Portfolio Update


Guess this experiment seemed like it was something could afford to try because everything else has been going fine so far - not too many surprises, or anything like that ... so guess things must be going okay overall? It feels like there's more lessons to be learned from this experience, besides feeling like it was a mistake though lol ... just not sure what they are?

Anyways, it looked like my stop-loss had kicked in, but guess it just expired. So had to place a fresh sell order that won't go through until the exchange opens tomorrow morning - hopefully will be able to get a price close to $19.00?

Not sure what to do with the proceeds from the sale tomorrow - may try taking a look at the earnings report calendar on Nasdaq.com over the weekend, to see what companies still have to report their earnings in the next couple of weeks, to see if there's any that look they might be rising in price soon?

http://www.nasdaq.com/earnings/earnings-calendar.aspx?date=2017-Feb-27

Looks like 'we' are headed to Washington? Oh boy ... GL 'us'!!!

Portfolio Update



Okay, this is what the lessons felt like they might be, but wasn't sure until today - looks like my impulsivity caused me to doing everything that we're not supposed to do ... buy high, sell low, focus too much on the short-term, and not enough on the long-term. Yikes!

The Short-Term Graph




Year-to-Date Graph

Still feeling okay with my experiment - am not tilted or anything ... guess making fish moves is part of the cost of being me Most of the time things work out when am relying on looking at numbers and graphs, and am sticking to stuff like following the tips of Warren Buffett. So the fishiness should start to fade, after having more experiences doing stuff that works and stuff that doesn't


In addition to making too impulsive a move, probably part of the fail of this lightning quick venture in and out of gold was just caused by the run-bad of winding up buying at the wrong time? So it still feels like gold might be a decent long-ish term investment, with better preparation next time - maybe by doing the following?

• waiting until after Trump follows through with the tax cut details in 2 to 3 weeks
• waiting to see if people get more adjusted to Trump over time, or if things continue to fall off the rails
• starting off with a smaller amount of my portfolio - like 1% to 2% ... an amount am comfortable losing completely, in case that actually winds up happening lol
• using a wider stop-loss that works with gold's wider variance - like 10%
• reading the annual reports, studying the graphs, and reading a gazillion articles, just like have done with all my other stocks

Will be better prepared next time! Hopefully

PS. Ski weather outside!

Also ... a Beauty and the Beast makeup collection!!

Looks like the window for editing my post above has already closed - forgot to include the actual portfolio update with the portfolio update ... oops!

Good TV Alert!


Alec Baldwin's hosting Saturday Night Live, and there's a chance Melissa McCarthy or Rosie O'Donnell may be making an appearance as well?

Also, Ed Sheeran's the musical guest star - he may write his own songs?

It's terrible so far - time to bring in Ed Sheeran!

Sunday Funday


Have been getting more free gifts from 888, for being a fish that they want to come back and play


It's just a $1 ticket, but that's my niche - and today's the perfect day for staying inside, so will probably use it on the 'Poker World Cup' which starts in a little over an hour. Guess will that be something like the GPL for fun players?


Still have my Tim Hortons Double Double Visa weekend coupon as well, good for a free treat - and this month's is a free tea, coffee, or hot chocolate ... yum! There's about a foot of fresh snow outside, but it doesn't look so bad - guess sometimes it can be kind of fun to go outside and get cold, and then come back in and drink something warm?


Will see

Turns out Sunday was spent keeping a family member company in the Emergency room. They're still doing tests on my relative, but we're hopeful an adjustment of medication will make a difference.

Quite an eclectic crowd that winds up at the emergency room - there was a homeless guy in the room next door who was trying to get himself a bed for the night, but they still had to go through their full checklist of tests before sending him off on his way with a bus token and a cheese sandwich

Hope everybody had a good Sunday

It's amazing Warren Buffett at 86 is still playing golf, and driving to McD's every day for his daily McMuffin, and doing his investing. Wonder if he also goes to bed at 8pm like everybody else his age was doing at the hospital today?

Still making hospital visits for the next couple of days - pretty nice to have universal healthcare available that's *okay* ... although it seems to be a little on the slow side due to understaffing? Also, guess the food's not so great - the person in the adjoining room today wouldn't stop talking about making an 'escape' to go grab a hotdog ... as in a street hotdog would be an improvement?

Not a lot of private rooms available, but at least there's tv available for rent ...

'Hi neighbour'

Portfolio Update


Sold my Domino's today - would never have bought it if had been looking at the right chart showing it was *already* over-priced Have no idea why the price rise rose a further 5% after that ... maybe a post-Superbowl bump? But as soon as the price turned, guess maybe it's time to sell?

