Author Topic: Year to date investment returns  (Read 36765 times)

KBecks2

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Year to date investment returns
« on: July 06, 2015, 11:30:39 AM »
Just calculated the majority of our portfolio's returns year to date (a 401k is not included).   We are up 8.96% for the year.  S&P 500 is up 0.36%. 

I am happy with these returns.  And when there's some quiet time I will review the portfolio and consider how things are going, and what could be even better.  It's so much fun.

Not everyone here supports it but I am enjoying active investing very much.

forummm

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2015, 11:48:28 AM »
What are you/have you been invested in? How do you decide when to buy/sell, and what to buy?

Dr. A

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2015, 11:57:54 AM »
I'd also be curious what this portfolio looks like. It's generally regarded as a red flag when your returns are that far out of step with the market. I.e. it's a sign of not enough diversification, or too much risk.

Which is not to say that this is true in your case. If there's an identifiable reason for it (i.e. one of your stocks discovered a new drug and went through the roof, but it's still part of a well-diversified portfolio), then good for you. If it were me, I'd take a hard look at my holdings and make sure I haven't set myself up for disaster.

It would no fun if those numbers are reversed next year.

KBecks2

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2015, 12:00:09 PM »
Hi Forumm,

I have been invested in individual stocks,  mostly recommended by a service I subscribe to.  I have also been using a few options strategies, and I hold some cash.

I'm still learning and have a few key people who I take advice and stock suggestions from.  I've been experimenting…  My goal is to get down to a selection of maybe 12 - 15 stocks, plus a few options.   My best performing stocks this year include Ambarella, Skyworks Solutions,  Papa John's and Starbucks. 

I've been shifting to seek greater growth, and the person I listen to most about growth stocks has a free board at the fool, called Saul's Investing Discussions.  It's very interesting and he's developed a strategy that really works for him!  (Saul is up 31.3% this year, to-date.  Here is a post where he reviews his positions:  http://boards.fool.com/monthly-summary-of-my-positions-end-of-june-31808076.aspx)   It's a very interesting community of very smart people over there.

 I am not super aggressive, I have a few slower moving stocks in my port and that is OK with me.  :) 

MoneyCat

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2015, 12:13:09 PM »
I'm at about 1% returns for the year.  Too much investment outside the United States.  The rest of the world doesn't have a clue what they are doing.

Retire-Canada

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2015, 12:27:19 PM »
7.5% YTD I'm in Canada so our dollar tanking and the fact that most of my investments are not Canadian gave me a nice boost.

swick

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2015, 12:31:19 PM »
7.5% YTD I'm in Canada so our dollar tanking and the fact that most of my investments are not Canadian gave me a nice boost.

What does your portfolio look like? We're still trying to build, figure ours out

mizzourah2006

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2015, 01:51:40 PM »
If you actually look at SPY which includes the dividends re-invested it is ~1.3% (as of about an hour ago).

Retire-Canada

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #8 on: July 06, 2015, 01:53:47 PM »
What does your portfolio look like? We're still trying to build, figure ours out

I'd start with one of the Canadian Couch Potato portfolios and as you learn more you can tweak your plan as you see fit.

http://canadiancouchpotato.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/CCP-Model-Portfolios-Vanguard.pdf

http://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/model-etf-portfolios/

swick

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2015, 03:21:35 PM »
What does your portfolio look like? We're still trying to build, figure ours out

I'd start with one of the Canadian Couch Potato portfolios and as you learn more you can tweak your plan as you see fit.

http://canadiancouchpotato.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/CCP-Model-Portfolios-Vanguard.pdf

http://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/model-etf-portfolios/
Already dialed in to the CCP Vanguard model. Just wondering what other Canucks are doing :)

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #10 on: July 06, 2015, 03:50:54 PM »
I use the exact same model as CCP with 60% invested in VXC, 30% in VCN and 10% VAB...basically the Agressive Asset Allocation.

okits

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #11 on: July 06, 2015, 09:46:33 PM »
Including distributions, around +2.5%.  Took a major beating in June.  The latest round of Greek drama sure is adding to volatility. 

sol

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #12 on: July 06, 2015, 09:59:14 PM »
I have no idea.  Doesn't really seem to matter.

