Current Stock Portfolio, Updates
Monday, December 11, 2006 Permanent link to this post
I have not written for a while as I am attending the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) 2006 in Milawaukee, Wisconsin. Its a delightful downtown full of holiday decorations and lots of beer places. Yesterday I presented a research paper in the OASIS Workshop - Empirical Analysis of Determinants of Perceived Customer Satisfaction with Open Source Software (extended abstract).
This post is essentially an update of previous posts. First - my stock portfolio, then an update on my Prosper adventure and lastly, research.
Stock Portfolio
My post on a 60%+ stock market return in 9 months generated a lot of interest. Well - my portfolio is continuing to perform and I am on on track for ~80% by the end of the year. I will be paying capital gains tax on this end of the year - but thankfully my marginal tax rate is low so its not going to hurt too much. Here is my current stock portfolio:
Figure 1: Stock portfolio growth in last 6 months
Prosper Adventure
I am continuing to put money in Prosper - although the careful lending strategy that I use necessitates slow scaling up. Now I have ~3.5% of my total investments in Prosper. All the data analysis pieces I posted here has helped me make better sense of the dynamics in Prosper. All my loans are current and I have average interest rate of 20%+. Lets see how long the honeymoon continues. This is my current Prosper portfolio distribution. As I had recommended in my previous posts - D credit group is the way to go in Prosper.
Figure 2: Portfolio distribution on Prosper, December 2006
Research
I am in the middle of all the big names in IS research here in this conference. I have been talking to several researchers and here is the big thing everyone is talking about - impact of IS on Innovation. The troublesome thing is that I am also looking at the same thing - although I am confident that the niche I am following is quite unique and I will be able to look at it from a different angle than other researchers.
PS> LFCFan has inspired me to put some ads on my blog and "monetize" the traffic. I am not completely comfortable about it - but its exciting to see that all this that I write has a hard cash value. If you find the ads in bad taste, not appropriate, unpleasant... then please leave a comment and I will take them out.
PPS> Its that time of the year when NASDAQ 100 index is rebalanced. This year Infosys (INFY) is being added to the index and its a great great story for the Indian businesses. Although I am very positive about future growth of Infosys - I am quite uncomfortable with current valuations (PE 45, PEG 1.29) - so I will stay out of it till valuations come down to more reasonable levels.
This post is essentially an update of previous posts. First - my stock portfolio, then an update on my Prosper adventure and lastly, research.
Stock Portfolio
My post on a 60%+ stock market return in 9 months generated a lot of interest. Well - my portfolio is continuing to perform and I am on on track for ~80% by the end of the year. I will be paying capital gains tax on this end of the year - but thankfully my marginal tax rate is low so its not going to hurt too much. Here is my current stock portfolio:
- Seagate (STX): It has been the largest stock in my portfolio for a while. Now I have booked profits to the extent of about half of my initial holding but I still have quite a bit left.
- LCA-Vision (LCAV): I bought some when it dropped after bad results as I am positive on its medium term growth. It has been reasonably volatile since then and that had given me the opportunity to book profits and re-enter.
- Cemex (CX): It is the classic business school case - and its growing. There have been some unpleasant acquisition news going around - that gave me an opportunity to enter. This is my first time holding on Cemex.
- TurkCell (TKC): I put in a lot of money on this a few months back - was down a significant percentage one time then it recovered sharply and I was able to book profit on my entire holding. Then it dropped and I have re-entered.
- Tata Motors (TTM): I have a smaller holding in my one time employer than I would like to have. I am looking for entry points but it has been consistent and strong.
- Other small holding are - Select Comfort (SCSS), Christopher & Banks (CBK), PepsiAmericas (PAS) and HiMax Tech (HIMX). I picked initial stakes in all of these after their sharp down move recently.
Figure 1: Stock portfolio growth in last 6 monthsProsper Adventure
I am continuing to put money in Prosper - although the careful lending strategy that I use necessitates slow scaling up. Now I have ~3.5% of my total investments in Prosper. All the data analysis pieces I posted here has helped me make better sense of the dynamics in Prosper. All my loans are current and I have average interest rate of 20%+. Lets see how long the honeymoon continues. This is my current Prosper portfolio distribution. As I had recommended in my previous posts - D credit group is the way to go in Prosper.
Figure 2: Portfolio distribution on Prosper, December 2006Research
I am in the middle of all the big names in IS research here in this conference. I have been talking to several researchers and here is the big thing everyone is talking about - impact of IS on Innovation. The troublesome thing is that I am also looking at the same thing - although I am confident that the niche I am following is quite unique and I will be able to look at it from a different angle than other researchers.
PS> LFCFan has inspired me to put some ads on my blog and "monetize" the traffic. I am not completely comfortable about it - but its exciting to see that all this that I write has a hard cash value. If you find the ads in bad taste, not appropriate, unpleasant... then please leave a comment and I will take them out.
