Stock Challenge Update - More Buys!
December 12th, 2006 Category:Home, Stock Challenge
It’s now time for another stock challenge update. Our picks aren’t doing as great as what we would want but not too bad at the same time. As of right now, we are placed 104th out of approximately 1100 people with a 2.79% return since Nov 20, 2006. I guess gaining $2790 in 3 weeks isn’t so bad but we want to do better. We have done some shifting around in our portfolio, here are the Current holdings:
Current Holdings
| Symbol | Name |
| Cash | $6,875.41 |
| APOL | Apollo Group, Inc. |
| T.AET.UN | ARC ENERGY TRUST UNITS |
| T.AVN.UN | ADVANTAGE ENERGY INCOME FUND |
| T.FCP | FIRST CALGARY PETROLEUMS LTD |
| T.MBT | MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES INC |
| T.MFI | MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC |
| T.NGX | NORTHGATE MINERALS CORP |
| T.PDP | PETROLIFERA PETROLEAUM LIMITED |
| T.YLO.UN | YELLOW PAGES INCOME FUND UNITS |
| WAG | Walgreen Co |
Since our last post, we have unloaded 50% of Apollo and have added Walgreens (WAG) and Petrolifera (PDP), both of which showed technical bottoms. Our biggest gainer, Arc Energy Trust, has overtaken Apollo with a 8.91% gain. Our biggest loser is First Calgary Petroleum with -%7.98 decline.
3 weeks in and still treading water!
Stay tuned…
Any tips for a starving student to throw a couple thousand into?
Hey Johnny,
As we are not financial planners, we don’t feel comfortable making stock recommendations.
Make sure that you do your due diligence before you buy any stock. 9 times out of 10 a newbie gets eaten alive by the market just because he/she didn’t know what he was doing. Also $2k isn’t enough to get started in the stock market with a diversified portfolio (unless you sign up with an online brokerage with low fees). If you haven’t done any stock market research yet, I would suggest that you start with books by Peter Lynch, Benjamin Graham, and Warren Buffet. While you are educating yourself, continue saving your money until you are ready to take the plunge.
In the mean time, I would suggest that you put your money into a high interest savings account. As a student, you are most likely in a low tax bracket so the interest tax is minimal if any at all.
Hope this helps, feel free to ask any questions.
StingyJoe
Johnny: I agree 100% with StingyJoe … just in case you have any debt: I would use that money to first pay down any debt that has an interest rate higher than 4% (equivalent to a high interest saving account at PCFinancial). I would only invest in stocks if you’d be willing to lose some of the money if the market goes down.
———-
StingyJoe: it seems we’ve got very similar tastes in stocks. I’ve bought AVN-UN after the income trust crash. I think it’s a great bargain. Their yield is huge. I still wonder what’s the catch though. You know, “when something is too good to be true…”. I like the fact that they’re both in natural gas and oil. I’ve also bought Yellow Pages which the newsletter Investment Reporter keeps recommending.
Hey CMBR,
Thanks for your comments!
What other holdings do you have? What is your stock picking strategy?
StingyJoe
for RRSP, I’m using mostly ETFs
outside my RRSP I use a relatively simple approach:
)
- for a long-term more conservative section of my portfolio, I use Investment Reporter as a starting point for recommendations ; I like their fundamentals based approach ; I cross-check their recommendations with Moneysense 200 best stocks ; I do my own research (e.g.: I stay away from companies with too much debt , high P/E , bad competitive environment , areas I don’t like or understand,) ; and when possible, I try to pick the subset of stocks that have good technical indicators following the CANSLIM method from Bill O’Neil; in a way, I’m going after the stocks that Moneysense rates and A for growth and value (e.g.: Kingsway Financials); and I read blogs like yours and Canadian Capitalist to stay grounded
- I favor dividend paying stocks when possible (GE) and I think I’m still a yield junkie (thus AVN and YLO -> both in my RRSP though)
- I believe in wide diversification from gold to REITs , ADRs for international companies, energy , utilities , etc. ; I always try to have a portfolio that will not have a huge beta ; ie. not swing too wildly in downturns
- I try to buy good stocks that went down after a market correction (Pfizer, Advantage Energy)
- I have play money ; recently bought Khan Resources to make a quick buck on uranium
——
as usual, these are personal opinions, not recommendations to your readers
Speaking of Moneysense top 100, Goodfellow INc (GDL) looks like an interesting pick. I was reviewing their annual reports and it seems that their balance sheets/cashflows seem to check out. A good dividend to boot also!
I’m going to make another post soon, but i’ve been momentum trading lately. Picked up some PDP and ARU and just trading in and out of them. Gotta have some fun right?
StingyJoe