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.

WW Eeee, Face Booked, Underarm Charm

Hello all,

It's been a kind of bleak couple of weeks.  WWE took a recent hit but we're still holding, if only for international subscriptions to WWE, TWO is down a little (which is fine because it's a dividend stock anyway), and we traded out 9 shares of FB for 10 of UA.  Profitability continues to elude PLUG.

Coulda shoulda wouldas:

We would have liked to have held ISIS longer, traded FB for TWTR, and traded WWE for RAD, which has been on a nice upswing from the 4s and will probably reach 5+ soon.

For now we continue to hold, with our penny stocks dormant and/or worthless.  BRGO did a 1000-1 reverse split, making our 300,000 shares worth a cup of coffee, LQMT languishes in the teens, and nothing else - TGRO, PVSP, FLST - is worth even mentioning.  The strategy going into the new year will be holding onto corporate stocks long-term and selling what carnage we have left in pennies.

Hopefully there'll be some good news, but for now our missed profits are in Rite Aid, Isis Pharmaceuticals, and even Facebook.  With Lockheed Martin's fusion discovery, we hope to get in eventually.  Stay tuned.

Stock Portfolio Update, August 18: Stoppin' the Hoppin', Long Everything (FB, PLUG, BRGO, LQMT)

Lionel's Stock Portfolio: What's New?

It's been a precarious couple of months.  Holding in some positions has cost me momentum, but there are a few trades I'm glad I made.  Here's my wrapup of present and recent stocks:

FB: Long, long.  The money's coming in and I'm not budging, even in a personal catastrophe, until 90 a share.  18 shares.

PLUG: Also long.  The company finally turned a profit and I'm holding in expectation that companies like Wal-Mart will provide more business in the long run.  Plus, I bought my second batch at 9 a share.  Boo to that, especially in light of recent severe dips.  Still, bought around 4 in a second batch trading off a small RAD position. 130 shares.

LQMT: A sleeper.  Haven't bothered tracking it since dips under 30 cents. 600 shares.

FLST:  A fun curiosity last year.   The potential's still there but with revenue under six figures, I'm just holding. 500 shares.

PVSP: Supposed to be a penny stock hit.  ZZZ. 1K shares.

BRGO: With a brick and mortar location coming eventually (love the cautiously optimistic PR). 300K shares.

Don't regret selling: 

RAD While still a promising long-term stock to me, short-term events pushed things well down below 8.62.  If I ever get some extra investing money I may pick up again in the mid sixes before it slowly accumulates value again.

NENE The Cheap Investor's pick's supposed to be around $10 "soon".  Glad to have sold from around 2.50 before it started scumming at 1.80.  Nothing against his long-term track record, but a sour start investing in his recommendation.

Do regret selling:

ISIS Beautiful long-term stock and far down from a high of 62.66.  Even a jump to 40 could still turn a large-scale investor a decent profit.

TWO: Just a gorgeous dividend, 10%. I miss it.

Wishlist:

AAPL It split again! Its price is within range of the common man too.  Kicking myself for missing a buy-in opportunity at 92.

WWE Even with a rise to half its previous price of $31.98, I'd be happy buying in today.  The 4.10% dividend isn't bad either.

AWP: A quiet but nicely performing stock.  With automated dividend reinvestment in an account like
BuyandHold, 6.60% paid off 12 times really adds up.

Thanks for reading! What stocks are you watching lately? Feel free to leave a comment!

Recent Trades: Facebook, Rite Aid, Plug Power, Isis Pharmaceuticals

Hey all,

Thought I'd update this blog while Blogger's open.

Been hopping RAD and FB while they fluctuate, made a small flip so I turned 10 shares of FB into 183 shares of RAD into 45 shares of ISIS & 83 RAD into 23 ISIS and 100 RAD, for a 17-share gain.  Fortunately I sold out at 7.30 before RAD tumbled to mid 6es and am back into 18 shares of FB instead of my original 10.  Recent FB gains from 75 from 60s have been painful to buy back but with good targets FB will be a mid-range hold at least.  PLUG power is a longer-range hold.

