Watch list usage for your investing

EDIT: At the time this blog entry was posted I had a Youtube video here. That has been removed but I want the rest of my content to be remain. Nothing hidden no past mistakes ignored. All out in the open.

Is it really critical to have a watch list and get the best price for your investments? Keep in mind that my time horizon is 15 years to retirement and that only places me in my early 50s I then have another 30 or more years to live after that. Every couple % extra discount in price you get means you will get more shares especially with Sharebuilder allowing for partial share purchases. Compound that over 45 years and yes it will add up just as much as those $0.005 drip raises. So being patient and waiting for a good price is important.

That is all fine and good but what about my purchase of WMT? I bought that in Oct at the end of a 10%-15% rise. Doesn't that conflict with what I just said? No because with WMT I got in based on its historic P/E levels whereas with WM there wasn't a discount of note.

WMT has a 10 year P/E average of 18.79.  Right now they are sitting at a 12.39, a 65% value of their historic norm. Now if they were overvalued in the past or undervalued now is a different topic of debate.
WM would need to be at $22.93 to match that same discount. If WM had that price right now then I would be a lot less choosy about my entry price.



Disclaimer: The investments and trades in my videos and blog entries are not recommendations for others.
I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets

Week 31 Update and Psychology in Money Management

EDIT: At the time this blog entry was posted I had a Youtube video here. That has been removed but I want the rest of my content to be remain. Nothing hidden no past mistakes ignored. All out in the open.

Weekly Activity
$136.09 deposit into Trading
$50 deposit into Savings
$1.62 dividend from ERF


Model Portfolio Totals

Trading Account: $649.33
Estimated Monthly Income: $0 (Not ready to trade until Phase 1 completed)
Max amount in Forex trade (50% of account): $324
Max loss per trade (1% of account): $6
Portfolio stop (3% account): $18

Investing Account: $1,697.00
Estimated Monthly Income: $6.00
Stock
     WMT: $0.53 income/month
Energy
     ERF: $1.70 income/month ($0.019 from DRIP shares)
REITs
     O: $1.07 income/month ($0.009 from DRIP shares)
Bonds
     JNK: $1.61 income/month ($0.020 from DRIP shares)
     PCY: $1.09 income/month ($0.009 from DRIP shares)
Maneuvering Cash: $500

Savings Account: $850
Emergency: $550
Portfolio Protection
     Trading Account: $50
     Investing Account: $250
CDs: $0
Precious Metals: $0

Disclaimer: The investments and trades in my videos and blog entries are not recommendations for others.
I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Oscillator with the CoT data

Thanksgiving here in the U.S. has made it for a slow week but I was still able to accomplish my main goal I discussed in the weekly review...

EDIT: At the time this blog entry was posted I had a Youtube video here. That has been removed but I want the rest of my content to be remain. Nothing hidden no past mistakes ignored. All out in the open.

So yeah... my voice is really canned. I had to buy a new headset as the mic went out on my last one. Still, some good info here I think.  Google docs is nice but it does not yet have the capabilities I was needing with this level of detail.

The main purpose for this entry wasn't to share my oscillator creation skills but more in showing process. What are some of the things to consider when creating a trading strategy. What are some of the things to be aware of but not add into a trading strategy.

For the CoT report itself, I've talked about it a couple times previously.  Everywhere that I had seen it mentioned though was pretty basic and vague. "This is what the CoT report is. Have fun figuring out how to use it." A lot of it will be personal preference and opinion in how to interpret the data. So I came up with the charts I showed in the video to help bring the data out into view. The raw data is over 120 columns for each week. The vast majority is unnecessary for us.

A little bit on my back testing in the Forex. I only looked at one year on 4 currencies. Its not what I would consider to be an exhaustive investigation. But its a start and we have to start somewhere when demo trading. There is a paradox with back testing. We want to test ideas out with data on what we have. Obviously since we do not know the future we have to use the past. However we cannot be sure that what worked in the past will work in the future. So if we find something useful like a 68% accuracy oscillator? Well it will work until it doesn't.

