Proverbs 22:2 The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.
In July 2008, I invested through Schwab. Beginning 17 July 2008 and ending 04 August 2008, I invested funds in the amount of $2,999.80 (total cost basis), and received total proceeds of $3,018.31. Total short term gain/loss was $18.51. All investments were for the symbol/name AMD / Advanced Micro Devices. There is no unrealized gain/loss in this account. I received five cents of interest on 07/30/2008, and one cent of interest on 08/28/2008. A total of four buys and three sells were placed. (One sell order was split into two sub-orders, and the commission divided between them.)
On 7/24/2008 I purchased 200 AMD @ $4.44 operating under a newly-opened Scottrade account. A total of ninety buys were placed through Wednesday, December 31, 2008, including this first purchase. A total of fifty-two sells were placed during the same time period, including one (split) sale transaction placed today. These numbers count each sub-order separately: for example, today's one sale transaction is counted as two sells because it was split into one sale of 100 shares and one sale of 250 shares. Thus, although Scottrade provides me with fifty-two sales confirmations, I did not actually place fifty-two sales orders.
The total 2008 losses in Scottrade are ($7,254.43). Closing market value was $9,352.50, and $2,700.00 of funds were withdrawn, and $378.47 is held in cash. About $19,685.00 total funds were deposited, so the loss figure represents 36.9% depreciation.
(Note, this information is up-to-date with the last data available fro 12/30/2008. Perhaps I will update it after new data becomes available for today sometime after the beginning of the new year.)
At ShareBuilder, the total account value is $6,932.66 (two separate accounts).
My goal this year was to save $30,000. Last year I fell about $50 short of reaching my goal of saving $20,000. In June I had saved $27,000, when I foolishly decided to accelerate my savings by investing in the stock market. It is with great chagrin that I admit that I have failed to reach my goal.
It is only a very small consolation that if I add together my current holdings (cash + securities), I see that I have (hopefully) enough to say that I would have reached $30,000 had I not chosen to invest in the stock market. Hmmm, my logic is crazy. A psychologist would be watching me now.
Scottrade: $10,227.15
ShareBuilder: $6,932.66
Account One: $1,155.87
Losses: $8,565.23
Total value that I would have had w/o losses: $26,880.91
Note: I am crossing my fingers (so to speak) as I total it up, to see whether I have reached $30,000 in a *pseudo* sense. I was truly committed to reaching this goal, and it is important to me.
Nuts. As you have already seen, it's only $26,880.91.
Even when I ignore my losses, I have less money than I did when I started this whole investing thing. Where did it all go? I am very suspicious that my losses or something is not being reported correctly by the brokerage firm, probably Scottrade. I have earned about $8,000 since the time that I had $27,000 in June, and I find it very hard to believe that my money value has gone down even after ignoring all of the losses.
In Scottrade, the market value is $7,987.60, consisting of
| Symbol | Description | Acct Type | Qty | Price | Market Value | Today's Change(s)*$ |
| AMD | ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES | Cash | 500 | 2.18 | 1,090.00 | 0.00(0%) |
| F | FORD MTR CO | Cash | 270 | 2.29 | 618.30 | 0.00(0%) |
| FNM | FEDERAL NATL MORTGAGE ASSOC | Cash | 1100 | 0.75 | 825.00 | 0.00(0%) |
| MU | MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC | Cash | 50 | 2.59 | 129.50 | 0.00(0%) |
| STX | SEAGATE TECH HOLD | Cash | 1280 | 4.16 | 5,324.80 | 0.00(0%) |
| Total Market Value: | $7,987.60 | $0.00(0.00%) | ||||
Recently the wholesale futures price of gasoline fell to $0.79 per gallon. It is truly a miracle in the face of gas prices during the past 24 months.
It's all bad.
Soon I will have to do taxes, and I want to inventory my sources of income properly.
You can use this quick stock quote summary link to view all of the stocks mentioned yesterday.
First, I went to Give the gift of stock and get 3 FREE real-time trades from ShareBuilder. I signed up for the Advantage pricing plan for $16/month, with the first month free. I was then on my way to adding a sizeable percentage to each paycheck.
