YearTrader

Bought more BABB.

2014-09-11T23:30:00.001-04:00

Evidently I'm utterly incapable of sitting on any significant cash for 24 hours. I had a couple of thousand left over from the sale of my USA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:USAT) stock on Wednesday. Today I linvested it in more BAB, Inc. (OTCMKTS:BABB) stock.

I like to know when an investment is going to pay off. I like to, at the very least, have some idea. That's a huge part of why I sold USAT yesterday. I didn't really know when it was going to increase beyond the range in which it had already been moving.

For much the same reason I sold my Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock at the end of August. I was pretty sure it had gone as high as it was going to go for a while. There was some risk that by selling when I did I would miss out on some awesome profits resulting from Apple's 9 September announcements. I suspected the risk was greater, though, that Apple's announcements couldn't meet, much less exceed, the expectations of the technorati. With a choice between take the win or risk a loss, I opted for the former.

When I'm sitting on some cash and I don't have any insights about any bits of particularly fortuitous timing then I look to the dividend stocks. I bought TICC Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:TICC) yesterday because its ex-dividend date is coming up, and I noticed today that BABB's ex-dividend date is also approaching.

BABB pays nearly 8% in dividends each year. It pays $0.06 per share per year. Officially it pays $0.04 per share per year, but at the end of each year they consistently throw in an extra $0.02 on top of the regular quarterly payment. If I hold my BABB stock through the end of the year then I'll make at least a 5% profit. It's also just a good buy and hold to leave my money in for a more extended period of time.

Sold USAT. Bought more TICC.

2014-09-11T00:06:00.000-04:00

Today I sold my shares in USA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:USAT). I sold 3,140 shares for $2.30 each. At one point I had hoped to sell for $3 a share, or maybe even a lot more than that, but the last time USAT closed at over $3 a share was 29 April, 2011.

USAT closed at $2.62 on 28 March, 2013. But I first bought some shares of USAT about 4 weeks later, on 26 April, 2013. Between then and 21 May 2014 I accumulated the 3,140 shares that I sold today. I spent a total of $6076.37, including fees, on my purchases. Not counting the fees, I spent an average of $1.9256 per share.

My net profit on today's sale was 18.69%. Not bad.

USAT is the company that makes it possible for you to buy a Coca-Cola from a vending machine when you don't have any cash on you. Just swipe your card and out clatters a can or bottle. Done. I think I've seen the USAT name on one such machine at some point a few years ago.

They're name isn't on the machine anymore, though. As best I can determine, USAT has licensed their technology to Crane Co. (NYSE:CR) which puts its MEI brand on the swipe-reader on various machines I've encountered in the wild.

On some level, as a shareholder, I would prefer it if USAT's name was on the machines. I decided to sell.

Now, USAT seems to be a healthy stock. It's had 4 consecutive net-positive quarters, and seems to be ever-expanding the places you can spend money. Still, although I had hoped to sell USAT for $3, recently I decided to lower my sell price and cash out. USAT has crossed over $2.30 in intraday trading a few times in the last year. Clearly that was attainable, so I put in my order a few weeks ago.

Well, evidently $2.35 was the magic number. That was today's high. USAT closed today at $2.14 a share, though.

USAT will announce their most recent quarter's results on 23 September. The stock may be quite volatile between now and then.

Here's something noteworthy, though: Yesterday Apple announced the advent of the new Apple Pay system, which may go a long way toward making our transactions more secure AND, incidentally, slowly replacing credit cards over time with smartphones and smartwatches. I don't see the Apple Pay system as being healthy for USAT in the long term.

Meanwhile, I took some of my proceeds from today's sale and purchased more shares of TICC Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:TICC). It pays an awesome quarterly dividend, and its next ex-dividend date is 2 days from now on Friday 12 September.

I'm sitting on some cash, though. I have some of the proceeds left over because I don't want to put too many eggs in the TICC basket. I'm thinking of maybe buying some shares of Google, but for now I'm going to try and see if I can leave some money uninvested in any equities for more than 24 hours.

Bought TICC.

2014-08-29T12:51:00.000-04:00

I had some cash left over from my recent sale of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock. I resolved to keep it in cash for a while. That resolve lasted almost 24 hours.

Today I purchased 127 shares of TICC Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:TICC) at $9.74 each.

I love this stock. It currently pays a dividend of $0.29 per share each quarter. That's more than 11% each year. Dividend-reinvestment in the past has resulted in me accumulating a number of extra shares without trying too hard. For that matter, the dividend-reinvestment program through TDAmeritrade somehow purchases the shares for me at slightly below market value, which is especially nice.

In late 2011 I purchased 200 shares of TICC for $8 each. At some later point I purchased another 120 shares, for a total of 320. When I sold my shares in late 2013 I had 388.03 shares.

When I sold TICC I noted that I was concerned about their balance sheet, long term. I'm less concerned now. Cash flow looks good, and the company's cash to debt ratio doesn't look out of whack. I suppose I still have some concern about the company's ability to keep paying an awesome dividend in the event of an economic downturn, but I'm also less concerned about an economic downturn than I was in late 2013.

This time around TICC is going to be a buy and hold. Whenever I have some enough extra cash I'm going to pay the fee and buy some more shares and let them accumulate over time.

Sold AAPL. Bought SSP.

2014-08-28T14:07:00.001-04:00

I sold my 71 shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) today at a price of $102.40 each. I purchased 10 shares for $500.02 each back in January. The 7-for-1 split in June made it so that I possessed 70 shares that cost me $71.43 each. I received another share through dividend reinvestment over a few quarters.

After fees I netted a profit of 44.9%.

For now I'm keeping a little in cash, but I turned around and sunk the bulk of my AAPL money into The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP). Again. This time I bought 320 shares at $18.7963 each.

I had previously purchased 135 shares of SSP back in January. I bought 120 more in April. I sold all 255 in May. I netted a little over 12%. I hope to do a little better this time.

SSP has increased revenue lately, largely due to political advertisements. I expect they'll do well between now and November. I hope to sell for $22 a share somewhere in that time. SSP has already hit that mark a couple times in intraday trading in the past month. If I'm right then I'll make over 15% for a relatively brief investment.

As ever, we'll see.

Sold TSLA. Bought LF.

2014-08-05T23:50:00.003-04:00

I sold my 25 shares of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) today at a price of $239.2399 each. I purchased them for $181 each back in May. After fees I netted a profit of 31.7%.