Here is a link to the raw data: http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/HistoricalCompressed/index.htm
The data I used is in the "Futures Only Reports" in the middle of the page where each year is broken out in a grid.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades in my videos and blog entries are not recommendations for others.
I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Week 30 Update

A good week overall and a better one to come...

EDIT: At the time this blog entry was posted I had a Youtube video here. That has been removed but I want the rest of my content to be remain. Nothing hidden no past mistakes ignored. All out in the open.

Weekly Activity
$100 deposit into Trading
$1.06 dividend from O


Model Portfolio Totals

Trading Account: $513.24
Estimated Monthly Income: $0 (Not ready to trade until Phase 1 completed)
Max amount in Forex trade (50% of account): $256
Max loss per trade (1% of account): $5
Portfolio stop (3% account): $15

Investing Account: $1,735.25
Estimated Monthly Income: $5.99
Stock
     WMT: $0.53 income/month
Energy
     ERF: $1.69 income/month ($0.009 from DRIP shares)
REITs
     O: $1.07 income/month ($0.009 from DRIP shares)
Bonds
     JNK: $1.61 income/month ($0.020 from DRIP shares)
     PCY: $1.09 income/month ($0.009 from DRIP shares)
Maneuvering Cash: $500

Savings Account: $800
Emergency: $500
Portfolio Protection
     Trading Account: $50
     Investing Account: $250
CDs: $0
Precious Metals: $0

Disclaimer: The investments and trades in my videos and blog entries are not recommendations for others.
I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Releasing private information

EDIT: At the time this blog entry was posted I had a Youtube video here. That has been removed but I want the rest of my content to be remain. Nothing hidden no past mistakes ignored. All out in the open.

I've seen it too many times online. Someone is just being open and honest and social offering some tidbits of their life when someone comes along and turns it into a game. Trying to find out who and where they are offline and releasing that knowledge to embarrass or harass them. That's the milder version of what I have seen. It doesn't matter what type of community it is because the person doing the outting? They feel they themselves are anonymous.

I made this video not only as an explanation for why I won't give out personal info but as a partial warning to others. Once its on the internet its out there permanently.  I'd rather not have to close things down because someone is harassing me.  At this time I'll say nobody is and I honestly don't foresee a time when someone would. But its better to be safe then sorry.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades in my videos and blog entries are not recommendations for others.
I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Garden Project: Final 2011 results

As winter has set in and thus my garden has run its course, its time I take a look at this year's garden and determine if it can save a family money that could be applied towards building income.

I didn't get much more produce out of the garden as we had some nights of frost. For all the talk of how tomatoes die quickly in the frost they survived more then everything else apart from the pumpkin. That didn't turn orange for me.

As with demo trading the Forex, my gains in the beginning are all about knowledge and experience. I had lots of setbacks that I would consider newbie mistakes. My seedlings didn't get a lot of direct sunlight. I left them out in the heavy wind and they blew over drying out forcing me to buy potted plants. I found out pumpkins are A-holes. Seriously. I had to keep cutting vines off because the vines would grow towards the other plants. The leaves would grow up and over other plants stealing their sun. Worse, they would grow vines wrapping around the stalks of other plants trying to kill them! I didn't even get a pumpkin out of the deal though come to think of it the pumpkin plant probably did it out of spite and revenge.

What I did manage to grow with the time I had and the space I used? I have no doubt this can easily help out a family's budget and for those truly struggling this may be their only chance for fresh vegetables and vitamins. I already have plans for improvement next year. Starting earlier, getting some grow lights, better positioning for sunlight exposure and making use of the 2nd raised bed. I'll carry over my costs to the next year before I apply any profits towards the . I would feel like I was "cooking my books" if I didn't.

