Portfolio Update: Zeroed Out & What I Should (And Shouldn't) Have Done

Right now the portfolio is sold out and just about worthless.  I had around $600 to play with and it's down to $73.

A few things I should and shouldn't have done:

Shoulds:

• Sell half at a time during good times and bad.
• Invested in dividends.
• Set alerts.

Shouldn'ts:

• Leave the portfolio alone even as little as a single day.  I missed a big spike on one of my stocks and next thing I knew it was stuck for good below what I paid for it.
• Use a predatory broker.  Brutal additional penny stock commissions chewed up any small profits I made as I panic-swapped.
• Taken pie-in-the-sky PR so optimistically.  Yeah, you heard me, BRGO & TBEV.

I will say I'm totally thrilled to have gotten out of GBSN when I did, at about $3 a share.  After a few ridiculous reverse splits, it's below 2 cents as of this writing.

Is this blog over though? It isn't.  I have been fortunate enough to know that a co-worker I've known for years has made over $100,000 in the last year with smart trades, and a friend he has helped has turned $3,000 into $36,000 from August to November.  He will be helping me as soon as I have $500 to invest in through a better trading account.

Please stay tuned.  I will be blogging about my challenge to raise $428 more, appreciate your readership and intend to get things done right this time around.  Thank you!

State of the Portfolio - LOL!

Just a quick update on the portfolio.  It's been ridiculously bad lately, with just a little room for good news.

$JAMN - sold last 500 out around .24 after seeing a steady slump.  Very lucky after PR meltdown with scummy ex-owner.  Still optimistic in company, nice comeback from under $.10.  Profitability is keeping me away for a while.  Nice spike today.

$ASTI - Waiting on government solar contracts.  In around $.14.  320 shares.  Down ~5% after commissions.  Probably the most realistic stock I have

$TBEV - The reason behind everyone else using "High Performance Energy Drink" to list their energy drinks on Amazon.  81,000 shares.  Down 75% since bought well under one cent.  Need more research.

$BRGO - Don't even get me started.  I visit the investor PR whenever I need a quick and irrational high.  1000:1 reverse split.  Down 99%.  My fault though for not selling at 300% spike.

$FLST - Sold half for moderate profit while working at a sucky tech job two years ago.  Other half is down 99%.


Wish list: JAMN, CDII, SUNE

Total value: $88

What would you do with such a small portfolio?

My $1,000,000 Challenge: $91 to $1,000,000

Hey all.  Thanks for visiting.

Going to have a bit of a change in strategy.  I haven't picked up beans for followers for @lionelsstocks, but my @linechamberlain Twitter has started picking up.  Follow me there and I'll let you know when I post here.

Three years ago, my portfolio was $1700.  After taking out some bucks here and there, it's down under $100.

Why I'm upping my stock trading methods past this.

Like it's been said, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.

You remember the story about the man who took his donkey and son across a bridge in Greece? Everyone argued and argued about who should be carrying who across.  Ultimately, the man tried to carry the animal on his shoulders, slipped, and dropped it in the water.

That's been my issue with trading.  Long strategy, penny stocks.  I used to be of an opinion that stocks had to be held to grow.  We've put money into dividend stocks paying out 10% yearly.

Have they this year? Yes, absolutely.  But the stock prices have bombed, bombed, bombed the past month.

Sure, they'll come back up, who knows, in a year or two.  Can we get anything out at a profit now? Nope.

I'm sick of it.

I'm also tired of my own trading habits.  I've been a long on penny stocks, with not much success.  The only real thrills I ever got trading were when I sold half my shares of Fuelstream while I was in the bathroom at work in 2013.  A distant second was when I sold 1000 shares of INVT for a $500 profit.  I could have sold for a $9000 profit but I was too optimistic.  I'll never forget how some goober on the stock's profit board advised me not to sell and to wait for some so-called (my blood pressure is already remembering this) "secret sauce PRs".

Secret sauce this.

So, a change is coming.  Time to join the rest of the traders in getting some consistent, realistic gains time after time after time.  I admit that my stocks are a mix of pathetic pennies with only two solid candidates.

However, I am stepping things up in a big way.  I am taking on a series of extra web jobs to raise funds for a disciplined, consistently growing stock portfolio.

Who will help me? I don't know yet.  I will say that Tim Sykes's staff has been phenomenal in helping me get ready for investing, and I am reaching out to any traders who may be able to help me get past the $100 mark for starters and keep it going.  Leave a comment if you'd like to work with me... I'll promote the results you'll bring me, no problems.

