Real too bad that the stock market had to loose points today. The market volatility is making it very difficult for my 100 000$ goal! The stock market is going crazy and so am I. I am going completely nuts! 5 years of investment, almost 3 years on the stock market, but still, I am not getting use to the ups and downs of the market! Anyhow, despite a difficult stock market and a difficult job situation, I had save 589$ during the month of June. The money had been applied as payment on my 8.25% credit line. Live is crazy as not more than the stock market itself – so better prepare for the worst. Why am I saying this? Well, a colleague of mine got fired just a couple of days. A very nice guy, English spoken only. Always on time and from my point of view, was good at the job. But he got fired. After 3 years or so. I don’t have a clue of what happen. No one actually knows what happen. And shortly after, I got one of his friend that came to me, asking me for 30$. She almost cries, saying she was embarrassed to ask me money, but she only needed 30$... I borrow her the 30$, but I explain her that I had myself a difficult situation. I didn’t think about not borrowing her the 30$, it never crossed my mind. But what if I would be the one in need of 30$? Well, I would wait for my next dividend payment or use my credit card. Having credit, and believe it or not, having more than 37 000$ in debts is a blessing.
It’s a blessing to be able to use money for the only purpose of spending money for everyday uses, it’s a blessing to be able to use credit to invest. And I am very bless to have thousands of dollars of credit! When I was younger – I am still young yeah, but I really mean when I was in my young twenties, I was a credit card and credit fanatic. Back than, I open an American Express, a TD Visa, a TD credit line, a CIBC Visa, etc… But I guess opening credit at a young age had paid well. My relation with credit is kind of particular, as many of credit I own is being unused. I love credit card, those chic-a-chics card really made me happy. So when Bank of Scotia refuses, just last spring, my RSP loan, I really hate Bank of Scotia for doing this for me. I could have got the loan if I would had own some cash, which I don’t. All of my money is invested and my choice of being a Dividend Girl had made it impossible for me to obtain credit at Bank of Scotia. I explain I was receiving more than 4 000$ in cash from my dividend and so on. But nothing help. So I came to the conclusion that staff working at Bank of Scotia are a bunch of incompetents, just like the ones of BMO Bank of Montreal. You know, like those people need a real wake up call! I am the one who is holding almost 90 000$ in assets, I am the one receiving 4 000$ in dividend, isn’t enough? So here I discover the tough reality: cash worth more than anything. At least for Bank of Scotia. So why should I deal with people who had refused me an RSP loan, why should I do business with ignorant who had treated my money so disrespectfully. Because you need to know the portfolio, the girl and dividends right. Like me and Bank of Scotia, we don’t share the same vision on things. And strangely, because of Derek Foster, I own Bank of Scotia stocks.
Fact is, forget about cash. Stocks worth more than cash but seem like Bank of Scotia do not have that philosophy. But…. Surprise, things are different at TD Canada Trust. Talking about TD Canada Trust, I just came from an article of Larry MacDonald, very interesting…. It’s about a guy who say not to hold, just to invest for the short term… Strange isn’t? But this is not strange when you know the guy is an American. The situation is quite unsecured in the States and I guess that investment for a short term might be the new way to go for the Americans. Which is kind of sad. Investment for a long term is much more rewarding and interesting than for the short term. And here, with my 5 big years in the investment field, I know what I am talking about for sure lol. So I guess some examples are required.
You may not believe me, but I first invested in Pembina Income Fund (PIF.UN) when the unit price was 12$ per unit! On date of today, the unit price is raising to an almost 18$! Another good example, 100 stocks of Methanex at 15$ per stock… Currently, MX is at something close to 23$! It can be very rewarding to invest for a long term because valuable companies increase in value over time. Of course, I am naming 2 of my majors « hit », but I made wrong moves and loose money among the way and things got pretty…… nasty lol. I had to go through a failure period to discover that the only way to make money out of the stock market for me was to follow the teaching of Derek Foster. And trust me, there is no better way! And that’s why Derek Foster is a bestseller author. So why spend time reading book about a short term strategy when you can go with a stop working strategy? Isn’t a stop working strategy much much better? Of course it is.
Anyhow, despite the current market volatility, if investment in quality companies, investment for the long term is still the way to go. So when I read this article of Larry MacDonald about short term investment, I just can think about how this is just at the exact opposite of my view of how should individuals invest. Like investment is not a game. I borrowed 7 000$ on a credit card balance transfer at 4.5% only to invest in Just Energy Income Fund (JE.UN). Do you really believe I made this as a short term investment? Investment need to be made for long term. Small investors can loose real precious time at trying to figure out if it’s a good time to invest. Trying to time the market is never a good thing. So far, I made my investments whenever money was available and surprisely, the result had been good. Why? Because I didn’t try to time too much the market I did what I had to do: I invested the money where I felt it was going to be at its best.
