Tue 4 Dec 2007
The overall performance of my IRA account(s) hasn’t changed much since last month despite what has been a rather volatile market. November saw broad market declines with a dramatic uptick in the last couple days as Wall Street got excited about a potential rate cut by the Fed. Of course the uptick was not enough to reverse the overall downward trend.

The fact that I didn’t see much movement in my own portfolio might be attributable to the fact that I’m sitting at over 30% in cash. Yeah, I’m trying to time the market. Does it make me a little foolish to buck the somewhat accepted conventional wisdom to invest in index funds and not to time the market? Probably. Does it make me a bad person? I hope not.
As it’s December this is my last IRA update for the year. Next year, I hope to able to deliver more insight into my investing mind by fleshing out what else I’m doing. I currently don’t detail anything about my brokerage account(s) or 401k. I feel like adding all of that would be too much information as I like to keep some level of privacy. However, I’m hoping next year to highlight atleast my relative performance in those accounts. If I tell you I’m up 10% (or down 15), I don’t feel like I’ve revealed too much other than maybe I’m a poor investor.
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December 5th, 2007 at 8:52 am
How do you incorporate dividends into your portfolio performance?
I feel bad for your loss in WM but hopefully it’s reached bottom. I’m starting to buy some shares.
December 5th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Jon, since I don’t reinvest dividends directly they are just added to cash position. As a result I’m undervaluing individual dividend stock performance. I should do a better job accounting for them.
As WM, I’m happy that I’ve managed to stay afloat as well as I have in the mortgage crisis. I sold my shares of AHM, and trimmed my overall holdings of WM a few months back. The 2003 version of me would’ve ridden AHM down to 0. I’ve taken big losses in the sector but it could’ve been much worse. While long term I’m bullish on WM, I’m not ready to call a bottom. I’m better off getting back in too late rather than too early.