Welcome! As this is my first post, I’d like to take this space to introduce myself and introduce my blog. In general, this is a blog about VALUE INVESTING, but more specifically it will track my investment desicions and the results of my personal stock portfolio.
I started investing seriously in 2005, as I was a few years out of college and had built up some savings. I started out reading books on EMT, but eventually found myself drawn to value investing. Beginning in late 2005, I began actively picking stocks using this philosophy to guide my decisions.
On Jan 1, 2006 I started diligently tracking my investment returns and comparing them to what I would’ve earned had I invested in the S&P instead. My reasoning went something like this:
Even if value investing works, there’s a good chance I don’t have the temperament or intelligence to execute on it. After several years, if I’m not earning returns in excess of the S&P, I’ll just move everything to a Vanguard Retirement fund.
HOWEVER, this has not been the case! After four+ years of actively picking stocks I’ve managed to earn an annual return of 19.5%! My hypothetical S&P (w/ dividends reinvested) would have returned just 1.5% (returns are as of 3/5/2010, the detail can be seen on the “My Returns So Far…” page to the right).
So, going forward I will discuss all of my investment decisions on this blog, as well as my existing holdings and the stocks on my watch list. Generally speaking my portfolio has high concentration and low turnover (you can see my current portfolio by clicking on the “My Current Holdings” link to the right). Currently, I only own 8 stocks and have less than 10% of my portfolio in cash.
If this strategy appeals to you, I encourage you to follow my blog. If nothing else it might provide some interesting food for thought. Since I’m just starting out (and I have a very full work week with my job), my goal is to write about 1 post per week, Enjoy!