Just to explain a bit more of what I am trying to explain, here what I had promised to Canuck (a reader) for a long time now, my investments, the money made… and lost… WOW… Almost feeling like getting naked… or in better lol.
Holding is better than a short-selling action scheme. Here’s the why and the dark side of my story with investment
In this exercise, I took my major holder, and separate them in a Profit and Loss Section. Let’s start with the ugly losses.
THE LOSS TEAM
Timminco (TIM):
Initial investment value: 4 065$
Value in date of June 21: 124$
Loss: 3 941$
Sprott Inc. (SII):
Initial investment value: 4 983.64$
Value in date of June 21: 1 802.50$
Loss: 3 181.14$
Sprott Canadian Equity Fund:
Initial investment value: 7 033.50$
Value in date of June 21: 5 195.90$
Loss: 1 837.60$
Blue Note Mining (BNT):
Initial investment value: 689$
Value in date of June 21: 30$
Loss: 659$
Hanwei Energy Services (HE):
Initial investment value: 674$
Value in date of June 21: 124.50$
Loss: 549.50$
RBC U.S. Mid-Cap Equity Fund C$:
Initial investment value: 2 300$
Value in date of June 21: 1 765.73$
Loss: 534.27$
RBC O’Shaughnessy International Equity Fund:
Initial investment value: 1 000$
Value in date of June 21: 553.06$
Loss: 446.94$
Maritime Life Trimark Europlus Seg Fund:
Initial investment value: 1 000$
Value in date of June 21: 560.05$
Loss: 439.95$
Just Energy Income Fund (JE.UN):
Initial investment value: 10 055.09$
Value in date of June 21: 9 632.59$
Loss: 422.50$
Maritime Life International Equity Fund (Templeton):
Initial investment value: 1 000$
Value in date of June 21: 589.85$
Loss: 410.15$
Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (PBH):
Initial investment value: 2 899$
Value in date of June 21: 2 574$
Loss: 325$
RBC O’Shaughnessy Canadian Equity Fund:
Initial investment value: 3 000$
Value in date of June 21: 2 700.19$
Loss: 299.81$
Dumont Nickel Inc. (DNI):
Initial investment value: 719$
Value in date of June 21: 431.25$
Loss: 287.75$
RBC Global Resources Fund:
Initial investment value: 1 000$
Value in date of June 21: 833.08$
Loss: 166.92$
Manulife Simplicity Growth Portfolio:
Initial investment value: 1 000$
Value in date of June 21: 837.28$
Loss: 162.72$
Bell Aliant Regional Communications Income Fund (BA.UN):
Initial investment value: 2 708.78$
Value in date of June 21: 2 552$
Loss: 156.78$
CIBC Emerging Markets Index Fund:
Initial investment value: 500$
Value in date of June 21: 399.17$
Loss: 100.83$
RBC O’Shaughnessy All-Canadian Equity Fund:
Initial investment value: 1 100$
Value in date of June 21: 1 026.82$
Loss: 73.18$
Maritime Life Fidelity True North Seg Fund:
Initial investment value: 1 000$
Value in date of June 21: 960.04$
Loss: 39.96$
Maritime Life CI Harbour Seg Fund:
Initial investment value: 1 000$
Value in date of June 21: 995.35$
Loss: 4.65$
TOTAL OF LOSS: 14 039.65$
THE PROFIT TEAM
Pembina Pipeline Income Fund (PIF.UN):
Initial investment value: 6 068.79$
Value in date of June 21: 7 521.05$
Profit: 1 452.26$
Pengrowth Energy Trust (PGF.UN):
Initial investment value: 1 147.93$
Value in date of June 21: 2 148.66$
Profit: 1 000.73$
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS):
Initial investment value: 4 756.72$
Value in date of June 21: 5 464.30$
Profit: 707.58$
Methanex Corporation (MX):
Initial investment value: 1 626.80$
Value in date of June 21: 2 317.50$
Profit: 690.70$
Yellow Pages Income Fund (YLO.UN):
Initial investment value: 2 325.39$
Value in date of June 21: 2 825.75$
Profit: 500.36$
Enbridge Income Fund (ENF.UN):
Initial investment value: 3 735.94$
Value in date of June 21: 4 206.70$
Profit: 470.76$
Fortis (FTS):
Initial investment value: 2 651.47$
Value in date of June 21: 2 989.20$
Profit: 337.73$
Claymore Gold Bullion ETF (CGL):
Initial investment value: 3 587.30$
Value in date of June 21: 3 758.56$
Profit: 171.26$
EnCana Corporation (ECA):
Initial investment value: 3 230$
Value in date of June 21: 3 524$
Profit: 294$
Emera Incorporated (EMA):
Initial investment value: 4 996.60$
Value in date of June 21: 5 090.40$
Profit: 93.80$
Corby Distilleries Limited (CDL.A):
Initial investment value: 1 530$
Value in date of June 21: 1 555$
Profit: 25$
RBC Canadian Dividend Fund:
Initial investment value: 500$
Value in date of June 21: 511.86$
Profit: 11.86$
CIBC Monthly Income Fund:
Initial investment value: 1 000$
Value in date of June 21: 1 004.88$
Profit: 4.88$
CIBC Dividend Growth Fund:
Initial investment value: 500$
Value in date of June 21: 502.69$
Profit: 2.69$
TOTAL PROFIT: 5 763.61$
I know, the losses are quite… phenomenal. I lost a total of 14 039.65$ in bad investments. I made a profit of 5 763.61$ from my good investment so far. First thing, it’s easier to loose money from the stock market than to make money out of it.
