Comments for Wifts Investment Group

Comment on 2010 Year end Portfolio update by rupneu1

rupneu1 — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 02:36:44 +0000

Thanks. I hope 2011 is even better too. Our goal is to do this throughout a complete market cycle…boom and bust. Let’s wait a while and may be by then your child will be born!

Comment on 2010 Year end Portfolio update by Suko

Suko — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:11:37 +0000

Phenomenal performance!!! I bet a lot of money managers at big institutions would love to be you right now! The calculus of risk and reward behind your investment decisions seems so measured and prudent and safe, I actually want to put my unborn kids’ college fund under your management, so they have enough left after tuition and books to buy more important things like beer and spring breaks in Miami and Cancun. Whoa, did I just win the title of the world’s most thoughtful (future) dad or what!
But seriously, phenomenal performance! Hope 2011 is even better!

Comment on Slow and Steady Saving Still Pays-WSJ by Suko

Suko — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 22:04:37 +0000

Some may find the article both insightful and misleading at once. Although the author makes an agreeable call to save and invest with a long term time horizon, he significantly overstates the true worth of the portfolio by conveniently ignoring the negative impact of inflation. In fact, if I am either dumb, unskilled at office politics or just plain unlucky, I’d better not buy into the hope of the kind of “comfortable retirement” mentioned here because for anyone undeserving of a 3% raise every year (forget the fact that you could be sacrificed to improve your company’s bottom line), the math might be completely different, if not downright scary.

Comment on Slow and Steady Saving Still Pays-WSJ by neuro

neuro — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 06:56:43 +0000

Index funds, maximize free money (401k match) from employer, think long, very long term, and just plain old boring investment. Boring is in fact good! I’m delighted.

Comment on May 2010 Portfolio Update by skoirala

skoirala — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:29:35 +0000

I agree that as in BP, the underlying risk in RIG is probably incalculable.

DNDN however has suspiciously come well off its highs. Although the explosive move in the stock following its drug approval was probably exaggerated, I think the company deserves a consideration at the current price level at/below the start of that epic move.

Comment on January 2010 Portfolio Update by skoirala

skoirala — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:06:03 +0000

Phew! Quite a ride on that SPY from sink to swim. At 18% gain, “swim” isn’t the word. It’s SAIL! Great sell!

Comment on Warren Buffett buys more J&J by neuro

neuro — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:34:59 +0000

Good picking. Always good to be on Buffett’s side. Great minds think alike?!

Comment on What now? by rupneu1

rupneu1 — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:30:21 +0000

Thanks for a great post. This rally made me a little uncomfortable also. It is based primarily on beating already lowered estimates and doing that mostly on cost-cutting measures. Revenues and earnings are in decline. When the next quarter’s earnings come along, the market could head down again. After buying stocks for most of the year so far, I am starting to build cash again.

Comment on Texas Instruments Inc reports second quarter earnings by neuro

neuro — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:56:40 +0000

>50% is impressive. and thats not even counting dividends. I wonder how much better it comes out if you factor in dividends.

You are right, should keep holding it. Its up and it pays dividends, no reason to sell.

Comment on Buying an ultrashort ETF as an Insurance by skoirala

skoirala — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:04:32 +0000

Your friend’s advice could not have come at a more opportune time! Today’s massive market rally has forced ultrashorts to quite attractive levels if you are looking to hedge your portfolio.

But one thing I have learned about these ultrashorts is that they are not always great hedges. For example, say I had foreseen this credit debacle back in early 2007 and bought say SKF to short the financials. One would expect such a move to have made me filthy rich, right? Far from it. During certain parts of 2008, even at times when the crisis was in full swing, this SKF would not have earned me much profit, if at all, let alone hedge against the losses on stocks I were long. The reason is the ultrashorts are leveraged ETFs with daily compounded returns (hence, negative returns can become even more negative) and therefore, tend to have some of the wildest price swings (in november 08, SKF went from a little over 100 to 300 in roughly 15 days and back below 100 in like 9 days; ditto with SRS which shorts the real estate index). Hence they are good only for quick bursts of profit-taking over short periods of time, ideally a day, according to the fine print issued by the underwriters. It’s a hedge only in the sense that you buy really low, sell really high and use the cash for reserves or reinvestment.

Good luck.

-SK(f)