On Monday, I bought 4 new companies.

• 1 000 shares of Grande Cache Coal (GCE.TO) at 60 cents a share
• 4 000 shares at 12.5 cents each of Allen-Vanguard Corp (VRS.TO) for the second time, hoping to make a profit from this stock
• 4 000 shares of Resin Systems Inc. (RS.TO) at 17 cents a share, for the third time
• 5 000 shares of Oilexco Inck. (OIL.TO) at 14.5 cents a share

The next day, I had a hundred dollars left in my trading account so I decided to buy 3 600 shares of Haemacure Corp (HAE.TO) for 2.5 cents a share.

February Blues

Considering I almost doubled my money (15K to just shy of 30K) over a six week period, February has been absolutely horrible for me. This month alone, my portfolio lost almost 30% of it’s value! I made a few trades but what is really hurting the most right now is still Canwest, if this stock can turn-around, I will probably sell half the shares if I can get close to what I bought them for several weeks ago and buy some companies that know how to do more than go down! I have a lot of companies I want to invest in but my stock market funds are all tied-up at the moment, I need to sell some stuff to get more but so far, everything is going in the wrong direction… and I don’t sell at a loss. I guess the good news from all this is several months down the road, I am still up an overall 120% on my initial 15K investment though I far prefered my 195% I enjoyed a little over a month ago

Playing the stock market these days is like crossing the Canadian Rockies by foot , it is hard to go up but easy to go down.

Every month, I will post a review of the previous month’s activities. As of January 31st, 2009, I hold the following stocks. All together, I now own 143 000 shares in 29 different companies.

• AMB 5 000
• APV 2 000
• BKX 3 500
• BLD 1 500
• CGS 20 000
• CLL 1 000
• CRU 2 500
• CSA 2 000
• CYY 2 000
• DAV 5 000
• DUR 7 000
• EG 5 000
• GNE 10 000
• HWO 2 000
• IQW 10 000
• KAB 2 000
• KOM 10 000
• LRI 1 000
• MCH 5 000
• P 5 000
• PLI 5 000
• PSR 1 500
• RBM 5 000
• SMG 10 000
• SVC 1 000
• TLC 2 000
• WEF 5 000
• WNX 10 000
• ZL 2 000

I am taking on overall long-view of the stock market, if something doubles or makes a good return, I will sell it to get some other stocks I am watching, otherwise, I will just play a waiting game. Right now, the analysts are all saying that this year the market will be down and back-up in 2010 – these are the same guys who never saw the economic crisis happen so I don’t hold to much stock in their opinions. I am now looking for a few more companies of the likes of Canwest which I can ride upwards and are currently available at rock bottom prices.

I sold a bunch of stock a few days ago and to my surprise, it cost me a small fortune, I still made a profit but got dinged by fees of about 800$! I noticed things were a little funny when I traded individual stocks but thought nothing of it but when I sold 16 shares, I was astonished by how much my “net profit” had dropped. I called my broker and they said there is a transaction fee plus a percentage fee. I guess eating nothing but moose and squirrel meat with frozen potatoes for the past few months caused my eyes to miss the “fine print” when I signed-up to CredentialDirect. No big deal, now I know, I still made money but now I have to be a little more careful. As a result of these surprise fees, I have less Canwest Global Communications (CGS.TO) than I thought I would have but they still make-up a substantial part of my holdings.

Stock Holdings so far

• AMB.TO
• BKX.TO
• CGS.TO
• CLL.TO
• CRU.TO
• CSA.TO
• CYY.TO
• DAV.TO
• DUR.TO
• EG.TO
• GNE.TO
• HWO.TO
• IQW.TO
• KAB.TO
• KOM.TO
• LRI.TO
• MCH.TO
• P.TO
• PLI.TO
• PSR.V
• SMG.TO
• SVC.TO
• TLC.TO
• WEF.TO
• WNX.TO
• ZL.TO

I have now updated my stock holdings bar on the right hand side of this blog to reflect these changes.

Arise Ballard… hopefully tomorrows technologies make me money today!

Tomorrow I plan on buying some Ballard Power Systems Inc. (BLD.TO)  which manufacturers batteries which are increasingly becoming affordable and with electric cars, in high demand. I am also planning on buying some Arise Technologies Corporation shares as well (APV.TO) whose focus is on solar power technologies, which will also increase in demand as time goes by.

Buzvia: Ballard Power Systems Inc., Arise Technologies Corporation and Canwest Global Communications

Today is the first time my portfolio dropped in value, it dropped a total of 384$, I am still just shy of reaching 30K from my original 15K investment about 7 weeks ago.  What I found odd is the market actually had a “good day” today on the TSX with stocks going up. This just re-enforces my belief that once you make money with a stock, sell it and buy another one that can be found at a good price with lots of potential.