Secondly, I checked out these stock symbols:
On Mondays, ones that were down or near low but rapidly increasing I added to my automatic investment plan. On Tuesday all of the stocks were purchased commission-free ($1 each, based on the $16/month fee with 16 free automatic investments included). On Tuesday through Friday I sold off the stocks after they increased by 3% to 15%.
Tuesday this week was my first day implementing this new trading strategy. Last Friday I made a $900.00 deposit of funds to my brand-new ShareBuilder account. After funding, I created an investment plan to purchase $400.00 of STX (Seagate) and $400.00 of MU (Micron).
Net profit: $63.26 (7.9%)
Both stocks were sold on Wednesday.
That's very good one-week turnaround. If I knew the future, I could have done better. On Thursday, the day after I sold MU, the market price of MU increased to $2.63. Thus it would have sold for a net price of $534.40 (using one of my free trades, otherwise $9.95 less). The resulting profit on the $800 invested would have been 19.5%.
Note: Securities trading involves substantial risks. Content of this article is not warranted, nor does it represent any investment advice.
The Federal Reserve has cut its target for a key interest rate to the lowest level on record and pledged to use "all available tools" to combat a severe financial crisis and prolonged recession. The central bank on Tuesday said it had reduced the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, to a range of zero to 0.25 percent. That is down from the 1 percent target rate in effect since the last meeting in October. Many analysts had expected the Fed to make a smaller cut to 0.5 percent....
MU is the maker of Crucial memory. One year target is 7.31, and mean analyst recommendation is 2.4 (better than most; 5 is the lowest rating). I placed a limit order to buy at 1.83, and it was fulfilled. Also, 1.83 happened to be today's lowest trading price. Thank you, God.
Book value per share is 8.117, so yes--it's one of those. Like Seagate, it's book value is higher than its stock price. I think that's a bargain, as long as the company is not too instable.
And so now once more I analyze the frailty of stocks. Today's market value, four minutes before market open, is $8,912.90 (about $300 less than it was in the middle of the trading day yesterday).
| Symbol | Price before open | Price after open |
|---|---|---|
| APPL | 100.06 | 97.97 |
| F | 3.23 | 3.3589 |
| FNM | 0.79 | 0.7945 |
| GM | 4.70 | 4.85 |
| NVDA | 7.81 | 7.96 |
| STX | 5.09 | 5.111 |
| TXT | 15.01 | 15.02 |
I feel STUPID, because if I had kept all my wonderful STX, I would have had over $1,000.00 more than I do now, without wasting any money on paying my broker. Also, today I dumped my NVDA at $7.97 that I bought at $6.8388, but sheesh-kabob, I should have waited since it is up above $8.60 right now. I did the same thing with INTC yesterday, which I dumped at $13.90 (paid about $13.20 for it on average), only to see it go up to nearly $15.00. Why don't I just know the future?
I am just waiting, hoping, for another CRASH. Because I have saved up almost $10,000 of cash now, just waiting for the markets to DROP. I hope they go below 7,000 just to pick me up so I can regain the $10,000+ of losses that I had during October on perverted, pro-gay AAPL, etc.
I should say what God has given me.
At ShareBuilder I have 799.1099 AMD and 11.4281 TXT. At Scottrade I have 15 AAPL, 150 f, 1100 FNM, 150 GM, 50 STX, 100 TXT. Future target value at Scottrade is $6,583.45, and future target value at ShareBuilder is $3,655.626374. So this is the first time that my target value is less than the money I invested to begin with.
My unrealized short term loss at Scottrade is 39.80%, $5,892.03, and realized short term loss is $1,175.16 (it's really more, but since I have repurchased a few shares of TXT and AAPL, it does not indicate that I lost thousands of dollars previously on those companies).
Total $7,067 loss at Scottrade, $1,533.44 at ShareBuilder, net loss $8600.44. Wow, I feel relieved, I suppose. Previously I had lost about $12,000. I just need to somehow gain back another seven-to-eight thousand dollars. But gain by taking more risks? Sounds fishy.
Happy birthday to someone who turned 16 once upon a time, on a day that I took a famous photograph.
Again, the fickleness of the stock market. At 8:28 am, total account value $12,641.77. Stocks $10,778.60. AAPL 15 99.72, FNM 1100 0.84, INTC 220 13.94, NVDA 200 7.12, STX 450 5.16, TXT 100 15.46.
