General Electric - What a dog.

For what was intended to be a safe and defensive play last summer I purchased some General Electric (GE) stock. It's been a huge underperforming dog the last year. Fortunately I am still optimistic and intend to keep this stock in my core portfolio. I believe that if I maintain a long term horizon, this stock should recover. The question is how long will it take before it returns to > $40 a share.

Patiently waiting.

Telus - T

Bought some Telus a few weeks ago at 39.99 a share. It hasn't gone anywhere recently but I intend to hold this until it hits my target. In the short term, even if the stock doesn't go anywhere I will still sleep well knowing that there is a nice dividend being paid.

This is part of my core portfolio.

New Strategy: Satellite Stock Picks

First off I want to say that I've changed my strategy for this website. Because of some new commitments and the fact that there are a wealth of excellent Canadian Financial Blogs out there, I will focus mostly on the trading aspect.

Keep in mind that my strategy for long term financial success has not changed. I am still a firm believer of the Core and Satellite philosophy. In my core is a basket of solid high dividend blue chips and index ETFs. In my satellite holdings will be my trades which I intend to post here as they happen.

Recent trades I've made include:


HOD Hori. Beta. NYMEX Cr. Oil Br. Pl (ETF)

I bought last week at 10.97 and sold this week for 12.65 for a nice 15% profit. I'm still bearish on crude oil and will look for re-entry points next week. Hurricane Ike and the unknown damages it will cause may create a temporary problem for oil shorts so that is why I decided to book the profits and sold.

After all 15% in one week is not bad right?

On Friday I decided to initiate a position in:

HNU Hori. Beta. NYMEX Nat. Gas Bl. Pl. (ETF)

Natural gas has taken a big hit. I bought in today at 12.94. With the cold months coming up and the big spread between oil and natural gas, either oil has to drop significantly more, or there is more upside for natural gas.

As always, do your own research and none of this should be used as investment advice.