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Aug. 10th, 2009 07:55 amNone of your business:
NYX 3/8/2006 down 59.76%
SBUX 3/14/2005 down 29.28%
Microsoft msft 3/27/2009 up 26.94%
Urban Outfitters urbn 3/27/2009 up 68.73%
Johnson & Johnson jnj 3/27/2009 up 13.32% (my safety play - this is the only one I'll take some credit for - it was more a hedge against a bad economy with hopes for modest gains with good div rather than something to increase in value - the 13% is just dandy)
General Electric ge 3/27/2009 up 36.49% (this risk I'll take some credit for too - I estimated that the fear of this company based on its exposure to loans was overestimated)
Diageo (guiness) deo 3/27/2009 up 40.80% (this was just a fun stock - I feel morally obligated to invest in alcohol)
Activision (blizzard) atvi 3/27/2009 up 16.45% (moral obligation to invest in video games I play) (no not WoW, but it's a good guess)
Bank of America bac 4/13/2009 up 74.31%
Corning glw 6/5/2009 15.62 up 8.53% (bigger than my avg investment)
Research in Motion RIMM 6/16/2009 down 6.23% (bigger than my avg investment) (the rim-job is my real proof of "I am too stupid or lazy to properly invest my own money" stock - I decided based on analysts' talk on this stock to put my money here instead of APPL. I hate appl and can't understand why a company that sells products people don't need is doing so well in a toilet economy, especially when everything they make is cheaper and just as good from a non-monopoly supplier. Both APPL and RIMM were debt-free, which is amazing for a tech stock. I don't think RIMM is good long-term, which makes it a stupid buy, but I admittedly took this is a huge risk as a flagrant gamble)
GLW vs. RIMM is an interesting comparison - I did equal amounts in each at a much higher volume than my usual. I thought GLW was spanked inappropriately by analysts and seemed to be favorable if the econmy turned around - flat-lining to a max of -25% struck me as the likely downside there. I didn't forsee the huge drops I originally took within days at RIMM - I think it sunk 25% and I was hurt by that at first...it's slight loss now is like a reminder that I cannot forget that sinking feeling of years of life-earnings going *poof* when it was really down. The fact that glw and rimm now just balance each other out now is amusing.
I realized I am easily as subject to attributional bias as the next person. My stock purchases are up, and I find the following idiotic urges on my part:
1. When my investments were in the toilet, I didn't look often - on purpose. Now that the entire market is going well, I check multiple times a day and grin. This leads to more attributional idiocy, as I have more reason to remember the good and forget the bad. Selective monitoring is the first step down the stairwell of stupidity based on faulty data interpretation.
2. I am tending to take credit for my decisions more now that my stocks are up. This is idiotic and dangerous - the decisions I made were in the past, and I am no more right or wrong now than when these were in the toilet. I didn't know what I was doing and just got lucky - over and over again, while my investments have profited, it has never been due to my skill, education, or ability to accurately predict why a stock would rise or fall.
3. I want to spend the money I've made on silly things - a new car, remodeling the bathroom, as though this money was a gift from above. It's earned money - I risked literally years of my life earnings on making this money now, so the pain I felt when it was lost is supposed to be a strong memory to temper the elation I feel now at the gains. I'm afraid the elation is larger than the sensibility. Thank cheese my logic is stronger than emotion (when it comes to actions that require signatures) (generally).
Retirement this year:
Google GOOG 1/12/2009 up 46.66%
Catepillar CAT 1/12/2009 up 14.77%
I'm actually thrilled that my entire portfolio (excluding the TSP which by far outweighs my silly private retirement investments) is up to 0% loss. Seriously, from what...40% down (or was it 25%?) to not-a-dollar-loss is a huge gain. Now, it doesn't make up for the fact that my portfolio, if it has gained 0% on avg, is technically a loss based both on inflation and on the opportunity cost of not spending the money from 1995 until today...however my only actual stock sales in my retirement portfolio were up 22%. My private stock sales (most of which went into my current mortgage etc.) were an avg gain of 20.77%.