At 8:32 am, value of stocks $10,498.505. AAPL 15 97.51, FNM 1100 0.81, INTC 220 13.57, NVDA 200 6.95, STX 450 4.9899, TXT 100 15.24.
Today is the last day to buy TXT if you want to qualify for the upcoming dividend. I am guessing the dividend is about 12-22 cents. If the price will increase by double that, then I will go ahead and sell today and lose my dividend. If not, I will keep it and wait for a better day.
Well, I am so relieved. I dumped my INTC for $13.90. I didn't really trust that investment.
Whoops, I guess I can't sell my TXT even if I wanted to because it doesn't settle until 12/10/2008. I guess I'll have to keep it whether I like it or not.
Man, it always bothers me that one never knows what to do in the stock market. Like Intel, which is now up to $14.08, and I sold for 18 cents less. Every cent is a $2.20 difference for me, so I lost $39.60. See, it's those small margins, which if they could be kept would make the stock market lucrative, but they can't be kept because no one knows the future.
I've decided to make no more than five trades per week at Scottrade, something I've already been forgetting about, and no more than four automatic investments and two sales at ShareBuilder. Why do I always keep wanting to be practical when the way to play with the stock market is to be cruel and mean and vicious and take gains when they come and switch losses for worse losses to get more profit?
I had a dream last night that there was nothing in my brokerage account, except an anonymous message, "You have placed too many trades."
Today when I logged into my account at 8:32 am, I looked, and lo and behold, Today's Change was $507.49. FNM 0.9179, INTC 13.53, NVDA 7.58, STX 4.82, TXT 14.55.
You know, I wonder if I should take this whole thing more seriously. Maybe all of these trades have gotten me just nowhere. If I would have kept my 2,400 shares of STX, like I had a few days ago, then now I would have 2,400 * 4.80 = $11,520, plus a little bit of other stuff. My account value is over $12,000 now, so maybe I have scraped up a few extra pennies. TXT is now, sure enough, above $15.00.
I'm going to tally up my STX to make sure I don't make any free trades (i.e., reselling stock that I have purchased with unsettled funds). I'm always worried that Scottrade will make a mistake and restrict my account, anyway, even if I have not made any free trades.
Well, I bought 450 shares that settle on 12/10, and I have 1,050 shares in all. So I should be able to sell 600 shares (if I wanted to). I'll be content with just 400.
Sell 300 AMD $2.15, 450 STX $4.2312, 400 STX $4.18. Buy 450 STX $4.12, 200 NVDA $6.8388, 100 TXT $13.0975. I hate it. The broker has made $42.00 from me. I am desperate to transfer my accounts to ShareBuilder where I can have automatic investments for free with a monthly plan, and then sell off the profits on a weekly basis, keeping a few low priced shares for myself.
God, thank you very much. Now NVDA is back to 7.36, STX back to 4.52, INTC up to 13.29, and TXT up to 14.12. My account value is $11,920.91. Thank you for stopping me from buying AMD with my last money balance of $410.11.
This is the fickleness of the stock market. My account value on 12/4/2008 9:29 AM EST, 0hr 1min before the market opens, versus its value 0hr 1min after the market opens.
See how cash is better?
Well, more stable.
Hmm, well, I'm going to watch AMD, which just went down from $2.20 to $1.96. Now my value is down by $242.90.
After selling 175 NVDA for $7.58 (bought at $6.90), I decided to invest in 110 shares of INTC for $13.32.
P.S. I got a dividend on INTC 150 shares, 14 cents each equals $21.00.
Dot dot dot. Curiosity is killing me. I wonder what my so-called "one-year future value" is.
Nuts, even my future value has dropped below my original cash investment. Those dirty liars--market analysts--have dropped their estimates from almost $30,000 to under $20,000.
I need to start thinking about my long-term investment plan, i.e., what I should buy up and hold in this down time, and keep, if I can, for a long time.
I think I should probably plan on about 25% of long-term holdings, in addition to the funds that I am constantly wasting in day-to-day trading.
To do these long-term investments I have signed up for a $16/month automatic investment plan with ShareBuilder. My plan to build up my long-term stock is to place from 1 to 4 automatic investments each Tuesday. If the stock price rapidly increases by the end of the week, I will sell about 85% of it for a fast profit, and keep the remainder for a long-term holding.
