To All The Stocks I Have Loved Before

To All The Stocks I Loved Before

As an investor, I find myself second-guessing myself all of the time. Even when I have done my homework, my due diligence, I sometimes get cold feet and either do not make the purchase or I bail out quickly.  I think it is just human nature.

Interestingly, I have done it four times recently on stocks for my MFI tranches.  While my MFI tranches have overall performed satisfactorily, in total I would have been better off to go with my first instincts.

The first case was in August 2013. I had actually bought IQNT at 7.81.  It is now at 14.86 and it has paid 12 cents in dividends. That is almost a two bagger (92%) that I left at the altar. Now the good news is that I picked a terrific stock to replace it at the 24th hour. I went with AGX, which is up 96%. So far, that was a "good trade", though I would have loved to have had both of them in the August 2013 tranche.

The second case was to November 2013 tranche. I felt that I knew what stocks I wanted a couple of weeks before the tranche came up. Two of them had earnings before the 11/15 date so I bought them in early November with intent they would be part of November tranche.  I got cold feet on 11/15 and sold them. The two stocks were CALL and AWRE.  CALL is up a staggering 59% since then. AWRE is up 6%.  I can not directly point to the two stocks I replaced them with (can not find in my notes), but that tranche is up in aggregate 16.5%.

The final case was in the most recent February tranche. I had actually bought GPS early in the day. I then started to re-worry about retail and also found some notes where I had planned to buy KLAC. So at the end of the day, I swapped out GPS for KLAC.  It is still early days, but GPS is up 13% since then. KLAC is up 6.5%.

Best Day Since October 15th, 2012

 Well, the mark I set on February 7th did not even last a month.  I edged past it by about $1,000 today. That means in the past 18 days, I have had 15 up days with a net gain in excess of 10%.  Whatever I am doing right now is working.

I did have two transactions today.  I sold my MBUU at $19.18, which was almost exactly a 10% gain since I bought them on January 31st at $17.50.  Hard to complain about that.  It was 4,000 shares with my multiplier, so it was a nice $ gain as well. Of course (here is the complaining), they then closed at about $19.90.  But I am doing very well on my post IPO buys.  I have now made about $27,000 with my multiplier.  My second transaction was to increase my holdings in RIOM by 67%.  I believe precious metal plays will continue to rebound in 2014 and this will be my play.

GTAT was up about 11% today on the heels of GS placing them ay a "Buy" with a $26 price target (GT Advanced rallies after Goldman starts coverage with Buy rating). Very sweet, still kicking myself at selling 1/3 of my position at $11.15.