Most of my money was in Domino's, so guess even with the gold snafu, the portfolio's still up over 10% for the year. Unfortunately now that Domino's has been sold, almost everything's sitting on the sidelines, and am having a pickle of a time finding something else to invest in? Guess spending post-holidays and during the Winter tends to be a lot lighter than at other times of the year - so there don't seem to be too many companies that look like they're expecting to have big earnings growth in the first quarter of the year?

There's Facebook that looks like it may grow another 5% over the next couple of months (?) Otherwise, will be left having to give trading on current events another try - which seems more bubble-prone and riskier?

Not sure what to do next?

Watch List


Here's a couple of stocks that seem promising, based on the news they've been receiving - maybe a bit too early to be sure the earnings will really happen though?

Apple (AAPL)

There's rumours that Apple's been saving all their good technology for the 10th anniversary phone, so people are expecting it to be huge. Guess there's no way to tell how much farther their share price is likely to rise, if it's not yet known how well the phone will sell?

Restaurant Brands International (QSR)

And then the parent company of Tim Horton's and Burger King just announced today that they're hoping to buy Popeye's:

Was able to find some old graphs of Tim Horton's and Burger King before they became QSR, and it looks like both of them as well as Popeye's have all historically outperformed the market (although THI and BK ... have they not been public for very long?)

http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/...Album2/BKW.png
http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/...Album2/THI.png
http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/...lbum2/PLKI.png

Have had my eye on QSR for a while - but the analysts don't seem to be expecting great things from them this year?

Maybe Tim Horton's (QSR) is one to keep an eye on some more - but maybe it might be worth the risk to take a chance on Apple right now, if there's nothing that looks much better happening at the moment ... and it seems like the excitement over the new iPhone is only likely to grow?

Hope Apple doesn't turn out to be just like my attempt at investing in gold - yikes!! GL me

Valentine's 2017


Not a bouquet day this year - but Pizza Pizza was giving away a free box of chocolates with purchase of a combo at the hospital cafeteria today, haha!

Portfolio Update


The Apple shares were doing so well this morning, decided to buy more in the afternoon

With not much else going on with other companies, it seems like Apple's been getting all the attention lately - with the new iPhone set to be released this year, for being one of the companies that might benefit from Trump's tax cuts, for their share prices reaching new highs. So hopefully the excitement for Apple will continue, and will hopefully translate to an increase in share price in the run-up to the release of iPhone 8?

Guess will have to wait and see how things go


PS. Tried so hard to finish off my Spinball puzzle before it expired at midnight, but people kept beating me to the 3rd place finish ... sigh, what a promo

My Spin & Go's have each been taking about 9 or 10 minutes to play - and then it takes another 12 to 15 minutes for my peanut head to recover ... so Spinball's been taking me around 3 or 4hr to complete




Looks like may be running out of time again tonight - oh well

Gold


Look where gold wound up by the end of last week - for point-and-laugh giggles, have also included the brief points in time where fishy Sam hopped on and off the lollercoaster

Guess the experience of losing 4% in a single day made the 6% gain on Thursday look a lot less exciting Losing that 4% was kind of intense - part of me's kind of tempted to just stick with other stuff if at all possible, just to avoid having to deal with what appears to be a common swing in price? Although, guess another part of me also feels compelled to follow through and do more research to make sure the risks of investing in gold are really as high as they feel?


Never really did the research was supposed to in the first place, before diving into the pool


So here's what was able to find:

All the Known Reserves of 'Easy' Gold Have Been Mined

Not 100% sure if this is true or not, but there were a couple of articles that were saying that the remaining reserves of known gold are more costly and risky to mine? ¹ So that's one reason, despite the fact that gold can be recycled, that prices have remained higher than they were a decade ago?

Demand for Gold as an Investment Product

Another article was saying that now that gold's so heavily used as an investment product, there's no 'true' price of gold and that its price is whatever people believe it to be? ² So if lots of people become anxious about what's happening in the world, the price will tend to rise, even if the demand for gold jewelry hasn't increased?


Inflation is Considered by Many to be the Primary Driver of Gold Prices

Here's the graph of US inflation rates for the last 20 years:

Guess there does appear like there might be a correlation?

• From 2001-2006: inflation rose from 1 to 4, while gold rose from $250 to $700
• From 2006-2007: inflation declined from 4 to 2, while gold dropped from $700 to $600
• From 2012-2015: inflation dropped from 4 to 0, while gold dropped from $ 1,600 to $1,200

Guess one exception would be when the market crashed in 2008 and inflation dropped to 0, but the price of gold still rose from $1,000 to $1,800?