Man!? Why didn't I think of this idea before? I have done those automatic investments two or three times, and EVERY time ShareBuilder has purchased the stock within one-third of the market low, and more than two-thirds below the market high. (Of course, this isn't guaranteed, but I think they have some clever computer programming going on that calculuate when a good time to buy would be. Maybe they even have some outstanding options that they exercise to ensure that the stock is bought close to the market low for the benefit of automatic investments.)
I am going to try out a new, mathematically optimized, investment strategy. This strategy considers cash itself to be an investment. The value of cash is measured in terms of quantity of stock, just as the value of stock is measured in terms of quantity of cash. The plan works like this:
Here are the benefits of this plan, and the way it can make money for you:
When you can make a 7% profit (usually when it has increased nearly 10% from your purchase price), then sell it—--smartly; i.e., if the whole market is soaring, don't sell it until you think it has peaked, or if you are extremely satisfied with the gains already realized. Reasonably often, maybe once a week, you will be able to purchase 15% of this stock at a low, and then sell another equal portion for 7% higher in the same day. Since the stock being sold is considered equivalent (fungible), but you had some stock that was already settled, the stock that was settled is the one that is actually sold, but in fact you essentialy made 7% in one day.
At the beginning of the day I had 300 AMD, 1,410 FNM, and 2,150 STX. Now, after my value has gone down by $1,012.00, I have 300 AMD, 175 NVDA, and 2,200 STX. 10 trades later, too, so the broker gets $70 of sure profit. Oh, well, the FNM was sold at $1.10, and now it is down below 80 cents.
Now my total account value is $10,531.01. Yesterday it was $11,395.10. So I didn't quite lose $1,012.00. But by trading for some stock and rebuying some other stock when it was lower, I kept myself from about $200 of losses. That's all. I am getting tired of this. Who knows when it is good to cash out?
Normally it's smart to take your gains when presented with them, so I sold 500 shares of FNM for .985 when given the opportunity (I had purchased them for .515). However, by the end of trading, they had reached $1.16. Wow, I could have gotten more than 17 cents more, times 5 dollars would be $85. But I still have 1410 more shares. So I guess it's OK.
But the silliest thing I did was, instead of hanging onto my cash for another opportunity, I just bought some STX for 4.2488. It went up to about 4.35 (my limit order was 4.45--see, this time I would have been right about limiting my gains in order to cut my losses). Now STX is back down to 4.21, so I lost some 350*0.0388, or about $12.00 instead of gaining $85. Wow.
Oh, well, I'm still up $58.50 for the day. Now my holdings are ("I've got")
Today was very silly. My 1,910 shares of Fannie Mae (1,400 of which I bought back for half a cent more, at .515) have increased to 71 cents. My 100 shares of NVDA have increased to 7.61. My 1800 STX have increased to 4.51. MY 465 AMD have increased to $2.13. Altogether my "market value" has increased by $835.85, finally returning to above $11,000. I must remember however, that the stock market is deadly and desperately evil. I have still lost over $10,000 in less than 60 days.
God, help me to love you more than money.
God, these are not "my" stock, but yours. You own me, and everything of mine. Help me love you.
I'm kind of embarrassed to be writing this. I shouldn't be thinking about stocks and money and business. Today is a special day for someone special I love. Nevertheless, I wonder if it is possible to write about money in honor of love.
| Symbol | Qty | Price | Mkt Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| AMD | 465 | 1.845 | 857.925 |
| FNM | 510 | 0.51 | 260.10 |
| NVDA | 100 | 6.96 | 696.00 |
| STX | 1975 | 4.435 | 8,759.125 |
|
Total Market Value: $10,573.15 Today's Change: $46.35 |
|||
I'm proud of my investments when they are going up.
Will I be sorry for imagining the future? The one-year target:
Supposedly (I feel wicked to hope this), this adds up to $26,727.80.
But it's bad to count your chickens before they hatch.
I thought that I would be free of the *Stock Bug*, but today when I had the opportunity to buy 110 shares of AMD for merely $1.838, I went ahead and did it. Momentarily I feel proud of my accomplishment because yesterday I was jealous of the 1.88 low, and this is even lower! Hey, and wow, it is now $1.89. But I lost cash.
