Category: Portfolio Update

We closed out the last week of summer with stocks and stuff (commodity related stocks) with the exception of oil closing higher.  PHO outperformed all of our regulars.  Water’s importance is unquestionable, but it will be interesting to see if it emerges as a leading investment commodity.  My money is on that it will.  September is seasonally a strong month for gold.  If this past week is an indication, this will be an exciting month for gold investors. 

Below are this week’s results of our regularly discussed stocks: Continue reading “Week in Review 9/1”

The week started out with a bang on Monday with Gold Stocks up 4-6%.  Then stalled for the remainder of the week.  Volume was weak across the board as traders finish their summer vacations.  The real action will start after Labor day.

Below are this week’s results of our regularly discussed stocks: Continue reading “Week in Review 8/25/06”

What’s up with tech?  Technology led the broad indices to very impressive one week gains.  The DOW, S&P 500 and NASDAQ were up 5.9%, 2.7% and  5.2% respectively for the week.  All pale in comparison to the Semiconductor Index (SOX) which was up 10.0% for the week.  There is an old adage on Wall Street that technology leads the market and semiconductors lead technology.  If that proves to be the case we could be on the verge of sector rotation out of resource stocks into the broad market.  Gold and oil took it on the chin and was down 2.7% and 5.1% respectively for the week. However, base metals represented by the Big Build-Out basket were up 2.3% for the week.

Below are this week’s results of our regularly discussed stocks: Continue reading “Week in Review 8/18/06”

Another volatile week as they all are in the commodity patch.  Most expected gold to soar on news of foiled terrorist attempt, but it didn’t happen.  Investors must have found other save havens to divert their monies. Below are this week’s results of stocks regularly discussed here:

Â	Â	W/E	Â	YTD
Â	Â	8/11	Â	Â
DOW	Â	-1.4%	Â	3.5%
S&P 500	Â	-1.0%	Â	1.5%
NASDAQ	Â	-1.3%	Â	-6.7%
GLD	Â	-2.4%	Â	21.6%
GDX	Â	-2.3%	Â	Â
CEF	Â	-2.0%	Â	32.0%
USO	Â	-0.1%	Â	Â
BRIC	Â	0.5%	Â	18.4%
BBO	Â	-3.3%	Â	27.0%

GLD – Gold Bullion Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)
GDX – Gold Mining Stocks ETF
CEF – Gold and Silver Bullion ETF
USO – Oil ETF
BRIC – basket of 4 country ETFs: Brazil, Russia, India and China
BBO (Big-Build Out) – basket of 12 stocks critical to the industrialization of BRIC

Refer to the following links for more information on above stocks.

GDX, CEF: Link
USO: Link
BRIC, BBO: Link

The objective of this experiment is to demonstrate the power of dollar cost averaging.  I believe that it is the best investment strategy for the average investor.  If you are willing to learn technical analysis, you may outperform dollar cost averaging.  However, technical analysis can take a significant amount of time to master.

So, how are we doing? CEF is back on the positive side with a monthly gain of 2.8% vs. 0.66% for the S&P 500.  GDX and the S&P 500 were practically even for the month. CEF & GDX are both still outperforming the S&P 500 year to date.
Continue reading “DCA Experiment as of August 4”