I wanted to include a little of how I started with investing, and what returns have looked like so far.
So here are top 15 holdings with their individual performance overall, vs S&P, as well as Feb return and YTD. In future updates, I might trim this down to just more recent performance. For now, I have them listed in order of overall performance.
FEB
TICKER RETURN YTD OVERALL VS S&P
NVDA -6.9% 4.9% 480% 442%
NKE 8.1% 12.5% 165% 60%
FB 4% 17.8% 153% 109%
WBA 5.4% 4.4% 133% 42%
AAPL 12.9% 18.3% 120% 69%
*** 1.8% 11.6% 100% 62%
AMZN 2.6% 12.7% 92% 61%
ATVI 12.2% 25% 82% 59%
PCLN 9.5% 17.6% 65% 30%
GOOGL 3% 6.6% 53% 17%
CELG 6.3% 6.7% 20% -2%
DIS -- 5.6% 15% -3.5%
CASY -- -3% 11% -14%
SBUX 3% 3% 11% -8%
CMG -0.6% 11% 8% -6%
When first looking at this table it hit me how much of a relation there is to how long I have held and performance. WBA, for example, by no means a high flyer, but pretty soundly beating “the market”. A couple exceptions are SBUX and DIS. I have held both for a several year, but added a lot to DIS last year when it was between $90-$100. Same for SBUX. This drove up cost basis, but I am very confident in both long term. They are actually the top two positions based on what I have invested.
The other thing is, I don’t want this to come off as “bragging”. These are just my top 15 positions in portfolio of 40 stocks. there are plenty more that don’t look nearly as good. Also some that have better gains, but very small positions. I just started really tracking my performance, but a look back shows until last couple years, I was pretty much around the S&P as far as performance. I feel a lot better about this going forward with the current makeup of my portfolio.
I started investing in late 90s. I was working for Walgreens, and could purchase stock thru payroll deductions at 15% employee discount. I knew next to nothing about investing, but thought that sounded like a great deal so I took them up on it. After a few years, I left to go to my current company. At that time, you needed to be there for 6 months or a year or something to start in the 401k. Well, I got a letter from the bank that handled the Walgreens stock transactions that they could continue to make monthly purchases and just deduct from my checking account rather than payroll deductions. My thought was sure. When I can start in 401k with current employer, then I can re-address the stock purchase plan. I did join the 401k, but never stopped those monthly purchases until about 15 years later. About 5 years into it, I did a start an account with sharebuilder. Basically doing the same thing, but with a lot more companies to choose from. And that was what I did for around 8 years or so. A small monthly purchase in WBA (it was WAG at that time) and then another small monhtly purchase divided between 5 or 6 companies. To start, I went with companies I knew and used. Not financials or performance, but companies whose products I knew or was familiar with, and felt were strong companies not going to go bankrupt. Early purchases were Nike, Intel, Oakley, GE, Honeywell. And that is what I did for years without really paying too much attention to returns, performance or anything. I did start to notice dividends, and thought, reinvesting them was a great way to add to my tiny but consistently growing portfolio. I still do that to build portions today. And still have several where the dividend is one of reasons I keep it, and one of the reasons for increased returns. Then, around 4 years ago I stumbled across the fool. Then around a year later, I found Saul on some of the stock advisor boards. What really hit home to me was how much sense the things Saul said made sense, and how some posters, just couldn’t seem to objectively look at let alone accept some of what Saul was bringing to the boards. That eventually led me here. With next month’s review, I will try to give a little more thoughts on individual positions.
Sorry for the “two-part” post. Ugggh! I wish we could “retract” a post, then I could have combined them.
Also, please let me know thoughts, ideas, criticism about format of how I do my review as well as thoughts on make up of portfolio and individual positions.
Thanks to all here!
Kevin