Spring Update

Here is a quick spring update of my investing and a couple of links that I've found. I have held my RIMM and AAPL shorts which have hurt me badly. This coming off a huge loss from hanging on to BMO over that "credit crisis".

Even though my portfolio has been terrible and I've been crippled I've hung on and made some good trades, most recently buying BCE before the Supreme Court ruling. I've also been added to a Yellow Pages YLO.UN holding as it goes down (the yield is pretty much too good to be true.

Some links that I've found interesting:

You can create a boiler plate resignation letter if you care to join the mass exodus at Yahoo YHOO here.

This guy has put his life up for sale on eBay.

My Portfolio as of January 27, 2008

Well, I'm about to show you my portfolio with current positions. I know that I have too many stocks and I am in over my head. I'm actually trading on margin alot more lately, trying to make a big move.

If you remember my big position that was really hurting me was Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). I had purchased 230 shares of it back in November at around $12 and in the following two months I watched it quickly sink to under $6 at one point. I realized I'd need it to jump more than 100% just to get back to my cost base. I really hated this stock. Watching it go down day after day was very frustrating. So it recently made a jump up to the high $7's on speculation that IBM was going to be taking them over. So at that point I sold all my shares and actually shorted AMD (risky, I know). The shares continued to rise in the following days but on Friday it took a 5% dip as the speculation of an IBM takeover died down.

I've tried to ignore some of my longer term positions lately and just concentrate on buying some stocks so I can watch them throughout the day. I recently purchased LULU and it had a 5% spike - so I sold.

Another recent trade was Colgate (CL), just before they reported earnings I shorted it. However, the stock has not moved up or down since announcing earnings.

Stay tuned in the following weeks as I trim down my portfolio and try to take some calculated risks in order to get a big return!

I've deposited a total of $10,700 into the brokerage account and if I liquidated all my positions now I would only be able to cash out $9,500 (so that is very frustrating).

Any tips or comments would be appreciated.

Name Symbol Last price Change Shares Cost basis Mkt value Gain Gain % Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD 7.15 -0.43 -200 1430 -1430 57 3.99 Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN 77.6 -0.07 10 849 776 -73 -8.6 Bank of Montreal BMO 55.4 -0.89 40 2344 2216 -128 -5.46 Avis Budget Group Inc. CAR 11.43 -0.22 30 495 342.9 -152.1 -30.73 Canadian Imperial Venture Corp. CQV 0.07 0.01 5000 300 350 50 16.67 Google Inc. GOOG 566.4 -8.09 2 1357.84 1132.8 -225.04 -16.57 Imperial Oil Limited IMO 49.18 0.85 20 934.8 983.6 48.8 5.22 Kimberly-Clark Corporation KMB 64.08 -0.35 10 700 640.8 -59.2 -8.46 Leap Wireless International, Inc. LEAP 38.95 -0.19 17 698.87 662.15 -36.72 -5.25 Lexmark International, Inc. LXK 28.02 -0.61 40 1626 1120.8 -505.2 -31.07 Messina Minerals Inc. MMI 0.42 0.02 500 435 210 -225 -51.72 Rutter Inc. RUT 0.27 0.01 500 305 135 -170 -55.74 Sony Corporation (ADR) SNE 46.69 -0.8 20 935.4 933.8 -1.6 -0.17 Toronto-Dominion Bank TD 66.28 -1.02 25 1701.5 1657 -44.5 -2.62 Tristar Oil & Gas Limited TOG 12.68 0.02 50 467 634 167 35.76 Walgreen Company WAG 34.28 -0.71 20 806.4 685.6 -120.8 -14.98 Lululemon Athletica inc. LULU 30.67 -1.44 Yahoo! Inc. YHOO 21.94 0.25 -75 1645.5 -1645.5 -134.25 -8.16 Colgate-Palmolive Company CL 73.75 -0.71 -20 1475 -1475 -1.6 -0.11

CQV Doubles Up

Wow, experienced my first double up since starting to invest. I know that when you're playing with penny stocks you're playing with fire - but when it hits, it feels good! This week CQV has went from 4-5 cents up to 13 cents!

My ACB was 6 cents plus commissions so when it hit 13 cents today I was not sure what to do. No news is out that is driving this. There is speculation about the oil rigs on their way to the West Coast of Newfoundland but they're not even on site yet. Some speculate that there is good news on the Alberta front that is causing this run up. They did release their MD&A to the exchange, these can be found on SEDAR. The documents show that management are more bullish about their prospects than previously assume - this also is part of the run up.

When the stock moved from 6 cents to 9 cents earlier in the week, I expected to see some profit taking. Today when it zoomed to 13 cents, there was some moderate selling but the demand continued to be strong - so most people are staying long. This is a suprise considering the option to buy 186 million shares at 10 cents from the USG acquisition.

I ended up selling half of my position to get my original investment back. I might be kicking myself, but regardless of what happens here I cannot lose on this position.

October Portfolio update

Currently I have a few more losers than winners in my portfolio. I have no problem ditching my winners and cashing in when I am up money but I find it hard to let go and sell at a loss.

Here are a list of my winners right now:

Apple (AAPL) up $163 (25%)
Sony (SNE) up $64 (7%)
Tim Hortons (THI.TO) $103 (6%)

My losers include:

Rutter (RUT.TO) down $67 (22%)
Canadian Imperial Venture Corp (CQV.V) down $107 (18%)
General Motors (GM) down $164 (18%)
Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) down $34 (5%)
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) down $12 (2%)
Walgreens (WAG) down $25 (3%)
Tristar Oil and Gas (TOG.TO) down $20 (4%)
Messina (MMI.TO) down $12 (3%)
Lexmark (LXK) down $20 (1%)

Got any suggestions on stocks I should dump or add? I am thinking about dumping Tim Hortons either just before earnings release or after. I have a feeling it is going to be a good one but it will already be priced into the stock. So therefore, I may sell on the day of release and hopefully get out at the top!

Portfolio update

Well, since I last checked in I have made a few purchases. Decided instead of trading on margin anymore, I took out a loan to invest the proceeds.

I've purchased AMD, SNY, YHOO, MMI.TO, LXK, AAPL and NT.TO.

Unfortunately, I also shorted GM just before they went on strike, since a deal was reached I am now down 8%.

The only real loser among the longs has been my penny stock Messina Minerals.