I'm considering putting money in the new motley fool mutual fund.
NYX 3/8/2006 down 59.76%
SBUX 3/14/2005 down 29.28%
Microsoft msft 3/27/2009 up 26.94%
Urban Outfitters urbn 3/27/2009 up 68.73%
Johnson & Johnson jnj 3/27/2009 up 13.32% (my safety play - this is the only one I'll take some credit for - it was more a hedge against a bad economy with hopes for modest gains with good div rather than something to increase in value - the 13% is just dandy)
General Electric ge 3/27/2009 up 36.49% (this risk I'll take some credit for too - I estimated that the fear of this company based on its exposure to loans was overestimated)
Diageo (guiness) deo 3/27/2009 up 40.80% (this was just a fun stock - I feel morally obligated to invest in alcohol)
Activision (blizzard) atvi 3/27/2009 up 16.45% (moral obligation to invest in video games I play) (no not WoW, but it's a good guess)
Bank of America bac 4/13/2009 up 74.31%
Corning glw 6/5/2009 15.62 up 8.53% (bigger than my avg investment)
Research in Motion RIMM 6/16/2009 down 6.23% (bigger than my avg investment) (the rim-job is my real proof of "I am too stupid or lazy to properly invest my own money" stock - I decided based on analysts' talk on this stock to put my money here instead of APPL. I hate appl and can't understand why a company that sells products people don't need is doing so well in a toilet economy, especially when everything they make is cheaper and just as good from a non-monopoly supplier. Both APPL and RIMM were debt-free, which is amazing for a tech stock. I don't think RIMM is good long-term, which makes it a stupid buy, but I admittedly took this is a huge risk as a flagrant gamble)
GLW vs. RIMM is an interesting comparison - I did equal amounts in each at a much higher volume than my usual. I thought GLW was spanked inappropriately by analysts and seemed to be favorable if the econmy turned around - flat-lining to a max of -25% struck me as the likely downside there. I didn't forsee the huge drops I originally took within days at RIMM - I think it sunk 25% and I was hurt by that at first...it's slight loss now is like a reminder that I cannot forget that sinking feeling of years of life-earnings going *poof* when it was really down. The fact that glw and rimm now just balance each other out now is amusing.
I realized I am easily as subject to attributional bias as the next person. My stock purchases are up, and I find the following idiotic urges on my part:
1. When my investments were in the toilet, I didn't look often - on purpose. Now that the entire market is going well, I check multiple times a day and grin. This leads to more attributional idiocy, as I have more reason to remember the good and forget the bad. Selective monitoring is the first step down the stairwell of stupidity based on faulty data interpretation.
2. I am tending to take credit for my decisions more now that my stocks are up. This is idiotic and dangerous - the decisions I made were in the past, and I am no more right or wrong now than when these were in the toilet. I didn't know what I was doing and just got lucky - over and over again, while my investments have profited, it has never been due to my skill, education, or ability to accurately predict why a stock would rise or fall.
3. I want to spend the money I've made on silly things - a new car, remodeling the bathroom, as though this money was a gift from above. It's earned money - I risked literally years of my life earnings on making this money now, so the pain I felt when it was lost is supposed to be a strong memory to temper the elation I feel now at the gains. I'm afraid the elation is larger than the sensibility. Thank cheese my logic is stronger than emotion (when it comes to actions that require signatures) (generally).
Retirement this year:
Google GOOG 1/12/2009 up 46.66%
Catepillar CAT 1/12/2009 up 14.77%
I'm actually thrilled that my entire portfolio (excluding the TSP which by far outweighs my silly private retirement investments) is up to 0% loss. Seriously, from what...40% down (or was it 25%?) to not-a-dollar-loss is a huge gain. Now, it doesn't make up for the fact that my portfolio, if it has gained 0% on avg, is technically a loss based both on inflation and on the opportunity cost of not spending the money from 1995 until today...however my only actual stock sales in my retirement portfolio were up 22%. My private stock sales (most of which went into my current mortgage etc.) were an avg gain of 20.77%.
I'm considering putting money in the new motley fool mutual fund.
