Salman Qadir - Personal Website and Portfolio - Toronto, ON » Market Blog

The change in my investment strategy

salman — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 22:47:54 +0000

So seeing that I have accumulated a lot of losses when I first started trading back in April 2009, and then countered those losses with lots of capital gains, some realized and some unrealized, I’ve decided to change up my investment strategy.

Because I am in my 4th year, and have many senior courses; plus my part-time job, I have decided to settle down and simply pick up stocks that give a very nice dividend, instead of capital gains.

As you can see my portfolio on the right side, I have bought and been holding stocks such as KCAP and CWX/UN.TO. These two stocks give out dividends that equate to roughly 12% (KCAP) and 19% (CWX/UN.TO), annually of course, with the DRIP option on both of these stocks.

I am currently going to continue to hold Activision, as I believe that this company will soar with their new games coming out just in time for the holidays. The story is the same for Agrium; this stock did reach $57/share at one point and that is where I should have sold it, but didn’t, but with their efforts of trying to take over CF Industries, I know this stock is one of the better commodity picks.

And one may have noticed: I used to own SDT/UN.TO, but it recently converted to a mutual fund. I, of course, got the better deal, and will continue to hold this in my TFSA trading account.

Just thought I’d throw this update out.

As volatile as it is, it sure feels nice with the green shoots

salman — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:37:29 +0000

So the market went up again this past week, the high for my portfolio being the Thursday, with Agrium up just over $3. As Canpotex reached an agreement to sell potash to India for a reasonable price of $460/tonne, Agrium shares skyrocketed. Previously, Canpotex wanted somewhere in the $600-$700/tonne range, and India wanted somewhere around $300/tonne, and so it looks like they met somewhere in between. The real deal here is that as India has signed on to this deal, China should not be far behind (I mean its a race between India and China, and who wants to be left out in this type of economy), so I am looking forward to Agrium shares increasing in the near future, preferrably before the year end.

No related posts.

The markets are hurting…

salman — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:51:07 +0000

Ohhh yes, the markets are hurting today. Majority of my portfolio is in the red and I can feel the overcoming emotion. But I will not let this emotion get in the way like it did last time. My portfolio (last time) was up 20-30%.

As it was my first time trading, I felt I had done a swell of a job, but let this be a lesson that is thrown around everywhere:
1) NEVER EVER let emotion get in the way of how you see things
- this is exactly what I had done back then and lost almost everything that I had gained in a matter of hours of trading (due to my transaction fees)

2) The hardest part is selling!
- Like last time, I did not sell when I should have and believed the stocks I was holding were really those “long-term” stocks. Thats not the case anymore. As a new trader, its still hard for me to sell when the time is right, and quite frankly, I sometimes know when the time is right, but I just don’t.

Well, thats my thought for today as I see my portfolio tumble down oh so much! But I guess I will just sit on it for now.