Investing Adventures - Week 3

So i sold the NFLX stock yesterday at 225$ a share - only to get my butt kicked today when it jumped to 233 - ugh. I still gained 900$ but i wished i kept it - would could have predicted that one? Then again i should have known that Netflix will lead the way in terms of multimedia streaming. Oh well - lets not dwell on such things.

New stock bought was EA Games (ERTS) - If I buy Activision Blizzard (makers of WoW and COD) - why wouldnt i buy the makers of Madden, NHL, and upcoming juggernaut Battlefield 3 (it looks gorgeous!) - so 300 shares bought at 22.65$ - this stock i will yield until the release of the game -the bigger the sales the better.

Unfortunately i didnt capitalize on any of the Hurricane Irene stocks but thats fine.

Lets look at my stocks today: HAS has a total gain of 2K approx, STX is up by 86$, MCZ - 19.75 (Note due to exchange rate i'm getting pumelled) CLWR is down by 23, THQI is up 55, and ATVI is up 82.

As for my mutual funds they are up in gain by 263.89$ CAD.

Not bad.

I forgot to mention one of my goals earlier: its to gain 5% cash return on investment per month. If someone gave me 100K can I make 5K in profit with just brain power? Hey If i make more the merrier but 5% gain from stock play is pretty good. Obviously sharks that does 200% gain also have high suicide rates but still 5K from 100K is basically a salary. Lets GO!

Investing Adventures Week 2 - Market Rebound

So Aug 24th 2011 - The market bounce back this week (monday) and one of the stock that clearly had a lead was the Hasbro Stock - current gains is about 2000$. Not bad however I did invest 32K$(or 1K in shares) - a nice goal would be to raise upto 3000$ and then sell half off and re-invest.

I'm going to hold on to most of my stock from the previous week and watch for double gain and then sell.

This week some more stock that I have purchased are the following:

ATVI - Activision Blizzard. They make Call of Duty and World of Warcraft / Starcraft 2. As big Tech guru - you know that this is a key stock to have as a gamer and i'm happy to say that i got in while its relatively low in gain. In October Blizzcon (Blizzard's convention) is the event to watch for to see more of Blizzard's up and coming games and retweak. One of the fear i might have is that WoW is declining in subscription currently (dropping from 11M users to 10M) and CoD: MW3 is going head to head with EA's Battlefield 3. It might hurt sales but this is for the long haul. 100 shares bought

CLWR: Clearwire - ok this one is a long shark - this is one of the very few stocks that managed to climb during last week's decent. However there are rumors that Sprint are buying this company out. A buy out would be a huge soar for the value of this stock. I'll hold onto this for a few more days to see if it will climb. I'm not looking to gain much out of this buyout but better now than later and go "doh!" 100 shares bought

THQI: THQ interactive. Another video game company - this company has several great licensed games and one of them is the WWE brand. I have great fate in this stock to climb steadly. 100 shares bought.

MUTAL FUNDS.

Last week I have purchased one of such funds and it was on hold until it got cleared. At the same time I figured I would invest in another one too.

RBF274 - RBC Life Science and Technology Fund. 2500$ of share bought.

Life + Tech is where we are heading. Promote of life and tech always blend well therefore I have strong belief in this fund.

RBF499 Emerging Markets Equity Fund 2500$ of share bought.

This was a long shot as when i used the given tools my criteria was simple: give me the best return in 3 months time in Equity Funds. BINGO.

Week 1 of buying Stocks and Mutual

Week 1 of trading stocks - the stock market tumbles ...THATS AWESOME!

I'm not insane btw - as when stock dips - thats when you buy because its low. When you have stock in the market that dips thats when you get angry. Now which stock should i buy? Did ebay dip? yes, so did google and apple. I have 100K to choose from...

HAS - from Hasbro Inc - being in the collectible business I have verified their 52Weeks and their yearly portfolio - AUG is the best time to buy their stock as it will rise up in december. Now lets think of it logicially - August is a dead month since everyone is on vacation and most parents will be spending on back to school items - therefore stock drops. In December - stock will climb as they will pushing out Xmas toys like crazy. So Hasbro stock is a good 3 months buy investment. HOWEVER i bought 1000 share which i believe was a mistake. We will see if it be ok.

STX - Seagate Technology. Being a PC Guru - Seagate is one of the pioneers of harddrive making and with the increasing market of tablets and streaming media - Seagate is at the front door of HD tech. I believe that they will rebound despite this week's market low. 100 Shares Bought

NFLX - Netflix - YES! Their stock drops! 2 years ago at a mear 7$ a share and now 212$ and more - c'mon no brainer here. Furthermore here is an interesting fact: there are more NETFLIX subscriber in the states than there are cable tv users. Netflix is the new TV despite it not being live. WE are all couch potatoes and for a mere 8$ a month its worth to watch all those things provided that your ISP (internet service provider) doesn't cap you on the download and you have sufficient time to actually watch the shows. 100 Shares bought

MCZ - Mad Catz Interactive - the guys that makes the awesome joysticks for consoles. When SFIV came out they made 3 joysticks and they were sold out - at 99$ for the medium offering and 150$ for the high end offering. With ULTIMATE Marvel Vs Capcom 3 in November - more joysticks will be bought. The last 2 years saw the rise of fighting game and with the huge response that Evo2011 had - Street Fighter aint dead. 500 Shares bought

I have purchased 2 mutual funds too but they are not locked in yet so i will not report them yet.

My Adventure in Practice Investing - Prologue

Everyone knows that finance aint easy.

People who have made it rich by buying stocks one day and then selling it off are far and few.

Just like the hot tip eps of Seinfield - you can easily get the feeling "hey I can watch the stock market". Well your wrong - those tips are far and few.

Why the interest in StockMarket/Mutual Funds and finance in the first place? Ever heard of 401K? Ever heard of the RRSP?

They are stock market and funds portfolio for your retirement - why let something as far as 50 years wait when you can dip it in now and on a 5 days basis look at your money rise for you on screen or fade away as if you gambled it off (yes stock market is kinda like gambling as you do not foresee the future but your willing to take a chance).

My nephew and I talk about stocks pretty easily and its all about market watch - watching what the industry is doing and what are the CEO and Tech are doing for a company. With this incentive - 2 years ago he told me about this crazy "virtual" stock market simulation and aid for education as to how the market works. It had some nice features and a "pool" to see how fair the other people that are in your league are fairing. You start with 100K in fake money and you buy and trade stock. It was fun for a while and apparently i doubled in my income (how can you not when you can finally buy some google and apple stock!) - but soon after i lost interest - as the tools and the simulation grew dull. Its a simulator after all.

Well 2 years later - with the market slowing down again (Nintendo is slowly dying!) I made it a challenge now: RBC has a Practice Account of 100K of fake money for you to practice with. Its directly tied into your existing online banking account and it uses the exact same tools as if you had a real account.

Now Let the games begin.

My GOAL: is to see how smart i can be in using the fake money and make in short term a profitable portfolio assuming that i had 100K disposable to me. How knows - maybe secretly someone will pay attention to this and will actually give me 100K of real money to play with! I just want to proove that I can do.

So on a weekly basis - i will summarize what i bought, what i sold, why i did it , and how is it doing.