I turned around and sunk that money into LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc.(NYSE:LF). I bought 968 shares at $6.3099 each.

I'm a parent now, and we own a few of the items manufactured and sold by LeapFrog. I'm generally impressed by their quality.

Leapfrog announced quarterly results at 5PM on Monday the 4th. They weren't good.

Leapfrog has millions in the bank, though, and so they'll be able to weather this through Christmas. I'm betting that the coming year will be a good one for Leapfrog.

I'm also betting that today's plummet was an over-reaction. The stock will have at least a dead-cat-bounce tomorrow. I'll be tempted to sell. But I'm planning to hold the stock until the market agrees with me that Leapfrog is going to have a good Christmas. I don't expect that to happen tomorrow.

Sold SSP Bought TSLA. Sold VZ Bought USAT and BABB.

2014-05-21T14:15:00.001-04:00

Quick update:

On Monday the 12th I sold my 255 shares of E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP) at $19.91 per share.

I did this so that I could finance the purchase of 25 shares of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) at $181 per share.

With a week-and-a-half of hindsight, those both appear to have been good decisions.

Today I sold my 120 shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) at $49.18 per share.

I used some of the proceeds to purchase more shares of USA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:USAT). I bought 1,140 more shares at $1.76 each. I now have a total of 3,140 shares with an average purchase price of $1.93 each.

I've used some more of the proceeds from the Verizon sale to buy 5,710 shares of BAB, Inc. (OTCMKTS:BABB) at $0.76 each.

One of these days when I make the time I'll sit down and go over my holdings: What I have, why I have it, and when I expect to sell it. Not today, though.

Sold JBL. Consolidating.

2014-04-09T22:49:00.000-04:00

On Friday the 4th of April I sold 120.471 shares of Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL).

It was having a good day, and it seemed like a good time to sell. I was right. I sold for $18.75 a share and it hasn't seen that level since.

And then I turned around and purchased more shares in E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP). That was a mistake.

It wasn't a mistake to buy more shares in Scripps, I think, but in hindsight it was a mistake to buy them when I did. I purchased 120 shares for $17.12 each. Had I waited until yesterday then I could have purchased Scripps at $16 a share. I could have purchased 8 additional shares at that price.

I purchased 135 shares of Scripps back in January for $18.12 each. I planned to sell for $21.50 or more, but I didn't plan to sell until election season in November. That's when Scripps will be making some money from political ads.

For this reason I did not already have sell order in place when Scripps inexplicably shot over $22 a share on the 4th of March. Had I sold I would have made over 20% for an investment of roughly 1.5 months.

Scripps has been declining, and so I decided to double down. I need to work on my timing, though.

My sell order is in. I'm hoping to sell at $22.37 within seven months. I figure the stock will shoot up sometime between now and election season. The average price I paid for my shares is $17.65, so I stand to make over 25%.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Two weeks late, and other faults

2014-03-30T23:45:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to inform my loyal readers of a couple of transactions. On Friday the 14th I sold my shares in Zillow Inc (NASDAQ:Z) in order to finance the purchase of some additional shares of 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD).

I usually try to keep my readers informed. If someone is actually trying to copy my investments then it's vitally important that I keep them informed and don't go selling and buying behind their backs.

Just by the way: Don't do that. I'm not a professional. Insert legalese disclaimer here.

Well, in this particular case I suspect I'll be forgiven for failing to keep my audience informed, because it hasn't gone well for me so far.

I sold my 24 shares of Zillow on 3.14 for $86.03 each. In the two weeks since, the stock has gone over $100 per share and back down again. I had originally planned to hold out for $100 a share, but changed my mind back on Pi Day.

I changed my mind because 3D Systems stock was so ridiculously low, and I didn't think it would stay there. I had originally purchased 61 shares at $77.90 each. On 3.14 I purchased 34 more shares of DDD at $60.28 each. I now have 95 shares that I purchased for an average of $71.59 each.

In the two weeks since I bought my additional shares, though, the stock has dropped below $57 a share. Right now it's back up to $59, which is still less than I most recently paid for it.

In retrospect, I clearly should have held onto my Zillow stock a little longer.

I've done a few things wrong lately.

1 - I really shouldn't have bought Zillow in the first place. It's not been consistently profitable. It had three negative quarters last year. Had I stuck to my rules for investing then I wouldn't have bought it. I bought it anyway, though, because I was certain it would go to $100 within a few months. If only I had remained certain . . . .

2 - This one is counter-intuitive, but once I decided to disobey my own rules and buy it then I should have bought more of it. I only bought 24 shares at $83.25 each. I should have bought 48 or even 72 shares. See, I pay roughly $10 to buy and $10 to sell. I lose $20, then, over the course of each individual investment. I made a gross profit of $2.78 on each of my 24 shares of Zillow, for a total gross profit of $66.72, however once I subtract the $20 I had to spend then my net profit was only $46.72. Had I purchased 48 shares, though, then my net profit would have been $113.44, and if I'd purchased 72 shares then my net profit would have been $180.16. The $20 loss means less the more I invest.

3 - I should have waited for Zillow to go to $100 a share. I figured it would go up when the housing market heated up, probably in the late spring or early summer. Who knew it would happen at the very beginning of spring?

The good news is that I didn't lose any money on Zillow. The bad news is I didn't really make any serious money, either.

It'll all work out someday when I sell DDD. I'm reasonably certain it will eventually go back up to over $96 a share. Sadly I have no idea WHEN that might be. The key word is "eventually."

Sold MIND CTI. Purchased Dreamworks Animation

2014-03-04T23:05:00.002-05:00

On Monday March 3rd I sold my 2225 shares of MIND C.T.I. Ltd.(NASDAQ:MNDO) and used the cash to purchase 166 shares of Dreamworks Animation Skg Inc (NASDAQ: DWA).

With the benefit of hindsight I know now that I should have sold MNDO today instead of early yesterday. I might have been able to get $2.30 per share instead of the $2.19 that I ended up taking. For that matter, it turns out that if I had purchased DWA later in the day yesterday then I could have purchased my shares for as little as $28.50 each instead of $29.135.

In a best-case scenario, I could have purchased 179 shares of Dreamworks Animation instead of the 166 that I now own.

I'm not unhappy, though. I wanted to sell my shares in MNDO at a decent price before they go ex-dividend at the end of trading on Friday, and I also wanted to purchase Dreamworks Animation before Mr. Peabody and Sherman premieres in movie theatres, also on Friday. This I have done.

I made a 30% profit on MNDO, having purchased my shares for $1.67 each back in September.