Zamboni

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #13 on: July 06, 2015, 10:16:21 PM »
^ :-) I also have no idea right at this moment without looking.

My strategy is based upon periodic review of assets following rules determined in advance and doesn't allow hair-trigger decisions.  Since I'm accumulating, not withdrawing, a big market dip is fine and dandy and just means my next rounds of buys will be cheaper.

Maxman

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #14 on: July 06, 2015, 11:01:49 PM »
Don't check often, but I would guesstimate around even to 1% ytd.

innerscorecard

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #15 on: July 07, 2015, 01:05:36 AM »
It's generally regarded as a red flag when your returns are that far out of step with the market. I.e. it's a sign of not enough diversification, or too much risk.

This is an insane attitude.

mrpercentage

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #16 on: July 07, 2015, 02:07:00 AM »
4.2%

I took a recent hit in some positions that that I am holding. Thanks Greece. I wish I went with what I knew and was 100% Disney but the rest of my portfolio rebounds well. Not selling a thing and currently building cash.

innerscorecard

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #17 on: July 07, 2015, 02:43:12 AM »
Hi Forumm,

I have been invested in individual stocks,  mostly recommended by a service I subscribe to.  I have also been using a few options strategies, and I hold some cash.

I'm still learning and have a few key people who I take advice and stock suggestions from.  I've been experimenting…  My goal is to get down to a selection of maybe 12 - 15 stocks, plus a few options.   My best performing stocks this year include Ambarella, Skyworks Solutions,  Papa John's and Starbucks. 

I've been shifting to seek greater growth, and the person I listen to most about growth stocks has a free board at the fool, called Saul's Investing Discussions.  It's very interesting and he's developed a strategy that really works for him!  (Saul is up 31.3% this year, to-date.  Here is a post where he reviews his positions:  http://boards.fool.com/monthly-summary-of-my-positions-end-of-june-31808076.aspx)   It's a very interesting community of very smart people over there.

 I am not super aggressive, I have a few slower moving stocks in my port and that is OK with me.  :)

What are your returns if the money you've spent on these services you've subscribed to is accounted for, as if it were an expense ratio?

Interest Compound

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #18 on: July 07, 2015, 03:40:17 AM »
Hi Forumm,

I have been invested in individual stocks,  mostly recommended by a service I subscribe to.  I have also been using a few options strategies, and I hold some cash.

I'm still learning and have a few key people who I take advice and stock suggestions from.  I've been experimenting…  My goal is to get down to a selection of maybe 12 - 15 stocks, plus a few options.   My best performing stocks this year include Ambarella, Skyworks Solutions,  Papa John's and Starbucks. 

I've been shifting to seek greater growth, and the person I listen to most about growth stocks has a free board at the fool, called Saul's Investing Discussions.  It's very interesting and he's developed a strategy that really works for him!  (Saul is up 31.3% this year, to-date.  Here is a post where he reviews his positions:  http://boards.fool.com/monthly-summary-of-my-positions-end-of-june-31808076.aspx)   It's a very interesting community of very smart people over there.

 I am not super aggressive, I have a few slower moving stocks in my port and that is OK with me.  :)

-36% YTD

I'm also following someone from that site, and I got into stock options after reading a previous post of yours about generating income...

I know all about indexing, but you made it sound so easy! It seems people don't typically make threads comparing their returns with the market when they're down.





/s

KBecks2

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #19 on: July 07, 2015, 06:31:58 AM »
Was that /s for sarcasm? I can't quite tell.   

It's so important to be wary and careful with investing.  Tell us more about what happened.  Which services are you using?  Oh wait, you were BSing!  How rude.

