RetireRichBlog Stock Mutual Fund Performance for May, 2008

One year has gone by and the Retirerichblog performance porfolio on Marketocracy.com has nothing to brag about. It is one down 35% from my virtual $1 million to $655,862.49. Thank goodness I did not win the lottery yet.

Click Image for a closer Look.

My biggest gains were

TX $8,438.77 (Ternium, Mohnish Pabrai pick which I sold)
WFC $6,958.15 (Wells Fargo, Warren Buffett pick)
WMT $6,019.87 (Walmart, Warren Buffett pick)
AXP $5,288.27 (American Express, Warren Buffett pick)

But my losers far outweight my winners:

1 C -$95,111.64 (Citigroup, Eddie Lampert pick)
2 WM -$80,224.80 (Washington Mutual, Bill Nygren pick)
3 FMD -$69,274.39
4 DFCLQ -$63,141.67 (Delta Financial, Mohnish Pabrai pick)
5 SHLD -$26,135.15 (Sears Holding, Eddie Lampert pick)

I've learned a lot of lessons and I hope not to repeat them again. Here are some so you don't make the same mistakes I did.

1. 52 week low does not mean it won't go lower...be patient and wait for the 2 year low.
2. Just because an investing guru buys in, don't go blindly in because of greed. You still have to understand the company and it has to have good fundamentals.
3. Look for companies that have an EPS compared to the stock price of at least 10% or better. Ie. A $20 stock should be earning at least $2.00 in earnings per share. It's like getting paid 10% interest but the only difference is that the eps stays with the money to be reinvested.
4. Don't get over concentrated in related sectors. I got carried away and put to much in housing, retail, and financial which all were related to the financial crisis.
5. In an up market, try to keep 30% in cash so when there's a down market, you can buy bargains. Easier said then done.

Here are Marketocracy advisors with great track records of 20%+ . Some with over 8 years. My goal is too achieve this but not a very good start.

http://advisor.marketocracy.com/mFOLIO/