Thu 31 Jul 2008
I didn't win. Which is no big surprise. But I didn't even know I didn't win until I happened to check my Spam folder and see a bunch of emails from the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge.
Oops. Imagine if I had actually won. I might have missed the email!
Let's see how poorly I did. I'm almost embarrassed to publish these. Gulp.
Portfolio 1: Entertainment
| Symbol | % Gain |
|---|---|
| MVL | -2.43% |
| DWA | 1.72% |
| ERTS | -15.15% |
| ATVID | 13.33% |
| Total | -2.52% |
Portfolio 2: Energy
| Symbol | % Gain |
|---|---|
| VQ | -8.82% |
| PXP | -16.09% |
| BRY | -20.55% |
| BP | -15.34% |
| Total | -60.81% |
Portfolio 3: Discount Shopping
| Symbol | % Gain |
|---|---|
| NDN | -32.60% |
| DLTR | 0.14% |
| FDO | 1.63% |
| ROST | 1.17% |
| Total | -29.65% |
Portfolio 4: Technology
| Symbol | % Gain |
|---|---|
| CLWR | -26.04% |
| GIGM | -29.31% |
| COMS | -27.84% |
| YHOO | -20.35% |
| Total | -103.54% |
Portfolio 5: First Week's Top Market Movers
| Symbol | % Gain |
|---|---|
| VQ | -8.82% |
| APKT | -54.25% |
| PSS | -3.98% |
| ICOG | -4.85% |
| Total | -71.90% |
Oh my. My my my. That's a lot of red. That's just… abysmal. I didn't do so badly last year, but sure as hell stunk like a rotting goose egg locked in a stuffy car during the summer this year, didn't I? This is why I'm in Silicon Valley and not Wall Street.
August 1st, 2008 at 9:10 am
The interesting thing is that in an RSS reader, all percentages are the same color. For a moment, I thought you had done great! Then I realized you said "red" and thought something was amiss, so I clicked through. Perhaps a minus next to the percentages would help clear things up?
Anyways, stay away from my investment money.
August 1st, 2008 at 9:23 am
Oh yea, good idea with the minuses! Though that's a lot of minuses now…
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:11 am
Dude you suck! I hope you didn't put any real money on these companies!
I shouldn't talk though. My own real world portfolio is doing just as bad.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:57 am
mike, your totals aren't calculated right, so you didn't do as bad as you show above. example, if you put 250 bucks into each of the first four stocks, then you would have lost a total of 6 bucks, so your return would be -0.6%, not -2.52%. for portfolio 2 it would be -15.2%, not -60.81%.
August 25th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Oh, you're right! Whew, that's a load off my mind. I'll take not-as-bad over abysmally-bad any day. Thanks for correcting my math, Jason!