Week 35 update and Portfolio 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.

I put off reading The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham for far too long. Its one of the classic guides to investing. I cannot recall anyone saying that it is outdated or useless even 60 years later.



Weekly Activity
$125 deposit into Savings
$35.80 deposit into Trading
$1.65 dividend from ERF


Model Portfolio Totals

Trading Account: $885.13
Estimated Monthly Income: $0 (Not ready to trade until Phase 1 completed)
Max amount in Forex trade (50% of account): $442
Max loss per trade (1% of account): $8
Portfolio stop (3% account): $26

Investing Account: $1,768.75
Estimated Monthly Income: $6.03 ($0.087 from DRIP shares)
Stock
     WMT: $0.53 income/month
Energy
     ERF: $1.71 income/month ($0.030 from DRIP shares)
REITs
     O: $1.07 income/month ($0.014 from DRIP shares)
Bonds
     JNK: $1.62 income/month ($0.030 from DRIP shares)
     PCY: $1.09 income/month ($0.014 from DRIP shares)
Maneuvering Cash: $500

Savings Account: $900
Emergency: $600
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.

Type of Investments: 5 - MLP

The next type of investment an investor might want to consider is both sexy and dangerous at the same time...

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.

At the time of this posting I do not own any MLPs in the Model Portfolio or elsewhere. For me the complexity and risk is too great and I have been reading and following MLPs for years. But that 8%+ yield sure is tempting isn't it? I strongly encourage talking to a tax adviser (which I am definitely not) before investing in MLPs.

On the other hand don't let me paint the picture that investing in master limited partnerships is bad. Its perfectly legal and quite profitable but as I discuss in the video: its more complex then just picking up some shares of JNJ or KO.

IRS coverage of UBTI : http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p598.pdf

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 34 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.

The ability of the savings account to generate hidden profit by preventing small emergencies from becoming large ones shouldn't be overlooked. Its just another example of how Money Management works outside the portfolio.


Weekly Activity
$175 withdraw out of Emergency Savings for car repair
$100 deposit into Savings
$1.07 dividend from O


Model Portfolio Totals

Trading Account: $849.33
Estimated Monthly Income: $0 (Not ready to trade until Phase 1 completed)
Max amount in Forex trade (50% of account): $424
Max loss per trade (1% of account): $8
Portfolio stop (3% account): $25

Investing Account: $1,739.16
Estimated Monthly Income: $6.02 ($0.077 from DRIP shares)
Stock
     WMT: $0.53 income/month
Energy
     ERF: $1.70 income/month ($0.019 from DRIP shares)
REITs
     O: $1.07 income/month ($0.014 from DRIP shares)
Bonds
     JNK: $1.62 income/month ($0.030 from DRIP shares)
     PCY: $1.09 income/month ($0.014 from DRIP shares)
Maneuvering Cash: $500

Savings Account: $775
Emergency: $475
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.

Importance of the Savings Account

Oh yeah that 3rd account of the portfolio that never gets attention. Well its time for it to step forward...

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.

Today really highlights the importance of having a savings account funded and ready to go. Its easy to look at the yield of dividend investing or the gains from forex trading and think that is where the big returns and gains will come from. However the savings can have ninja profits.

What is a ninja profit? One that we never see and never know about. For example, today the tire cost me $125 and the tearing out of the lug nuts was $50 for $175 total. Lets say I didnt have insurance to cover the tow and didn't have savings money ready I might have had to have left my car by the street and try to raise the money by selling a position of stock. It can take 3 days before the money settles before it becomes live in our accounts that we can withdraw it. Oh and today was Friday so really we may not have had access to the money in cash form until potentially Wednesday. 6 days my car could have been on the side of the road. What are the odds that the police would have tagged my car and then towed it as abandoned?

I honestly have no idea how long it would take for that process to play out but I could see having to pay for that tow, and a second one to get the car out of the impounding lot. Plus whatever fees the police want to tack on. $175 total? I still need my tire fixed so the total bill is $350. By having savings money ready I potentially saved double the fees later, a 100% profit! That's not even counting if I had to use a credit card.

Now that was an extreme example I admit but I never want to be even close to that risk.



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.

Psychology of Emotions: 3 - Fear

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"

Franklin D Roosevelt

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.

Fear is the natural opposite of Greed when it comes to emotions in Forex trading and dividend investing. Anytime money is on the line actually.

Being human, we will succumb to emotions that's just how that is. I see successful traders mention that even after years of being profitable and knowing better that they still have "oops" moments. It is a big encouraging for us starting out to know that its a problem for everyone.