This is a true concern for investing, it's very easy to lose money.  It's very easy to follow someone's advice (and I am not giving advice, I have just been talking about what I've been doing, and not telling other people what to do!!).  It is very important to understand risk and to have a basic financial plan in place (emergency fund, etc.)

Anybody who invests in individual stocks or options needs to do their homework, it's work!  This is exactly why I pay for advice / coaching, because I want guidance from people with greater success and experience.  Even then, they don't all work out and YOU have to be able to take responsibility for every trade you make, whatever the results.


« Last Edit: July 07, 2015, 07:52:46 AM by KBecks2 »

KBecks2

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #20 on: July 07, 2015, 06:37:53 AM »

What are your returns if the money you've spent on these services you've subscribed to is accounted for, as if it were an expense ratio?

Hi Innerscorecard,  my portfolio is fairly large, the advice fees are under 0.5% of assets.   My Vanguard trading fees in 2014 added up, buts still were small as a %, probably 0.05%.  I am trying to mess with my portfolio less!  However, the last two years have been a time of learning and experimentation, and I have been learning through trying things out, especially options trades.  What I am finding for me, is that option trading is putzy and I'm going to try to be selective about how much of that I do.  Being hands-on is a learning experience.  It's not all wins, it's a mix of wins and mistakes.

Interest Compound

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #21 on: July 07, 2015, 10:34:40 AM »
Was that /s for sarcasm? I can't quite tell.   

It's so important to be wary and careful with investing.  Tell us more about what happened.  Which services are you using?  Oh wait, you were BSing!  How rude.

This is a true concern for investing, it's very easy to lose money.  It's very easy to follow someone's advice (and I am not giving advice, I have just been talking about what I've been doing, and not telling other people what to do!!).  It is very important to understand risk and to have a basic financial plan in place (emergency fund, etc.)

Anybody who invests in individual stocks or options needs to do their homework, it's work!  This is exactly why I pay for advice / coaching, because I want guidance from people with greater success and experience.  Even then, they don't all work out and YOU have to be able to take responsibility for every trade you make, whatever the results.

This is very much a newbie forum, it's important to keep things in perspective. If you were -36% for the year, or even -8%, would you still have made this thread?

waltworks

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #22 on: July 07, 2015, 11:02:33 AM »
I'm going to go ahead and say that since there aren't dozens of these threads popping up, we have ourselves a lucky dart-throwing monkey. Great job.

I have zero idea what my returns are this year, nor do I care. Unless the whole world permanently crashes and burns, I'm fine. So instead of reading godawful stock newsletters I'm reading books with my kids or riding my bike.

Eudaemonic returns this year are going great, but I have a hard time putting a number on them.

-W

thd7t

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #23 on: July 07, 2015, 11:09:42 AM »
I'm going to go ahead and say that since there aren't dozens of these threads popping up, we have ourselves a lucky dart-throwing monkey. Great job.

I have zero idea what my returns are this year, nor do I care. Unless the whole world permanently crashes and burns, I'm fine. So instead of reading godawful stock newsletters I'm reading books with my kids or riding my bike.

Eudaemonic returns this year are going great, but I have a hard time putting a number on them.

-W
I wanted to make a snarky remark about Eudaemonic returns being measurable, but have decided to just thank you for teaching me a new word (which I had to look up).  Great word!  My returns have been very good this year, as well!  I'd look at how my market numbers are doing, but then I might be tempted to do something, which would probably be foolish!

KBecks2

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #24 on: July 07, 2015, 12:44:25 PM »
You know, I debate whether to post anything here in the investor area because most people here do not care to do individual investing.  No, I would not share if I was doing poorly, as that gives nothing if value.  I shared a resource where many people are studying the market and they are doing exceptionally well.  Maybe some folks will benefit.  There's no reason to mock my method.  The real estate investors don't get harassed and their work is difficult to master also.  But the returns are worth the effort and some people enjoy and profit from it.

