inMessment Game – Fourth Quarter & Full Year Results 2011
By Billy, on January 29th, 2012
The 2011 year has come to an end. Time to review my inMessment Game results and see how I have done. I know this is a little late. We have been busy with our third adoption this month.
To see earlier results from 2011, click the following links:
First Quarter Results 2011
Second Quarter Results 2011
Third Quarter Results 2011
I started the inMessment Game on Investopedia in December of 2010. The game now has a grand total of 10 players including me. As we start the second year, NOW is a great time to join the game!
Here is what you will see in this post:
inMessment Numbers as of December 30, 2011
The fourth quarter of 2011 was a decent quarter. We had a little comeback from the third quarter drop. We ended the year down more than a percent.
- Q4 Starting Account Value: $22,482.94
- Q4 Ending Account Value: $24,579.13 (Up $2,096.19 (9.3%) from Q3 2011)
- Annual Return: -1.6% (APY)
- Number of Securities In Portfolio: 10
- Trades this Quarter: 6
- Available Cash: $5,232.14
Comparison to Benchmark – The S&P 500 Index
The benchmark I have chosen to compare my results to is the S&P 500 Index. This is a broad index of 500 of the top US companies. Many investors and firms use this index as a general benchmark.
The Blue line is my inMessment Game portfolio. The Red line is the S&P 500 Index.
Here is the Year-To-Date chart. YTD, the S&P and my inMessment Game portfolio are fairly close together. From time to time the inMessment Game portfolio is doing slightly better than the S&P Index. At the end of Q4 the S&P did slightly better than my portfolio.
The Good
Seven of my holdings did as well or better than the S&P 500 in Q4. These I consider good for the quarter.
| Name |
Symbol |
Q4 Gain % |
| BlackRock, Inc. |
BLK |
18.9% |
| Prologis Inc |
PLD |
17.9% |
| iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Index (ETF) |
IJR |
16.7% |
| Medtronic, Inc. |
MDT |
15.1% |
| NIKE, Inc. |
NKE |
12.7% |
| Rydex S&P Equal Weight ETF |
RSP |
11.8% |
| iShares Russell Midcap Index Fund (ETF) |
IWR |
11.5% |
The Bad
My bad list is not all bad this quarter. I list four holdings and they all made gains in Q4. I am listing them as bad because they lagged behind the S&P 500 so they did not keep up with my benchmark.
| Name |
Symbol |
Q4 Gain % |
| iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Indx (ETF) |
EEM |
8.2% |
| Rydex S&P MidCap 400 Pure Growth ETF |
RFG |
7.2% |
| Market Vectors-Coal ETF |
KOL |
6.2% |
| VMware, Inc. |
VMW |
3.5% |
The Ugly
I have two holdings in the Ugly list. These both lost money in Q4. SLV really tanked as silver and gold prices continue to drop. SCZ is being hit hard the debt problems in Europe.
| Name |
Symbol |
Q4 Gain % |
| iShares MSCI EAFE Small Cap Index Fund |
SCZ |
-0.5% |
| iShares Silver Trust (ETF) |
SLV |
-6.9% |
Changes To The Portfolio
In Q4 I have made two major changes to my portfolio.
First, I replaced my SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) holding with Rydex S&P Equal Weight ETF (RSP). I did this with the idea that I want to beat the S&P index as my benchmark. SPY basically performs in line with the benchmark.
RSP weights the S&P 500 securities equally rather than by market cap. This gives more weight to the smaller companies in the index so RSP is slightly more volatile and may provide better returns over time.
The second major change is that I have started placing stop losses on the non-core holdings. This is basically due to the huge (15%) losses in Q3. Stop loss settings may have saved some of the gains from Q1 and Q2.
On December 28 three of my holdings hit their stop loss points and were sold. Since these were sold I now have a little over 20% of my portfolio in cash. I plan to reinvest this when I see a good opportunity.
Below are the three holdings that stopped out with their net gain/loss from the time I purchased each.
| Name |
Symbol |
Gain/Loss % |
| Market Vectors-Coal ETF |
KOL |
-25.1% |
| iShares Silver Trust (ETF) |
SLV |
-6.1% |
| VMware, Inc. |
VMW |
-1.7% |
Full inMessment Game Portfolio
Here is the full portfolio. Since I am late getting this out I am including the details as of January 27, 2012.
I have categorized the investments in the following way:
Core: Long-term stable investments that will not change often.
Sub-Core: Still long-term but may trade more often.
Opportunity: Long or short-term trading opportunities.
inMessment Game Portfolio As of January 27, 2012
| Name | Symbol | Last price | Shares | Mkt value | Gain % | Purpose |
| iShares Russell Midcap... | IWR | $105.07 | 25 | $2,626.75 | 3.54% | Core |
| iShares S&P SmallCap... | IJR | $73.28 | 37 | $2,711.36 | 6.76% | Core |
| Rydex S&P MidCap 400... | RFG | $84.95 | 30 | $2,548.50 | -3.38% | Core |
| iShares MSCI Emerging... | EEM | $42.37 | 54 | $2,287.98 | -9.96% | Sub-Core |
| iShares MSCI EAFE Small... | SCZ | $37.86 | 25 | $946.50 | -9.62% | Opportunity |
| BlackRock, Inc. | BLK | $187.49 | 10 | $1,874.90 | 4.21% | Opportunity |
| Prologis Inc | PLD | $32.52 | 44 | $1,430.88 | 1.04% | Sub-Core |
| Medtronic, Inc. | MDT | $39.28 | 30 | $1,178.40 | 6.73% | Opportunity |
| VMware, Inc. | VMW | $92.27 | 50 | $4,613.50 | 0.88% | Opportunity |
| Rydex S&P Equal Weight... | RSP | $49.20 | 54 | $2,656.80 | 5.57% | Core |
| Cash | | $0.00 | | $3,232.69 | 0.00% | Core |
| | $0.00 | | $0.00 | 0.00% | |
inMessment Game Trade History for Q4 2011
Below is the trade history for my inMessment Game in Q4 2011. I also include the history through January 27, 2012 as I am late getting this post out.
| Date |
Trade Type |
Symbol |
Quantity |
Price |
Value |
| 1/27/2012 |
Sell at Market |
NKE |
25 |
$101.79 |
$2,534.76 |
| 1/24/2012 |
Buy at Market Open |
VMW |
50 |
$90.32 |
$4,525.99 |
| 12/28/2011 |
Sell at Trailing Stop |
VMW |
22 |
$83.64 |
$1,825.09 |
| 12/28/2011 |
Sell at Trailing Stop |
KOL |
40 |
$31.84 |
$1,258.61 |
| 12/28/2011 |
Sell at Trailing Stop |
SLV |
75 |
$27.23 |
$2,027.11 |
| 12/19/2011 |
Buy at Limit |
KOL |
20 |
$31.83 |
$651.59 |
| 11/9/2011 |
Buy at Market |
RSP |
54 |
$46.42 |
$2,516.67 |
| 11/9/2011 |
Sell at Market |
SPY |
20 |
$124.74 |
$2,484.81 |
Join the inMessment Game
Now that you have read through my results why don’t you join the game yourself? It is completly free and the best way I have found to learn about investing.
Click Here to Join the inMessment Game!
DISCLAIMER
This and other articles on this blog are for entertainment purposes. I am doing the best I can but I am still very much in a learning process. These posts are an effort to share this learning process only and should not be considered financial advice.
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