One last comment on this Garden Project. The rewards here go beyond the dollar amounts that can be saved and applied to investing and trading though that was the main goal. After spending all day working on excel spreadsheets, office meetings, and sorting through a hundred emails to come home and sort through technical analysis of Forex charts.... there is something to be said for the zen like simplicity of the sound of hose water striking the leaves on my garden.

Total cost of the raised gardens: $154
Total cost of the seedlings: $27
Total cost of the pre-grown plants: $46.50
Total cost: $227.50

Total profit: $15.50 from 5 lbs of tomatoes ($2.50/lb), 2 green bell peppers ($1 each), 1 yellow bell pepper ($1.50 each), and a lot of experience.

Disclaimer: The investments and trades in my videos and blog entries are not recommendations for others.
I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets

Week 29 Update

EDIT: At the time this blog entry was posted I had a Youtube video here. That has been removed but I want the rest of my content to be remain. Nothing hidden no past mistakes ignored. All out in the open.

Weekly Activity
$100 deposit into Savings
$1.57 dividend from JNK


Model Portfolio Totals

Trading Account: $413.24
Estimated Monthly Income: $0 (Not ready to trade until Phase 1 completed)
Max amount in Forex trade (50% of account): $206
Max loss per trade (1% of account): $4
Portfolio stop (3% account): $12

Investing Account: $1,759.35
Estimated Monthly Income: $5.98
Stock
     WMT: $0.53 income/month
Energy
     ERF: $1.69 income/month ($0.009 from DRIP shares)
REITs
     O: $1.06 income/month ($0.005 from DRIP shares)
Bonds
     JNK: $1.61 income/month ($0.020 from DRIP shares)
     PCY: $1.09 income/month ($0.009 from DRIP shares)
Maneuvering Cash: $500

Savings Account: $800
Emergency: $500
Portfolio Protection
     Trading Account: $50
     Investing Account: $250
CDs: $0
Precious Metals: $0

Disclaimer: The investments and trades in my videos and blog entries are not recommendations for others.
I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Re-researching your investments

Another earning season is underway. What does a dividend investor need to do...

EDIT: At the time this blog entry was posted I had a Youtube video here. That has been removed but I want the rest of my content to be remain. Nothing hidden no past mistakes ignored. All out in the open.

The main point I wanted to bring up is a comparison to my initial investing research on O. In my initial research I am super picky. I start with the Dividend Champions and Dividend Contenders lists. Out of the ten thousand plus of publicly traded companies out there only 250 make this cut but that is still not good enough for me.  Not even a third of those are. Some hedge fund manager might think so but this is my own money I had to save and work for.

The trap of complacency is a real thing. I see lots of investors that think they know their company talk to me about it and since they haven't kept up with their due diligence they are invested in a different company then what they think. For example a Pepsi investor talking about the virtues of Pepsi Cola for being one of the two top carbonated beverage in the world! Nope sorry. Pepsi Cola is actually 3rd now. Coke and Diet Coke are the top two. Additionally, Pepsi made more money with their snacks since they own Frito Lay (Doritos, Ruffles, Lays, Rold Gold, Tostitos and more) then they do with soda so one might not even call them a beverage company anymore. If an investor missed that then perhaps they missed other things and their reason for being invested in their company has changed.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades in my videos and blog entries are not recommendations for others.
I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets

Week 28 Update and Trading thoughts

EDIT: At the time this blog entry was posted I had a Youtube video here. That has been removed but I want the rest of my content to be remain. Nothing hidden no past mistakes ignored. All out in the open.

As I mention in the video, I've added in a Portfolio stop below based upon what I discussed in the Portfolio stop video. Its easy to just multiply the Max loss per trade by 3 but I want it up front and out in the open so I can keep an eye on it.  Why? That number is part of what I'll need to balance my Portfolio Protection money from the Savings account on.