If you purchase stock on the date before the Ex-Dividend date, then it will have settled by the Date of Record, which is two days after the Ex-Dividend date. Then you will receive the dividend on the dividend date, even if you did not own the stock after the date of record.
Summary of future estimated gains and losses.
Note that these future "gains" are somewhat deceptive. If I still
had my $23,500 of invested cash (uninvested), then today I could have
bought (for instance), $1,500 of FNM, $2,000 of AMD, and $20,000 of
STX at prices of $0.33, $1.88, and $3.68, respectively. The corresponding
one-year estimated target prices are $2.67, $6.03, and $11.46.
Thus, the
value of my original cash measured in terms of "future market value"
is actually
1500*2.67/.33 + 2000*6.03/1.88 + 20000*11.46/3.68
equals $80,833.86. From buying stock too early, I have reduced my
buying power substantially.
So it still seems a lot better to have original cash. I'm beginning to be very leery of the stock market, and I think I better hold back like I did in October. During October I refrained from purchasing any stock or checking the value of the stock market indexes. This month I withdrew about $6,500 more to invest in stock at seemingly "great deals," and it has only continued to spiral down. I still have firm confidence in the longevity and robustness of STX and AMD, but not as much in FNM. I am about 75% certain that FNM will stay in business and reach its target of $2.67 within a year, however.
Maybe buyers are somewhat smarter than I give them credit for. Perhaps market prices actually reflect the true value of stock. Perhaps the "future" market price does not reflect the true value of stock, even if it is less than the stock price used to be.
My Scottrade account value is $8,769.05, consisting of 2,125 STX at $3.83 and 1,910 FNM at $630.30.
Since approximately mid-July 2008, my Scottrade proceeds are $15,877.27 with cost $21,354.65. So I have lost $5,477.38. My unrealized positions originally cost $14,044.96, and their closing market value is $10,059.04. My total loss is $3,985.92 + $5,477.38 = $9,463.30
At ShareBuilder my proceeds are $542.44 while my cost is $1,578.85, so my loss is $1,036.41. My unrealized positions originally cost $2,551.64, while the market value is only $1,883.19. Thus, my loss is $668.45. The total loss is $1,704.86.
At Schwab I am $18 in the green, but I stopped trading with them due to high prices. Silly person me. Maybe that would have made me take trading more seriously.
Altogether, not including investments at Schwab, I have lost $11,168.16 in the stock market in four months.
The remaining value of all my stock is $10,059.04 at Scottrade and $1,883.19 at ShareBuilder, total $11,942.23. Thus, I have lost almost fifty percent of my money, of which I originally supplied $23,110.39. I wish I had that money again. That's all I can say.
However, on the bright side, I should expect to receive a 9.9% dividend, about $1,000, at various intervals during the next year from Seagate (STX). IF Seagate reaches the one-year target estimate, then my account value is approximately $28,000. But IF is a big word.
Before opening today I had a limit order placed. The pre-market futures were down, but I *knew* that in the turbulence at open there would be fluctuation. So I placed a limit order to sell my AMZN and my NVDA for about 10 cents more than the opening price.
Thus, I sold 12 AMZN at $43.80 for $518.59 cash, and I sold 75 NVDA at $7.62 for $564.49. Smart move, because the open for AMZN was $43.61 (so I got 19 cents more), and the open for NVDA was exactly $7.62, with a low of $7.14, and current price of $7.39.
Although the high for AMZN was 44.93 (wasted $12), I think it was smart for me to place my price so little over the expected opening value. I have lost over 50% in the past because of limit orders that were too hopeful, and missed the peak by less than seventy-five cents. (I.e., I would have sold Amazon back in August at $91.75, but my limit order was $92. How much I regret this decision!)
The low was $41.55 and the current price is $42.87 (at about noon), so I am happy.
And better yet?
The good news! I reinvested most of my cash into 225 STX for $4.79, which is already up to $4.87. STX's target estimate is more than double its current price, and they also pay dividends, while Amazon and NVIDIA do not.
How much did my target value increase today? My sold stock had a 1-year target estimate of $1,723.32. My purchased stock has a 1-year target estimate of $2,634.75. Plus 10% dividends!
