 23 dollar profit. Not too exciting, so I’m hoping for more. My plan is that once it hits 10 I’ll start watching it. If it goes up. I’ll hang on, but if it goes sideways, or heaven forbid down, I’ll sell it.
Middleby is a really boring stock. They make kitchen products. But they’re highly recommended by Fools. In a year it seems I can reasonably expect a 20 dollar gain. So it’s not a short term stock, but I’m willing to leave it there until the Fools suggest stopping it. There are always a lot of recommendation by the brothers. They’re pretty darn good at what they do, so I feel I’ll always own a stock or two they recommend.
Eventually the plan is to reinvest my profits by shifting into long term investments. Right now I’m in the Build Capital phase of my Wealth agenda. They say you need money to make money. True, so true. (Crying…)
P.s. I used a 7 dollar commission rate because I will be using Scottrade’s Platform. Stocks under a dollar also cost an additional 1/2% of the principle to invest.