Current holdings:

~18 shares FB, bought from consolidated RAD & ISIS position
130 shares PLUG, long-term hold, bought 1/2 at mid-4s but hoping to recoup a supplemental purchase at 9.
600 shares LQMT (ZZZ...)
500 shares FLST, 1/2 sold at $0.38 so I made my profit at 10 cents a share.
1500 shares PVSP, negligible.
300,000 shares BRGO, regretting not selling for a 300% profit.

Basically these are all long purchases.  Twitter was a consideration a while back but my money's going with a stock recently valued more than Coke.

My wife's been really sick and time is at a premium.  Feel free to read more at lifenotlyme.org.  I will try to keep writing here.  Perhaps I will have a newsletter if you are interested.  Please let me know in a comment.  I see a few pageviews a day and am happy people come to visit.

Thank you,

Lionel

Portfolio Update: CNI Gaining Steam? DDDelicious Returns, Not Yet For NENE

Just a quick update on the portfolio. 

DDD continues to perform stellarly, jumping today to around $86.50 a share.  This has been our best investment, with big thanks to Jim Cramer for recommending this stock months ago.

CNI's split, and slowly growing back a little, bouncing between $56 and $57.  Such is the pain of diversification: you'll often feel a little remorse seeing the slower half of your stocks perform.  Considering it's the dead of winter in Canada, I'm grateful for any growth in this railroad stock.  This is definitely a hold.

TWO is due for a dividend at month's end and has edged up to around $9.50.  This is another example of putting extra leftover money into a small, high-yield position so it adds up.  Without the ability to perform unlimited trades, acquisitions like this aren't worth it, but with a great service like BuyAndHold, which we've used for years, you get more financial control for less overall money.

Our penny stock holdings have yet to mature, though for FLST we should say mature again.  After a small spike to around $2.84, NENE has slumped between our purchase prices of $2.25 and $2.50.  Our position of 600 shares of LQMT is being held through the beginning of a stock purchasing program, and our share of 500 shares of FLST, leveled out at .035 cents a share today, is being held after the main profit taking we did at 500@$0.38, original purchase price of $0.10.

To recap our positions:

DDD 4.5
CNI 10.4
TWO 6
NENE 255
LQMT 600
FLST 500

For our full newsletter visit us at http://stockscoins.com.

Disclaimer: We do not endorse buying any stocks.  Do so at your own risk.

Daily Post #2: 10.4, Good Buddy! Sitting Back and Watching (DDD, CNI), Splits Discussion

Well, today's the day and my shares of CNI are in and ready for a split. Turns out I was able to purchase an extra fifth of a share, which will turn into 2/5ths down the road (hence the 10.4 in the title). Having grown up in the 80s, I'm always grateful for the extra bits of bean-counting that have been brought online.  Getting fractional shares during splits never used to happen for me.

Afternoon Action 

I'm already feeling a pang from DDD's relatively small jump today of 1.28/share as of this writing -- now I'm making 4.5 times that instead of 9 times since I traded half my shares toward CNI.  Speaking of pangs, seeing Voxeljet's insane recent price boost reminds me of my brother's laments about seeing BitCoins escalate daily. The stock was around $28 when I first noticed it, and it's zooming around $60 today. CNI is pretty much unchanged, but it's locked in and I'll be happy to see the split happen November 29th.

My fond nickname for NCT and NRZ used to be "Dumb & Dumber", because no matter how the stocks would flail about they'd almost always total $13 (in fact as of this moment they are at $13.01).  Nothing against them -- they're still constant with the dividends regardless of stock price. Lately another similarly nicknamed pairing is LQMT and FLST, which do act independently of each other but haven't done that much yet.  Patience.