Thanks,
Line

Stock Portfolio Update, August 18 2015: Dividends Are Killing It

One of the simplest approaches I use for some extra bang for the buck is dividend reinvestment.  Just accepting cash dividends from stocks is seriously missing out.  If you get extra shares of stock that generate extra shares of stock that generate extra shares of stock... you can see where this is heading after a few years.

My list of uninspired stocks, led by the most infamous:

BRGO - Hype only goes so far.  Lesson learned.  Read the PR if you want a laugh.  Amazing line of jewelry and I wish them well, but investing in this stock was a fiscal face plant.  Still holding onto my 300,000 - uh, 300 shares.  Nice 1000-1 reverse split to keep afloat.  Why bother?
TGRO - At 10 shares, no worries here.
PVSP - Tried on a whim.  No big loss either.

No regrets:

DDD - Happy to sell at $80.
TWTR - Love it, but not investing in it.
BABA - Ba-bye.

Hopefuls:

JAMN - Solid business plan, eco-friendly K-cups are on the market and international expansion is in the works.
DRAG - A company that can break down landfill tires is a pretty exciting one.  However, they're still wrestling a crappy stock symbol out of bureaucracy.  A little hype today, but the bulletin board makes me laugh with its old newspaper clipping and a lot of pie in the sky.  Like any stock, big potential, but it could also be a glorified Sunday afternoon garage project.
FB - Looks like people are catching on about what a juggernaut it is.

Nice results:

TWO - Sweet dividends, fairly stable stock price.
NCT - Same - yearly buy-in price seems to be about $4.25 to $4.50.  Recent investor request to liquidate company at over $6/share has caused a minor spike recently over $5.
AWP - 12 dividends a year.  Nice from a compounding point with dividend reinvestment, but stock price has been sliding a little.  Good buy-in point at the moment - get some at $7 or so and you'll be a little irritable when the price fluctuates.

In all, stock prices for these have been somewhat down since a buy in December, but the return's already come to over 10% with dividend reinvestment.

Coulda-shoulda-wouldas:

GOOG
SHW

What are you holding or trading? Feel free to leave a comment.

Portfolio Update, December 30

After a lot of disappointments with hastily sold stocks and a settling market, things are picking back up.  Taking out a chunk of the portfolio for a holiday with the Mrs.: RAD has been a great long-term investment and I may flip TWO tomorrow to get back in.

Current holdings:

AAPL: 3
BABA: 1
WWE: 28
TWO: 28
JAMN: 2500

Other penny stocks: Don't get into penny stocks

Good luck investing, catch up soon!

BAH! Denied on BABA: YHOO, RAD, UA

UA is back on the way up, but I got a little irritable with 10 shares dipping 3 something below purchase price, so I used BuyAndHold trades to sell UA and get nearly 7 shares of YHOO and 62 shares of RAD, which is edging back up the last few weeks and which I've missed owning.

I guess BuyAndHold doesn't like trading in white-hot stocks, as I was unable to get any shares of BABA, but buying Yahoo, which still has a decent stake in the upstart mega-giant, was a decent enough consolation prize.

Current holdings:

PLUG x130, Up 9.53%
RAD x62, Up 3.5%
YHOO x 6.925, Up 1.8%
TWO x 29, Down ~ 2.5%
WWE x 27.65, Down ~ 7.5%

Penny stocks: worthless

Tempted To Flip: UA, RAD

The rough ride continues, but there's no room for flipping at this point.  With UA down from Jim Cramer's recommended purchase price, WWE lower but holding and coughing out a dividend, and PLUG dragging its feet until quarterly results, there hasn't been that much room to trade out for RAD, which has been having a nice comeback since some disheartening losses (good thing to have sold at $8 though).  I wouldn't be surprised to see $8 again within the next year.

Apple's price is dazzling considering the buzz about Apple Pay, BABA is riding the coattails of the Pay hype, and... that's about it.  Lots of blood in the water today, with even FB and TWTR taking some gut punches due to WhatsApp's fractional return and sluggish user growth rates.

BRGOD, our only penny stock worth mentioning, had a nice 400% jump since its reverse 1000-1 split, meaning our 300 shares are now worth... half a tank of gas.  The uber-hopeful reports continue to come out, and it will nice to see a Bergio store materialize, but for the meantime it will be a long hold and I sure don't recommend repeating my experience.  We had a chance to make $115 into $450 months back and should have taken it.


Wish list:
RAD
BABA
AAPL

Glad we hadn't:

GTAT: Before AAPL's jilt, a low-10s stock soared, now at $1.  Ouch.
JCP: Go online or go home.
GRPN: Just lots of slow flopping downward.