If we add the total of money loss (14 039.65$) to the value of my portfolio is date of June 21 (88 336.16$), we reach the amount of 102 375.81$.
Which mean that if I wouldn’t had lost 14 039.65$, I would had reached my 100 000$ assets goal by now. Part of the biggest loosers investment (Timminco (TIM), Sprott Inc. (SII) and Sprott Canadian Equity Fund) had been made about 2 years ago. Interesting to notice: Manuvie segrated fund are really really bad! Manuvie segregated fund had contribute to the 14 000$ and something lost. These investments had been made around 3 to 4 years ago… And 3 to 4 years later, Manuvie fund had not be able to provide any profit to my portfolio.
Since I stop investing in mutual funds and begin to stick to the Stop Working Strategy of Derek Foster, results had been amazing. I had been quite impressed with my latest RSP pick, Claymore Gold Bullion ETF (CGL), EnCana Corporation (ECA) and Emera Incorporated (EMA). Those 3 had been great performers.
I had to loose money in bad investment to understand the stock market. Loosing 14 000$ in bad investment to understand the stock market, does it really worth it? Well in my case, yes, as I plan to continue to invest in the future. A 14 000$ lost to understand it all is not that much to pay, in a certain way. But fact is, I wouldn’t had lost 14 000$ if I would had stick to Derek Foster portfolio. That’s the true and the only true. I said it before and I will say it again. You know, that Eric Sprott, he might be a nice guy, but Eric Sprott is not what it takes in a Stop Working portfolio. Why? Because when it come to Eric Sprott and the other big player guys like Jean-François Tardif, too much speculation is involve. And at their level, they don’t care if small investors are going to loose money because of them. Because I am telling the true: making you loose money won’t keep them awake at night. (Got the picture? It’s the small investors vs. the big guys!). The big guys include people like Eric Sprott, but not only. They also include banks who sell mutual funds, insurance companies like Manuvie, just to name one. Once you loose money in one of their mutual funds or segregated funds, banks and insurance don’t care, they don’t refund the money lost. That’s why the only way to go is by following the Stop Working strategy.
Anyhow, I will eventually recover from my losses, its never fun to publicly exposes so much money lost but its not like I am a shame of it either. Just part of the package lol.
I know, 14 000$ lost in the stock market 37 000$ in debts……. Where in hell is the Dividend Girl going lol… Not far for now for sure lol, but hey, don’t forget my 4 000$ and something dividend I will earn for 2010 ok? And not to forget that the game is not over yet! Who's going to win? :0)
If I could make a good 3 000$ per month like before, I could invest more in some good investment that could help me forgive my 14 000$ lost. By good investment, I have in mind CGL, ECA, ENB…… The big expensive ones. I had come to a point where I believe that a way to get over my 1 837.60$ money lost in the Sprott Canadian Equity Fund would be to sell the fund and invest the whole 5 195.90$ that is currently in the Sprott Canadian Equity fund into EnCana (ECA). Why? Because currently, ECA worth around 35$. There’s good possibility for EnCana to double in value in the next upcoming months. It had reached 60$ and something before, it could reached it again, especially knowing that EnCana gas reserved are spectacular. Gas is certainly more powerful than Eric Sprott on the stock market… or me… lol… don’t you think so?
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