I expect to make at least a 20% profit on Dreamworks Animation. If Mr Peabody and Sherman fails to get boomers and their grandchildren in seats then I'll hold onto my stock through the release of How To Train Your Dragon 2 in June, or perhaps Kung Fu Panda 3 in 2015.

Eventually I'll make a profit, but hopefully Peabody will do well enough that it's sooner rather than later.

Sold Monster.com. Purchased Verizon

2014-02-10T09:06:00.001-05:00

While writing my previous post I had decided to sell my Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW) stock somewhere between $7 and $25 a share - probably closer to $7. Really I was thinking that I'd hold out until it was $10 or so per share.

But then I nearly sold MWW on Thursday at $7.34 a share. It was a confluence of the MWW stock being profitable for me AND of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) stock being priced very low. The timing didn't quite work out Thursday.

Well, on Friday the 7th, MWW went higher - looks like its intraday high was $7.80 - and Verizon stayed relatively low. I was able to make my trades.

I sold 750 shares of MWW at $7.44 a share. After subtracting fees, etc, that's a gross of $5,569.91.

I purchased 119 shares of Verizon at $46.69 per share. With fees that cost me a total of $5,566.10.

I will write more about my plans for Verizon, but I don't have time right now. My sell order is in for $54.25, but that's subject to change.

Purchased more Monster Worldwide.

2014-02-04T00:22:00.001-05:00

I purchased more shares of Monster Worldwide, Inc.(NYSE:MWW) on Monday. I had purchased 190 shares for $8.32 each back in April of 2012. At the time the numbers for the stock looked decent. Monster was profitable, was adequately capitalized, and had climbed to a post-recession high of $25 per share at the end of 2010.

In fact, on March 23rd 2012 Monster had closed over $10 a share. I purchased at $8.32 thinking that I would sell at $25 a share as the economy recovered and employers started offering jobs again, or worst case scenario I could sell at $10 a share in the nearer term and take a 20% profit. My break-even sale price was $8.43. Anything above that would be okay. Not great, but okay.

The worst case scenario wasn't really the worst case scenario, though.

The recovery appeared to be a jobless recovery, and then LinkedIn took off despite the joblessness, somehow. Social Networking appeared to be the way to find the few jobs that were available. LinkedIn was all and Monster was nothing.

Monster then reported a loss for the quarter ending in September of 2012. A massive loss.

Monster's stock price dove, occasionally recovering a bit but never reaching my break-even point. The longer I waited the more it declined. In the past year it has almost, but not quite, dropped below $4 a share.

It came back in November and December. As 2014 began Monster was back above $7 a share. The last 3 quarters have been profitable. Things are looking up.

Of course the markets have more recently decided to have what may be a sudden bout of uncertainty or may be an overdue correction. Stocks have been declining and Monster has been declining with them.

So of course I decided to buy some more shares.

It's a bit more complicated than that, but it largely comes down to a desire on my part to lower my break-even sale price. I did the math and decided that if Monster declined to $6.03 a share then I could buy 560 more shares at that price and lower my average purchase price to $6.61 a share. That would give me a new break-even sale price of $6.64. Since Monster has recently been over $7 a share then the likelihood of making a profit looked good.

I didn't think it particularly likely that the stock would go significantly below $6.03 a share. That was at 9:30 Monday morning. Fifteen minutes later I purchased my 560 additional shares.

Monster's low Monday was $5.71 a share. I could have bought 594 shares instead of 560.

And now I find myself thinking that the markets will continue to decline for another day or two or three or four or more. I think the Dow will hit a drop of 10% from recent highs and we'll officially have a correction on our hands. Warren Buffet will be buying but no one else will.

And then it will come back.

Eventually Monster will come back, too.

I've got my sell order for my 750 shares of Monster at $25 a share. Because I'm an optimist. A completely unrealistic optimist, at times, but certainly an optimist. I expect I'll sell somewhere between $7 and $25 a share, really.

Probably a lot closer to $7 than to $25, in fact. We'll see. When Monster enters into the realm of profitability for me then we'll see what other opportunities present themselves. If one of those opportunities seems a bit more guaranteed, and a bit faster than waiting on Monster to go back over $25 a share, then I'll take it.

For now, though, I remain hopeful in spite of everything.

Purchased DDD. Again.

2014-01-31T23:13:00.000-05:00

I purchased 61 shares of 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD). This is the fourth time I've purchased this stock since I started tracking this portfolio in September 2011.

Historically I have purchased DDD after it's hit a significant high price and then retreated a bit. I then have sold when it has hit that price again.

In the case of this particular equity I do find myself wondering if I should have just held onto my shares. I mean, I purchased 100 shares at $15.50 each back in 2011 and since then the stock has done a 3:2 split and then climbed above $96 a share. It would have been nice to sell 150 shares for $96, grossing $14,400 from an investment of $1,550.

But that's the benefit of hindsight. There's a lot to be said for taking the profit when you're not sure what's going to happen next.

Well, I purchased my latest round of shares at $77.90 and I plan to sell them at the aforementioned price of $96. I'll tell you how it works out.

Big Changes

2014-01-30T23:46:00.001-05:00

I bought a couple of stocks today, so of course I must update ye olde blogge. First, though, some housekeeping.

Normally, in order to buy something I've got to sell something. This week, though, I decided to move some funds from my TD Ameritrade Amerivest rollover IRA to the self-directed rollover IRA that is the subject of this blog. In so doing I have necessitated the closing of one chapter and the opening of another.

First, let's close the books on how I've done, previously.

I started my self-directed IRA with $12,460 and made my first equity purchase therein on 16 September 2011. Until today no additional funds were added. All of my trades have, eventually, been noted here. The upshot is that at the close of business yesterday - 29 January 2014 - I had accumulated in cash and equities a total of $29,120.61. I owned 8 equities, and the fees associated with turning them into cash would have totaled $79.92 ($9.99 x 8), so let's say that I really had accumulated $29,040 and change. As best I can determine, I seem to have achieved an average annualized increase of around 40%. Not too shabby.

Now that I've injected new cash, though, then I need to start a new chapter with a new initial amount.

I have added $17,500 to my current account total of $29,120.61. That brings my new "initial" investment to $46,620.61.

I've not decided how I'm going to invest all of the new $17,500, but I have made a couple of purchases.

Today I bought 10 shares of shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) at $500.02 per share. Apple just released a quarterly report in which the company beat expectations overall, but sold fewer iPhones than expected. The market, in typical fashion, freaked out and sold Apple shares at a discount. Apple has lost nearly 10% of its share price in the last few days.