Retire-Canada

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #25 on: July 07, 2015, 12:54:02 PM »
No, I would not share if I was doing poorly, as that gives nothing if value. 

Sure it would. It just wouldn't make your approach look good.

waltworks

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #26 on: July 07, 2015, 12:55:39 PM »
No, I would not share if I was doing poorly, as that gives nothing if value. 

Bwahaha!

You are a poster boy for statistical ignorance. That is an amazing statement.

Monkey #18 is beating you handily, btw. I'm setting him up to publish a newsletter next month.

-W

KBecks2

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #27 on: July 07, 2015, 01:01:53 PM »
No, I would not share if I was doing poorly, as that gives nothing if value. 

Sure it would. It just wouldn't make your approach look good.

Let's deal with reality.  My approach is working well.  Someone is trying to lie to make what I am doing look bad in a strange attempt to illustrate risk and that is wrong. 

Let's deal with the realities and not the what ifs.

I think I'm done here, the investor alley is the worst section of this forum.

KBecks2

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #28 on: July 07, 2015, 01:04:34 PM »
No, I would not share if I was doing poorly, as that gives nothing if value. 

Bwahaha!

You are a poster boy for statistical ignorance. That is an amazing statement.

Monkey #18 is beating you handily, btw. I'm setting him up to publish a newsletter next month.

-W

I'm not a boy, I'm a woman and you are missing the point:  individual stock investing can be a very successful method, for people who want to do the analysis and can take risk and responsibility.

sol

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #29 on: July 07, 2015, 01:08:27 PM »
the investor alley is the worst section of this forum.

Agreed.  Far too many people who are bad at math, some of whom are trying to give advice to people who don't recognize bad math when they see it.

Good luck to everyone with your chosen investment strategies, whatever they may be.  I hope you all get fabulously rich.

forummm

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #30 on: July 07, 2015, 01:13:35 PM »
No, I would not share if I was doing poorly, as that gives nothing if value. 

Sure it would. It just wouldn't make your approach look good.

Let's deal with reality.  My approach is working well.  Someone is trying to lie to make what I am doing look bad in a strange attempt to illustrate risk and that is wrong. 

Let's deal with the realities and not the what ifs.

I think I'm done here, the investor alley is the worst section of this forum.

I asked an honest question at the beginning of the thread. So far you have only posted your claimed returns and a link to some other guy's advice that seemed to me to be too difficult to discern what you were actually doing, and 4 cherry-picked stocks that had performed the best out of your whole group. But that doesn't provide insight into your methods.

If you'd like to share what exactly you've been invested in, when you bought, for how much, including your duds (if any), the rationale behind why you thought they were good buys, etc, I personally would be very interested in that. And how you decide when to sell, etc. You don't have to share what you're going to buy in advance. Just afterwards. But until someone shows exactly what they've been buying, it's not at all helpful to people to decide whether active investment is a good approach for them. Seeing one person say they did well just looks random.

waltworks

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #31 on: July 07, 2015, 01:18:48 PM »

KBecks2

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #32 on: July 07, 2015, 01:52:03 PM »

I asked an honest question at the beginning of the thread. So far you have only posted your claimed returns and a link to some other guy's advice that seemed to me to be too difficult to discern what you were actually doing, and 4 cherry-picked stocks that had performed the best out of your whole group. But that doesn't provide insight into your methods.

If you'd like to share what exactly you've been invested in, when you bought, for how much, including your duds (if any), the rationale behind why you thought they were good buys, etc, I personally would be very interested in that. And how you decide when to sell, etc. You don't have to share what you're going to buy in advance. Just afterwards. But until someone shows exactly what they've been buying, it's not at all helpful to people to decide whether active investment is a good approach for them. Seeing one person say they did well just looks random.