You can’t be greedy!

Although I spend a few hours every night studying stocks, I am not immune to greed. I had some great performing stocks but decided to keep them a little longer to eek out a few more percentages before I was to sell them, the result, they are still UP from when I first bought them but lost a lot of value. I didn’t follow my own advice, learned a lesson, won’t let this happen again.

TSX

When I first started on the stock market, as you can see, I played a bit on the NY Stock Exchange but now am mostly on the TSX. The reason is I understand the Canadian economy more than the American one but right now, I can use any stock market in the world so either way, it doesn’t really matter which stock exchange you use as long as it makes you money.

Message from Glenn

Hey Jon/Marcel, I used to run a blog like this a few years ago when I was actively trading every day in Australia. It became quite successful and had a lot of daily readers. I’ve moved overseas now though and haven’t really traded although I am looking to start again. I was wondering if you would care to discuss you stock selection strategies at some point. The biggest difficulty I’ve had trading in since moving to Europe is the lack of local knowledge. I didn’t realise how much I took for granted from little things I read in the local papers or on the news. So I’m very keen to share ideas with successful traders from other countries to see what and how it is working for them. Hope to speak soon, Glenn

Hi Glenn, I talked to my Uncle about your message and he has a few key points to further clarify upon.

1) Don’t buy what you don’t understand, he spends a lot of hours studying stocks and looking at potentials performance before he buys them. There is a lot of randomness in the market but not following the crowd and doing your own research is what lead to him doubling his money and still doing very well.

2) He never sells at a loss. Today for instance, his porfolio dropped in value but he doesn’t really care as he is using money he can afford to lose. He is in no hurry to sell so waiting for stocks to perform is fine by him. If it takes a day to make money or a year on an individual stock, he always has plenty of fish in his lake that are eager to become his diner.

As of January 11th, 2008, this is the portfolio I am holding in my CredentialDirect account:

• ADS  10000
• AKL  5000
• AMB  5000
• BSY  5000
• CBM  5000
• CLL  1000
• CSA  2000
• CWG  5000
• CYY  2000
• DAV  5000
• DUR  7000
• EG  5000
• EIN  3000
• ELR  3000
• GNE  10000
• HRG  10000
• HWO  2000
• ICS  5000
• IDL  5000
• IQW  10000
• KAB  2000
• KOM  10000
• LRI  1000
• MCH  5000
• MTM  5000
• MYG  2000
• ORB  20000
• OSI  3000
• P  5000
• PLI  5000
• POS  1500
• QAR  5000
• RBM  3000
• RDL  2000
• RS  5000
• SVG  20000
• SMG  10000
• SVC  1000
• TIO  25000
• TLC  2000
• WNX  10000
• ZL  2000

Why did I get into the stock market?

Nobody takes as good care of your things, especially the financial ones as you would. Life is too short to spend it running around in circles and I trust only myself with my own financial security. If news reports are to be trusted, the markets haven’t been this low for 80 years! So, this has to be the best time to join because you are getting everything at enormous discounts! Great companies making real money are so under-valued it isn’t funny… so I plan on profiting from this as much as I can. Get some money together and jump right in!

My Philosophy

I follow my gut instinct when it comes to the stock market, I don’t care what others do and I don’t follow the crowd, if it makes sense, I do it, if not, I don’t. There are thousands of very solid companies out there that lost a heck of a lot of value and they will come back with a vengence once things improve.

My Methodology

What I look for is the 52 week high and low. If they come back half of what they where, I can make many multiples of pure profit in a short period of time but this takes time and patience. I check the numbers of employees which they can always cut should things go bad, the volume of trading, book value and most importantly, how I feel about the trade in general.

Why buy penny stocks?

I buy mostly penny stocks because they can’t go much lower and when they go up, they do so at a far larger margin that very expensive stocks. It’s always easier to double 50 cents than it is to double 50$! If you buy a stock at 10$ a share, there is probably still some meat that hasn’t been eaten off yet while for a 1 cent gain on a 4 cent stock represents a 25% increase at a fraction of the initial cost.

More profitable Tips I have learned so far

If you by 500$ in one company and 10 days later it goes to 1 100$,  sell it right away and dive back into the market with the profits. You can’t be greedy, buy, double, sell… waiting for a few extra dollars here and there is a waste of time.

Try to hold between 50 to 100 penny stock company so every week 5 or 6 company will double or triple, sell them and by some more but always check the one you sold previously because they may have dropped again and you can repeat the cycle again and again!