Investment "Logic"

Notes: Stock Ratings: 1 = buy at current stock prices, 2 = buy on a 5-10% dip in stock price, 3 = sell on a 5-10% increase in stock price, 4 = sell at current stock prices to raise cash.  Ratings are based upon 12-18 month outlook on stock direction and not necessarily related to moves I make due to financial positioning. The purpose of this discussion and review is to analyze the trades I made in 2017 - what went bad, what went well, and what's still undecided.  Hopefully we'll be able to glean some lessons from the experiences I've had and use those to become better in 2018 - so let's dig in.  Below are all of the trades I made in the year.  I'm going to try to break things down stock by stock, not trade by trade, but I'll do my best to keep all of this straight. 2017 Trades 2017 was a year of low volatility.  Throughout the entire year the market never pulled back more than 5%, though many individual stocks certainly did.  I did find m...

As 2017 wraps up, I want to take a brief moment to review my performance on the year and then talk about what I'm looking for in 2018. While my intent is to keep things short, it's important that I set a common base.   First, all gain/loss percentages discussed are based upon either feedback from my portfolio tracking software or by pulling up tickers on the  Morningstar  web site's performance tabs for YTD or 2017 numbers on performance.  Numbers I state have the chance of being off a few percentage points compared to reality.  I will be doing various comparisons of my stocks against the performance of the S&P 500, excluding dividends.  Additionally, I'll be comparing the performance against the sectors which the stocks are a part of.  To do this, I'm using Spider (SPDR) ETF index funds, as these ETFs are known to track extremely close to each of their respective sectors.  These sector performances likely include the ...

Notes: Stock Ratings: 1 = buy at current stock prices, 2 = buy on a 5-10% dip in stock price, 3 = sell on a 5-10% increase in stock price, 4 = sell at current stock prices to raise cash.  Ratings are based upon 12-18 month outlook on stock direction and not necessarily related to moves I make due to financial positioning. The purpose of this discussion and review is to analyze the trades I made in 2016 - what went bad, what went well, and what's still undecided.  Hopefully we'll be able to glean some lessons from the experiences I've had and use those to become better in 2016 - so let's dig in.  Below are all of the trades I made in the year.  I'm going to try to break things down stock by stock, not trade by trade, but I'll do my best to keep all of this straight. 2016 Trades 2016 is probably going to be best described as a year of missed opportunities, despite the lessons I "learned" last year.  On a positive note, I started the year ...

Notes: Stock Ratings: 1 = buy at current stock prices, 2 = buy on a 5-10% dip in stock price, 3 = sell on a 5-10% increase in stock price, 4 = sell at current stock prices to raise cash.  Ratings are based upon 12-18 month outlook on stock direction and not necessarily related to moves I make due to financial positioning. I wanted to take some time to overview my portfolio's performance for 2015, then have a brief conversation regarding the holdings I currently have and my future plans as I get a clean slate to start anew and attempt to outperform the performance of the S&P 500 index.  Before I begin, I want to establish some common thoughts throughout this post.  First, all gain/loss percentages discussed are based upon either feedback from my portfolio tracking software or by pulling up tickers on the Morningstar  web site's performance tabs for YTD or 2015 numbers on performance.  Numbers I state have the chance of being off a...

Notes: Stock Ratings: 1 = buy at current stock prices, 2 = buy on a 5-10% dip in stock price, 3 = sell on a 5-10% increase in stock price, 4 = sell at current stock prices to raise cash.  Ratings are based upon 12-18 month outlook on stock direction and not necessarily related to moves I make due to financial positioning. The purpose of this discussion and review is to analyze the trades I made in 2015 - what went bad, what went well, and what's still undecided.  Hopefully we'll be able to glean some lessons from the experiences I've had and use those to become better in 2016 - so let's dig in.  Below are all of the trades I made this year.  I'm going to try to break things down stock by stock, not trade by trade, but I'll do my best to keep all of this straight. Trades Made in 2015 I'll start with the easiest topic to discuss, which was my "win" with NPS Parmaceuticals (NPSP).  As I went into the year, I was up significantly o...

Notes: Stock Ratings: 1 = buy at current stock prices, 2 = buy on a 5-10% dip in stock price, 3 = sell on a 5-10% increase in stock price, 4 = sell at current stock prices to raise cash.  Ratings are based upon 12-18 month outlook on stock direction and not necessarily related to moves I make due to financial positioning. Begin Text Here I wanted to take some time to overview my portfolios performance for 2014, then have a brief conversation regarding the holdings I currently have and my future plans as I get a clean slate to start anew and attempt to outperform the performance of the S&P 500 index.  Before I begin, I want to establish some common thoughts throughout this post.  First all gain/loss percentages discussed are based upon either feedback from my portfolio tracking software or by pulling up tickers on the Google Finance web page and looking at 1 year charts as of Jan 1 2015.  Numbers I state have the chance of being off a few percentage poin...