I just figured out my investment results since July, 2002.  Since I feel free to post all sorts of investment tidbits on this site I figured I should also post my results.  The portfolio is a joint trading account owned by my wife and I.  The result reflects only the costs incurred to date, liquidation would incur some trading costs that haven't been factored in and the taxes that would be incurred are not factored in either.  However, taxes incurred up to this point have been.  Anyway, I feel a long term record (5-10 years) is the best judge of performance.  I'm also interested in relative performance (comparison to an index) over the same time frame.  I'll probably end up posting these results in 6 month intervals as a check to myself.  If I can't beat the indexes over time I might as well invest in them.  This is as much to keep me honest as to keep you informed.

Ed's Portfolio S&P500	18.35% 11.88%
NASDAQ	36.38%
Wilshire 5000	14.31%

4:37:06 PM  #  

Great interview with Marc Perkins of Gunther Int'l at theStreet.com.

Brett D. Fromson: How in your experience is serious money most often made?

Marc Perkins: By recognizing changes and significant trends and holding on. Seeing the Internet as a business concept, and what it was going to bring with it. And getting in, and then just hanging on. Realizing, when oil was $35 a barrel, that at $35, you could pump oil out of the woodwork. That at $35, you could convert coal oil and make it work. And it couldn't stay up there.

Herb Stein, who not only was the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors and the father of Ben Stein, but a neighbor of mine when I was a kid in Silver Springs, Maryland, used to say, "Things that can't happen, don't." Sounds stupid, sounds whimsical, but it actually is a powerful investing concept.

When you say things that can't happen, don't, that means things like when interest rates are at 20%, they can't stay there -- it'll break the back of the economy, it will destroy the economy. Interest rates had to come down. Peter Lynch is a brilliant and wonderful guy. But I happen to believe that the vast majority of Peter Lynch's legendary performance comes from one great decision. Interest rates coming down. And he bought every financial stock he could lay his hands on when interest rates were 20%, and they were selling at fractions of book value. I don't want to make it sound like I'm demeaning any part of Peter's performance because that one decision was enough, and it was brilliant.

1:14:50 PM  #