Apple's historic share-price high was $700 back in 2012. With that in mind, I've been very tempted to buy at its recent price of around $550. Now that it's gone down to $500 then it's too good an opportunity to pass.

For now I've placed a sell order at $700 a share. I'll probably sell at a lower price, but I doubt I'll sell Aple for less than $550 a share. Mostly I'm just waiting for the market to regain its senses.

Another equity being mistreateda by the market just now is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (NYSE:KKD). KKD released an excellent quarterly report back in December, and the market decided to sell. KKD hit a 52-week high of 26.63 back in November. Since then it's lost about 35% of its share price.

I purchased 245 shares of KKD today at $17.685 per share. I've placed a sell order for $26.50 a share. I'm guessing that KKD will re-attain its high at some point in the coming year, and when it does I stand to make a 50% profit.

I'll be making more investments in the next few days, and I'll keep you informed as I do.

Purchased Zillow

2014-01-23T17:16:00.000-05:00

I bought some shares in Zillow Inc (NASDAQ:Z) today. I may end up regretting it. We'll see.

Zillow helped me find a new house last Spring. I've been very impressed with the site, and I find myself looking at it on occasion, still, even though I am not at all in the market for real estate at this time. I used to prefer realtor.com, but Zillow has made a convert of me.

Real Estate is a seasonal business. It's slow in the winter and active during the other seasons, especially spring and summer.

Here's a two-year graph for Zillow.

As you can see, each of the last 2 years Zillow has generally climbed until the Fall, at which time it declines a bit. In 2012 it declined from a high of $46.17 on 20 September to $23.36 on 15 November. That's nearly a 50% decline, but it made up for that decline very nicely the following year. In 2013 it hit a high of $103 in early September, but it declined to $71.28 by 4 December. Since then it's started to climb again.

I told friends and family in December that I expected Zillow to climb back up to $100 a share, but I didn't buy at the time. I've been alternately kicking myself and patting myself on the back since then. A week ago, on 16 January, it hit an intra-day high of $92.50 a share and I engaged in much self-flagellation.

That said, it's not consistently making money. Have a look at this chart from ycharts.com:

This is a chart showing quarterly net income. It goes back to March of 2010. As you can see, Zillow was making money for all of 2012, but it took a BIG dip in 2013. That's worrisome, and it's especially worrisome that the quarter ending on 30 June was so unprofitable. One would think that for the real estate biz the Spring quarter would be a happening time.

Looking at statements from that time, it looks like Zillow spent more on sales and marketing than they were able to offset with revenue. Again, worrisome.

Zillow has millions on hand in cash, though, and they have no debt to speak of.

I like the product. I think that this market is cyclical and that 2014 will be a good year for real estate. The stock was on the decline today and I was sitting on some cash. I took the plunge.

I purchased 24 shares of Zillow for $83.25 each. With fees that's $2,007.99. As long as the stock goes back up to$84.09 then I'll break even. I've already got my sell order in for $100 a share, though.

I don't plan to hang onto this stock forever, but I should have it for a few months. If history is anything to go by, though, then I should sell it no later than September.

Sold GameStop

2014-01-22T18:39:00.002-05:00

I sold my shares in GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) today at $38.76 a share. I could have gotten a better price later in the day, as it turns out. It went up to $39.38 at some point. For that matter, I do think that GME will go to at least $40 a share in the near future.

I decided I had an opportunity to buy something else, though, so the decision to sell when I did was really based on the low price of the stock I wanted to buy. It was also based on the fact that I don't want to sell any of my other stocks at this time.

I bought some shares in The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP). I've been watching this one for a while, and told myself I would buy if it ever again wandered down to $18 a share. Well, that happened today, so I pulled the trigger.

The reason SSP declined today may be this Moody's column. It posits that there will be less political TV ad revenue than there was in 2012, which stands to reason, as 2014 is a year of mid-term elections instead of a Presidential election year.

What the column doesn't say is that there will still be PLENTY of political TV ad revenue this year. Ever since Citizen's United there's more ad revenue than there used to be. And certain politicians are bigger targets than others.

Specifically, John Boehner is on the outs with the Tea Party. They're actively seeking a primary challenger to try to unseat Boehner. If that happens then there will be plenty of ad revenue in the Cincinnati market.

There is only one TV station in the Cincinnati market that's owned by a publicly traded company, and it's owned by SSP.

The notion that I could reap some personal gains from this year's mid-term elections and primaries really appeals.

I purchased 135 shares of SSP at $18.12 per share. I could have gotten them for an even $18 later in the day, but there you go.

Also, I could have purchased more than 135 shares of SSP with the proceeds from the sale of my GME shares, but I decided to divide the eggs from that particular basket. I'm keeping a little bit of money in cash for now. I'll probably invest in something else soon.

I'll do various addenda to this post, later. I'll get specific about how much I profited from briefly owning GME.

For now, though, I just wanted to disclose my activity. I try to update this blog whenever I sell or buy. As of now, it's updated.

UPDATE 1: What kind of profit did I make on GME?

I purchased 115 shares of GME at $36.21 on 14 January. Add a $9.99 transaction fee and that's a total of $4,174.14 spent to buy it.

I sold my 115 shares of GME at $38.76 on 22 January. Subtract a $9.99 transaction fee and that's a total of $4,447.33 in proceeds.

It's a net gain of $273.19 for 8 days of investment. When I do the math and account for all the fees, it's 6.5% in pure profit It's also the shortest amount of time I've ever held on to a stock.

UPDATE 2: The lists of what I own and what I have owned previously have been updated.

Gamestop

2014-01-15T11:22:00.001-05:00

In my column Sunday night I revealed that I had some cash in my IRA that was waiting for the right investment to come along. I had placed an order for Verizon Communications Inc.(NYSE:VZ) at $46.53 a share, with the expectation that VZ was not likely to go that low. It was a placeholder order, really.

Yesterday VZ very nearly went that low. It was down to $46.58 at some point.

However, another opportunity arose. Or descended, perhaps.

GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) is a stock that I had been looking at a year or so ago. Its financials are healthy. It's making money. I know who they are and what they do. I've bought gift-cards for nephews from Gamestop, and when I needed a different cable to attach the Wii to my new flat-screen I was able to get a used cable from Gamestop for a fraction of what it would have cost me at Best Buy.

