I deposit $1000/mo as a form of Dollar Cost Averaging (investing the same each month regardless of market conditions) as recommended by Benjamin Graham the father of investing.
My best advice is by-the-book: if you don’t want to research and manage stocks, just buy the same amount every month of an ETF that covers the market, and leave it alone. Ex: SPY and VOO cover the S&P 500. This will beat most mutual funds. (I’ll buy these eventually, but I’m playing the research and timing game.) [I did buy these, and then sold them, because I've got ETFs covered in other investments]
I’m still holding substantial cash, for two reasons.
1. I expect the market to fall over the coming months/year, and I’m not seeing many prices I like.
2. I’m using this time to learn to read financial statements and analyze companies, then I can figure out which positions to reinforce.
Buys
None of these prices have changed to be now bad on a long timeline (I’m hoping 10-20yrs) and some are cheaper. (Cost Basis Per Share is essentially what I paid.)
Includes some orders that will process on Monday. (BABA and INTC fell, so I bought more.)
| Symbol | Description | Quantity | Percent Of Account | Cost Basis Per Share | Last Price | Total Gain/Loss Percent | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [CASH] | [CASH HOLDINGS] | $4889.34 | 61.03% | n/a | $1.00 | n/a | |
| META | META PLATFORMS INC CLASS A COMMON STOCK | 5 | 9.93% | $160.00 | $159.10 | -0.57% | maybe an overeager big first bet, but I wanted in on a tech giant |
| C | CITIGROUP INC | 4 | 2.59% | $50.80 | $51.90 | 2.16% | |
| INTC | INTEL CORP COM USD0.001 | 5 | 2.27% | $39.10 | $36.31 | -7.14% | +1 share pending |
| PYPL | PAYPAL HLDGS INC COM | 2 | 2.16% | $83.00 | $86.53 | 4.25% | |
| WBD | WARNER BROS DISCOVERY INC COM SER A | 10 | 1.87% | $14.28 | $15.00 | 5.04% | |
| GPN | GLOBAL PAYMENTS INC | 1 | 1.53% | $118.11 | $122.32 | 3.56% | |
| NFLX | NETFLIX INC | 0.5 | 1.40% | $214.12 | $224.90 | 5.03% | |
| BBBY | BED BATH AND BEYOND COM USD0.01 | 20 | 1.26% | $4.83 | $5.03 | 4.14% | |
| FLWS | 1 800 FLOWERS COM INC CL A | 10 | 1.24% | $10.08 | $9.97 | -1.10% | |
| SWK | STANLEY BLACK & DECKER INC | 1 | 1.21% | $97.61 | $97.33 | -0.29% | |
| STNE | STONECO LTD COM USD0.000079365 CLASS A | 10 | 1.20% | $9.12 | $9.58 | 5.04% | |
| T | AT&T INC COM USD1 | 5 | 1.17% | $18.55 | $18.78 | 1.23% | |
| CCL | CARNIVAL CORP COM USD0.01 | 10 | 1.13% | $9.00 | $9.06 | 0.66% | I normally don’t like companies in debt, but ALL cruises are in debt, and that industry seems too big to fail |
| HOOD | ROBINHOOD MKTS INC COM CL A | 10 | 1.13% | $8.64 | $9.05 | 4.74% | caution - more of a personal purchase, too young to have a justifiable graph |
| BABA | ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING LTD SPON ADS EACH REP 8 ORD SHS | 1 | 1.12% | $102.20 | $89.37 | -12.56% | +1 share pending |
| KSS | KOHLS CORP COM | 3 | 1.09% | $28.42 | $29.14 | 2.53% | |
| DISH | DISH NETWORK CORPORATION CL A | 5 | 1.08% | $18.00 | $17.37 | -3.50% | |
| BAX | BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC | 1 | ~58.66 | pending | |||
| LVS | LAS VEGAS SANDS CORP | 2 | ~37.69 | pending | |||
| WBA | WALGREENS BOOTS ALIANCE INC | 2 | ~39.62 | pending |
What do I look for in a stock? META is a good example - here’s the lifetime stock price by week, in a weekly candlestick chart.
What catches my eye - and what most of these stocks have in common - is a price that’s below the early 2020 peak. This “graph feel” isn’t exactly scientific (“past performance is no guarantee of future results”) but it’s what I’ve got. It’s how I earned +112% returns in 2020-2021, but I got very lucky, right place right time twice (timing in and timing out) especially on TSLA.
My rough theory is that the market has been inflated since covid, in a way that doesn’t match the economy, and I expect the market to (at least) correct to early 2020 prices in this recession. But I don’t think the recession is happening to all companies at the same time (unlike the 2020 dip) so I’m trying to find the ones that have recessed early. Even if the market falls from here, hopefully these fall less.
Compare that to GOOG, which is still far above early 2020 levels. I would love to own GOOG, but not for this price. (This graph is pretty close to SPY, too.)
