Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain
Today I woke up to place an order for Fortune Brands (FO), and Ameritrade had changed it’s site layout!
I struggled for a few minutes to put in a quick order at a low price, but it didn’t happen. NOW I know how to use the system properly.
I ended up buying 20 shares of FO @ $76. This is a long term position I will be holding for several years. I plan to hold FO and GE for 5+ years, adding to the positions if they are strong.
I still have a limit order open to buy 30 shares of GE @ $35.
I came up with an idea recently, and I wish to further pursue it. It seems legal as of now, and I believe has a potentially huge market if properly executed, I also have a contact who works in the industry.
My problem is how to present my idea. As of now I am thinking of:
If the idea has no legal red tape and has the potential to make even a little money, I will pursue it. There is always a lesson in every failure, so I come out ahead either way :)
I’d like to thank Murray from Capital Ideas Blog for a great lunch and the kind words he had to say about me in a recent post. At 23 years of age he has just shy of a six-figure savings, now that’s impressive! It’s refreshing to meet someone so young and financially responsible.
Still young, has a great job, invests, saves and has fun…this guy has a pretty bright future!
Overall this lunch was very successful. It gives me a sort of fiscal role model to look up to (he is a year older than me) and being where he is in one year would be great.
A lot of my best contacts have come through simple lunches like this. If I meet a person with an interesting business, I will ask them to show me how their business runs. Usually they are proud of the business they have built, and are more than willing to show me around.
Today I ran a bunch of errands. While dropping some things off to a family friend, I asked him for a quick tour of his business.
Over 20 years ago he invented a cheap method of sand blasting, and turned it into a large business. He sandblasts and metalblasts large and small pieces of equipment for companies.
I plan to learn more about his business as time goes on. It is always good to have plenty of business contacts, especially for someone like me who loves starting businesses.
For the last couple of days I’ve had a limit order to buy General Electric (GE) at $35.00. It is on a downtrend right now, and it looks as if $35.00 will be approched within the next few days. After I buy (if it hits), I plan to hold GE for the next few years. I expect to buy at $35, and take a loss on the stock for a little while.
The downtrend appears it will continue for a few more days before leveling out and possibly going up. Let me know what you think!
Stocks have been down quite bit the last few days. My unexperienced, non-credible opinion is: Investors have taken their profits from the recent uptrend in the market, and are a little apprehensive to buy at the moment.
I feel the same way. The good thing is, I am starting to feel the next few weeks will be a prime purchase point. I believe this year will be an up year, but much slower than the last.
Right now I have my eye on: ge, agh, axr, brn, bpt, cmbc, crt, nobh
I have put a limit buy order on GE for my longterm portfolio. If the price is right, Ameritrade will trigger my trade automatically. I plan to buy only longterm stocks this year.
On an unrelated topic, I go back to my apartment in Austin on Wednesday or Thursday…for my last semester of college!
The Kirk Report put out a small list of possible ten-bagger stocks. I’ve started doing more long-term trading, so I took a good look at some of these:
agh, axr, brn, bpt, cmbc, crt, nobh
I would like a nice steady growth stock to hold for 5 to 10 years. I looked at all of these, and I’m waiting till the price dips on a few of them. I also have General Electric (GE) on my list of possible buys. I am just waiting for a nice dip in the stock for an entry point.
Today I accomplished:
–Setting up a meeting with a fellow investor.
–Web design work.
These slow days need to stop. I must be more productive everyday!
I will be posting some New Year’s Resolutions soon for 2005. I graduate from college this coming semester, so a lot of important decisions will be made in 2005. Till then, Happy New Year’s!
One of the reasons I started this blog was to track if I was meeting, exceeding or falling short of my goals. One of my short term goals was:
By December 31st, 2004, I should have made $5,000 since September.
Well it is December 31st, here is how I performed:
September Business Profit: + $468
October Business Profit: + $459
November Business Loss: – $9 (Server was down)
December Business Income: + $913
Profit from Wheaton Sale (WHT): + $567
Profit from Syntel Sale (SYNT): + $776
Loss from V.I. Tech Sale (VITX): – $316
Birthday Money: + $101
Parents: + $240
Work: + $1,930
Webpage Work: + $150
Total Income: + $5,604
Total Losses: – $325
Total Money Made: $5,279
