Monday, May 14, 2007

Investing success (or not) for 5/14/07

The market was mixed today, with the DOW slightly up and the S&P slightly down.

My portfolio was decidedly down - my 5 TDAmeritrade accounts were collectively down $717. Nothing took a massive nosedive for me, but several larger holdings declined, while the ones that were up today happened to be much smaller holdings. Just a weird day for me, with the market being basically flat, to have the portfolio drop that much.

Today's investing successes:
Guangshen Railway (GSH) - up 3%. I have alot of faith in my Chinese holdings, and each of them has performed well, except.....

KongZhong Corp (KONG) - up 2.7%. I opened up a position in KONG, and it dropped 17%. I opened a second position, and it kept dropping. With today's move, my second lot is back to breakeven.


Today's failures:
OYO Geospace (OYOG) - down 5%

Novastar Financial (NFI) - down 4.6%. I don't even care anymore.

Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) - down 4.25%. This stock seems to be prone to wild price swings, but definitely with a propensity towards UP. This has been wonderful to me, so I don't complain about days like today.

Whole Foods (WFMI) - down almost 4%. I am really starting to regret purchasing this stock. I really like going to Whole Foods, high prices and all. Their steaks are kickass - awesome meat department. I really thought they had a niche with high barriers to entry. Who knew Wal-Mart would start offering tons of organic food? Who knew hundreds of other local grocers across the country would (and could) do the same thing? The stock price got juiced a bit by the Wild Oats merger announcement back in February. But the stock has fallen again, and my lot is down 18%. Ugggh.

I had ten other stocks that were down 2% or more. Rough day in Q's portfolio.

6 comments:

The CFO Dad said...

Thanks for the comment on my page.

So are you afraid of another drop in the Chinese Market, like Feb 27th of this year happening on a bigger scale?

Anonymous said...

Another selloff is possible. I just get the strange feeling with China that we're seeing the birth of nothing less than a new world order. And if that's the case, I believe there is tremendous profit to be made.

Plus, my exposure is limited, perhaps 5-7% of my portfolio.

Thanks for coming by.

Janet said...

The personal finance advisor at my local credit union bought Whole Foods when it was $80 a few years ago. She bought during the "hype" period when organics was all the rage and they were the first to break ground in the area.

Whole Food's bbq is amazing especially if you go to their stores in Austin. You can see them marinate and grill those steaks.

I saw your comment on Wanda's blog about avoiding Target, Costco and the rest if possible. You're spot on. The clearance aisles will blow your budget and make you buy things you don't need just because they're on clearance.

I made a trip to Target to buy some first-aid supplies and I steered clear of the aisles where the clearance items are kept. I made a list, bought what I needed and left in 10 minutes! It's a record for me.

Anonymous said...

Morningstar thinks Whole Foods is a STEAL. Their ROE is pretty good and margins are above average for a grocer. They took a huge hit, but M* thinks it is coming back.

Rizzo said...

I am glad to hear, I await the comeback!!

QUALITY STOCKS UNDER 5 DOLLARS said...

Seems like a nice plan.