My choices are doing very well lately. Ever since my ranking bounced up in the middle of June, it has been steadily climbing higher. When I learned that the UK had voted to leave the European Union, I was worried about how the market would be affected. However, since I have very basic knowledge about companies, there was little I could do besides reading random articles about what people predict will happen. I figured this was it, my stock picks are going to go down in value now.
In hindsight, I realize that I did not need to worry as much as I did because my portfolio focuses on companies in the United States so they won't be affected as quickly as stocks overseas. Granted, I still need to worry because businesses and other investors are adjusting themselves as policies and relationships change between countries. I expect my portfolio's value to fluctuate with each new piece of news. Until then, I will treasure the sight of having an account value of $10,423.45 and a rank of 181.
Click here to see an overview of my investing experiment.
Previous update: 06/15/2016
Next update: 07/25/2016
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Investing Experiment: 06/15/2016
I have been very lucky this week. My ranking has remained high thanks to the market going up lately, so I am now at 293. I am enjoying each day of this, but will feel better when the market goes down because I feel like I haven't done much to actually increase the value of my portfolio.
On a more lighter note, I got another batch of dividend payments today: $12.47!! I am so close to earning back the money used on one of the commission fees. If the payouts are consistent with what happened this month, then it appears each month will pay off almost one commission fee. Therefore, it will take about 8-10 months before I get enough cash to recoup the losses caused by these commissions.
Click here to see an overview of my investing experiment.
Previous update: 06/09/2016
Next update: 06/30/2016
On a more lighter note, I got another batch of dividend payments today: $12.47!! I am so close to earning back the money used on one of the commission fees. If the payouts are consistent with what happened this month, then it appears each month will pay off almost one commission fee. Therefore, it will take about 8-10 months before I get enough cash to recoup the losses caused by these commissions.
Click here to see an overview of my investing experiment.
Previous update: 06/09/2016
Next update: 06/30/2016
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Investing Experiment: 06/09/2016
Woohoo! Yesterday was a lucky day! The stock market is up, which bumped up my portfolio value. As of closing yesterday, my total account value was $10,051.75. This pushed my ranking up to 320! Obviously this rank is going to dive like a bird once the market goes down again, but I'll enjoy every good outcome that I can get.
Another highlight is that dividends are coming in. After purchasing all my stocks, I had $1,467.63 in cash. As of yesterday, I now have $1,477.63. Ten dollars! It will take a long while before I recoup my losses from commission fees alone, but it is still exciting for a beginner like me to see the portfolio value rise.
Click here to see an overview of my investing experiment.
Previous update: 05/24/2016
Next update: 06/15/2016
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Investing Experiment: 05/24/2016
I just remembered there was another stock I wanted to try out, Simon Property Group, Inc. (SPG). I live near a mall owned by this group and there are always a good number of people there whenever I stop by. During the last year's Christmas shopping, I had to go to multiple places to get gifts for everyone. Each shopping district was packed. Granted this was Christmas season, so obviously there would be many shoppers, but I happened to visit a few of them again and still saw numerous shoppers. This captured my interest, so I did a little online review and discovered that some of them belonged to the Simon Property Group. Seeing how well their stock has performed, lead to me adding this stock to my possible investment list.
Since I still had some left over cash in the Investopedia Stock Simulator, I thought, "Why not?" and decided to purchase a few shares.
So now I have $1,467.63 left in cash on this simulator. Since I follow the "Buy and Hold" strategy, it will take a while for the dividends to bring back what I lost in commission fees alone. I also discovered that this simulator does not have an automatic dividend reinvestment option. I find the DRIP option very useful in slowly growing my portfolio since I can get partial shares without incurring more fees. Considering that Investopedia has a quick post about DRIP, I had hoped they would include it in their simulator. Oh well. That just means I will have to wait longer before buying more stocks or I adjust my strategy to do more trades to offset all the commission charges.
Click here to see an overview of my investing experiment.
Previous update: 05/18/2016
Next update: 06/09/2016
Since I still had some left over cash in the Investopedia Stock Simulator, I thought, "Why not?" and decided to purchase a few shares.
| Stock | # of Shares | Purchase Price |
| SPG | 5 | 196.57 |
So now I have $1,467.63 left in cash on this simulator. Since I follow the "Buy and Hold" strategy, it will take a while for the dividends to bring back what I lost in commission fees alone. I also discovered that this simulator does not have an automatic dividend reinvestment option. I find the DRIP option very useful in slowly growing my portfolio since I can get partial shares without incurring more fees. Considering that Investopedia has a quick post about DRIP, I had hoped they would include it in their simulator. Oh well. That just means I will have to wait longer before buying more stocks or I adjust my strategy to do more trades to offset all the commission charges.
Click here to see an overview of my investing experiment.
Previous update: 05/18/2016
Next update: 06/09/2016
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Investing Experiment: 05/18/2016
My orders were fulfilled this morning with the following purchases:
The rankings were calculated this morning before the market opened, thus my ranking was based on my $10,000 starting point. So, yay! My rank is 611. Considering I lost $239.60 from commission fees, my rank is probably going to drop about 100-150 points depending on how well everyone else performs. I might get lucky and all my stocks rise in price, which will bring me back into the 600 range. However, I prefer to be pessimistic when it comes to money, so I'm going to presume that I will hang around the 700s ranks until dividends start to come in.