I see Zynga's up past $4, ALU continues to crawl up to new highs, SIRI is coming close to where I sold it at $3.97 (ha).   Apple's on the sunny side of $500 again, Google's a third of the way to $1100.  Some regret for not having held OMI that long -- up to $37 from $28, along with dividends.  Yelp edging up again, Pandora a mind-blowing $31.70, up from $9 recently and supposedly giving iTunes Radio a serious run for its money.  WAVX, my friend Andrew's sentimental favorite, treading water at $1.19 -- PCs won't ever have the market share they did -- and perennial nickel-generating stock AWP up .13 to $7.26.  That's over 2 months of dividends worth of difference.  Jack Henry (JKHY) is up $6 since recent discovery of it and dividends were disbursed yesterday.  Groupon (GRPN) is edging back from disastrous management, WWE is climbing to the top rope at $13.32 a share, 5 cents down from a 52-week high.  Skilled Healthcare (SKH) back up from a wobble in the low 4s to $4.94.  Twitter's still in nesting phase in the low 40s, and looking back at TSLA is showing a stalled valuation as scrutiny mounts.  3D printing darling SSYS is continuing its upward trend with +$1.28 for a total valuation of $125.13/share.

Splitsville?

A great banana split.  Courtesy of Cyclonebill from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Those who haven't taken advantage of splits may be wondering why owning an extra share of something is worth it.

There's some controversy about it, for sure.

This view is neutral at best:

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/01/072501.asp

While this one is more in line with my attitudes:

http://www.rightline.net/stocksplits/stock-splits-work.html

That's about it for today.  Thanks for reading and stay tuned to see how CNI vs. DDD works out!


Disclaimer: I do not advocate buying (or not buying) any of the above stocks; please buy at your own discretion.

If my advice helps you make money down the road, I'm gladly accepting tips.

Even $1 will help me grow my portfolio.  Comments are very welcome too!  Thanks for reading!

Daily Post #1: Train-Hopping: From DDD, FB to CNI

With apologies to Harold Lloyd.

I've come to see not just the value of stocks, but stock dividends and splits.  Pinching and scraping fractional shares of DDD together to shore up a 4-share position into six $40 shares, which ultimately became nine shares that climbed to over $75 each, has been one of the best portfolio moves I've made.

I'm thrilled with DDD's groundbreaking technology and stock performance, and pretty happy with FB's recent climb, but it's time for me to spin them off into a company that's about (or should I say aboot) as different as possible: CNI, Canadian National Railway.  Shareholders who own the stock by end of day tomorrow will receive an extra share for each one held by November 29th.  There is already one share of CNI in my portfolio, so I plan on having ten shares of CNI and 4.5 of DDD soon.

Intended portfolio as of Nov. 15:

CNI 5
DDD 4.5
TWO 6
FLST 500
LQMT 600

Without an unlimited-transaction account, transaction fees would have eaten me alive, so if you're thinking of doing the same with an equally small number of shares, I recommend not using a per-transaction company. 

Disclaimer: I do not advocate buying any of the above stocks; please buy at your own discretion.

If you like my advice, I'm gladly accepting tips.

Even $1 will help me grow my portfolio.  Comments are very welcome too!  Thanks for reading!

Portfolio Snapshot #4: Profit Taking, Stock Jumping, and Hanging On (TSLA, CNI, DDD, NCT)

It's been a wild ride, with about a third of my stocks cashed out recently.  I regret exiting instead of reinvesting in cheaper stocks, but it had to happen.

TSLA's been my biggest relative loss recently, but I was able to exit my position yet again with some semblance of profit around $143.  After buying three shares at $95, it could have been a lot worse.  With $135 cashed out after commissions, 500 shares of FLST,  cash from 500 shares of FLST bought with TSLA, and 600 shares of LQMT remaining, there's still a net gain from everything.  It remains to be seen how valuable LQMT's stock buyback program is, but it's enough to keep things at a hold for now.

In light of volatility with TSLA, I've let myself get dinged on commissions, and extra for OTC transactions.  Now that I'm out of TSLA for some time, all I'll be doing is holding the relatively small positions of FLST and LQMT until they pop or fade.  Neither company seems especially troubled to me so I'm just going to hold, likely for the next 2 months.  Even sales at losses will help defray taxes and I'm still ahead unless both companies tank outright.