I remember staring at GME shares in late 2012 and wondering why the stock was priced under $30, especially when it was paying a $0.25 dividend every quarter. It was on my list of equities to buy if I had any cash on hand. Back then I had my money tied up in equities I wasn't prepared to sell, or other opportunities came along that seemed, at the time, better than GME.

Then GME went on a tear in 2013, eventually topping out at over $57 a share in November - just 2 months ago. Using 20/20 hindsight I wrote GME off as another opportunity missed.

Over the last couple of months the stock has come down a bit, and has fluctuated between $45 and $50 per share. It hadn't come down far enough to really interest me, though. Until yesterday.

Yesterday GME took a roughly 20% dive from its Monday close of $45.31 down to a Tuesday intra-day low of $36.10 per share.

Why? Software sales are down. This is a long-term concern. The newest generation of gaming consoles allow gamers to download software directly from the manufacturer to the machine, meaning fewer software sales for GME. It's a disruption for GME's business model.

GME is a disruptive business itself, though. Used / resale is an adaptation to the market, and I suspect GME will adapt further as necessary.

Also, the used / resale space may not be sexy and may not be ultra-profitable, but it's still adequately profitable for now. New bookstores may be dying, but used bookstores can make a living. The same goes for used music stores.

Furthermore, GME sells hardware, and hardware sales this holiday season were up. They sold a lot of next generation consoles - consoles that are ultimately trying to put brick-and-mortar stores out of business, true. But GME is doing well selling the consoles and the accessories.

There is some legitimate concern about GME's ability to remain a going concern in the long run, and for that reason I don't plan to hold onto this stock forever. I do think, however, that concern about long-term viability was already priced in, and that's what had brought GME stock back down to $45 a share.

I decided to buy. And I had the cash. So I did.

I purchased 115 shares of GME at $36.21 each. It costs me $9.99 to buy and $9.99 to sell, so whenever I sell GME then I need to make at least $19.98 in profit in order to break even. That makes $36.39 the break-even point for my 115 shares of GME. Of course, if I still have the stock in March and it pays $0.275 per share in dividends then my break-even point goes down to $36.12 or so.

Regardless, for now my sell order is in for $45 a share. I think the market has over-reacted on this one, and that there will be a bounce-back.

Of course, I could be wrong. Welcome to the excitement of investing.

Sold CLCT

2014-01-12T23:55:00.001-05:00

My previous post included the following quote:

I seldom have money in my investment accounts that's not already at work.

Well, for once, this is not the case. Friday morning one of my stocks sold, albeit on auto-pilot.

When I purchased Collectors Universe, Inc.(NASDAQ:CLCT) a couple of months ago I put in a sell order for $18.15 a share, almost immediately. I had purchased 230 shares at $15.921 each. A sell order for $18.15 was, shall we say, optimistic.

I can't remember exactly how I arrived at that figure. CLCT hadn't been above $18 since early 2005. I had no inkling as to when or if it would go that high again. I seem to remember picking a number that would be a good sell price PLUS include all the dividends it would pay in either a quarter or two. If it didn't go above $18.15 then I would make dividend money for a while. If it did go that high, though, then I would probably be just as happy to sell it as keep it.

Well, I got lucky again. During the day on Friday CLCT went from $17.96 to $18.75 and then finished the day back down slightly at $17.92 a share. TD Ameritrade sold it for me at $18.20, actually.

My profit was nearly 13.75% after all was said and done, and it was an investment that lasted just under 2 months. Let me just say: I feel pretty good about making a profit of nearly 14% in two months.

I thought very seriously about NOT placing that sell order a couple of months ago. CLCT pays awesome dividends and can actually afford to do so. If I hadn't placed that sell order then I would surely would have made the same profit, but if I had only profited through dividends then it would have taken 10 times as long.

Anyway, enough gloating. The point is that for once I actually sold a stock without knowing how I'm going to turn around and invest the money from the sale. This is unusual.

For now I've placed an order for some shares of Verizon Communications Inc.(NYSE:VZ), but it will only go through if VZ goes below $46.53 a share. I don't think that's likely to happen, but in case it does, the order is in. Really I expect that order to sit there, unfulfilled, until another opportunity presents itself to me.

If CLCT goes below $16.25 then I'll probably invest in it again. I suspect I'll make more money from its price fluctuations, quarter-to quarter, than I would from its dividends. This is a new strategy for me, and it deserves its own post. I'll try to find the time to write it up properly. But not right now.

Updates December 2013

2013-12-19T19:00:00.000-05:00

I like to keep tabs on the big movers in the markets, especially the big downward moves. Sometimes those big moves are a market over-reaction to some less-than-positive news. If the stock is healthy - if the price-dive really was an over-reaction and not a sudden correction - then the market usually corrects itself pretty quickly, sending the price back up. A situation like this - when the madness of crowds is driving a price down instead of up - is a window of opportunity to make some money by buying the stock at the bottom of the dive and selling when it recovers.

I'll illustrate with one that I missed: OSI Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSIS). On Monday December 9th this stock did a LOT of intra-day movement. It went from over $65 a share at 10AM Eastern to $40.50 before noon. The cause of the movement was a number of news stories concerning the Transportation Safety Administration having cancelled an order for OSIS baggage scanners.

I was unfamiliar with this technology stock, but my research indicated that it was fundamentally sound, and that it would recover. I guessed it would come back to $50 a share, at least. This meant I could buy some shares at OSIS's noon-ish price of $40.50 and sell at over $50 in the near future, netting myself roughly a 25% profit.

The time it took to research, though, was too long. It was back up to nearly $50 a share by around 2PM that same day. This was a job for a day trader, which I am not.

It's possible that if trading stocks was what I did for a living then I could have devoted myself to this opportunity and made something of it. Mostly I found myself in a position to watch this opportunity go by, fast

However, another opportunity provided itself yesterday: Jabil Circuit, Inc. (NYSE:JBL).

JBL reported quarterly earnings yesterday, and this quarter - while profitable - wasn't up to par with analyst expectations. Guidance for the coming year was also adjusted downward.

In reaction, the stock fell over 20%, from $19.72 to $15.50 or so. This struck me as extreme for a stock that, just this summer, was flirting with $24 a share.

One of the many things that JBL does is make plastic casings for the iPhone 5c. It also makes parts for HP, and has been making parts for Blackberry. An issue affecting the immediate future of JBL is the winding-down of the relationship with Blackberry.

The stats aren't bad. It appears that JBL has a good cash-to-debt ratio, and that it's actively netting a profit.