Click here to see an overview of my investing experiment.
Previous update: 05/17/2016
Next update: 05/24/2016
| Stock | # of Shares | Purchase Price |
| MMM | 5 | 166.33 |
| PG | 11 | 79.84 |
| JNJ | 8 | 113.40 |
| DIV | 38 | 24.58 |
| O | 15 | 60.91 |
| EPR | 13 | 69.95 |
| LTC | 20 | 46.85 |
| STAG | 46 | 20.81 |
The rankings were calculated this morning before the market opened, thus my ranking was based on my $10,000 starting point. So, yay! My rank is 611. Considering I lost $239.60 from commission fees, my rank is probably going to drop about 100-150 points depending on how well everyone else performs. I might get lucky and all my stocks rise in price, which will bring me back into the 600 range. However, I prefer to be pessimistic when it comes to money, so I'm going to presume that I will hang around the 700s ranks until dividends start to come in.
Click here to see an overview of my investing experiment.
Previous update: 05/17/2016
Next update: 05/24/2016
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Investing Experiment: 05/17/2016
I joined the "Start with $10,000" game in Investopdia's Stock Simulator.
The market was already closed, so I put in the order for the stocks I wanted in my simulator portfolio. I pretended I only have $1,000 for each stock and orders the following number of shares:
There's an overall ranking system in this game. I applaud today's #1 person, who managed to earn $51,935.05 using just $10,000.
Since I placed 8 orders and the commission is $29.95 for each trade (expensive! I am so glad in real life my broker doesn't have this steep of a fee), then I just lost $239.60. Whelp, that will knock my ranking down right off the bat. Let's hope one or both of my strategies will eventually help recoup my losses.
Click here to see an overview of my investing experiment.
Next update: 05/18/2016
The market was already closed, so I put in the order for the stocks I wanted in my simulator portfolio. I pretended I only have $1,000 for each stock and orders the following number of shares:
| Stock | # of Shares |
| MMM | 5 |
| PG | 11 |
| JNJ | 8 |
| DIV | 38 |
| O | 15 |
| EPR | 13 |
| LTC | 20 |
| STAG | 46 |
There's an overall ranking system in this game. I applaud today's #1 person, who managed to earn $51,935.05 using just $10,000.
Since I placed 8 orders and the commission is $29.95 for each trade (expensive! I am so glad in real life my broker doesn't have this steep of a fee), then I just lost $239.60. Whelp, that will knock my ranking down right off the bat. Let's hope one or both of my strategies will eventually help recoup my losses.
Click here to see an overview of my investing experiment.
Next update: 05/18/2016
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Pencil vs Pen
Whenever I need to write something, I find it easier to put my words on paper first before typing on a computer. Somehow it is just easier for the words flow out in a way that makes sense. When I try to type from the beginning I tend to create separate paragraphs that are disjointed. The paragraphs don't flow together very well and I spend countless hours trying to create a sentence that will perfectly segue into the next piece.
I have to tried different approaches to writing, such as being in a certain mindset, different environment, write at a specific time of day. Over time, I found various advantages and disadvantages to writing with a pencil and pen. I find a similar pausing problem when I write with a pencil. The ability to erase my words means I am more likely to pause in my thoughts and try to fix that one word that doesn't quite match the meaning I am trying to convey. I noticed that I tend to pause less when I write with a pen. If there is a problem with the wording, I leave a little comment on the side to remind myself to review it later. I could go on and on about the different experiences I have with writing, but it would most likely end up like numerous other blog posts and articles about what is the best way to write and why. So personally, here is a list of the major pros and cons I have discovered through my attempts to write about anything.
Using a pencil:
Using a pen:
I have to tried different approaches to writing, such as being in a certain mindset, different environment, write at a specific time of day. Over time, I found various advantages and disadvantages to writing with a pencil and pen. I find a similar pausing problem when I write with a pencil. The ability to erase my words means I am more likely to pause in my thoughts and try to fix that one word that doesn't quite match the meaning I am trying to convey. I noticed that I tend to pause less when I write with a pen. If there is a problem with the wording, I leave a little comment on the side to remind myself to review it later. I could go on and on about the different experiences I have with writing, but it would most likely end up like numerous other blog posts and articles about what is the best way to write and why. So personally, here is a list of the major pros and cons I have discovered through my attempts to write about anything.
Using a pencil:
- Pro: A full page of words. Nothing is crossed out.
- Pro: All the sentences are in the correct order. I do not need to rearrange them.
- Con: Lots of eraser markings that I am never able to remove
- Con: Illegible due to
- Smears caused by the eraser
- Writing too lightly
- Writing with so much pressure that the angles are so sharp that I can't see if the letter is a 'h' or a 'L'
- Con: The side of my hand as pencil smudges
Using a pen:
- Pro: No eraser smears
- Pro: Words can be read easily because the lines are crisp
- Con: Illegible due to
- Lots of crossed out words
- Lots of arrows pointing to which sentences need to be rearranged
- Pro: No smudge on the side of my hand
- Pro: The page looks nicer when viewing from a distance.
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