Commission-per-trade account holdings:

FLST 500
LQMT 600

My unlimited trading account has done much better.  Despite needing to leave some dividend stocks that did me nothing but good behind -- NCT, NRZ, ORI -- this account has held its own and then some in the last few weeks.  2.5 sluggish shares of BEAM were converted to a share of CNI for an upcoming 2-1 split and the remainder put into six shares of TWO, a dividend stock.  Facebook has been treading water in light of Twitter's IPO and it's tempting to swap it out for the new kid, but I'm trying to discipline myself and not keep stock-jumping until I've got at least a 35% gain in a position.

DDD has been doing phenomenally.  Thanks to a 3:2 stock split, patient holding, and a hot stock sector, 3D printing, it's the one stock I've refused to sell to date.  It really is tempting to repeat the success of the previous split and buy more CNI, as anyone who wants the 2-1 split has until November 15th to own shares.  We'll see whether it's better to stay in a new technology or invest in infrastructure...

Unlimited account holdings:

CNI 1
DDD 9
FB 2
TWO 6

Recent sales:

Gains
ORI
NCT
NRZ
BEAM 
EGO
RBS


Unchanged
DX
NTI


Losses
AMD
ALU


Thanks for reading and please check back again during our monthly update!

Portfolio Snapshot #3

I let BRKS go after picking it up as an oversold at 7, selling at 10.  I also sold AWP to pick up 3 shares of TSLA.  When those went to 125 from 92 I sold 2 and bought 600 shares of LQMT and 1400 of FLST at 10 and 4 cents.

Newcastle has spun off into NRZ and despite reservations about buying 2 more shares of DDD to make 4 there was a 3-for-2 split.  The stock is stalling below my ideal sell point of 50.

I bought RBS, EGO and AMD on Jim Cramer's advice.  Wish I had picked up TSLA at 21, but ah well.  AMD is the laggard, while I may hold EGO for one more dollar per share.  RBS slid for a bit before increasing decently.  I may sell half the EGO as I am unsure about gold prices.

Buying FLST was the riskiest move I've made.  I try to hold a stock for a decent amount of time, but my return was insane - 300% - so I sold and reinvested $250 of it into another less volatile oversold stock, SKH.  I still have 500 shares of FLST just in case of a decent upside, but I'm leaving it be at 9 cents.  If it never goes up again, that's fine.  I've made my profit and will either let the stock hit zero or exit at a much smaller profit level this time.

If you follow anything in this post, please don't buy penny stocks.  I was extraordinarily lucky.

FB was sold and rebought for current profits.

ORI has done well, bought from oversold at 10, near 15, and paying dividends as well.  I will be holding this one and may add more soon.

My strategy consists of oversolds, dividends, and fairly safe shorts, in that order.  I hope to eliminate the last strategy as this portfolio matures.

Current shares are as follows:

TSLA 1

BEAM 2.5

DDD 6

FB 3

ORI 5.5

RBS 3

EGO 19

NRZ / NC 9.5 each

SKH 53

AMD 36

LQMT 600

FLST 500

Thanks for reading!

Portfolio Snapshot #2

The market has done very well after fiscal cliff worries were allayed for the new year. DDD has led the increases while BRKS and AWP have recently paid dividends totaling 1.52 and .71. These have been automatically reinvested.

AWP: -3.87 overall after commission, improvement from -6.90 2012 YTD.

BRKS: +10.47 overall after commission, improvement from -3.68 YTD.

DDD: +27.54 overall, BuyandHold purchase, up from +9.57 YTD.

FB: -4.33 overall after commission, almost unchanged since YTD of -3.46.

NCT: +8.70, up since YTD of +5.03.

NYCB: -6.43, up from -11.01 YTD.

SCCO: Virtually unchanged.

SDT: Virtually unchanged.

I initiated a small WIN position but sold back at the same price using BaH. Instead I purchased $55 worth of ORI, which has a net gain of $3.