I decided to buy.

I had to sell another equity before I could buy, though. I seldom have money in my investment accounts that's not already at work.

I sold Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:RVBD). It's an American networking equipment manufacturer, and it looked good when I bought it on 31 October 2012. I bought 100 shares at $18.36 each for a net cost, including fees, of $1,845.99. It went up shortly after I bought it, to a 52-week high of $21.39, and in retrospect I should have sold at that time. After that it dove again to a 52-week low of $13.77. In the past months it's been working its way up again, but I think American networking equipment manufacturers have become suspect as a result of ongoing NSA revelations. RVBD shareprice has slowly been approaching the price at which I originally purchased, and my plan has recently been simply to sell as soon as I'd covered my fees and would not be taking a loss.

I hate taking a loss. I did the math, though, and the potential upside on JBL was such that it was worth the loss on RVBD.

I sold my 100 shares of RVBD at $17.10 for a net total of $1,699.98. That's a total loss of $146.01.

(I'm not going to try to do the math on the wasted year in which time that money probably lost additional value.)

After selling RVBD yesterday, I purchased 110 shares of JBL at $15.53 a share for a net cost of $1,718.29.

I need JBL to go back up to at least $17.04 in order to break even and make up for the loss on RVBD. I think, though, that JBL will go a bit higher than that within the next year. In a perfect world it will go back up to $24 a share, but we'll see.

JBL's high today was $16.58, so I'm confident I'll break even, at least.

Updates November 2013

2013-11-14T00:15:00.001-05:00

I've done some buying and selling since my last post. In fact, I feel some duty to keep my hypothetical readers informed of some of the most recent changes.

I wanted to buy MIND C.T.I. Ltd. (NASDAQ:MNDO) when it went down to $1.67 a share. This is a stock I buy occasionally in the Fall and sell in the Spring if all goes well. It's a nearly yearly trade. In fact, if there's any one stock that justifies the title of this blog then it's MNDO.

Here's my first post about it in March of 2012.

Here's another one from a few days later.

Here's yet another from April 2012.

My last round of buying and selling MNDO was resolved in March 2013, but I failed to write about it until a more general update post in September.

Anyway, when I saw MNDO was down to $1.67 then I just had to buy it, but I had no liquid cash. And there was nothing I was burning to sell in order to finance the buy. Upon reflection, though I decided I could part with TICC Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:TICC). TICC has been good to me, but I'm not sure I trust its balance sheet in the long term. The dividends it pays - while awesome - could perhaps be better spent making its balance sheet more balanced.

I had previously purchased a total of 320 shares of TICC for a total of $2,807.98, including fees. On 7 October I sold 388.03 shares of TICC (thanks to dividend reinvestment) for a total of $3,726.67 after fees.

I bought 2225 shares in MNDO at $1.67 a share. I plan to sell them early next year. I hope to make at least a 33% profit from the transactions.

More recently I discovered that a stock of which I'd been very proud - Cirrus Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRUS) - needed to leave my portfolio. I sold on the 13th of November.

I'd bought CRUS when it was at a recent low of $17.66 per share. Since then it had shot up over $25 a share, and I considered selling it. I decided, however, that I expected it to go still higher in the long term. CRUS makes components that have been used in various Apple products, and I expect Apple to remain a strong brand. In fact, it was the success of the iPhone 5S that caused the price to jump over $25, I think.

News has surfaced that the new iPad Air does not contain one of the CRUS components that Apple offerings typically do. As a direct result of this news the price of CRUS fell below $20, which sucks, but I was able to sell at $19.58 and walk away with a net profit of 10%. I'm calling it a win.

CRUS does still contribute to Apple's success. I understand the iPad Air still uses a CRUS codec, for instance, so it could be the stock is still a winner. My instinct, though, is to sell. Depending on how the relationship with Apple evolves I may wish I'd held on to it.

For now I have invested in Collectors Universe, Inc.(NASDAQ:CLCT). I purchased 230 shares at $15.921 each, for a total of $3,671.82 including fees.

When priced below $16.25 a share the dividend yield on CLCT is over 8%, and unlike TICC the balance sheet is beautiful. CLCT can definitely afford to pay its dividends. I plan to hold on to it for a while, but it may end up simply being a place to store value while I wait for another investment opportunity to make itself known.

Catching Up September 2013

2013-09-17T22:51:00.000-04:00

I've had an active trading history for the past year or so, and I've utterly failed to keep my loyal readership - assuming I have a loyal readership - informed. Here's a quick and dirty summary of my trading activity since my last updates in October and November of 2012.

5 November 2012: Sold 200 shares of Sigma Designs (SIGM) at 5.96 each. This was a loss. I had purchased them at $8 each. Over the past year the decision to take a 25%+ loss in order to avoid a larger loss has been justified, until recently. At the beginning of September 2013 the stock was trading below $5 a share. It's been an active couple weeks, though, and the stock has recently topped $6.50 in intraday trading. No regrets, though. Moving on.

7 November 2012: Purchased 120 additional shares of TICC Capital Corp. (TICC) at $9.90 each. I have a good history with this stock. It pays amazing dividends. Dividend reinvestment buys me more shares each quarter than the quarter before. As of this writing I own 376.239 shares.

13 February 2013: Sold 188.553 shares of ABB Ltd (ABB) at $21.55 each. I'd purchased the shares in question at an average of roughly $16.75 each. They've gone up above $23 in the time since I've sold. This doesn't surprise me. The stock pays a decent dividend. That said, the dividend is annual, and usually paid in April. I expected the stock to decline in value after the dividend was paid, but so far this year it has remained high. It's tenacity at the $23 level has surprised me.

21 February 2013: Purchased 140 additional shares of Corning Incorporated (GLW) at $12.50 each. This was me doubling down. I purchased 140 shares in July of 2012 for $12.24 each. With dividend reinvestment I now own 285.662 shares.

21 February 2013 again: Purchased 190 shares of Logitech International (LOGI) at $6.79 each. Logitech makes computer accessories. They've been hard-hit by the fact that people have basically stopped buying PC's. That said, Logitech also makes accessories for smartphones, tablets, etc. It has had a couple of bad quarters, but I think it's on the way up again.

15 March 2013: Sold 1,749.486 shares of MIND CTI Ltd (MNDO) at $2.15 each. I had hoped to sell for more. I've written many, many posts about my "cunning plan" for this stock. Go back and find them if you're interested in how it was all supposed to work. At the end of the day it worked well enough. I paid an average of roughly $1.70 per share. I sold for $2.15, so that's a 26% profit. I'm calling it a win.