Weekly Activity
$100 deposit into Savings


Model Portfolio Totals

Trading Account: $413.24
Estimated Monthly Income: $0 (Not ready to trade until Phase 1 completed)
Max amount in Forex trade (50% of account): $206
Max loss per trade (1% of account): $4
Portfolio stop (3% account): $12

Investing Account: $1,770.72
Estimated Monthly Income: $5.97
Stock
     WMT: $0.53 income/month
Energy
     ERF: $1.69 income/month ($0.009 from DRIP shares)
REITs
     O: $1.06 income/month ($0.005 from DRIP shares)
Bonds
     JNK: $1.60 income/month ($0.010 from DRIP shares)
     PCY: $1.09 income/month ($0.009 from DRIP shares)
Maneuvering Cash: $500

Savings Account: $700
Emergency: $500
Portfolio Protection
     Trading Account: $50
     Investing Account: $150
CDs: $0
Precious Metals: $0


Disclaimer: The investments and trades in my videos and blog entries are not recommendations for others.
I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Portfolio Stop

EDIT: At the time this blog entry was posted I had a Youtube video here. That has been removed but I want the rest of my content to be remain. Nothing hidden no past mistakes ignored. All out in the open.

Portfolio stops combined with Trades stops, trailing stops, or more commonly called just stops; gives us a more complete risk management system for our trading account. It lets us "see the forest from the trees" that focusing on each trade can make more difficult.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades in my videos and blog entries are not recommendations for others.
I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Coupons and their impact on the Model Portfolio.

EDIT: At the time this blog entry was posted I had a Youtube video here. That has been removed but I want the rest of my content to be remain. Nothing hidden no past mistakes ignored. All out in the open.

I've found that I only spend about 30 minutes extra a week clipping coupons and looking through sales ads  Unless your job has you working Sunday morning do you have anything else you could be doing with that time to make you money?  I saved $195 in one month before costs of the membership and the coupon book which were a yearly fee. Even if I spent 2 hours a week between clipping coupons and going to Costco in addition to only going to a grocery store.. 8 hours month... that's $24/hour. I shop weekly but many families shop twice a month or monthly. $48/hour sounds even better.

If you have the cooking ability, only buy what is a bargain for that week. Buy a couple extra of each item too. Then when you get home plan your menus around what you have. In a coupon shopping trips you will have built up a good sized stockpile of ingredients. Then when you do want to cook a specific recipe you will have that ingredient that you bought 50% off a couple weeks back. That style of shopping as much as the actual coupons themselves have lowered my grocery bill. Though to be honest I am only counting the actual coupon value as bonus towards the Model Portfolio at the end of each month.

I want to expand on the Costco numbers a bit. I had price compared 80+ items and found that Costco on average was 56% cheaper. Now that won't mean that the $800 average grocery bill will turn into $400. Costco doesn't have everything that a family would need. Additionally, is a family going to really go through a gallon of mayonnaise before it expires? Some perhaps but not if you are single or just a couple. There are plenty of things though that won't expire. Will even a single person use 36 rolls of toilet paper in their lifetime? Will you use that gallon of dishwasher detergent eventually? Yeah probably. Since I had to pay for the Costco membership I am taking the difference in price saved from the Costco purchases vs the local grocery store price.

You can free quite a bit more cash flow in your budget then you might think. If you are only able to get a little extra out of your groceries at least its something and can be combined with other cost saving strategies that you might use. It might be the difference between being able to build a portfolio at all.

October Coupon and Savings Results
Coupons: Cost $7.50 (newspaper). Savings: $30.90
Costco: Cost: $50 (1 time yearly membership). Savings: $143.81
Entertainment: Cost: $35 (1 time yearly purchase). Savings: $21
Future month's savings will be rolled into the last weekly deposit of each month.

Here are the sites I talked about...
Entertainment Book. These are targeted to towns and suburbs of large cities. You should be able to buy them at Walgreens and flip through them to see if it would be worth it for you. They list additional coupons on the website not listed in the book for additional savings.
Harbor Freight. Located in 45 states hopefully there is one close to you.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades in my videos and blog entries are not recommendations for others.
I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets