Tuesday 10 April 2007

US Stock Trade and "Little Book" Portfolio Update - APR 2007

This month I selected Optimal Group (OPMR) from the MagicFormula listing to add to my "Little Book That Beats The Market" Portfolio of US Shares (100% geared). I bought 600 OPMR @ $8.48. My US Stock Portfolio currently stands as:

Symbol P/E Last Shrs Trade Date Paid Comm Value Gain
HRB 28.89 21.03 200 28-Jun-06 24.16 130 $5,103.75 -$889.62 -14.84%
MOT 12.07 17.65 265 24-Jul-06 18.98 130 $5,675.59 -$557.68 -8.95%
MSFT 24.42 28.57 200 21-Aug-06 24.64 130 $6,933.62 $823.79 +13.48%
ASEI 22.88 52.60 100 18-Sep-06 49.51 130 $6,382.72 $244.97 +3.99%
PWEI 6.55 32.86 150 13-Oct-06 33.29 130 $5,981.07 -$208.27 -3.36%
OVTI 14.61 12.49 300 13-Nov-06 16.47 130 $4,546.78 -$1,578.82 -25.77%
EPIQ 14.05 22.15 320 11-Dec-06 15.65 130 $8,600.90 $2,393.97 +38.57%
CRYP 14.02 25.34 200 10-Jan-07 23.92 130 $6,149.74 $214.62 +3.62%
VRGY 48.43 25.23 270 14-Feb-07 18.29 130 $8,266.11 $2,143.75 +35.02%
KG 16.77 19.96 260 7-Mar-07 18.49 130 $6,297.29 $333.78 +5.60%
OPMR 16.89 8.48 600 10-Apr-07 8.48 130 $6,174.01 -$130.00 -2.06%
11 symbols Total(AUD): $70,111.57 $2,790.49 +4.15%

The commision amounts include an allowance of another $65 for selling costs. There is no allowance for dividends received (around $300) or interest paid on the Portfolio Loan (currently around $400 a month).
At the moment the performance of this portfolio is largely governed by what individual stocks I have selected (semi-randomly) from the Lists generated on the www.magicformulainvesting.com website. For example, in the first trade I was tossing up whether the buy H&R Block or Hasbro toys - in the end I chose to purchase HRB (which has dropped nearly 15%). HAS in the same period has gained in price. Over a period of several years, once I am fully invested (with a portfolio of 18 stocks), the performance of my particular portfolio should be more in line with what can reasonably be expected from application of the "Little Book" methodology.

I'm quite happy with how the portfolio is performing, especially as the above figures are in AUD and the portfolio is held in USD. With the AUD hitting a 16-year high today, my foreign exchange losses have impacted the ROI to date quite significantly.

I was going to "mirror" my US stock purchases with CFD purchases of equivalent value via CMC Markets, but none of the US stocks I was considering adding to the portfolio today are actually traded by CMC Markets. I may either use the CFD trading the hedge my currency exposure, or perhaps use it to by a core index holding of QQQQ or Russel2000.

Enough Wealth

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi

I just thought that you might want to know about Firstrade in the USA. $6.50 brokerage and easy to setup and transfer money from Australia. I hate to see you wasting $ on commission with Commsec here.
Cheers