A Weaker US Dollar is Considered by Some to be a Secondary Driver of Gold Prices

And here's a graph of the US$ index and gold for the last 20 years:

Here too there appears to perhaps be a correlation, if gold prices are tending to rise/fall as the the US$ gets weaker/stronger?


People Seek Out Gold in Times of Global Uncertainty

Guess between 2001-2008 the Iraq War was going on, while between 2008-2016 Pres. Obama was in power. And then there was the stock market crash in 2008. So maybe some of that may have played a part in the rise/fall of gold prices for those years as well?

People have listed some other factors that might tend to affect the price of gold, but these seem to be the main ones?

Kind of hard to tell the relative importance of each of the factors, when:

• Between 2001-2008: inflation was high, the dollar was low, and global uncertainty was high (all cause gold prices to rise)
• Between 2012-2015: inflation was low, the dollar was high, and global uncertainty was low (all cause gold prices to fall)
• While now 2017+: inflation is expected to rise, but the dollar is expected to rise as well, and global uncertainty is maybe in the eye of the beholder?

SUMMARY: Decided to give gold another try with a smallish portion of my portfolio - hopefully it's true that inflation's one of the main factors to cause the price of gold to rise (over and above an amount needed to compensate for the inflation)?

And for peace of mind, maybe won't pay attention to the daily swings?


Yahoo Finance was acting up, so will have to wait until tomorrow to update my portfolio. One of my close family members has been quite sick the past week, so haven't had as much time or energy to focus on much, except caregiving ... and even saying some prayers! Am hopeful things may not be as serious as they first seemed, so hopefully will be back to posting soon, God willing!


¹ http://www.moneycrashers.com/factors-historical-future-gold-prices-up/
² https://www.futuresknowledge.com/news-and-analysis/metals/the-top-factors-that-move-the-price-of-gold/

This is driving me nuts - guess meant to say that there was an inverse relationship between the US$ and gold prices?

Feel much better now lol ...




Happy Family Day and Presidents Day tomorrow everybody!

ScreaminAsian, your post fits in *perfectly* with this thread!! Thanks for keeping the thread going with your funnies while i was gone


Still on hiatus - will hopefully have a chance to make an update sometime before the end of the month

Goodie Corner - Cheap Internet Entertainment Edition


So the investing is still going *okay* - March has been kind if a disappointment, so am not so eager to do an update. Guess there's still a week until 1Q is over, so still have a week ...

And then besides trying to get a decent return, guess was also hoping investing might be a nice alternative hobby to poker - but maybe at the recreational level, maybe there's not so much learning as there was with recreational poker?

Am looking forward to the weather getting warmer - was hoping to get more jogging in this year, to see if maybe that will energize and motivate me into trying all sorts of different things? Have been feeling a bit bored and under-stimulated, so will have to see how things go ...



While surfing the internet saw a couple of quirky things that caught my eye that were kind of outside the box, that were kind of fun to see:

Geography


Anybody like geography trivia?

Travel Invention


Such a clever idea - although, not sure how many women are eager to wear anything that would add 33lbs to one's figure

iPhone Photos


Those 'Shot on iPhone' photos are so gorgeous - just assumed they were all being taken by professional photographers, because my photos never turn out like this

Didn't realize there were apps that can help a little bit with photo quality? Got this app that was recommended on an iPhone photo site, and it seems to be making a pretty huge difference in photo quality - haven't paid for too many apps, but it feels like this one was worth it?

Photo taken with the regular iPhone camera




Photo taken with the 'Cortex Camera' app (unedited)

There's a whole online course on that iPhone photo site, but the site's really buggy - may still sign up for it, and try taking more photos when the weather turns nice as well?

Another iPhone Photo App


Haven't had as much luck with this one, but the results on the iPhone photo website were pretty dramatic, so will have to keep trying it out some more ...

Some stuff from the website on how the app can make a difference:

Mini Poker Update


Guess have turned into a full-time fish now that am not even participating in promos every day for that silly $0.50, and am just playing the occasional promo Spin & Go

Actually just got dealt into a $215 SM ticket, which is the top prize for those $5 Spins? Wish had good news to report, but with it being me, no such dice Here was my exit hand - hope my 4-bet shove wasn't a mistake? The villain seemed to only be showing down good hands, but with only a 36 hand sample ... ??