Portfolio gain (not including BaH $15 monthly fees and including Sharebuilder purchase commissions): $38.40

Percentage gain since July 2012: 4.4%

The Stock Portfolio: Snapshot #1

This time around, as I said in an earlier post, I'm in for the long haul, with very few sales, if any, before a year of holding.

I've started out on a very small scale, but at the most pay $10 commissions instead of $50.  I also am using an unlimited monthly purchasing plan to keep my commissions at a reasonable rate.

For the most part I've used dividend research sites, and Fool.com to pick the stocks this time around.  Jim Cramer's 60-second picks have rounded things out.

I have long positions in all stocks mentioned, and receive no compensation from, or have a relationship with, any of these companies.  My posts are not endorsements suggesting you buy any stock, but are just insights into the health of my portfolio at any given moment.

Dividend reinvestment is enabled for all dividend stocks.

My Stocks, Their Earnings

(All stocks not mentioned as bought with $10 commissions were bought on an unlimited commission plan.)

AWP: Alpine Global Premier Properties pays out $0.05 in dividends monthly.  At 14.29 shares, that's about $8.57 a year.  YTD: -$6.90 (bought with $10 commission).

BRKS: Brooks Automation yields around 4.20% yearly.  19 shares were purchased at $7.99 cost per share ($10 commission).  Stock was purchased for its dividend and its company's cash reserves.  YTD: $-3.68.

FB: Facebook.  4.03 shares were purchased at costs of $27.17 (1.03 shares) and $29.21 (3 shares).  YTD: -$3.46.

NYCB: New York Community Bank.  9 shares were purchased at $14.15/share.  Dividend reinvestment has brought shares up to 9.35 shares, with quarterly dividends of $.25.  YTD: -$11.01.

NCT: Newcastle Investment Corp.  5.471 shares were purchased at $7.31/share for dividend rate.  Stock price is up nearly a dollar since purchase.  YTD: +$5.03.

SDT: Sandridge Mississipian Trust, oil and gas.  3.186 shares were purchased at $17.26.  YTD: -$0.32.

SCCO: Southern Copper Corporation.  1.362 shares were purchased with $50.  YTD: +$2.27.

DDD: 3D Systems.  3 shares were bought at 33 and sold at 42, with $10 purchase and sale commissions, for a net profit of $7.  1.616 shares were bought on the unlimited plan at an average price of $44.53.  YTD: +$9.57.

Total loss including commissions: $38.50.

Welcome to Lionel's Stock Portfolio

Hello world.

The last time I really invested was back in 1999, around the time of the tech bubble.

My investing methods were scattershot if anything, and I was using a broker's advice at $50 a transaction.  He didn't know any more than I did the way the markets were going; he just enjoyed making minimal chit-chat and pocketing cash that could easily have gone toward more shares of stock.

I had been lucky with one tip, INVT, whose stock name itself (InvestAmerica) whipped up enough hype to bring it from $1 to $9 overnight and bring my portfolio to over $10,000.

Other stocks, like SONE and EAG, grew steadily for a while, to the point I was making $350 a week in my underwear.  It was a great time, and I ignored the daily stories that came out, like "Is Dot-Com Bubble About to Burst?"

My weekly income slowed at that point, dropped to zero in a few days, and then crashed in a series of margin calls.  INVT dropped through $8, $7, $5, $3, $1, and then virtually nothing.  By the time it was all over, I'd cashed out completely, with nothing but a bad taste for investing and a string of receipts for $50 commissions.

Working-class life called for a few years, leaving me few if any options to get back into the market.

Finally, after doing some research and getting married to a wonderful lady, I've been able to get back into the market, bit by bit, and start to accumulate some momentum.

This is the story of my portfolio from week to week.  I'm sure there will be times it will lose money, but one thing is certain: this time around will be more careful, more proactive, and much less impulsive.

If you're an experienced investor and have advice to offer in a comment, I'd be very happy to hear it, positive or negative.  It's my hope to turn my portfolio into a long-term winner and enjoy learning along the way.

Thanks for visiting,

Lionel