Dividont's!

Members present: Brian, Bickford, Yousef

The Dow just changed. Kraft is out, and some medical company is in. The managers in charge of the Dow Industrial Average must think that this change will best represent the market as a whole, but we're not really certain.

Europe is still trying to sort things out, but the market seems mollified for the moment.

One of our members has a goofy onestock.com share of Apple in a nifty frame--it was a wedding present, and he has been ignoring the thing's actual value for some time. However, he's not collecting dividends on the thing. He needs to look into that, and figure out what his most highly-valued piece of art can do for him. This also means that he has taxable income from those dividends, which in turn means that he will need to report those dividends.

Our portfolio is moving up.

ENZL has moved up about $3.50 since we purchased!
SPY is at an all-time high for up (purchased at $119), currently at $147

There are two ways we can play the exit strategy for SPY:
1. Buy and hold until the KOL finance portfolio is done...when we retire forever from video boxing.
2. Or we could sell constantly (this makes tax stuff a little more complicated, however we need to consider dividends anyway).

EWZ...ugh. Diversity appears to have bitten us there.

However, here's the breakdown of our meager portfolio. You will notice a 7% gain in the value, which should take into account dividends being rolled back into more shares (or portions of shares).

The positions listed below represent your holdings as of the previous market’s close. Market values are delayed by at least 15 minutes.

		Symbol/ CUSIP	Security Description	Quantity	Acquired Date	Holding Period	Average Unit Cost	Cost	Market Price	Market Value	Unrealized Gain/Loss	% Gain/Loss	Covered
		ENZL	ISHARES TR ZEALAND INVST ZE	16.0000	08/09/2012	Short Term (329)	$31.1375	$498.20	$33.4620	$535.39	$37.19	7.47%	Covered
		EWZ	ISHARES INC BRAZIL INDEX FD	6.0000	05/27/2011	Long Term	$75.1467	$450.88	$57.0600	$342.36	-$108.52	-24.07%	Non-Covered
		SPY	SPDR TR UNIT SER 1	4.0000	11/15/2010	Long Term	$122.3200	$489.28	$147.2400	$588.96	$99.68	20.37%	Non-Covered
		T	AT&T INC	16.0000	12/27/2011	Short Term (103)	$30.3175	$485.08	$37.2600	$596.16	$111.08	22.90%	Covered
	** Total All Asset Classes							$1,923.44		$2,062.87	$139.43	7.25%

It's nice to see some positive movement in the portfolio, even if it is just inflationary.

If we would have invested all of our lot in SPY, we would have been up 20%. However, if we would have gone all-in with EWZ, we would have been down 24%. Diversifying may take away those dizzying highs, but it also mitigates the doldrums.

Profit!

Euro Momma Jokes

Members present: Brian, Bickford, Danak

So Europe is going to have a banking, and the market approves. Even our crummy Brazil ETF (EWZ) was up a little. A banking union for the Eurozone means that there is some more guaranteed stability.

Here's a the Planet Money article that gives some more deets.

Even EWZ is up a little, about 2.5%

SPY: The market is liking this banking union thing.

Telecommited to profit!

Of course it is still time for us to make a stock purchase. There are currently three contenders: NORW, ENZL, and HILO. 

Here's the sector breakdown for each (remember, we have a small portfolio, and we are trying to diversify):

As you can see NORW is the most energy-heavy of the lot, but that might not be a problem because Norway seems to have a good reputation for keeping things sane. If anyone can handle a giant national endowment of Texas Tea, is the Vikings. Plus, remember the movie at the Norway kiosk at EPCOT? If  you can sit through that snoozer, you know they have no taste or irrational exuberance.

And here's a breakdown of the sectors and what each would do to our total portfolio:



With each of these, we would stay pretty well-diversified. However, if we do go with NORW it might be good to avoid energy in the future. Really though, it is probably necessary to sit on this and take a look at this chart in more depth next week.

We could also look at these as our next three buys, and just choose which makes sense next. This would give us a short list of investments, which will always be ready for the next buy. We tend to work in cycles of about six months, but we don't buy as often because it is always so hard to commit to something specific. The idea is that we will add to the list and be prepared for upcoming buys waiting only on the funds to roll in. 

Oh the things you can do with screen capture.

Profit!

On the Euro? Nope, we're on the Gryro?

Members present: Brian, Bickford, Danak

So Greece, what the Love, Greece? It seems uncertain as to how things are going to shake down. They are still in electoral limbo, and the market hates nothing more than uncertainty. So it's a wait and see, as temperatures rise, and markets fall. At least there's summer vacation for some of us.

But it's buy time, so we need to decide what it is we want to own pieces of. New Zealand is still on the table, in particular ENZL:

ENZL

It looked like it is still going down a bit, so it might be a good thing to wait a while and see what it does.


And then there's helium, which doesn't sound as crazy as you think. Yes, it's the second most common element in the universe, but check this video out.


Ugh, Brazil, just ugh:

EWZ

SPY

AT&T: Doing the best of the lot. 

For next week:
1. No Bickford
2. Brian and Danak will look into New Zealand, like, for real this time.
3. Brian will be working on a Bonds presentation for the following week.

Profit!

KOL Finance 05/05/12 Cinco del Investo!

Members present: Brian, Bickford, Yousef (slightly pixilated--it's been a long week)

We talked a bit about the continuing Europe fiasco, in particular Greece. We wondered if things were really getting better. Unemployment is still high, but the good news is the nation is further away from impending bankruptcy. Then there's Spain, so the big question is when does Germany kick everyone else out of the Eurozone.

In other news, Barnes and Noble stock is rocking now. The bookseller ticked up a few notches on the news that Microsoft was investing heavily in the Nook. One possible reason is to get in on the textbook market. 

*There is an advantage to this, since you don't have to lug around heavy bricks of information. The downside is you can't resell the data. This is the model that the video game industryis moving toward  (Steam, downloadable content), and to a certain extent films (via Netflix) and music (via iTunes). 

SPY: Trucking along still. Hopefully the recent disappointing jobs report won't stop the progress. 

AT&T: Looking good.

Then there's ENZL, the New Zealand fund we have been thinking about may be a good buy. Next week we will decide if it is a good investment. 

Profit!