PokerStars - 20/40 NL (3 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

DiaMondx66 (BB): 770 (VPIP: 32.35, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 38.46, Hands: 35)
TrustySam (SB): 730

TrustySam posts SB 20, DiaMondx66 posts BB 40

Pre Flop: (pot: 60) TrustySam has T A

TrustySam raises to 80, DiaMondx66 raises to 280, TrustySam raises to 730 and is all-in, DiaMondx66 calls 450

Flop: (1,460, 2 players) K 8 T

Turn: (1,460, 2 players) J

River: (1,460, 2 players) K

DiaMondx66 shows A Q (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 71%, Flop 32%, Turn 97%)
TrustySam shows T A (Two Pair, Kings and Tens)
(Pre 29%, Flop 68%, Turn 3%)
DiaMondx66 wins 1,460

Probably shouldn't play any more since things aren't +EV so far ... also have never played a tourney higher than the $22 level (not counting that accidental sign up of the $55 tourney - would be very afraid to play a $215 tournament!

Oh well - still pretty exciting to hit the top prize. Also had the chance to play for a £27 SM Anniversary satty, so guess running hot with the prize multipliers counts for something. It was a nice change from the royal blue background

Similarities Between Photography and Poker


Last week, went and signed up for a $95 online course that's supposed to help improve iphone photos. Here's the link to the course - the delivery's kind of infomercial-ish, but the content's been pretty high quality, so am pretty happy to have signed up https://iphonephotographyschool.com/ipa/

The person who put together the materials said in the intro that he always felt the people who took nice photos must be talented, and that wasn't him ... but after looking at all the books on the market and tons of photos, he noticed some patterns that helped even him improve. So that sounded right of up my alley ... no talent, but eager to improve?

And then in addition to the courses, we get to join a group where everybody can post photos, so other students can see how people are learning and offer feedback/tips.


One thing was noticing in looking at other student photos, is that maybe subject matter is a bit like hand strength, and photography skills are like poker skills? Like maybe it's easier to take a great photo of beautiful scenery, and even skilled photographers might not be able to do too much all the time with scenes that are a bit dull? (And then hopefully there's room for learning and practice to make a difference with photo taking?)


Some examples from the photo group:

Roaming Buffalo at Yosemite = strong hand like KK?

Swimming at the Beach in San Juan = AKs?

Pastoral Living in the South of France = JTs?

So what to do when one lives in a big city, and all that's dotting the landscape is this?

Costco - AA for their deals, but 35o for good photo potential?

lol - guess this is my home, so am hoping to just try to learn to take the best photos possible of what's around ... so maybe if am ever at Yosemite, will be able to take the best possible photo of the roaming buffalo on my trip? Would be very happy with that


Some other people seem to have taken pics of stuff that's more local and have found a way to make it work - so hopefully it's possible to find stuff every once in a while ...

Photo from Someone who Lives on a Farm

This is Someone's Neighbour in NYC (originally from Texas)

Some Everyday Seagulls

In addition to trying to take more photos, am really looking forward to doing more jogging this Spring. Guess it can be a bit more challenging when the weather's still cool, or when it gets a lot hotter out - but hopefully there'll be a decent couple of months to whip up some perk and pep

Still have to do my 1Q review - yikes Guess will just chalk March up to a learning experience, and try to improve moving forward. Will try to have the summary done by the end of the week?

Does Costco look any more exciting when it's cropped and edited?

And here's a photo of some books for sale inside - the tips from the photography course were to:

1. try and get closer to the level of the subject matter to have more exaggerated angles
2. touch the object on the screen that you want the camera to focus on, so it'll be extra clear and the background will be more blurry - like the Oprah book here

The getting closer tip was pretty neat, but not sure am seeing much difference with setting the focus manually?


Anyways - will go back to investing with my next post, which should be sometime this week

Daily Update


Swiss Chalet has another scratch card promo - and this time the grand prize is a trip around the world! Am going to have to eat lots of Swiss and hope to get lucky with my scratch tickets to win that prize, so will have better things to photograph than Costco

Must be super nice to live near the beach or mountains. Although, maybe everybody gets bored just because things can start to feel familiar and routine after a while?

Am pretty happy to have found a new hobby in photography - today was warm enough to go for a jog in the afternoon, and even brought along my iPhone in case there were any picture opportunities. What's neat about this new hobby is that guess have started to notice my surroundings with a fresh set of eyes ... and so it's maybe helped me to 'stop and smell the roses'?


My pictures still suck - can't do much about not being naturally artistic And am only on Lesson 1 of the course (trying to get closer to the subject matter and trying shots from different angles, setting the focus manually by touching the object of focus on the screen). But was able to get better results with touching the screen to set the focus on the flowers in these pics - so that was kind of fun, to get more practice using a feature of the iPhone camera had never noticed before.

Here's a pussy willow

And some crocuses

So fun to discover a new hobby and have the chance to learn new things. Important to keep life fresh and exciting and full of adventures