OK, it's challenging to explain exactly what I'm doing because I consider myself a beginner and still learning, and because I mostly follow a service where they lay out a methodology and advice.  (Since the advice is paid for I don't think it's fair to share their entire strategy and picks.) I posted the link to Saul's area because he is an individual investor who has developed a lot of clarity in what he does and why -- I'm not that organized.  But, I will try to put something together to share.  It's a learning experience.  I am NOT saying anyone should do what I do, not at all!  I don't want people to follow what I do, everyone needs to learn and make their own choices and set their own goals.

dungoofed

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #33 on: July 07, 2015, 04:18:04 PM »
Guys you've had your say and we get it -  anything besides sensible indexing is foolish, etc.

KBecks2 - congratulations on finding something that works for you. I'm mainly an indexer but I have a portion of my portfolio dedicated to single stocks. You're right about it being hard work. I'm finding out recently that growing up in a family where my father was constantly evaluating deals that would pass though his office has been very useful in helping me identify good businesses. Still need a lot of theory though.

milesdividendmd

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #34 on: July 07, 2015, 04:43:54 PM »
Congratulations on your success!  I hope it continues!

An important factor to consider is your downside risk. Downside volatility is a negative force to be reckoned with since it does such a great job of wiping out even log strings of outperformance.  Investing is a slow business and is all about staying in the game, not sprinting to the finish...

from an article I wrote about the benefits of a cowardly approach...

Quote
Imagine 2 investors starting out their portfolios.

The first investor is brilliant. He is a quick thinking Ivy League educated Quant with a lot of useful contacts. He is so clever that he is able to take more risk and beat the market by 50% each and every year. The only downside to his brilliance, is that during bear markets his increased exposure to risk means two times deeper losses than the market. We will call this investing genius “Rabbit.”

The second investor is not so exceptional. In fact he is average in every way. He did two years at the local community college and finished up his degree commuting to Big State U.  He was the first in his family to go to college so he doesn’t have many contacts in the know.  He takes exactly as much risk as the market and matches the market in returns each and every year. ( Truth be told he simply buys a low-cost S&P 500 index fund, and spends the rest of his time writing screenplays.) So when the market goes up, so does his portfolio, and when the market goes down, his portfolio moves in lockstep. We will call this average investor, “Turtle.”

Both investors start with $10,000, and they are blessed to begin their investing careers with 9 straight years of a raging bull market. Each year the market gains a cool 10% in total returns.

So at the end of nine years, Turtle is thrilled that his 10% compounding growth has yielded him a total of $23,579.48. Not bad. Not bad at all.

But Rabbit is even more thrilled. His nine years of 15% compounding growth have grown his original $10,000 to $35,178.76!

Unfortunately on the 10th year, there is a minor financial crisis and the market loses 25% of its total value.

So after turtle has taken his 25% haircut he is left with $17,684.61. Which makes him feel fairly disheartened.

But not nearly as disheartened as rabbit whose 50% haircut has left him with $17,589.38.

So after nine years of significant over performance, (and only one year of significant underperformance) Rabbit is left with less money than Turtle.

This is a nonlinear and non-intuitive result. It seems analogous to the Giants beating the Dodgers nine games out of 10 by one run, then losing the 10th game by two runs, and finding out that they (The Giants) have lost the series.

But I think this surprising result describes well the unbalanced risk/reward relationship central to investing money. Simply put, we should spend most of our energy avoiding big losses, rather than chasing big gains. There’s more bang for our buck with such a strategy.

Retire-Canada

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #35 on: July 07, 2015, 04:56:13 PM »
Guys you've had your say and we get it -  anything besides sensible indexing is foolish, etc.

I don't read everyone of these threads, but of the ones I have read person X starts a thread saying holy crap my investment strategy is so awesome compared to X - which is usually an index!!!

Then folks ask them questions about what strategy.

Person X says various vague things that can't be pinned down or evaluated in any useful way.

Folks point out that either they have no strategy and are just a lucky monkey or that they have not explained what their strategy is.

