New Stock Purchases... And It's NOT Groupon (GRPN)

I got some spare change around $300.  So I decided to put it in our Investment fund.  I'm almost done with my ROTH $5,000 limit so now, it's time to double down on our stocks.

Here are my picks for next Tuesday's trading day (via Automatic Investment Plan - lower fees): prices as of 11/042011 at 9:48 am

GLD = $200 - $4 (fee) = $196.00/$170.53 = 1.1494 shares
WM = $100 - $4 (fee) = $96.00/$31.31     = 3.0661 shares.

The Market in general has been a roller coaster these past few weeks.  Europe still has the Greek debt issues while the US Unemployment rate went down a bit. So you can imagine how some days the market is down and some day it's up.  Here's my view, whatever short term news/events that affect the markets in the near future should not affect how I view my investments (unless, these events are specifically about my portfolio positions).  In fact, the more the Markets put fear into the masses, the more I should invest (after due diligence of course).

So why GLD and WM?  Well GLD is easy.  It is a Gold ETF that would serve as my hedge against inflation and government catastrophes that can weaken the dollar or the US's credit rating.  I want more share of GLD to help shore up my portfolio.  WM on the other hand is a waste disposal play that I believe would be busy in the upcoming holiday season.  It would haul millions of pounds of trash and perhaps even clean up after snow storms and other weather-related events.  Plus, they just paid their dividend in Sept 2011 so I expect the next dividend date to be in December.  So I'm putting in more shares to get that juicy dividend.

All in all, I'm just balancing my portfolio and building up my positions so that I can eventually sell shares to recoup my initial investment and play with the house's money (pure profit play).

New Rules

My Automatic Investment Plan just Posted.

Here's a summary of the transaction:
04/12/2011 - Transaction History - Buy
Ticker             Price/ Principal Amount               Fee                     Total
GLD              $141.08/ $146.00                    $4.00                     $150.00  (GLD Closed at $141.61 - Good!)
XLNX           $30.69/ $36.00                        $4.00                     $40.00    (XLNX Closed at $30.64 - Down)
WM              $37.75/ $76.00                        $4.00                     $80.00    (WM Closed at $37.67 - Down)

So I learned that Sharebuilder will collection commissions (fees) within the investment amount I put in for each position.  Basically, I could have invested my $300 and the fees would have been included within the $300 investment rather than getting charged the fee after.  This is good for those who are a bit cash strapped.  However, the $4 per investment could have bought some more "mini" shares of my stock positions.

Anyway, I just have to put in some NEW RULES for our Investment Strategy:

1. I will always keep 10% of my portfolio in CASH.  The reason is to have some cash on hand to catch bargain stocks and have some liquid cash for other purposes.

2. I will have ONLY 10% of my portfolio in Gold (GLD).  Gold is just a hedge for me. I do not plan to get rich off gold.

3. Each position will ONLY cover 20-25% of my portfolio.  This is to keep my diversity and spread out my risk across my portfolio.

First Automatic Investment Plan

My recurring deposit on April 11 will be available on April 12.
The automatic investment plan will be executed on April 12.

Here's what I put in: $300

$150 for (GLD) SPDR GOLD TRUST ETF
- My gold hedge.  I plan to have 10% of my portfolio in gold.  Since I cannot afford to stock the actual gold, the ETF would do.

$80 (WM) Waste Management
- Another dividend play. With a 3.60% dividend yield, this Industrial/Waste Management stock is very attractive to me.  Add to the fact that they have multiple streams of income (Collection/Recycling/Transfer/Disposal of waste, Recycling Materials (aluminum,etc) Brokerage, Rental of Port-o-Lets to municipalities and commercial customers, Self-storage, Street Sweeping and Land Fill contracts).  Only hindrances are Government regulations, Competitive market and fuel costs.

$40 (XLNX) Xilinx Inc
- Building up my position before the next earnings date 04/27/11.

Total Investments = $270
Total Fees: $12 ($4 each trade)