15 March 2013 again: Purchased 280 more shares of Logitech International (LOGI) at $6.81 each.

15 March 2013 yet again: Purchased 100 shares of 3D Systems Corporation (DDD) at $29.93 each. This is the third time in two years that I've purchased shares of this stock.

26 April 2013: Sold 3,000 shares of BAB, Inc (BABB) at $0.66 each. This one I regret a bit. I purchased my shares over a year ago at $0.50 each. It pays a dividend of at least $0.04 per share each year. Last year it paid $0.08 per share, actually. At my original purchase price of $0.50 then that's a 16% dividend for that year alone. At $0.66 I sold for a 32% profit, which is nice. That said, the stock went to $0.95 recently, so I find I'm questioning my decision. Here's my concern, though: The great dividend last year was because of changes to the tax code. I suspect this year's dividend will not be as good, but I won't know until December of 2013. I decided to sell in April to avoid a downturn that, so far, has failed to materialize.

26 April 2013 again: Purchased 985 shares of USA Technologies (USAT) at $2.02 each. I'm long on this stock. Lately it's been below my purchase price, though.

13 May 2013: Sold 100 shares of 3D Systems Corporation (DDD) at $46 each. I had just purchased them in March (see above). That's a 50+% profit for a 2-month investment. Not bad. This is the third time in two years that I've sold this stock at a profit.

14 May 2013: Purchased 1,015 additional shares of USA Technologies (USAT) at $2.02 each. I now own 2,000 shares.

24 May 2013: Purchased 100 shares of Facebook (FB) at $24.85 each. I had decided that Facebook was about to break out, finally.

25 July 2013: Sold 100 shares of Facebook (FB) at $33.40 each. Evidently I could have held out for $45 per share, but I did not know that at the time. I'm not unhappy, though.

26 July 2013: Purchased 190 shares of Cirrus Logic (CRUS) at $17.66 each. This stock had just taken a dive that appeared to me to be a bit of an over-correction. Thus far I've been vindicated. It seems to be staying above $22 for now.

That's all for now. I'll do another annual update in September of 2014. I may or not update this blog again in the intervening year.

Annual Report September 2013

2013-09-16T17:20:00.001-04:00

I first opened the investment IRA account about which I've been blogging on September 16th, 2011.

As of September 16th, 2012, my investment was worth $17,877. That was based on the closing prices on Friday the 14th of September, actually.

This year the IRA in question is worth $21,984 as of closing on 16 September 2013. That's nearly a 23% profit for the year, which is acceptable, but not as exciting as last year's 43% profit.

A number of trades have transpired since my last update to this blog. On the desktop version of the blog I have links to the Google Finance pages of the stocks I currently own. This has been updated to reflect my current holdings.

For that matter, I have added a list of links to the Google Finance pages of the stocks that I have owned at some point since the inception of this blog. These are stocks that I have owned as part of this portfolio, but that are not currently among my holding.

I will attempt to post a list of the trades that have transpired over the course of the past year or so. I make no guarantees that I will do so in a timely manner. Or at all.

Sold Cherokee

2012-11-01T22:39:00.000-04:00

In my last post I detailed my trades over the previous six months. In summing them up I noticed that I had traded both Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Cherokee (NASDAQ:CHKE) more than once. I summed up my thoughts on the two by saying "At the end of the day, Cherokee pays a 5% annual dividend yield. Amazon does not."

Cherokee recently announced a 50% reduction to their quarterly dividend. So I sold. Specifically, I sold at $14.75 when the markets opened on Wednesday morning in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

I then turned around and bought Riverbed Technology, Inc.(NASDAQ:RVBD). This network technology company has been on my radar. They've managed their money well, they're profitable, and they've recently been growing by acquisition. Their most recent acquisition of OPNET Technologies, Inc.(NASDAQ:OPNT) has caused Riverbed's price to tumble, though. On Wednesday the price of Riverbed was down nearly 20%. So I bought. Specifically, I bought 100 shares at $18.36 each.

The dip in price will be temporary, I'm sure. For now I've put a sell order in for twice my purchase price, but that's just a hedge against a ridiculous over-correction. I'll probably sell for less than that at some point, when I want to do some profit-taking and buy something else.

Catching Up October 2012

2012-10-01T23:23:00.001-04:00

I posted last week for the first time in roughly six months. I took the occasion to give a quick and dirty Annual Report. During the six months in which I neglected to update ye olde blogge, though, I continued to sell and buy equities within my rollover IRA, but I did not continue to inform my loyal readership of what I sold and what I bought, etc.

Well, that changes as of right now. There were a lot of trades during the Six Months Of Silence. If I had been a more faithful blogger then I would have written a nice little column about each decision I made at roughly the time I made it, with all the pros and cons. I would have let you know why I did what I did when I did it.

Well, it's too late for that now. At this point I barely remember why I did what I did when I did it. And even if I do remember, I definitely do not have the patience to walk you through the thinking behind every investment decision I made for six months.

I can, however, list those decisions in order, with a minimum of commentary. Here we go.

16 April: Sold 100 shares of 3D Systems Corporation (DDD) at $25.78 each. Having purchased my shares at $15.50, I feel good about the profit I realized with this trade. That said, it turns out I could have - in a perfect world - sold the shares in question for $43 each or more in late August.

20 April: Purchased 190 shares of Monster Worldwide, Inc. (MWW) at $8.32 each. I've had a few opportunities, since then, to sell for $9 or more, but I'm hoping, eventually, to sell for $24 or $25 a share. Of course, I'm not sure when exactly that will be. The theory is that the shares will recover whenever the job market does. As of this writing, though, my shares are worth about $7.50 each.

23 April: Purchased 80 shares of Cherokee Inc. (CHKE) at $12.25 each. This stock pays a pretty respectable quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share.

18 June: Sold 17 shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) at $220.74 each. I had purchased my shares for $174.25 each, so that was a decent profit. That said, Amazon's price per earnings is a bit high. I think it's over-valued.

21 June: Purchased 70 shares of Dreamworks Animation Skg Inc (DWA) at $17.85 each. I saw it as under-valued, and I figured Madagascar 3 would do okay at the box office.

25 June: Sold 81 shares of Cherokee at $13.49 each. As you can see, I was able to sell more shares than I had originally purchased. How cool is that? I love Dividend Reinvestment.