Person X obfuscates a bunch. Sometimes in very entertaining ways.

None of these threads that I have read ever results in person X providing a rationale repeatable investment strategy which is why the peanut gallery is so ready to throw out the random monkey analogy and the survivor bias problem.

I think that's the main issue with these threads. Not the fact that somebody wants to talk about investing in individual stocks.

dungoofed

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #36 on: July 07, 2015, 05:01:48 PM »
Agreed. Actually I had something about not posting returns in my post but couldn't get it to not sound condescending so I just deleted it.

CanuckExpat

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #37 on: July 08, 2015, 03:10:02 AM »
Already dialed in to the CCP Vanguard model. Just wondering what other Canucks are doing :)

Many moons ago, my RRSP looked something like this:
40% XBB - Canadian Bond Index
20% XIC - Capped Canadian Equity Index
20% XSP - S&P 500 US Equity Index CAD Hedged
20% XIN - EAFE International Index CAD Hedged

That was back before Vanguard had funds in Canada, also we had to walk uphill both ways with an onion tied to our belts.

I could never decide if the extra cost associated with currency hedging was worth it.

Aphalite

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #38 on: July 08, 2015, 09:04:07 AM »
I don't read everyone of these threads, but of the ones I have read person X starts a thread saying holy crap my investment strategy is so awesome compared to X - which is usually an index!!!

Then folks ask them questions about what strategy.

Person X says various vague things that can't be pinned down or evaluated in any useful way.

Folks point out that either they have no strategy and are just a lucky monkey or that they have not explained what their strategy is.

Person X obfuscates a bunch. Sometimes in very entertaining ways.

None of these threads that I have read ever results in person X providing a rationale repeatable investment strategy which is why the peanut gallery is so ready to throw out the random monkey analogy and the survivor bias problem.

I think that's the main issue with these threads. Not the fact that somebody wants to talk about investing in individual stocks.

This is the strategy of the guy who KBecks follows:
I look for companies that are growing fast, have recurring income, insider ownership, some kind of moat, a reasonable PE, etc, and hope to find most of these qualities in stocks I’m investing in. I don’t try to learn all the financials. While I look for companies that are growing fast, I hope for ones that are not yet discovered and bid up in price. I try to avoid “story” stocks that are always going to make money next year or in two years or in five years. Absence or near absence of debt is important, except in companies where debt is part of their business model, where it’s sort of excusable (like companies that do a lot of acquisitions). For much more about this see the section on Evaluating a Company.

When you are first starting out you don’t mind concentrating your investments in half a dozen winners. However, when you are retired, and you are investing for a livelihood, and you don’t have any other income to replace potential losses, it’s safer not to let any position get too big. You should never let a position grow bigger than about 15%, and even that is usually way too much.

I start with medium or average size positions and let them grow. Sometimes, I start with a small position and add to it while it’s growing. I never start with an oversized position. I usually don’t buy a company all at once or sell all at once, but taper in and taper out, unless I have a good reason to get out in a hurry.

You can’t really keep track of more than 20 to 28 or so stocks, and that’s an absolute outer limit. I prefer a smaller number of stocks, as they are easier to keep track of. You need to read all the quarterly reports, and the transcripts of all the quarterly conference calls, which gives you a busy earning season. They often say a lot more on the conference calls than in the earnings press release. Reading the transcripts works much better than listening to recordings as it takes a quarter of the time, and you can skip the forward-looking statements messages, etc. Look at investor presentations too. And get a news-feed from your broker on each of your stocks.

You can beat any mutual fund over the long run. You can’t tell much from a mutual fund’s results because you are always buying last year’s results. For example, if it’s a oil company fund, and last year oil stocks were in, it will show great results, but this year it could do terribly. Also, you are always buying the results they had when the fund was much smaller and nimbler than it is now (because those good results they had when they were tiny made people pour money in).


