Warren and me….
January 27, 2013
I started this blog as a journal to record my efforts to determine whether someone of slightly above average intelligence ( me ) and with a pretty good academic and practical grounding in economics and international trade and banking can be successful using his retirement IRA assets to earn a living buying and selling equities on Wall Street ( See Post #1, August 2010 ).
I was also curious to see ( using my results ) whether the Bush initiative to privatize Social Security had any possibility of being a beneficial alternative to the current defined benefit system where Social Security funds are not segregated but find their way into the general Budget and are used by the government to help balance the budget.
And, you all know from my most recent posts that after many years of disadvantageously following accepted investor practices , I believe I have found the ideal investment vehicle ( S&P 500 Index ). Exemplified by SPY, IVV and VOO and other similar ETFs, I use these ETFs to escape all the snares, booby traps and nasty surprises which have made the financial industry suspect .
So,………. you could have bowled me over when I tuned in to CBS Sunday Morning, January 20 and watched Warren Buffett say that ,in his opinion, the only safe way for a private investor to succeed on Wall Street is to invest regularly in an index such as SPY over the long term because it offers the broad diversification that insulates an investor from specific risk!
Thank you Warren ! Too bad I hadn’t watched you say this 10 years ago. It would have saved me a great deal of trial and error loss. But, better late than never ! Never mind, I’m still here and packing sufficient monetary firepower to put this wisdom to good use.
Warren and I may agree on what to buy, but that is only half the story. We definitely do not agree on the buy / sell mechanics. I still need to make a living and think I can do so by buying and selling SPY and its siblings following the dictates of momentum mechanics. ( Surfs up…all aboard for a ride to the beach )
Warren would prefer I buy regularly and never sell. That would be great if I were much younger. But, I’m not.
As of today, my SPY type holdings are up 5.5% from January 1 . You only need to listen to radio or TV to know that the Dow is approaching an all time high and that money is migrating out of fixed income investments into the stock market. The internals of the US equity market are signaling THRUST and telling me to ride SPY in front of this wave until wave momentum dips below predetermined parameters.
With almost 60 percent of my working capital already riding this wave, I am on the verge of peeling out to catch a trailing wave with a larger percent of my capital because I can really feel the power of surf beneath my SPY board. I guess ” feeling ” power translates into experience.
Incidentally, $1 million invested in SPY seven months ago would now be worth $115,000 more….( 11.5% gain in 7 months). Had I not taken $25,000 ( 2.5% profit in July ) and had I not uttered those famous words about nobody going to the poorhouse taking a smaller profit.
My new motto…., follow the prescribed sell mechanics don’t get off the board unless the underlying thrust indicators say this ride is over !.
I intend to enjoy the ride at least until the mantra ” Play till May then Go Away ” begins to intrude on my thoughts and fight for consideration.
You will know the outcome.
Richard Maurice Gore