25 June again: Purchased 15 shares of Amazon at $218.70 each. Amazon may be priced a bit high, but my fellow investors love it. I sold my Cherokee stock in order partially to finance this purchase. Honestly, I can't remember why, specifically, I decided to turn around and buy Amazon again. I think I still had cash from my sale of Amazon a week before, and decided that, all things being equal, it had been doing me more good while invested in Amazon.

13 July: Sold 70 shares of Dreamworks Animation at $19.80 each. I'd made my profit and I got out. I don't foresee Rise of the Guardians doing too well over Thanksgiving. In fact, I saw a cardboard display for Rise of the Guardians in a theater when I finally saw The Avengers and my first thought, upon seeing the Rise of the Guardians display, was "I need to sell my Dreamworks Animation stock."

16 July: Purchased 140 shares of Corning Incorporated (GLW) at $12.24 each. This is an under-valued, dividend-paying stock. The dividend could be bigger, but I'm hoping to sell at over $22 a share, someday. If I can accumulate some extra shares while I'm waiting for Corning to increase in value then that would be a nice bonus.

19 July: Sold 15 shares of Amazon at $223.40 each. I went back to my belief that Amazon is over-valued. Of course, it turns out that if I'd held onto my shares then I could have sold them for $250 or more, each, since then. That said, this sale at this time allowed me to make my next purchases.

23 July: Purchased 100 additional shares of ABB Ltd. (ABB) at $15.69 each. This is a stock I already owned. I'd purchased shares, previously, at $18 each. It pays a decent annual dividend. I'd had an opportunity to sell at nearly $22 a share back in February, before the dividend was paid for the year. Since then my shares had declined in value. This purchase was me doubling down, and I'm glad I did. ABB has gone up by a greater percentage than Amazon during the same period of time.

23 July: Purchased 125 shares of Cherokee at $14.02 each. I didn't want to put all of my eggs in the ABB basket, so I purchased Cherokee again. I could have purchased at a lower price if I was more patient, but I'm not unhappy with how things are.

Amazingly enough, that's it. I've not done any buying or selling since July. Some shares have been purchased for me, during the six months in question, as a result of dividend reinvestment, but I'm mostly eliding those transactions for now.

Apparently I'm a bit indecisive. I bought some Cherokee. I sold my Amazon. I then sold my Cherokee and bought some Amazon again. And then I sold my Amazon and bought Cherokee again.

At the end of the day, Cherokee pays a 5% annual dividend yield. Amazon does not. That said, if Amazon stock takes a temporary dive then I just may get a bit indecisive again.

Annual Report September 2012

2012-09-26T22:18:00.000-04:00

Months ago I stated my intention to update this blog weekly. Every Monday, I assured my readers, I would have a new column about what I'd been doing and / or thinking, investment-wise.

I have failed. Multiple Mondays have gone by without any update from me. My last post, as of this writing, was nearly six months ago.

For a while I wasn't posting because I couldn't seem to find anything about which to write. Things were static. I had made my investments. I received the occasional dividend. That was it.

There was one investment that occupied a certain number of my waking thoughts throughout the month of March, and I wrote at some length about the Cunning Plan I had regarding MIND CTI (MNDO), how I needed to rework said Cunning Plan, and the temporary failure of the Cunning Plan in question. At this point I will revisit that particular Cunning Plan as we approach March 2013, assuming that our collective understanding of the Mayans is wrong and we get all the way through 2012.

That said, I do need to update my loyal readers on what I've bought and sold in the last six months. In addition to this overdue update, I'd also like to present to you all something akin to an annual report.

Yes, an annual report. I first opened the investment IRA account about which I've been blogging on September 16th, 2011. My first actual purchase of stock was on September 19th, 2011. So it's been just over a year. Let's do this.

Quick and dirty version:

On September 16th, 2011, I opened the account with $6,240 from a rollover 401K.

In November 2011, I doubled down. I transferred an additional $6,220 into the IRA, making my total investment $12,460.

As of the September 16th, 2012, my investment was worth $17,877.

(Actually, it was worth $17,956.89, but I figure I would have had to pay $9.99 per trade in order to liquidate my positions in the 8 equities in which I am currently invested, should I have been so lucky as to sell at the closing prices on Friday September 14th. Anyway, those fees for cashing out would reduce my total by $79.92, leaving me with $17,876.97, which is close enough to $17,877 that I feel justified in rounding up by 3 cents.)

That's an increase of over 43%. That's a pretty good yield for the year. Only time will tell if I can keep it up.

I've updated my list of holdings over on the right. In the near future I'll provide a summary of my trades over the past six months. Maybe I'll manage to get back in the habit of writing weekly updates.

We'll see.

My Cunning Plan Will Take Longer Than I Thought

2012-04-02T14:09:00.000-04:00

I could just as easily have titled this week's post as My Cunning Plan Has Failed, but it hasn't failed permanently. It's just failed for now

The Plan was to buy MIND CTI Ltd (hereafter referred to as MNDO) at a low price in September of 2011 and sell my shares in March or April for roughly twice the purchase price. A simple, two-part plan.

Part 1 went swimmingly. I bought 1,600 shares of MNDO at $1.85 a share in September. Yay.

Part 2 never quite coalesced. The stock didn't peak in March and didn't double this year to $3.70 a share. It did, however, peak in February and increase by nearly 50% to $2.76 a share. Had I sold at that time then my cunning plan would have been a success. Not the success that I had hoped, but a significant success nonetheless.

But I wasn't ready to sell in February. I missed the peak, just barely. The day it peaked I did reduce the price of my sell order to $2.78 a share, but the stock never went to $2.78 a share. Not this year anyway.

But there's always next year. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway. My revised cunning plan is that I don't have to buy shares in MNDO in September because I already own shares. In fact I now own 1,749 shares in MNDO thanks to the magic of dividend reinvestment. MNDO paid its dividend last week, and 149 additional shares were purchased for me without me spending an extra dime.

My sell order is in. I'll be selling my 1,749 shares for $2.75 a share. I'll have to renew that sell order a few times between now and March of 2013, and somewhere in there I may have reason to increase or decrease the price per share. But if something unexpected happens and the stock price shoots up sufficiently between now and next year then the sale should go through automatically at $2.75 a share.

And my cunning plan will succeed. It will just take longer than I originally thought.

Meanwhile I will have the distinct displeasure of staring at another item in my portfolio that is worth less than I paid for it. As of this writing my shares in MNDO are worth $1.81 each.

Bugger.

But at least I still have a cunning plan.