March 06, 2007
Patiently Wrapping the Portfolio Up
I needed cash back in December, and I had no other sources, so I sold off all of my portfolio. It wasn't a happy moment.
So here is how it all ended up:
| Stock Symbol | Total Spent w/o Commissions: | Total Spent w/ Commissions | Sale Value (w/ Commission) | Sale Value (w/o Commission) | Percent of Spend on Commissions | Total Dollar Gain/Loss (w/ Commission) | Total Dollar Gain/Loss (w/o Commission) | Total Percent Gain/Loss (w/ Commission) | Total Percent Gain/Loss (w/o Commission) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | 132.00 | 140.00 | 276.51 | 290.47 | 15.69% | 136.51 | 158.47 | 97.51% | 120.05% |
| AMZN | 50.00 | 54.00 | 34.83 | 48.79 | 33.26% | -19.17 | -1.21 | -35.50% | -2.42% |
| C | 46.40 | 46.40 | 42.40 | 56.36 | 30.09% | -4.00 | 9.96 | -8.62% | 21.47% |
| CBB | 5.00 | 13.00 | 0.01 | 5.46 | 103.46% | -12.99 | 0.46 | -99.92% | 9.20% |
| CQB | 479.47 | 491.47 | 346.20 | 360.16 | 5.28% | -145.27 | -119.31 | -29.56% | -24.88% |
| DIS | 24.53 | 32.53 | 23.90 | 37.86 | 67.51% | -8.63 | 13.33 | -26.53% | 54.34% |
| LCC | 80.00 | 84.00 | 195.90 | 209.86 | 21.38% | 111.90 | 129.86 | 133.21% | 162.33% |
| NFLX | 21.00 | 25.00 | 50.25 | 64.21 | 71.84% | 25.25 | 43.21 | 101.00% | 205.76% |
| JBLU | 56.00 | 60.00 | 60.13 | 74.09 | 29.93% | 0.13 | 18.09 | 0.22% | 32.30% |
| DUK | 45.26 | 53.26 | 44.77 | 58.73 | 41.23% | -8.49 | 13.47 | -15.94% | 29.76% |
| SIX | 80.00 | 84.00 | 70.65 | 84.61 | 21.38% | -13.35 | 4.61 | -15.89% | 5.76% |
| Total: | 1019.66 | 1083.66 | 1145.55 | 1290.60 | 19.29% | 61.89 | 270.94 | 5.71% | 26.57% |
| Total (excluding CQB): | 540.19 | 592.19 | 799.35 | 930.44 | 30.92% | 207.16 | 390.25 | 34.98% | 72.24% |
Overall, I'm happy with it. In real terms I made money. Unfortunately I ate up an insane 19.29% in commissions, and that was only helped by the Chiquita volume from my employee share purchase plan, which didn't have a commission. Excluding Chiquita I spent 30 cents of every dollar invested in commissions. Sharebuilder must be very happy.
The figure I'm most proud of is the 72.24% on the Total Percent Gain/Loss (w/o Commission) excluding Chiquita figure. Sure, thats backing out a whole bunch of things but I honestly believe that is the most accurate figure to determine my investment abilities on. The rationales for this:- Commissions tend to be fixed dollar amounts, and I invested a pretty small amount of money, ergo I wasn't investing the right amounts to be efficient with my commissions.
- I made the Chiquita purchases mostly out of an understanding of the internal culture change that was happening there. I learned two lessons here:
- The market doesn't see from the outside what you as an employee see from the inside.
- Invest rationally, and not exclusively on market news. I bought gobs of shares right when the Fresh Express merger was announced, if you look the shares were on an acid high that summer. Instead of that being indicative of the share price of the company for the future it was an anomaly.
The investment choice I most proud of? They're all my babies, (even that bastard child Cincinnati Bell) but I think US Airways (LCC) is my favorite pick. Specifically because I remember that that was a contrarian purchase. Everyone thought that putting together two semi-also run airlines was a bad idea, but in the medium term its been good. (Of course for the long term the jury is still trading.)
So there it is...
Oh, one more thing about last week's stock market fall. Why panic? Sure its a big absolute number, but as a percentage it isn't that bad, and my Rollover-IRA is still up for the year, even the S&P500 Index Fund...