PPS> Its that time of the year when NASDAQ 100 index is rebalanced. This year Infosys (INFY) is being added to the index and its a great great story for the Indian businesses. Although I am very positive about future growth of Infosys - I am quite uncomfortable with current valuations (PE 45, PEG 1.29) - so I will stay out of it till valuations come down to more reasonable levels.
Labels: Investing, Prosper, Research
Therer are 9 Comments. Post a Comment
Hi sanjeev,
I think adsense very few image ads. Try link ads. They also seems to be doing well on content related blogs. Sta-ads are good to use along with adsense. I mean, I have a blog where I post the video highlights of liverpool matches and there I don't see adsense doing well. But I get relatively higher visitors/impression. So sta-ads generate at least 20-30 cents per day. I believe that will increase by time. Only thing what I have to do is to place a small sta-ads in all the new pages.
http://internetbazaar.blogspot.com
I think adsense very few image ads. Try link ads. They also seems to be doing well on content related blogs. Sta-ads are good to use along with adsense. I mean, I have a blog where I post the video highlights of liverpool matches and there I don't see adsense doing well. But I get relatively higher visitors/impression. So sta-ads generate at least 20-30 cents per day. I believe that will increase by time. Only thing what I have to do is to place a small sta-ads in all the new pages.
http://internetbazaar.blogspot.com
Thanks for your helpful comments. I will continue with AdSense image ads for a couple of weeks and then try changing it as needed. My problem with Sta-Ads is that it does not change the ads dynamically as the content on the blog changes - and I do not want to manually select ads.
Loving your blog man. Keep up the good work.
As an aside, a stock you may wish to check out and add to your portfolio is CHINA. I'm projecting a 50%+ growth in stock price over the next 12 months. My December 2007 price target is $14.
I'm not returning 60-80% on my total portfolio right now (only 34%) but I'm still not doing to badly. *lol* I just don't have time (or funds) to trade as often in and out of stocks like you do.
As an aside, a stock you may wish to check out and add to your portfolio is CHINA. I'm projecting a 50%+ growth in stock price over the next 12 months. My December 2007 price target is $14.
I'm not returning 60-80% on my total portfolio right now (only 34%) but I'm still not doing to badly. *lol* I just don't have time (or funds) to trade as often in and out of stocks like you do.
Thanks Scott for your appreciative comments. I like your approach to Prosper that you mention in your blog - indeed it is a business and needs to be approached like a business. In fact, social good is built-in in any competitive business. If a person is accepting say a 20% loan then the person is perhaps getting out of a 29% Credit card and hence saving - otherwise there is no reason for the person to take a 20% rate. So - I believe - one should get the interest rate that the market would bear and just the fact that market is bearing the rate means that there is value for society at that rate.
Hi sanjeev,
Try to remove the borders from your adsense ad, because CTR normally gets lesser when u use borders..
http://internetbazaar.blogspot.com
Try to remove the borders from your adsense ad, because CTR normally gets lesser when u use borders..
http://internetbazaar.blogspot.com
Sanjeev!
Long time no talk! I can't believe that you're getting an 80% return this year! What have your previous years been like?
All the best!
StingyJoe
Long time no talk! I can't believe that you're getting an 80% return this year! What have your previous years been like?
All the best!
StingyJoe
Sanjeev,
Thanks for your comments about Prosper.com. I mostly agree with what you wrote. One thing I disagree thought... those with autofilling loans can be a gold mine to get high interest loans of highly qualified loans. I'm not the only one that thinks so either. Look the the largest lender who has over $800,000 invested ('pensioner'). We can learn bundles from those who have really studied this and invested big $$$. Mr. 'Pensioner' has a very high ROI of 18.75% (26.53% avg loans). And he doesn't invest in HR or NC. How does he do it? He mainly invest in auto funding loans. Look at all his loans over the last 2 weeks... He's not alone... Look at the all the top 10 lenders which have high ROIs, and, suprise - they all are doing the same thing.
Just a tip.
MONEY4RENT lender
Thanks for your comments about Prosper.com. I mostly agree with what you wrote. One thing I disagree thought... those with autofilling loans can be a gold mine to get high interest loans of highly qualified loans. I'm not the only one that thinks so either. Look the the largest lender who has over $800,000 invested ('pensioner'). We can learn bundles from those who have really studied this and invested big $$$. Mr. 'Pensioner' has a very high ROI of 18.75% (26.53% avg loans). And he doesn't invest in HR or NC. How does he do it? He mainly invest in auto funding loans. Look at all his loans over the last 2 weeks... He's not alone... Look at the all the top 10 lenders which have high ROIs, and, suprise - they all are doing the same thing.
Just a tip.
MONEY4RENT lender
Comment posted by 
: 08 January, 2007 00:58
: 08 January, 2007 00:58
Well regarding your stock market presence, it was delightful to know all that. But there are many other practical methods you can try. Why not electronic commodities..?
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