My Personal Finance Journey

Personal finance observation, musing and decisions in a journey toward financial independence by 2020 with at least $3 million.


By Topics

Overall:
0. About (10)
1. My Progress (139)
2. Car & Home (107)
3. Credit (138)
4. Banking (33)
5. Saving (49)
6. Investing (308)
7. Taxes (89)
8. Spending (74)
9. Misc (97)
A. Archive (49)



MONTHLY ARCHIVE

Feb 2014 (3)
Jan 2014 (6)
Jan 2012 (1)
Apr 2011 (1)
Mar 2011 (1)
Feb 2011 (1)
Jan 2011 (1)
Dec 2010 (1)
Oct 2010 (1)
Sep 2010 (1)
Aug 2010 (1)
Jul 2010 (1)
Jun 2010 (1)
May 2010 (1)
Apr 2010 (1)
Mar 2010 (6)
Feb 2010 (2)
Jan 2010 (7)
Dec 2009 (3)
Feb 2009 (4)
Jan 2009 (8)
Dec 2008 (1)
Jun 2008 (2)
May 2008 (2)
Apr 2008 (5)
Feb 2008 (3)
Jan 2008 (15)
Dec 2007 (32)
Nov 2007 (6)
Oct 2007 (8)
Sep 2007 (9)
Aug 2007 (24)
Jul 2007 (2)
Jun 2007 (1)
May 2007 (3)
Apr 2007 (4)
Mar 2007 (4)
Feb 2007 (13)
Jan 2007 (6)
Dec 2006 (3)
Nov 2006 (7)
Oct 2006 (7)
Sep 2006 (6)
Aug 2006 (4)
Jul 2006 (10)
Jun 2006 (1)
May 2006 (3)
Apr 2006 (2)
Mar 2006 (6)
Feb 2006 (6)
Jan 2006 (3)
Dec 2005 (1)
Nov 2005 (9)
Oct 2005 (8)
Sep 2005 (13)
Aug 2005 (25)
Jul 2005 (16)
Jun 2005 (17)
May 2005 (19)
Apr 2005 (20)
Mar 2005 (24)
Feb 2005 (23)
Jan 2005 (36)
Dec 2004 (40)
Nov 2004 (34)
Oct 2004 (17)
Sep 2004 (21)
Aug 2004 (59)
Jul 2004 (37)
Jun 2004 (31)
May 2004 (29)
Apr 2004 (52)
Mar 2004 (49)
Feb 2004 (49)
Jan 2004 (31)
Dec 2003 (48)
Nov 2003 (52)
Oct 2003 (29)
Sep 2003 (8)
Aug 2003 (5)
Jul 2003 (2)
Jun 2003 (2)
May 2003 (5)
Apr 2003 (2)
Mar 2003 (2)
Feb 2003 (3)
Jan 2003 (29)



 

2004: Not A Good Year For My Portfolio

Contributed by mm | January 13, 2005 5:01 PM PST

2004 was not lenient on me in terms of portfolio performance. In my actively-managed accounts, namely after-tax account at AmeriTrade and Roth IRA accounts at Fidelity and BrownCo, I completed eight transactions, only to see a loss of $3,572.56 at year end. The ARR for the year is -11.40% vs S&P 500 gain of 8.99%. Not a good year at all!

To put it into more perspective, the loss in 2004 wiped out most of my gains in 2003. All in all, after 43 trades in the last five years, I only gained a total of $3,271.60 with an ARR of 5.1%. It is still better than the relative S&P 500 performance, but it is not the kind of performance I like to have.

If you paid a tuition of $3,272, you need to learn something, right? Here is what I learned:

First, I failed because I refused to admit my limitations. I started to become busy from my daily job since the middle of the year, and unlike before, I no longer have much time every time to track individual stocks, and read market commentaries. Now the reality is my workload from daily job will not go away any time soon (which is good for my career), I need to admit the fact that I probably will not succeed as a individual stock picker.

Second, I failed because I didn't stick to the rule of KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). During the year, I did a handful of option trading, which didn't pay off as I expected. If I review my track record, my long positions actually win handsomely, but I am apparently not up to speed in terms of complicated transactions.

So here is my action plan for 2005:

1. Stay away from fancy investments;
2. Form my mutual fund strategy and become an armchair investor
3. Spend a little more time on stock picking and only stick to simple value plays.

Let's see how my 2005 strategy will bring me.

More PFBlog Articles You Might Find Interesting ...


This Post Has Received 3 Comments. Share Your Opinions Too.


Murray Commented on January 19, 2005

Why try to beat the market when you can match it with low-cost mutual funds? Index-o-rama!


Steve Commented on July 14, 2005

Check out my site. you'll like it for advise on market, sectors, stocks


Nikia Lawson Commented on October 5, 2005

Have you used any of the stock trend software like Wize Trade? If so, what do you think about it? I am looking at one inthe Foreign Exchange market. What do you think?



Read More ... 308 Posts In The Same Category










This page was last rebuilt at January 27, 2014 07:42 AM PST.
 

RSS FEED





PERSONAL FINANCE BLOGS I READ

Consumerism Commentary
Get Rich Slowly
My Money Blog
All Financial Matters
The Simple Dollar






.

Error 500 - Internal server error

Error 500 - Internal server error

An internal server error has occured!
Please try again later.



Copyright 2003-2014, PFBlog.com. All Rights Reserved. (Privacy Policy)