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 33 Update

Oh youtube. How you love to torment me with your thumbnails you choose.

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.

Managing an investing and forex trading portfolio is going to require a lot of changing between multiple time frames. I like companies that pay a dividend every month. However I need to keep in mind that it will take years to DRIP in a lot of compounding. Then again I am trading on the hourly time frame candlesticks for Forex. Yet its not about one trade but all the trades over months and years.
Its all the time frames together.


Weekly Activity
$100 deposit into Trading
$1.62 dividend from JNK


Model Portfolio Totals

Trading Account: $849.33
Estimated Monthly Income: $0 (Not ready to trade until Phase 1 completed)
Max amount in Forex trade (50% of account): $424
Max loss per trade (1% of account): $8
Portfolio stop (3% account): $25

Investing Account: $1,746.06
Estimated Monthly Income: $6.01 ($0.072 from DRIP shares)
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: $1.62 income/month ($0.030 from DRIP shares)
     PCY: $1.09 income/month ($0.014 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.

Pivot Points

Time to report to you guys about Pivot Points for the Forex...

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.

Pivot Points provide multiple levels of support and resistance that I plan to use for my Forex trading. As I mention in the video, I was pleasantly surprised at how well they worked. I do want to stress that these aren't hard lines. They are more like zones where as price gets close it will start to slow down. Perhaps it will over shoot a little bit. The price action (PA) of the candlesticks just before and the current one are pretty telling. If the candlesticks get shorter and shorter as it approaches one of the lines then things are probably going to congest. At least that's what I've been noticing.

Though most brokers should have it automated, here are the formulas for completeness sake..
Pivot Point: (High + Low + Close) / 3

Resistance 1: (PP + PP) - Low
Support 1: (PP + PP) - High

Resistance 2: PP + (High - Low)
Support 2:  PP - (High - Low)

One parting comment. Pivot points work until they don't. By that I mean these or any tool are not going to be an end all be all of trading. Its one of multiple things to take into consideration.


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

Psychology of Emotions: 2 - Greed

The first emotion up is the big one...

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 investor and traders, we will encounter greed at nearly every step of our process. It comes up so often that as I mention in the video, we can think we are aware and careful of one type while succumbing to another.

Yet we have to have some amount of greed to make so how does one maintain balance? Whichever argument gets in the last word is a great indicator as to what your mindset is.
"This is really risky but I can make a lot of money. Lets get into this trade."
"I can make a lot of money but this is really risky. Lets get into this trade."
The difference is slight in words but large in mentality. The second thought process is more inclined to be using money management to protect themselves.



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 32 Update and Timing your investments

There are lots of different reasons to invest or not invest at a certain time...

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.

This may or may not be the Christmas rally. For me, I want to wait and see. I saw one author last week not only say that this is the Christmas rally but that this is the beginning of a new bull market. Kind of a bold statement what with everything going on in the world right now.


Weekly Activity
$100 deposit into Trading
$1.00 dividend from PCY


Model Portfolio Totals

Trading Account: $749.33
Estimated Monthly Income: $0 (Not ready to trade until Phase 1 completed)
Max amount in Forex trade (50% of account): $374
Max loss per trade (1% of account): $7
Portfolio stop (3% account): $21

Investing Account: $1,738.13
Estimated Monthly Income: $6.00 ($0.062 from DRIP shares)
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 ($0.014 from DRIP shares)
Maneuvering Cash: $500

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

Psychology of Trading and Investing: 1 - A curious little box...

So you are all psyched up and ready to start making money by trading and investing. Or are you?

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.

Out of all my videos and ideas for investing, trading in the forex, and becoming self sufficient, this series I feel will be the most important. If there is only one thing I can share and you guys get from me this is it hands down. Of course, I hope there is more utility found but I want to stress this series as #1.

I have seen the topic of psychology and emotion with money come up a lot in the last couple of years so there is progress. But to be honest I have found it lacking. Its usually only given a token acknowledgement with a small chapter of a book. The message given is extremely short, "Control your emotions." Wow great that's wonderful.  Yes clearly its as simple as that given all the examples of history in which mankind has tried to control its emotion. So what is a new comer to the financial markets to do?

There needs to be more discussion on examples of emotion and psychology. When passing on ideas about charting the trading community doesn't say "Go use some technical analysis tools for your trading." No we see countless hours of charting examples going down to minute detail. Why not the same for psychology?

That's what I propose to do here.


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