Today I sold 44 shares of TXT for $15.05 and I bought 308 shares of STX for $5.0288. (New investment: 1555.87 - 655.19 = $900.68.)
I came so close to picking up some shares of STX for $4.33. If only I had placed my limit order at $4.35 then I would have made it! God's will be done. I am more happy with God's will than with 10% profits.
Due to the incredible rebound in the stock market, my market value increased by $524.52.
However, my future market value has risen: 12*AMZN + 32*FNM + 75*NVDA + 2100*STX = 12*64.11 + 32*3 + 75*12.72 + 2100*11.71 = $26,410.32, up from $22,922.32 two days ago.
Best of all, that isn't taking into account dividends! Seagate's upcoming dividend is $0.48, so I stand to make 8.70% profit from my investment on that, relative to the stock price.
Thus, for a new investment of nine hundred dollars in the past two days, there is good hope to obtain a yield of almost $4,000 (two days ago the target value of my assets at Scottrade was $22,922.32). Plus dividends!
Wow, today I just lost $1,371.8056 (-11.7721%) of my money on the stock market in my Scottrade account!
In addition, I performed two transactions. I sold 100 shares of TXT for $14.30 each. (Smart move. Now TXT is $13.96, so I saved $34.00.) I also bought 300 shares of STX for $5.10. (Bad move. Now STX is $4.85, so I lost $75.00.)
At Sharebuilder I sold 40 shares of TXT for $13.81 in order to buy 210 shares of AMD for $2.58. Now TXT is $13.96, so I lost $6.00 on that deal. However, AMD is now $2.59, so I made $2.10. Net loss 90 cents.
Let's look at it in perspective, however, like we did with my losses yesterday. You remember that yesterday, although I lost over $1,000, by smart buying I increased my target market value by about $2,000.
Today, I chose to switch TXT into AMD shares because AMD shares had decreased a greater percent in today's trading. By switching 40 shares of TXT with 210 shares of AMD I increased my target market value from $1,008.80 (TXT = $25.22) to $1,329.30 (AMD = $6.33).
The future is NOT CERTAIN. However, it seems that by monitoring the prices of solid companies one can easily get ahead in this exciting market turmoil!
The stock market has been exciting since the end of August, 2008 until Veterans Day, November 11, 2008. During this time I have invested approximately $20,000 in a wide variety of stock.
When I say exciting, I mean it. For instance, today my $20,000 original investment is worth only $11,489.024. Today I lost $1,224.336, more than 10% of my investment value. But for some reason, I'm not panicking.
Let's put it in perspective by looking at my buy and sell orders for today, and then by looking at the market value targeted in one year.
TXT 68 $14.77 STX 378 5.5588 STX 146 6.015 STX 100 6.0199 STX 100 6.015 Sum $5187.2664
One year target price $10,193.00.
XOM 12 $73.23 INTC 154 13.662 AAPL 27 92.9502 Sum $5492.3634
One year target price $8,374.98.
Overall I gained about $200 in cash and about $1,800 in future market value.
My most amazing stock is definitely STX: Seagate Technology, the number one hard drive manufacturer. Unlike all other stocks I have owned, its book value per share is over the market price per share. For instance, all of Apple Computer's assets are worth only $24 a share, yet it's stock price is over $90--I even remember buying Apple stock for almost $180 a share, before it dropped over 50% in this terrible stock market crash.
The future definitely isn't cash, but let me show you my Scottrade portfolio (I also have accounts with other investment banks) evaluated according to its present value, the previous 52-week high value, and the future 1-year target value.
txt 144 stx 1492 nvda 75 fnm 32 amzn 12
My original cost of everything was $17,624.34. Now, on paper it is true that I have lost XXX. And yes, I do wish that I would have saved my money during September and October and invested it all right now. Hindsight is popular in a down economy.
However, I stand to gain over $5,000 in one year, and perhaps $35,000 more in the future.
This proves two things: the economy is actually worse than people are saying: for many, many people, their investment of $60,000 has now turned into $10,000. However, the economy will almost certainly return to equilibrium. The very idea of stock is to add capital to companies, so it seems impossible for shares of companies like Seagate to trade below book value for very much longer.
The future of the U.S. economy is shining brightly at the end of the tunnel.