Just an excerpt from http://boards.fool.com/our-new-improved-knowledgebase-ed-2-july-2015-31812960.aspx

It looks fine to me - he takes a lot of risk in that you can't ever be sure other investor sentiment will be the same as your own, but he looks for companies that are small but growing and makes large concentrated bets on them (he's been compounding at 32% before the crash for 20 years but apparently lost 62% in 2008, finally back up to pre 2008 levels in 2014 I believe). The rest of his post reveals that he does have a lot of accounting knowledge too. His method is not repeatable/actionable by most people though (due to lack of interest mostly, learning accounting and evaluating companies is hard work), since you can't only look at numbers when investing (evaluating recurring income or "moat"), which is why most people index.

Kaspian

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #39 on: July 08, 2015, 10:16:04 AM »
I think I'm done here, the investor alley is the worst section of this forum.

I actually sort of like "Investor Alley".  Especially the questions/statements by forummm.  I always listen when the peanut talks!

(It's the "Shame and Comedy" area which pisses me off because some humourless sourpuss always comes into a thread and either plays Devil's advocate to an extreme or shames the original poster who shared something which was genuinely odd or funny.)

Is there any chance that new investors rub up against the salty, old sea dogs who have seen it all before and know that what goes up in active investing (almost invariably) comes down?  In a 5-year bull run it's easy to be happy.  The dogs will say, "Of course it has, everything did."  Which is true.

Questions like "What did you buy?," "What're your trading costs?," "How much do you pay for the advice/coaching you receive?," are all going to come out.  ...As well as the psychology part (which I enjoy.)  (e.g., "Would you have shared if it was down?")  Like, you say you are up 8.96% for the year, but that doesn't mean the portfolio isn't down -3.8% over the past five once all the other costs figure into the investment. 

waltworks

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #40 on: July 08, 2015, 10:38:52 AM »
Is there any chance that new investors rub up against the salty, old sea dogs who have seen it all before and know that what goes up in active investing (almost invariably) comes down?  In a 5-year bull run it's easy to be happy.  The dogs will say, "Of course it has, everything did."  Which is true.

People just have short memories. Everyone in China probably felt like a genius about a month ago. Everyone here feels like a genius no matter *what* they bought (other than bonds, maybe) over the last 5-10 years. Even the unlucky monkeys make money in that kind of market.

People also get really excited about their initial returns (if any). In 30 years, though, it won't matter if you made 8% in 2015 or not. It will matter if you stuck with some decent AA and didn't panic sell or waste all your money on trading fees and overhead. And of course it will matter if you wasted your life reading financials of random companies or went surfing instead. So the very idea of bragging about 6 months of returns strikes some of us as humorous.

-W

Kaspian

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #41 on: July 08, 2015, 10:46:04 AM »
In 30 years, though, it won't matter if you made 8% in 2015 or not. It will matter if you stuck with some decent AA and didn't panic sell or waste all your money on trading fees and overhead. And of course it will matter if you wasted your life reading financials of random companies or went surfing instead. So the very idea of bragging about 6 months of returns strikes some of us as humorous.

-W

Very well said, Walt!  This deserved to be framed and pinned beside everyone's computer monitors!

PathtoFIRE

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #42 on: July 08, 2015, 02:28:51 PM »
Tacking back to the OP's original question, my entire investment portfolio is up 2.60% (1/1/2015-6/30/2015), with the breakdown of 2.64% in retirement accounts, and 2.30% in 529s. I am happy with this as I appear to be neatly tracking my "ideal" portfolio of VTSAX (56%), VTIAX (24%) and VBTLX (20%), which Morningstar shows total returns of 2.32% as of 6/30/2015. I'm a little ahead, but I also do a more rough end-of-the-month return calculation that biases a little towards an apparently higher return because my deposits tend to be frontloaded in the first half of the month. I am coming up on the one year anniversary of leaving our financial advisor, and while their decisions still influence my portfolio to some extent (I kept all of the DGEIX with positive capital gains, and I also kept the small/mid tilt they suggested in my 401k), I'm happy to be getting the total market return.

Roboturner

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #43 on: July 08, 2015, 02:47:10 PM »
Including distributions, around +2.5%.  Took a major beating in June.  The latest round of Greek drama sure is adding to volatility.

+1

J.Milly

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #44 on: July 09, 2015, 12:17:35 AM »
In my RRSP, my YTD is 7.64%, and my 3 month return is 0.13% :/ this is according to the personal rate of return page on my RRSP account anyways. Big deposit (bonus last month) hasn't seen much return yet, oh well.

TFSA is -1.4%. but its only 2 months old so doesn't bother me much.

patrickza

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #45 on: July 09, 2015, 12:24:09 AM »
Also couldn't be bothered to check. I can tell you how much I'm expecting in dividends this year though.

PharmaStache

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #46 on: July 09, 2015, 08:14:04 AM »
6%.  All gained in January, when the Canadian dollar dropped!  Flat to declining since then.

Faraday

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #47 on: July 09, 2015, 09:17:37 AM »
What are you/have you been invested in? How do you decide when to buy/sell, and what to buy?

kbecks, thanks for starting this thread If you keep a hairy eyeball on your investments it would be great if you continue to share in this thread.

forummm's question is important. I've asked it in a different forum thread before, but I screwed up. Where I screwed up was raising that question in the "Should I pay down my mortgage?" thread. I thought the discussion of investments was legal game in any forum topic, turns out I was wrong about that.

My posting of the question in the wrong thread helped me grok some of the etiquette of the forums. I learned that the question of "paying mortgage vs investing" gets asked about every 5 minutes by n00bs who really don't bother to read the forums the way I did (lurking for about 6-8 months and reading every night till 2am) and who can't be troubled by the details. Those types deserve to get kicked in the balls like America's Funniest Home Videos.

Likewise, there are many postings about investment returns that are equally short on due diligence. Hence, The Proletariat is demanding a heapin' helpin' of due diligence.

So, don't be upset or down on Investor Alley or this thread. It looks like a facepunch/balls kick but it's just the usual demand the OP needs to be prepared for. Otherwise, I would say you've ignited a much-needed conversation.
« Last Edit: July 09, 2015, 09:21:27 AM by mefla »

Better Change

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #48 on: July 09, 2015, 10:31:14 AM »
OP - didn't you post something similar back in March or April touting your 5+ % returns?  And weren't you kind of embarrassed by forum members for gloating so openly then?

My returns are pretty craptacular this year, but whatever.  I think my 401k was coming in close to 8% this week, but meh, it's a lot of company stock.

KBecks2

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Re: Year to date investment returns
« Reply #49 on: July 09, 2015, 10:36:08 AM »
mefla, what did you decide re: the mortgage?  We are paying our mortgage down and I go back and forth between throwing extra cash at pay down or investments.  In the end, we'll do a little bit of both things.  If we get a good dip soon, this month's check will go to the brokerage instead of the mortgage.

My active stocks are --
Apple, Amtrust Financial, Walt Disney, Starbucks, Skyworks, Facebook, American Tower, Wells Fargo, Bank of the Internet, Skechers, Ambarella, Gilead, Papa John's, Snap On, Seaspan, Medtronic, Visa, Paraxel and Nokia. 

I'd like to narrow it down and focus it a bit more so I can be very attentive to each company.  I listen to a few sources, Motley Fool Pro, Saul @ the free boards at Motley Fool and Jim Cramer's podcast.   My annual fees for advice are just under $1,000 and my port is big enough it can gain or lose more than $1k in nearly any day of trading, so the fees are not killing me and I enjoy being part of the investing community, and especially getting some hand holding when I'm nervous or have questions.  Many of the stocks I own are covered by analysts from the service so I have help in selecting and monitoring the companies and that gives me great peace of mind.